Problems with full screen games in Wine.

[ravaged_warrior]

I recently got Command & Conquer: The First Decade and for the most part, the games seem to run almost perfectly in Wine (rather surprising, since Wine is generally terrible at most anything I try it with), with the exception of two games that I'll just run on my Windows computer. However, one problem I've been having is that a lot of times, when I have Wine set to not emulate a desktop, full-screen programs like the C&C games will just cause the game to display a black screen, even if the sound from the game is playing. This doesn't always happen, but it's fairly frequent. Has anyone else had this happen? Were you able to fix it?

[leadgolem]

Hmm, seems like I had that issue with an older version of wine. It seems like the issue was resolved by setting the correct resolution in the games registry keys. That was a while ago though, so I could be mistaken.

[ravaged_warrior]

That might be it, actually. I just tried one of the games running in 1280x1024 and it started up and ran just fine. It seems that switching resolution might be causing the problem. It doesn't explain why they work sometimes and not others, but this should help for getting it fixed. All I should have to worry about now is getting the keyboard to work with Wine, since that's started acting up as well. So, how do I access the game's registry keys?

[kriskmm]

I changed the emulate desktop to almost match my desktop resolution

Works for most of the games

Also try changin the directx settings

[ravaged_warrior]

They do work perfectly in emulate desktop mode, but the problem with that is keeping the mouse from leaving the emulated desktop. While it works in Renegade, it doesn't in the others and I'm not sure how to keep it from doing that. I've already got "Allow DirectX apps to stop the mouse from leaving their window" checked, but it doesn't seem to work with the RTS games.

[leadgolem]

So, how do I access the game's registry keys?You should have an item in your "Wine" menu category called regedit. The exact placement and syntax for each game is a little different, some don't specify resolution in a registry key at all. Usually the keys are located in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/appname.

Is there any difference in the way you launch the wine apps when they are doing this? Different terminal locations, anything at all?

[ravaged_warrior]

No, the only difference is whether the desktop is emulated or not. Hmmm... Not seeing anything about resolution in the registry keys. I'm not sure it matters. I just checked on a Linux program to see if I'd get the same results, and I did, meaning that it isn't Wine's fault, it's Fedora's. It seems to be pretty much random if it's going to happen or not, but most likely if I try to use a program in fullscreen at a different resolution than the one chosen in Display, it'll mess up.

[leadgolem]

What video card do you have, and what driver are you using?

[ravaged_warrior]

I have an NVidia GeForce FX5200 and I'm using the driver from NVidia's site.

[leadgolem]

No wonder you are having problems. The driver from nvidia's site doesn't work exactly right with fedora. That is why livna repository contains the kmod-nvidia package. Freshrpms has a dkms module for the same reason.

[ravaged_warrior]

I see. That's no problem, then, I'll just install that. It'll definitely run my video card at full capacity?

[leadgolem]

Before you do, make sure you remove your existing nvidia driver.

The real difference is the the livna and freshrpms dkms drivers actually work correctly. The one from nvidia directly has a few issues.

[ravaged_warrior]

I'm not really sure where the vendor driver is. Is there a way to switch to the kmod drivers without uninstalling it?

[leadgolem]

That is possible but a very bad idea. The driver supplied directly from nvidia will cause problems.

There is some option you can specify to the .run file from nvidia to uninstall it. I haven't done this in such a long time I don't remember exactly what it is though. I think you just add the "--uninstall" option after the file.

[ravaged_warrior]

I don't think I had a .run file. I downloaded an RPM that was linked in the tech support forums or something like that. I did find a package called xorg-x11-drv-nvidia with this description:This package provides the most recent NVIDIA display driver which allows for hardware accelerated rendering with NVIDIA chipsets NV30 (FX series) and newer. NV30 and below (such as GeForce2) are NOT supported by this release.

For the full product support list, please consult the release notes for driver version 169.09.Could that be it?

[leadgolem]

Oh, then then your should be fine. The rpm version is either from livna or freshrpms. The .run file is from nvidia directly.

Hmm, not sure what the problem is then...

[ridetehpenguin]

I am having (sort of) the same problem.

here's a pic of the desktop when I start Empire Earth....

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc121/excelcis/Misc/Screenshot-1.png


I set the resolution to 1024x768 and still no joy. My desktop is at 1680x1050. Any clues? :D

ALSO:

I tried to install Baldur's Gate II:Shadows of Amn, and everything was going fine until it asked to place the 2nd disc. It was locked by the app and wouldn't let me unmount/eject it. Is there a special trick for multi-disc installs? I do want to install World of Warcraft as well :p

[leadgolem]

Try increasing the size of your virtual desktop.

You may need to make and mount an .iso image of one of the disks for multi-disk installs. There are other methods of getting around this too.