linux client

hellarne · Post by **hellarne** » Sat Aug 30, 2003 8:47 pm

I'm sick of windows and nwn crashing every 5 minutes.

Are anyone using the linux client?
Is it stable?
Can it be run under linux emultation in freebsd?

Post by **Nighthawk4** » Sat Aug 30, 2003 9:13 pm

It has worked fine for me.

It does pause for a second or so after I enter a new area - this doesn't happen every day, so might be related to lag, or my 56k dialup connection. Some days it is fine.

You can run it with xinit instead of running the full X. This does speed it up even more.

It has always been perfectly stable.

The only minor problems are that the patch was much larger and of course, the shortcuts and launcher don't work. The lack of a launcher was not a problem with 1.30, as it didn't work in Windows either. This is now fixed in 1.31, but still doesn't exist in Linux. Not sure if shortcuts would work - never tried.

The DM client and Server are also stable and run more effectively and smoothly than in Windows. I can run the server and then login to it with the DM or normal clients on the same PC. I cannot do that in Windows.

Also, I can leave IRC running while I am in the game, although I can't switch from one to the other - unless I set the game to run windowed. This can be done, but obscures the quickslots. In Windows, Trillian slows the machine too much to leave it running.

The installation worked smoothly, as did the upgrade to SoU. The patch to 1.31 also worked smoothly - it was just a lot larger than the Windows one.

One more point - no toolset and no movies - don't want the movies, but I have to reboot into Windows when I want the toolset.

This is comparing XP Pro with Mandrake 9.1 - with an AthlonXP 2000+, GeForce4 Ti 4600 and 512Mb DDR RAM.

HarveyH · Post by **HarveyH** » Sun Aug 31, 2003 9:38 am

My linux cliens seems to be behaving quite well; I have about the same system as Nighthawk4. One small problem: the mouse cursor moves a bit sluggishly; no idea what causes this (I haven't really tried to solve it though).

KTA · Post by **KTA** » Sun Aug 31, 2003 4:28 pm

I can confirm the linux client is very stable even on less advanced machines. It runs great on a 1200 C Athlon 256 MB GeForce 4 on SuSE 8.1. For the mouse cursor is a bit slow there is a fix on the bioware linux boards but I did not need it.

KTA

HarveyH · Post by **HarveyH** » Sun Aug 31, 2003 5:21 pm

I don't think there is a fix for the slow mouse issue...

"increase your framerate"... right, I normally play with my framerate as low as possible

"run the windows client under wine"... no comment.

The problem isn't that bad though, only slightly annoying.

KTA · Post by **KTA** » Sun Aug 31, 2003 8:42 pm

Well I'm sure there is.

But not for the fact that the cursor is in general a bit slower as in the windows version, but for some people who are confronted with a massive slowdown.

KTA

Nigmalkin · Post by **Nigmalkin** » Tue Sep 02, 2003 8:58 pm

I've never run anything but the Linux client. I'm running on an Athlon xp1800+, 512MB RAM, and an older gForce2 card. I created a GDM login session so I can log straight into NWN, and it does work a good bit better than when run from w/in a window manager, particularly if you are using a heavier wm like Gnome. Personally, I run Windowmaker for my wm, which is pretty light - I don't actually notice to much of a performance drain.

I did have some slow-mouse issues at first, but that was when I had all the nVidia features turned on in X, and I was running 1280x1024 during game play. I turned my NWN resolution back down to 1024x768 and the problem went away.

Xiaou · Post by **Xiaou** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 1:01 am

I'm sorry but most crashes are video errors...as a unix geek it pains me to let windows (somewhat) off the hook here. Windows runs its GUI in kernel mode, in Linux its just a service that can crash. In windows a video error often means a reboot, in Linux you just start up X and your game. I personally suggest lowering your video settings, or investing in a $200+ video card and in either instance maxing out your system case with fans fans and then add more fans since maybe you just have heat problems.

KTA · Post by **KTA** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 9:57 am

Xiaou wrote:...maxing out your system case with fans fans and then add more fans since maybe you just have heat problems.

Heat? What is that?

Lafferty · Post by **Lafferty** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 11:45 am

I'm using the Linux client since Beta 1 and it always worked fine.

afair it crashed only once.

The mouse issue:
since nwn uses SDL under Linux it accepts all SDL environment variables. put them directly in your nwnstart script.

-> listing of envars: http://sdldoc.csn.ul.ie/sdlenvvars.php

e.g. add "export SDL_VIDEO_X11_MOUSEACCEL = 2/2/2" in nwnstart script

You can also try xset m <n1> <n2>

n1 is acceleration n2 is speed or so.

You can also create an icon on KDE or Gnome Desktop (just link to the nwnstart script)... i just was unable to find a nice icon for it in the standard icon collections... it looks like a wooden stick.

You can also create several X surfaces so your Desktop is at tty7 and nwn runs at tty8 runs quite fine. I was even able to export the Display to another comp.

Post by **Nighthawk4** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 12:37 pm

I couldn't get the shortcut to work.

HarveyH · Post by **HarveyH** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 1:19 pm

I don't think changing some of the SDL parameters will change te mouse problems... the cursor is drawn with th GL thingy; this makes it frame rate dependent. If framerate drops, the mouse slows down. Quite annoying, but unavoidable.

Lafferty · Post by **Lafferty** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 6:14 pm

well, tweaking the mouse settings from SDL and x was my solution. After that it was smooth like a charm.

Nigmalkin · Post by **Nigmalkin** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 8:55 pm

I couldn't get the shortcut to work.

Not to beat a dead horse, but why, Nighthawk4, won't your shortcut work?