Horizons on Linux via Wine

This guide is written especially for very new Linux users, i.e. people who've just installed it in a dual-boot alongside Vista so they can play Horizons reliably. :) So hopefully it will be sufficient for a wide range of people.

This procedure is much easier than the length of this post may make it seem at first glance. I've simply tried to cover every detail.

"home folder" = /home/yourname

Replace all instances of "yourname" with your Linux username.

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Obtaining and setting up Wine

1. Download Wine. I recommend skipping binaries and downloading the source. Don't worry, source compilation is very easy, as you will see. For the sake of clarity in future instructions, please save the file to your desktop ( /home/yourname/Desktop ).

2. Unpack the file you've just downloaded.

3. Go to winehq.org's Recommended Packages list and use your package management software to search for and download+install the packages that are recommended for your particular distribution (version) of Linux. If automatic scripts to do so are available for your distro, I encourage you to use them, thus saving time.

4. Open the terminal and navigate to the Wine folder that you unpacked earlier. The command looks something like this:

Code:

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cd /home/yourname/Desktop/wine-0.9.49

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5. Use this command:

Code:

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./configure

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If it stops and displays an error about something not found, search for and download+install the missing package via your package manager. Then run the command again. Wash, rinse, and repeat for any further errors.

6. Once ./configure has completed successfully, use this command:

Code:

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make depend && make

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This will take a while, as Wine is now being compiled from source in preparation for installation. Browse websites, read a book, go get lunch, whatever.

7. Once that is complete, use this if you are logged in as root:

Code:

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make install

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Use this if you are using a distro that uses "sudo" instead of allowing access to the root user account, i.e. Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc.:

Code:

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sudo make install

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Use this otherwise:

Code:

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su root
make install

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Configuring Wine for Horizons

8. When "make install" has completed, Wine has been installed. Now for the tiniest bit of configuration. Once again in the terminal:

Code:

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winecfg

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Go to the Applications tab of the window that has come up and select Windows 98. Close the window. From here on you won't need the terminal, so you can close that too if you want to.
You may want to return to winecfg later to tweak the settings available therein.

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Configuring Horizons for Wine

9. On Windows, log into and out of the character you'll want to play on Linux.

10. Copy your full installation of Horizons from wherever it was when you were running it on Windows, to /home/yourname/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (tip: when typing filepaths in the terminal, spaces must be "escaped" with a preceding backslash, i.e. "Program Files" needs to be typed as "Program\ Files"). I hope you kept it, because Horizons' installer supposedly doesn't work in Wine and I don't know anything about attempting to make it work. You could try running the installer in a Windows virtualisation.

11. In the resulting Horizons folder, go into the prefs folder, open ClientPrefs_Launch.def, and change these lines:

Code:

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bool requireCommandLineParams = true >> bool requireCommandLineParams = false
string userName = "********" >> string userName = "[email protected]"
string password = "********" >> string password = "yourpassword"
bool performSystemCheck = true >> bool performSystemCheck = false

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I'm not entirely sure which lines need to be altered to change the character logged into, hence step nine. If anyone can supply this information, I welcome them to post here.

12. Save the modified ClientPrefs_Launch.def, and make an extra copy of it somewhere (for the sake of clarity in future instructions, save it to your home folder).

13. Create a file somewhere (doesn't matter where, but you should put it where you'd want a shortcut to launch Horizons) and name it launch-horizons.sh (or anything really, as long as it ends in .sh).

14. Open the newly-created file and put this in it, approximately:

Code:

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cp /home/yourname/ClientPrefs_Launch.def /home/yourname/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Horizons/prefs/ClientPrefs_Launch.def

cd /home/yourname/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Horizons

wine horizons.exe

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15. Alter the file's permissions so that it is executable. The procedure to do this may vary from distro to distro, desktop environment to desktop environment, but in any case it'll probably be fairly simple and bear a similarity to the familiar Windows act of right-clicking a file, selecting Properties, and exploring tabs.

16. Double-clicking on the file should now start Horizons.

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Horizons' page in the Wine AppDB

Hi,

Many thanks for that guide / explanation. I've tried it and it works so far :). But Horizons runs quite slow with wine (around 6-8fps) :( Are there some tricks or hints to make it (a bit) faster?

Some System informations:

Ubuntu Linux 7.04 (with Gnome as Window Manager)
Wine 0.9.33 (I know there is a newer Version available ... But the Synaptic Package Managment offers only this older version)
Asus P7N8X Mainboard
1GB RAM
ATI Radeon 9600 (with 256MB Ram)
Soundcard and Network onboard

Greetings,
MurphyFox

Sometimes a different version of Wine produces better results in terms of performance. For example, Ryzom (another MMORPG) ran better on 0.9.17 or 0.9.27 than the version that was latest at the time. Unfortunately I can't guess which version would be best for Horizons.

Another option is to try running it on Cedega, but that's commercial software.

There's probably more possibilities I don't know of.

It's great to see and I'm always happy when Horizons is opened to a new audience... however I'm confuzzled as to why, if you had Vista (which I appreciate Horizons won't behave on), you would rather grapple with Linux than a dual boot of xp? It is very possible to install xp, even if your machine had Vista first.

On the right configuration, are there advantages to running it on Linux over Xp? (especially the leaky memory situation lol)

Rakku

Mostly this is just in case someone who has Vista somehow doesn't have access to XP.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Spirit

On the right configuration, are there advantages to running it on Linux over Xp? (especially the leaky memory situation lol)

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As far as I know, no.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Xoshara

Mostly this is just in case someone who has Vista somehow doesn't have access to XP.

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Fair point. :)

Thank you!

Rakku

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Xoshara

I'm not entirely sure which lines need to be altered to change the character logged into, hence step nine. If anyone can supply this information, I welcome them to post here.

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To get around this problem I use the Java Launcher of Morghus. I added support for wine and cedega to it. With this you can launch any char, patch the game and create new characters without using windows or editing pref files.

If anyone is interested => You can get it from http://horizons.oceth.net/

How can play Istaria in Linux

I think it is the Help section that talks about using Wine. If you do a search you should find the threads. There is not that many on the subject.

http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=17235

Unfortunately that doesnt work for me. It will still load the game but I am stuck staring at the sky. and using the java launcher still gives me already connected error :confused:

Actually, that response was an error. I was trying to reply to your other post with the link to this one.

I can't help you with Linux. This is the only thread I recall ever seeing about getting Horizons to run on it. There might be another floating around, but that one would probably be a few years old instead of a few months.

My suggestion would actually be to get yourself a copy of XP and run it from something that is known to work and is officially supported.

I can play fine on XP and do alot. I have dual boot so its not that bad to reboot to xp when i wanna play, I was just hopeing to get it working so I didnt have to. :)

Thanx for the help though

Well Oceth was able to get my java launcher working great. I had not installed the SUN jre So now that is working I am still getting a black screen after the initial loading screen. I turned off the desktop effects in ubuntu and that gave me a white screen after the initial load screen. any suggestions on this ?

Does this mean there is a system memory error that might be stopping the game from loading ?
Attachment 261

Have you installed 3D drivers?

Also, have you made this change to ClientPrefs_Launch.def in Horizons' prefs folder?

Code:

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bool performSystemCheck = false

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If you have a Creative soundcard, is sound enabled or disabled in winecfg?

3D = yes. I use compiz and that requires 3d
Creative audigy 2zs I think its enabled in wine but when i use test sound in wine config no sound
bool performSystemCheck = false
thats set now it wasnt before but still not working.

Audigy 2 sound cards are the worst sound cards you could have ever gotten. I'm not surprised it's giving you trouble. At least it isn't SCREECHING at you...

Ya its like 3 years old too. I upgrade the computer alot but i never buy the sound card lol. Im gonna try a new one and see if that helps any. Its giving me some regular sound issues also

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kumu Honua

Audigy 2 sound cards are the worst sound cards you could have ever gotten. I'm not surprised it's giving you trouble. At least it isn't SCREECHING at you...

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lol I had mine for 5 years and I never had a problem... it's still in use on my dad's machine. It's the *other* boards, in my laptop for example, that give me grief!! There was one dodgy driver release from Creative, for Windows anyway, which was quickly replaced but overall the sound (especially the eax) is purrrrrfect. :)

Is it just that the audigy is badly supported on Linux?

Rakku

Creative soundcards have issues with Istaria on both Windows and Linux. Try disabling sound in Wine, Flexxall.

Well unfortunately disabling sound in wine didnt help. I have also tried stopping xserver and running from xterm to bypass anything that might be interfering but that didnt help either. Looks like for now I'm stuck booting up win xp to play :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Xoshara

Creative soundcards have issues with Istaria on both Windows and Linux. Try disabling sound in Wine, Flexxall.

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News to me... perhaps it's a conflict with a particular chipset that causes the issues. Oh well I'll stop typing and get ingame for once lol... I think it's a full moon tonight so I must be due for a hunt. :)

Rakku

Sorry to revive this, but is there any way possible to get this working without using a dual-boot to Windows?

This is mostly just for a friend of mine who wants to get in. I'm running windows myself - would I be able to get the correct information for him from a windows dual boot by logging in myself? I'd assume so, but I don't want to jump to conclusions.

Well... this thread explains exactly how to to without dual-booting. It requires Wine, though.

Buh? What are you trying to do again? :p

(hint: avoid the use of 'this' and 'it', substitue more specific nouns instead)

The java launcher makes dualbooting to get the character values obsolete.
If somebody for some reason doesn't want to install the sun-jdk to get it running... I have a python launcher in the works which is cmdline only, just drop me a pm if your interested.

If all you need is the login parameters (publickey, biote id, shard, etc..) use whatever web browser you have to log in and get to the page where you'd normally click on 'Play Horizons'. The button will be disabled since the activex control won't be loaded, but that's okay, you don't need it. View the page source, and you'll find the info you need, stored in hidden form variables. (input type=hidden)