Let's Play: Test Drive Unlimited

Today i tested for you a racing game, a great racing game, with wonderful landscapes and awesome cars... Ladies and gentlemen, Test Drive Unlimited!

A very hard choice!

That's true. This time the choice is very hard! Wanna know why? Please continue reading...

Test Drive Unlimited on GameTree Linux:

The game is not supported so i'm not gonna consider that.

Test Drive Unlimited on Crossover XI (11.0.0 version):

Alright, the game installs fine, and with a couple of tweaks it runs great (apart from a little water textures issue)! You need a noDVD crack (see below for more infos), you need to set "Windows Vista" as OS into wine configuration to make mouse work, and you have to do a little trick to set your joypad. So:

- Needs a noDVD crack (this one http://dl.gamecopyworld.com/?c=725495341&d=2007&f=vty-tdu!rar)
- Set "Windows Vista" into Wine Configuration to make mouse work.
- If you want to play with a joypad, you can't bind the keys running the original executable. You have to click on "run command...", set "/pathtoinstalldirectory/TestDriveUnlimited.exe 2>&1 | grep joydev_enum_device" as executable, click on "Debug Options", then "Create log file" and put the line "+dinput" into "Other:". Then run. Now you can bind your joypad buttons. You have to do it the first time only, then it's no more necessary.
- Water textures displays over the other textures (a minor issue, anyway).

Test Drive Unlimited on PlayOnLinux 4.0.15 (1.4-rc4 wine version):

The game installs fine and runs great with the same tweaks as Crossover XI. The only difference is how you set the joypad. So:

- Needs a noDVD crack (this one http://dl.gamecopyworld.com/?c=725495341&d=2007&f=vty-tdu!rar)
- Set "Windows Vista" into Wine Configuration to make mouse work.
- If you want to play with a joypad, you can't bind the keys running the original executable. You have to go click on your Test Drive Unlimited shortcut, then "Configure", then go into "miscellaneous" tab and "Open a shell". Now navigate into TDU's directory and run "WINEDEBUG=+dinput wine TestDriveUnlimited.exe 2>&1 | grep joydev_enum_device". Now you can bind your joypad buttons. You have to do it the first time only, then it's no more necessary.
- Water textures displays over the other textures (a minor issue, anyway).

Performances... Performances....

First of all, my hardware:

agp_aperture_size: 256
cpu: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor
cpu_ghz: 0.80
distro: Ubuntu 11.10 oneiric
kernel: 3.0.0-17-generic
machine_bitness: 64
memory: 3960
soundcard: HDA ATI SB at 0xfbcf4000 irq 16
soundcard_driver: ALSA Version 1.0.24
videocard_direct: True
videocard_driver_version: 4.2.0 NVIDIA 295.20
videocard_manufacturer: NVIDIA Corporation
videocard_ram: 1024
videocard_type: GeForce GTX 550 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
x_version: X.Org X Server 1.10.4

Test Drive Unlimited had some performance issues with older wine versions (1.1.xx specifically), but Wine and Crossover teams have done a great job, so now it is possible to play the game with good performances! Let's see...









As you can see, i tested the game in 2 different ways: enabling HDR/disabling AA and enabling AA/disabling HDR. It is just a choice (i prefer using HDR which provides awesome natural light effects). Analyzing these tests i found out that Crossover works better than Wine, providing about a 20-30% more FPS. Anyway, the game is fully playable and enjoyable, and the average FPS guarantee a smooth gameplay.

Conclusion: use Crossover XI.

Installation



This process takes about 8 minutes.
The site at the beginning is "www.gamecopyworld.com".
At the end of the installation:

- Download a noDVD crack (this one http://dl.gamecopyworld.com/?c=725495341&d=2007&f=vty-tdu!rar)
- Set "Windows Vista" into Wine Configuration.
- If you use a joypad, use the method explained above to set the keys.

Running



P.S. I'm sorry but i couldn't take a fullscreen gameplay (i don't know why my screencasting applications crashed everytime i started the game on fullscreen mode), but i tell you: the game WORKS on fullscreen!!

That's all. 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!