[Wine] Re: Chances of running a new game

[Tlarhices]

endless_dark wrote:
> 
> > 
> > > I don't know much about wine so I don't know how it works but, Colud we make some kind of guide about problems, solutions and wine moddings to encorauge users to get working new games?
> > > 
> > 
> > That's what the AppDB is for.
> > 
> > 
> > -- 
> > -Austin
> 
> 
> Yeah, I mean, but if your game doesn't work, someone will post how to solve it. But im talking about doing it yourself. I mean, how do I know what to do with a game that no one else tried before? What things should I try or test?
> 
> I just didn't want to post directly to the wine AppDB without trying some fixes by myself.


There is no recipe or standardised procedure, but a few things :

The trial part :
- install in a clean wine prefix
- if you can try to have the latest GIT version of wine installed
- right after the installation, make a copy of your wine prefix folder (~/.wine by default) folder, so you can go back to a clean install just by copying the folder back (saves you the installation procedure)
- start with a wine configuration without sound
- try with and without the "virtual desktop" option from wine configuration
- remove pulseaudio (or any strange sound server)
- remove compiz (or any strange manager of this kind)
- make sure you have the latest drivers for your graphic card and they are working perfectly (try with the most recent 3D game you know works in wine, this is the best test you can do about this)
- check that the command 
Code:
xrandr

 gives you the screen resolution you want to use your game with, if not you have a problem with your linux configuration
- run the game from it's own folder
- in the terminal run with 
Code:
wine game.exe


- if the terminal output is too long and you can't see the start of the error run with 
Code:
wine game.exe > mylogfile.txt 2>&1


You need to replace "game.exe" by the exe name of the game and "mylogfile.txt" by any filename you want the terminal output to be saved in
- At first try, start the game with the lowest screen capabilities possible and add more details / filters / shaders / effects / biggest screen resolutions when lower ones are known to work
- Try to find a game using the same graphical engine, the appdb may contain workarounds working for this one
- If the game doesn't start and complain about a missing DLL, check with winetricks
- If the game doesn't start and complain a lot about missing feature in directX, check with winetricks (lots of guide on how to install directX in wine will make things worst, only trust this forum, the user vitamin and winetricks)
- If the game doesn't start and complain about missing DLL's or features and winetricks can't do anything for you, try to find the redistribuable package containing it and if it helps tell around here so it may be included in further release of winetricks
- If the game doesn't start and complain about missing DLL's or features and winetricks can't do anything for you and there is no redistribuable, take it from a real Windows installation
- Search every error message in google, wine bugzilla and this forum for guidance and ideas
- Report what you are doing here, some other people may have an idea
- Search the bug tracking system of the game, the game you may see might exist also under Windows
- If the game has patches, try without them first, the try with them.

The reporting part :
- If this game has no entry in the appDB, create one
- Every time you cross a known bug in wine influencing this application, link the bug report to the appDB entry and post a note on the bug report with the terminal output attached (not copied in the message)
- Every time you are able to go around a bug and have found an open thread on the forum about it, write there your workaround for future reference
- And if you find a way to make it work, restart from a clean wine prefix and try to find the minimal required workarounds to make the game work, report it on the appDB with a small how-to, if possible try to make the same thing with the latest stable version of Wine to date (1.0 right now I think) so users who want the security of the stable version knows that they can play this game

The may be illegal part :
It depends of the laws in your country, do it only if it is legal for you and if nothing before worked, as a last resort. Also some times it breaks working games (I think I did read steam games are in this case) :
- Try with a "no cd patch"

I think that's all, I hope I didn't forgot anything or said anything inaccurate.
Feel free to comment, complete and correct.