domenica 17 luglio 2011

Let's play: Black & White 2


I'm here again. Since the beginning of my UGP gameplay videos series on youtube (Youtube UGP channel), i never did a comparison between Ubuntu, Windows and another linux distro. So i decided, now, to do this. The reason of the long time between this and the last post, is that i had to install also Windows 7 (such a weird experience...) and Chakra (Arch Linux). Why Chakra? Simple. Because Chakra seems to perform better in playing games. Thanks to Jeff for his benchmarks that made me do this choice! (http://jeffhoogland.blogspot.com/2010/09/best-linux-distro-for-3d-performance.html). Are you ready? Let's start with a beautiful game from Lionhead Studios... Black & White 2!

A hard choice!

The first thing to ask yourself is: which program should i use for this game? I have the answer. Let's take a look to all the differences between Crossover Games, PlayOnLinux and GameTree Linux.

Black & White 2 on GameTree Linux:

Unfortunately (really?) our game will never install using Gametree Linux, neither you can install it with another program and try to run it under GameTree Linux. Don't waste your time, the game just doesn't work on it (shame on Transgaming!).

Black & White 2 on Crossover Games (10.1 version):

Now we're talking seriously. The game works very well with Crossover Games, either the installation and the running. It can be also patched to the latest official patch (v1.2), but it needs a noDVD crack. There's only a little mouse lag bug, which is a bit annoying. To avoid this, follow the steps described below. So:

- Can be patched to 1.2 version (and it's also suggested).
- Needs a noDVD crack.
- Mouse lag bug (to avoid this, open Crossover Games, go into Black & White 2 bottle, run command, type "regedit" and click ok. Then, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Wine -> DirectInput (if it doesn't exists, create it) -> Create new string "MouseWarpOverride" and set it to "disable").

As this said, i played about six maps and i never encountered a crash, a problem... Nothing! The game just runs well!

Black & White 2 on PlayOnLinux (1.3.24 wine version):

Alright. It's almost the same as Crossover Games, but there's no mouse lag bug. Cool, huh? Check your wine version because with older versions of wine you could encounter several graphical glitches. The newest versions of wine (use 1.3.24 to be sure) do not show those graphical glitches. So:

- Can be patched to 1.2 version (and it's also suggested).
- Needs a noDVD crack.

The game works better than Crossover, because of a little FPS boost (continue reading for further details).

Talking about performances...

First of all, my hardware:

agp_aperture_size: 256
cpu: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+
cpu_ghz: 2.40
distro: Ubuntu 11.04 natty
kernel: 2.6.38-10-generic
machine_bitness: 64
memory: 2007
soundcard: NVidia CK804 with ALC850 at irq 22
soundcard_driver: ALSA Version 1.0.23
videocard_direct: True
videocard_driver_version: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 275.09.07
videocard_manufacturer: NVIDIA Corporation
videocard_ram: 256
videocard_type: GeForce 8600 GTS/PCI/SSE2
x_version: X.Org X Server 1.10.1

I think i made a great job for you all. I installed three operative systems on my PC only for making some performance comparisons. I used a loooooooot of my free time, but the results are, honestly, very good. What did i do? I played the game with various combinations of graphic options, in various operative systems, in various in-game situations, tracking the FPS (Frames Per Second). So i took each result and i put it in a graph. The game has been tested on Ubuntu 11.04 64-bit (with no Compiz), on Chakra 2011.04-r2 (with no graphical effects) and on Windows 7 64-bit. Let's go:

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

Analyzing these results, my conclusions are that in every single situation (max details-min load, min details-min load, max details-max load, min details-max load), Windows can handle the game better than the other 2 OS, and that's obvious. But, there are 2 relevant things: the first one is that at the highest load (blue and red in the graph), even Windows does low FPS (still playable, though) so i suppose it's caused by a combination of my hardware and a bad scalability of the game; the second thing is that, talking about linux, Chakra does always better than Ubuntu, especially at mininum details (red and green).
It seems that the game works better on wine, providing 15-20% more FPS than Crossover.

Conclusion: use PlayOnLinux/Wine.

Installation

The following process works with both Crossover and PlayOnLinux. It works like a simple installation process:


Now type your cd-key, then:


The installation process takes about 5 minutes. The next step is to install patch 1.1 and patch 1.2 (in this order):


Be careful: apply the patches BEFORE playing the game for the first time, since savegames with the original version of the game do not work with newest patches (1.1 and 1.2).


This process takes about 30-40 seconds. And so it is for the second patch.
Now, you have to do 2 things before running the game:

1) Apply a noDVD crack (obviously for 1.2 version).
2) Download this DLL (d3dx9_25.dll) from this link (http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?d3dx9_25) and extract it to the main folder of the game.

Now just run the shortcut in your PlayOnLinux GUI or just run white.exe!

Running

Well... I suppose pictures speak better than words.


Feel free to send me an email or leave a comment if you got some problems or if you just wanna ask me a question. I will always answer you!

16 commenti:

  1. Please left justify your blog. It is too hard to read centered so I didn't bother going past the first paragraph. If you want to reach an audience, make site you communicate with them.

    RispondiElimina
  2. Thank you for your suggestion. Is it more comfortable for you now?

    RispondiElimina
  3. It is more comfortable. Thanks! Now to get nit-picky: the font is a bit meh. It is too bold and appears to bleed. I'd go with a sans-serif font for screen content. The screen is too busy and distracting, I'd go for a plain, light background instead of blue pipes.

    Have a look at Google, FB or Wikipedia. They did a lot of research on making their sites easy to read (which gives visitors more chance of staying on at their site). They are pretty simple design though, so it may feel like you are compromising the character of your project. :(

    This is all just opinion though. You are free to express yourself however you wish!

    Cheers and thanks for the content.

    RispondiElimina
  4. No, thank YOU for you suggestions and for visiting my blog :) I'll take your suggestion under consideration, but i tell you: i don't like too much simple backgrounds, they make me sad! Anyway, your suggestions are always welcome here...

    RispondiElimina
  5. Hi!
    1) The fancy font is great for headlines - should not have fancy font for the body of your text as it's too hard to read
    2) Try to widen your columns under Design/advanced settings through Blogger, as your right and left columns are squished and with the amount of body text you have, it spits the words up making the columns much longer to fit
    3) Streamline your fonts - If you want the fancy font you can use that for headlines, but keep a readable font for the body of your text only
    4) Edit the margins and columns widths by going to your dashboard -> choose your blog -> Design -> template designer -> Adjust Widths

    You can play around with these to allow both your side columns to be wider to allow for your text. You can check out my Blogger blog here and you can see how I set mine up if you need any ideas on formatting! www.CloverQuips.com

    RispondiElimina
  6. Hi, and thank you for your suggestions :)

    I followed your suggestions, do you like my blog now? (your blog is cool :))

    RispondiElimina
  7. Black & White 2 game is very entertaining, I've played it since a long time. Thank you.

    RispondiElimina
  8. Yeah, i agree with you.. B&W2 is a great game :)

    RispondiElimina
  9. Hi, I know it's a long time, but I want to play B&W2 again.

    I have some problems installing it with PlayOnLinux. (Their is even a script for it.) The wizard starts but breaks up very soon. And it tells me, do stop all other processes (Tried it, but didn't work)

    I lost my DVD so I got the 4 CD iso files online. (I tried a virtual CD drive and a real CD)
    I wanted to check if the error is maybe because of the iso files.
    So I installed it on a Virtual Machine (Windows XP) but their I can't start it. (No 3d support) And before I fix the Problem on the VM
    I want to fix it on Linux.

    I have never started a Programm with wine or with PlayOnLinux, so I hope you can help me with it.

    My System is:
    Ubuntu 12.10 64bit (Just recently complete new installed)
    Speicher 7.7GB
    Prozessor Intel® Core™2 Duo CPU U9400 @ 1.40GHz × 2
    Grafik Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset
    Driver Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset


    I would like to have Ubuntu, but because I don't like the new look of it (Dash-board, ubuntu software center), I would not be too sorry to install a different distribution.


    I will also send you a Mail.

    And thanks for the Performance Test, so I get confirmed, that it is possible to play b&w2 on ubuntu.

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. Well, it seems that there could be a problem with you CD isos.
      I suggest you to try downloading another version of it.
      Also, try a different wine engine, try the latest one (1.5.21).

      Elimina
    2. Thank you.
      It seems the problem was with the isos.
      I tried a DVD-iso (took me a while to get one) and it worked on the first try with PlayOnLinux.
      But not with the Script. I had to install it manually.

      I just started it once (and saved before I had to choose a creature)
      It is a little slow on my computer and the start changed my resolution, but I hope I can change that with some configuration.

      Elimina
  10. Glad to hear that from you :)
    Your integrated graphic card is too slow for the game, that's why the game works slowly. By the way, the game starts, and that's great!

    RispondiElimina
  11. Thanks for your helpful blog I am new to UBUNTU and need some help
    I have the latest version of Wine(wine1.4 1.4.1-0ubuntu7)
    I tried right clicking the Autorun and the Setup to openwhith Wine, it'll open the launcher and I click install. It gets as far as the Installshield then come up with a error
    An error (-5006 : 0x8000ffff)....
    Please make sure you have finished any pervious setup and closed other applications....
    as I mentioned I'm new to Ubuntu so any help would be appreciated, thanks.

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. It could be everything or nothing.
      Check this page, and see if someone encounter the same error!

      http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=3574

      Elimina
  12. Hello, thanks you have done amazing job but I have a problem on windows 7 x64 with that mouse lag bug. Don't know what to do because like two years ago I played B&W2 on the same hardware, I only installed sp1 since then. Seems like You are my only chance to get rid of that mouse lag :P

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. I'm sorry, i can't help you on Windows. This is a Linux blog, so if you have some Linux-related issue, let me know!

      Elimina