Let's Play: Street Fighter X Tekken

Welcome again to a brand new Let's Play! This time i'm going to show you how to install and run without too much pain in the ass, one of the games from the most famous series of fighting games in history: Street Fighter X Tekken! This game uses the same fighting system and graphics as Street Fighter 4, but includes characters from Tekken world.
So, let's see how it works!

A hard choice?

No, it is not. Do you wanna know why?

Street Fighter X Tekken on Crossover 12 (12.0.0 version):

The game installs correctly and starts fine. But after game logo, main menù is completely black and there's no way to do anything.

Street Fighter X Tekken on PlayOnLinux (Wine 1.5.21 version):

This time, the game installs fine and with a couple of tricks, you can completely enjoy it with more than good performances. First of all, the feature Games for Windows LIVE should be disabled if you really want to play this game. How? Simple. Just download the appropriate DLL and extract it inside the main folder of the game (see below for the link). Then, there's a disturbing bug which causes blinking screen while playing, but there's an easy solution. Just edit your ~/.wine/drive_c/users//My Documents/CAPCOM/SFTK/config.ini, and under [SYSTEM] change RenderingThread=ON to RenderingThread=OFF. Easy, huh? Final step: videos don't work. I missed how to solve this issue in my video, but i'm gonna tell you here how to do that. If you're using Wine without Playonlinux, open a terminal and type "winetricks wmp9 quartz devenum", then download K-Lite Codec Pack and install it (open a terminal, type "wine K-Lite_Codec_Pack_970_Basic.exe" and follow the instructions). If you're using Playonlinux, click on SFXT shortcut, click on configure, go under "install components" and install wmp9, quartz and devenum packages, then download K-Lite Codec Pack and install it in the same virtual drive as SFXT. Then you can play your game! So:

- Download this DLL and put it inside the main directory of the game: http://megagames.com/fixes/street-fighter-x-tekken-v10-all-no-dvd-theta
- Edit your ~/.wine/drive_c/users//My Documents/CAPCOM/SFTK/config.ini, and under [SYSTEM] change RenderingThread=ON to RenderingThread=OFF
- Type "winetricks wmp9 quartz devenum" in a terminal, download K-Lite Codec Pack (basic version) from http://codecguide.com/download_k-lite_codec_pack_basic.htm, and type "wine K-Lite_Codec_Pack_970_Basic.exe" in a terminal, if you use Wine without Playonlinux. Otherwise, click on SFXT shortcut, click on configure, go under "install components" and install wmp9, quartz and devenum packages, then download K-Lite Codec Pack from the same link as above and install it in the same virtual drive as SFXT.

Are you happy? Say YEAH!

Talking about performances...

First of all, my hardware:

agp_aperture_size: 256
cpu: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor
cpu_ghz: 0.80
distro: Ubuntu 12.10 quantal
kernel: 3.5.0-22-generic
machine_bitness: 64
memory: 3953
soundcard: HDA ATI SB at 0xfbcf4000 irq 16
soundcard_driver: ALSA Version 1.0.25
videocard_direct: True
videocard_driver_version: 4.3.0 NVIDIA 310.14
videocard_manufacturer: NVIDIA Corporation
videocard_ram: 1024
videocard_type: GeForce GTX 550 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
x_version: X.Org X Server 1.13.0

This game is a bit heavy, especially on high quality, but it is greatly playable by anybody with a good hardware. I also suggest the latest closed source drivers of your graphic card.
Let's see how it works on Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit and on Windows 7 64-bit.

Low quality

Medium quality

High quality

Of course we couldn't expect something else. The game works fine on Windows, and on Linux there are no significant differences between medium and high quality. There is a big boost on low quality, but in this way there are no landscapes, what you see is just the characters on a black background. It's too ugly to be played like this. So if you got a powerful hardware, go with high quality and play the game.

Conclusion: use PlayOnLinux/Wine.

Installation:



The process takes about 15 minutes, included post-installation tricks.

Running:



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!

Wine 1.5.22 released

The Wine development release 1.5.22 is now available.

What's new in this release (see below for details):
  - New version of the Gecko engine.
  - Beginnings of the Mac graphics driver.
  - Support for ARM64 platforms.
  - Fixes for RTL text in Uniscribe.
  - Various bug fixes.

The source is available from the following locations:

  http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/wine/wine-1.5.22.tar.bz2
  http://mirrors.ibiblio.org/wine/source/1.5/wine-1.5.22.tar.bz2

For the complete list of bug fixes follow this link:

http://www.winehq.org/announce/1.5.22

Crossover 12 released

On December 12th 2012, Crossover 12 has been released.

This is the changelog:

Linux:

- CrossOver Linux now installs a single desktop menu item
      rather than a multitude of desktop menus. This approach works
      better with desktop systems such as GNOME 3 and Unity, which
      usually don't have a hierarchical desktop menu structure.
    - CrossOver now has much better support for window transparency
      (layered windows) when a compositing window manager is
      available. (When the Mac Driver is complete, this feature will
      be available on OS X as well). Many transparent windows will
      now work that did not before. Improvements in this area
      include:
      - Microsoft Office applications in the Office 2003 and Office 2007
        suites will now behave properly when working with embedded
        pictures or graphics. Previously, rotating or resizing embedded
        graphics caused the screen to go temporarily black;
      - Game launchers (such as that for Guild Wars 2, for example) which
        use color-keying to create transparent window areas will display
        properly rather than being drawn with black borders;
      - ...and many more.
    - We have resolved some issues which caused printers not to appear.

  Application Support:

    - CrossOver now supports World of Tanks.
    - CrossOver now supports Quicken 2013.
    - CrossOver now supports installation of .Net 4.0.
    - CrossOver linux now supports Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars 2 will
      run for many people on CrossOver Mac, but many users will
      encounter persistent graphics problems. Previously, CodeWeavers
      had released a specially-built version of CrossOver dedicated
      to running Guild Wars 2. That is no longer necessary.
    - Improvements to Microsoft Office:
      - Fixed a crash displaying certain email messages in Outlook 2010.
      - Outlook 2010 will now save passwords.
      - Improved Gmail and other IMAP connections with Outlook 2007.
      - Fixed auto-discovery during account configuration for
        Outlook 2007.
      - PowerPoint 2010 now displays equations in slide shows.
      - PowerPoint 2010 no longer displays blank slides.
      - Fixed bugs in Word 2010 which caused the equation editor to
        be missing structures and formulas.
      - Fixed a bug in Word 2010 related to footnote style choices.
      - Project 2007 and 2010 can now edit dates for recurring tasks.
      - Fixed a crash in Project 2010 when filtering by resource name.
      - Visio 2002 can now search for new shapes.
      - Visio 2010 now displays properly when multiple shapes are open.
    - Star Trek Online is now faster during game updates.
    - Quicken 2009 no longer has garbled text on its buttons.
    - An issue with installation of .Net 3.5 SP1 was resolved.
    - World of Warcraft has had fixes related to patching and
      installation.

 CrossOver and Wine:

    - CrossOver is now based on Wine 1.5.15.
    - CrossOver's built-in web-browser will offer to download and
      install ActiveX controls.
    - CrossOver now comes bundled with the Wine-Mono package, an
      alternative implementation of the .Net API.
    - CrossOver now implements Raw Input, the set of APIs used for
      mouse input by games like Guild Wars 2, World of Tanks, and others.
    - Support for printing on a variety of paper sizes has been improved.
    - DirectSound has a new resampler, for higher quality audio.
    - CrossOver now has sub-pixel font anti-aliasing.

Download it from:

http://www.codeweavers.com/

Wine 1.5.21 released

I know, i missed the 1.5.20 release. As i said before, i've been pretty busy the last month, and i'm sorry for that.

The Wine development release 1.5.21 is now available.

What's new in this release (see below for details):
  - Beginnings of a netstat built-in program.
  - Support for selecting resolution in the PostScript driver.
  - Various bug fixes.

The source is available from the following locations:

  http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/wine/wine-1.5.21.tar.bz2
  http://mirrors.ibiblio.org/wine/source/1.5/wine-1.5.21.tar.bz2

For the complete list of bug fixes, follow this link:

http://www.winehq.org/announce/1.5.21

The Humble Indie Bundle #7

http://www.humblebundle.com

First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. This would be the first post of the year, and i know it comes a bit late, since this bundle has been released about 10 days ago. But, you know, i've been pretty busy with all Christmas stuff. Anyway, let's get ready to humbleeeeeeeeee!
The seventh Humble Indie Bundle has been released, and as always, it is amazing!



When it first came, the bundle contained a few (good) games and a movie (plus, all the soundtracks). But now, since some days passed away, the bundle has been updated with more games, and now it contains 9 games and a movie!
Let's take a look to all the games and the movie contained inside this bundle!

- Snapshot: in this creative and colorful side-scrolling puzzler by Retro Affect, guide Pic, a robot lost in an abandoned world and armed with a very unique device: his camera!



- Closure: in the dark and mysterious world of Closure, only what you see exists. Manipulate lights to phase objects in and out of reality in this platform puzzler!



- The Binding of Isaac + Wrath of the Lamb DLC: fight your fears with tears in this top-down action RPG shooter with heavy rogue-like elements.



- Shank 2: ex-mob hit man Shank is back in Shank 2, the fantastic sequel to the beloved original 2D side-scrolling brawler.



- Indie Game: the Movie: a fantastic feature-length documentary about making video games. It specifically focuses on Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes during the development of Super Meat Boy, Phil Fish while he develops Fez, and Jonathan Blow and his acclaimed indie title, Braid.



And, if you pay more than the average price, you also get...

- Dungeon Defenders + DLC: a combination action RPG/tower defense game that lets you (and 3 other friends!) take on the role of four different hero classes and fend off an invasion of baddies.



- Legend of Grimrock: old school and modern gaming combines in this thrilling dungeon crawler RPG from Almost Human Games.



- The Basement Collection: it features a compilation of Flash games from the unique mind of Edmund McMillen (Super Meat Boy, Binding of Isaac).



- Offspring Fling: a game about a poor forest creature that has misplaced all of her children. She'll have to fight her way through over 100 levels of action puzzle platforming to get them all back home.



- Cave Story+: a 2D platformer in the "metroidvania" tradition, with a classic, world-saving hero and an emphasis on exploration and discovery.



I said it, this post comes a bit late, and you still have just 1 day and a half to buy this bundle. Pay what you want, help charity, and get 9 fantastic games, a movie, and all the soundtracks! So, what are you waiting for? Don't be stupid and be (this time, seriously) quick!