DC goes multi-platform

[manikus]

In an ongoing effort to use all or my favorite programs in Linux, I have of course experimented with DC.

DC will not run natively in Linux, but through use of WINE I thought it might be possible. So, I eagerly imported Dungeon Craft, started it up and found that the editor had opened and even worked but had major graphics issues and that the engine wouldn't start at all, so I wouldn't be able to play or test any designs.

Years went by and improvements were made to both WINE and DC. A couple of months ago, after a fresh install of a new (to me) version of Linux - Fedora 10. WINE is now out of beta and I updated to version 1.13. I installed version .914 of Dungeon Craft and fired it up. To my pleasant surprise, I found that the editor looked exactly like it did on my Windows XP system. More importantly, the editor behaved exactly like on my Windows XP system.
I immediately created a little desing, saved it, and tried to test it. Nothing happened.

A couple of weeks went by and then I was testing a special build of DC on my XP and the engine didn't start, but gave me an error message that I was missing a particular MFC*.dll file. A light bulb popped on in my head and I downloaded the missing .dll file and placed it in the proper folder in WINE. Voila! The engine now works.

The missing file was MFC42D.dll. But, I downloaded all MFC4*.dll files just in case. These are available on a number of sites around the web and are free to download.

There is one issue that remains, however. I was using DC set to 640x480 resolution. After using the engine and exiting, Fedora 10 (and Ubuntu 8.04) do not switch back to their previous resolutions, nor do they "fit" everything on the screen. So, after using the DC engine (not the editor) you have to reboot Linux to get your system back to normal. For those not familiar with Linux, this does not mean rebooting the machine, though you can, you just need to reboot your visual display. To do this, open a command prompt, and switch to level 3 (telinit 3 in Fefora) and then back to level 5 (telinit 5 in Fedora).

I have the fortune of having a debug version of DC that opens in a Window instead of full screen, so I can avoid this issue. Paul is aware of this issue (not a priority) but is aware of people wanting to be able to open the DC engine in a window (is a priority) and will likely have a version that can open in a window for either the next release or the one after that.

So, if you've ever dreamed of using Dungoen Craft on your Linux or Apple machine, now you can.

[Dinonykos]

Although I am not a Linux user: Congratulations!!!

[manikus]

Thanks.

Of course this makes me happy, especially since I'm using debug builds of the engine (so I can play DC in a window); but there are a lot of Linux users that are hardcore AD&D fans, almost all of the ones I know are fans of 1e and 2e, so this might be just the thing for them.

[Uatu]

I am a Linux user, but I've never used Wine!

(I noticed a package out there that seems to be an AD&D PC generator...)

[manikus]

WINE is pretty darn cool. It was originally started to use some of the Office suite from Microsoft and to play Windows games. Now, I think it supports thousands of titles. There is an offshoot called Crossfire (which is not free) that allows you to run the entire Office suite and a few games, but perfectly as they would in Windows. I mention Crossfire b/c one day a year they give away copies of their programs.

What flavor of Linux do you use?

[Uatu]

I am still a Linux newbie, but I mostly use either Ubuntu or Gentoo now.

[manikus]

I have Ubuntu 8.04 running on the same box as Windows Server 2003. On the laptop, I'm using Fedora 10. I'm not 100% happy with either, but would probably closer if I had them on the other machines.

I've not tried Gentoo, but I've thought about it lately as I've been reading about it at the DOSBox site.

BTW, Uatu, you'l be excited to know that I'vve spent the afternoon testing a build of the engine with a working backstab for thieves.

[Uatu]

Woo, a working backstab sounds awesome! Does that mean that rear-attack bonuses and such also work? (Automatic attacks vs. those showing their backs would be nice, too...)

I have a cruddy USB Ubuntu at home (I have to boot it from CD, because my PC is too old). Needless to say, it is really slow, and so I will have to do something else...

[manikus]

The live versions of Ubuntu are pretty much what the HD versions are like, except slower on certain (old) machines. That's why I have my Ubuntu dual-booting. The box it's on is only a 2 GHz machine, which is not too bad, but the connection to the cd drive is relatively slow and much slower than just running it from the HD.

There are some flavors of Linux that are made to run off of USB drives, which they all seem to prefer to call pen drives, that are small and sleek and much faster than a live disk. The trade-off is that they don't come with as much software, though they still support it, if you were to create a new partition on a hard drive to store it, or on your 'pen' drive if it's a big one. The smallest distro I've seen, and it's not even a pen drive distro, is 450KB. It's designed to run VMWare virtualization, and doesn't even have a GUI.

[manikus]

I swiitched to Fedora 11 about a week or two ago now. DC stopped working in WINE, well that's not true, the graphics stopped displaying correctly.

I noticed that the version of WINE was not the most current and after some fighting with the repository, I go the most current. But, my problem was not solved.

I went through all of the visual stuff in Linux making sure that I was the most up-to-date a person could be. Nothing seemed to work.

But a few days pass, and I just updated some stuff for Fedora and my problem is solved. It actually wasn't just DC that wasn't displaying properly, but everything in WINE and all graphics previews. The issue turned out to be sound driver related.

I'm happy to say that I'm back in business again on the laptop.