----------- WineX 3.3.1 ----------- Release Notes, April 13, 2004. Overview ======== TransGaming is pleased to announce the release of WineX 3.3.1, dubbed "Heart of Gold", giving our users access to Windows games in Linux, with greater ease. TransGamers can now download WineX in RPM, Debian and TGZ formats from the downloads section of TransGaming's website: http://www.transgaming.com/ WineX 3.3.1 is primarily a bug fix release. However, it also includes a number of DirectX 9 related changes to make the present patch level of EverQuest work, and a major reduction in sound latency. Enjoy! New Features ============ WineX 3.3.1 ----------- * The latest patch level of EverQuest, based on DirectX9, is completely playable. * Annoying sound delay should be eliminated in games such as Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. * Full screen applications will now work in KDE 3.2. * Installer speed in some degenerate cases has been dramatically improved. The install time for Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, for instance, has been reduced from over 2 hours to 45 minutes. * Multiplayer games in Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne should no longer crash. * Half Life voice chat should now work on a larger number of sound cards. * A number of bug and compatibility fixes. System Requirements =================== Operating System ---------------- Core requirements are: - Linux Kernel 2.2 or higher. Stock Kernels recommended over RedHat 7.x/8.x/9.x kernels. 2.6 kernels are not recommended due to stability issues. - XFree86 4.0 or higher (4.2 and above recommended) - glibc 2.2 or higher - working hardware accelerated OpenGL video card CPU Type and Speed ------------------ Recommended minimum hardware is - 500 MHz or faster Pentium or Athlon CPU - 64MB of memory; 128 MB or higher recommended - 1 to 2 GB free hard disk space for games - Linux-supported 3D graphics card with 16MB of video RAM is required. nVidia GeForce-class GPU recommended. ATI Radeon 8500 or higher with working ATI FireGL drivers should work, but will not perform as well for the moment. Please note individual requirements may be higher for certain games. Prelink and Exec-Shield ----------------------- Prelink is a new set of functionality, available in newer glibc versions and distributions such as Fedora Core 1, designed to reduce the startup time for applications which use dynamic libraries. The loading speed improvements are achieved by preassigning the addresses various dynamic linked libraries will be placed in memory. Thus relocations will not have to be performed by the dynamic loader when loading the application. Unfortunately, more often than not, libraries are prelinked into addresses which are incompatible with Windows programs. Windows executable programs generally use a trick, similar to prelink, to reduce the size of the executable and improve start times. This trick assumes, quite rightly for a Windows program, that the address 0x400000 is always available. Thus when WineX attempts to load the Windows executable into the starting address, and it's not available, WineX will fail to start the program with an error message mentioning "stripped relocation records" and "address 0x400000 not available". Exec-shield is a kernel level solution (http://people.redhat.com/mingo/exec-shield/ANNOUNCE-exec-shield) which remaps executable code to a lower memory address with the intention of eliminating ASCII based code overflow attacks. The new location of the executable has the potential of conflicting with the required windows range which will result in the same error message as with prelink. The solution to the problems these two new technologies create is to disable them so they don't affect any WineX libraries or executable code. To disable automatic prelinking in the future edit /etc/sysconfig/prelink and set PRELINKING to no by making sure the following line is present: PRELINKING=no Then execute the cron job, most likely /etc/cron.daily/prelink, to reverse the prelink all of your libraries or manually run: $ prelink -ua To disable exec-shield you can either use the boot time option "exec-shield=0" or it may be changed, before running WineX, by typing either: $ echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/exec-shield or $ sysctl -w kernel.exec-shield=0 Known Issues and Comments ========================= ATI FireGL drivers ------------------ TransGaming has seen some instability with ATI cards using FireGL and/or DRI running WineX. Games of note with issues are Battlefield 1942, Grand Theft Auto - Vice City and Sacrifice. TransGaming is continuing to improve support and we welcome all reports and your votes in the polls. Baldur's Gate 2 --------------- * The "Software Mirror BLT" option under the "2D 16 bit Color Depth" should be enabled if the character sprites appear garbled. * During the opening scene in the dungeon, occasionally the game will not advance after the sewer gollum has talked. Simply restart. Battlefield 1942 ---------------- * The game must be patched to at least version 1.3 in order to fix problems that will prevent it from starting the game engine properly. * The [d3dgl] 'ClipSpaceFix' option needs to be disabled to run the game. This has been configured by default in the config file. * We recommend the use of 22 kHz sound for best performance, especially with the movies and cutscenes. 44 kHz sound is known to cause serious performance degradation. * Use of 24-bit color is recommended if shadow effects are enabled. * After quitting a multiplayer session, the game may indicate that it is unable to join another game with the message, "Please insert either Battlefield 1942 CD". There is no workaround for this other than restarting the game. * The animated background of the main menu does not work. * Copyprotection for versions 1.45, 1.5 and 1.6 does not work. There are also issues with punkbuster which is present beginning with 1.6. * Alt-tab will crash the application. Black & White ------------- * Playing in low texture mode will lead to crashing. You may not be able to get back to the configuration screen to return to normal detail. Call of Duty ------------ * Copyprotection for this title does not presently work. * The installer for this game will fail when trying to switch to the second CD-ROM. To work around this problem select cancel when it asks for the second CD-ROM and say NO to the question concerning reversing the changes. Once stopped, insert and mount the second cd and copy the files in Setup/Data/Main to the main directory inside the installed Call of Duty. Additionally some registry entries will not be automatically added. If you wish to play multiplayer then you will need to add the following to your system.reg file in order to be able to upgrade your version: [SOFTWARE\\Activision\\Call of Duty] "InstallDrive"="D:" "InstallPath"="C:\\Program Files\\Call Of Duty" "Language"="1" "Version"="1.1" * Often the game will hang upon quitting. Civilization III ---------------- * There are several sound problems with this application. * Occasionally the game will crash when building the first city. * Earlier patch levels will not pass copyprotection. v1.29f is recommended. Command and Conquer: Generals ----------------------------- * The installer does not allow switching to the 2nd CD-ROM. * Some versions of the installer do not even start. * Game play is slow. Counter Strike: Condition Zero ------------------------------ * Pushing the tab key will crash the game. Dark Age of Camelot ------------------- * Users whose graphics cards only have 2 texture units (GF2MX,GF2 & GF4MX) will notice graphical incorrectness such as a non textured floor. * The sound in the installer and login screens is not good. Dungeon Siege ------------- * DS will lock up as soon as you move the mouse when using nVidia 4496 and later drivers. Downgrading drivers is the only reliable way to solve the problem. Newer drivers appear to not have this problem on NPTL systems. * Even with older nVidia drivers, game may not work on some systems. * Do not hit the 'ESC' key during game play, as it will cause the game to freeze. * Some setups may experience deadlocks before the main menu. Running with any debug channels on generally works as a remedy. * The water does not flow in the game. * Multiplayer support is not yet available due to the use of DirectPlay 8 in the game. Grand Theft Auto 3 ------------------ * The opening videos for Grand Theft Auto 3 work quite slowly under WineX. The movies may be skipped by pressing the space bar twice. Grand Theft Auto Vice City -------------------------- * Occasionally textures may display incorrectly. * The opening videos for Grand Theft Auto Vice City work quite slowly under WineX. The movies may be skipped by pressing the space bar twice. Homeworld 2 ----------- * Multiplayer support is not yet available due to the use of DirectPlay 8 in the game. Max Payne 2 ----------- * Pixel Shaders do not work, as they are not implemented by WineX. You should make sure they are disabled in the games option screen. Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault ------------------------------ * A defect in the game software, which should be fixed in the latest Spearhead expansion patch, causes the game to crash under WineX. The WineX team has provided a workaround. Both Point2Play and the winex3 start script are set up so that this game will work out of the box. Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault Spearhead and Breakthrough --------------------------------------------------------- * Copyprotection for these titles do not presently work. Morrowind: Elder Scrolls III ---------------------------- * Pixel Shaders, used for water effects, are not yet available. * The intro videos can freeze if they fall behind the play frame rate due to a coding problem with the application. Need For Speed: Underground --------------------------- * The installer presently does not work due to its use of flash. This can be worked around by killing the EReg.exe process when the installation appears to hang. Additionally you need to use the --use-dos-cwd option pointing to your CD-ROM drive. * Copyprotection for this title does not presently work. * The auto patcher for earlier versions of this title will not work and you will have to manually download and patch. * To play multiplayer online, you will need to manually register the game on EA's website. Sim City 4 ---------- * To install the game, you must insert and mount the CD-ROM, and use the following command line: $ winex3 -use-dos-cwd f:/ -- f:/autorun.exe If the installer asks you to install a new version of DCOM, say 'no'. * The game has small graphical glitches when scrolling with the hardware renderer. Use of the software renderer is recommended and is automatic as of WineX 3.2. * Use of the "?" to get information can cause graphical corruption. Scrolling the window will clear this up. Star Wars: Jedi Academy ----------------------- * The installer cannot install the second CD-ROM. To work around this copy the 2nd CD-ROM to the hard drive and point it to this drive when you need to switch discs. Steam ----- * Window manager decorations are visible in several managers. Warcraft III The Frozen Throne ------------------------------ * The desktop icon (shortcut) for Warcraft III will not function correctly if installed with WineX 3.1, or earlier, due to the way the previous WineX versions changed the command line. Either edit the shortcut to start "Warcraft III.exe", rather than "War3.exe", add the -classic parameter, or reinstall both Warcraft III and Frozen Throne. Let the Games Begin ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This document is Copyright(c) 2002-2004, TransGaming Technologies Inc. Redistribution is permitted for non-commercial use only.