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Old 06-04-2019, 10:57 PM
Farnham Farnham is offline
Decaying Skeleton


Join Date: Dec 2010
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Default Running Project 1999 with Raven Ridge Linux Laptop

After 7 years away from P99 and a new AMD (2500u) laptop running Manjaro Linux, I had quite the head-scratching experience attempting to run the eq client at any playable FPS (we're talking less than 1 FPS). You may have noticed that none of the configuration tricks work for you like setting the CPU affinity to 1 processor (actually made it much worse) or downloading directx9 and other eq client codes. Probably the biggest stumbling block besides my limited experience with the Linux OS was also having no experience attempting to run games or using WINE on this platform at all. So anyway, if you're on a Ryzen AMD-based laptop with integrated graphics running Linux, hopefully this guide helps you.

You've probably already seen mgellan's post on Running EQ under Linux, but if you're running similar hardware to the aforementioned, most of this info is dated unfortunately.

Let's get stated then - first things first, make sure you're software is up-to-date which includes your kernel. I've tried 4.19, 4.20, and 5.1 and they all work fine on Manjaro. I'm sure other versions of Linux will also work fine, but I have only experimented with this one and Linux Mint. Unfortunately I hadn't discovered Lutris before I gave up on Linux Mint in the troubleshooting process, so I have nothing to report on that other than the fact that I couldn't even boot the eq client by trying to configure WINE manually, whereas I could with Manjaro before getting Lutris.

Next, grab the game platform launcher Lutris that I've been talking about. I wish I had known about this program or had started here, it would have saved me a hell of a lot of time. Don't bother with any wine derivatives programs such as Play On Linux or winetricks, Lutris handles all of the configuration you will need including the downloading whatever version of WINE you need. I went with "tkg-4.6", it works fine. Note: the one thing I'm not sure about is if you need to install a "system"/default WINE. If later on, something doesn't work, go ahead and do that through your package manager, terminal, whatever. I had already installed WINE 4.8 through my package manager even though I'm using "tkg-4.6" as the "runner" with Lutris. More on that later.

Once your runner/WINE is downloaded, click the "+" button to add a game. You may have searched 'Everquest' and noticed that Lutris includes an entry for Project 1999, but does not have an installer script written for automatic installation, that's fine though, you don't need it.

OK now you'll see 4 tabs: 'Game info (starting tab)', 'Game options', 'Runner options', 'System options', we'll go through each one. First, give the game a name, then select 'Wine (Runs Windows games)' and click-fill the 'Show advanced options' button.

Then in 'Game options' point to your Everquest.bat executable with the "patchme" text. The cool thing about Lutris is that you don't need to embed the Project 1999 file folder in your WINE directory, I left my Project 1999 directory in my home folder which worked fine. That's it for this tab.

Next in the 'Runner options' tab, select the version of WINE, again I used "tkg-4.6" and haven't experimented with anything else. You will also want to click-green/enable the 'x360e dinput 8 mode'. I had issues without this selected. Also, check that the Xinput architecture is "Same as wine prefix (default) and check that 'Create a sandbox for wine folders' is click-green/enabled.

On the last tab, 'System options', I went ahead and click-green/enabled 'Restrict to single core' this should be the same as CPU affinity=1. It may still work without this option enabled but I hadn't bothered to do ANY more experimentation once I had everything running smoothly. Also, I have 'Prefer system libraries' enabled as well which may be pointing to the WINE 4.8 I installed prior to installing the tkg-4.6 version I installed with Lutris. Just FYI.

OK, now hit 'Save' and your Project 1999 game link will appear in the game list. Believe me, this is so much easier than all the manual shit I tried with various WINE clients and configurations. We're nearly there, but there's one big thing that needs to be resolved in order to have a playable game client.

Last issue to resolve is regarding the display drivers. The AMDGPU display driver that is included in your Linux kernel does not natively support DirectX9 (as well as other DirectX# versions), this is why you experience a MASSIVE performance hit without some kind of translation layer. For DirectX9 to the Vulcan API (native to AMDGPU) translation you have 2 options:
https://github.com/Joshua-Ashton/d9vk OR https://github.com/iXit/wine-nine-standalone

The first D9VK, unfortunately, did not work for me after a manual installation. It’s still early in development and may improve later becoming a viable option for P99. That said, gallium/wine-nine not only works, but is also available in the package manager. Once it’s installed, run the command “wine ninewinecfg” in your terminal and check ‘Enable Gallium Nine for better D3D9 graphic performance’ and hit Ok. This writes the relevant DirectX9 .dll to your wine system 32 folder which can then be called by the Lutris option ‘Prefer system libraries' when launching the game from Lutris (I think that’s how it works anyway).

That’s it. Just remember to launch the game from Lutris and you should be good to go. It probably seems like a lot, but there isn’t much to it since Lutris handles just about everything if you already have all the Titanium client files and have written the P99 files to this Everquest folder directory. I blew a weekend getting to this point, so I hope this can save someone else all that frustration screwing around with WINE clients, various configs, and different Linux OS’s, especially if their as principly allergic to the modern Windows environment as I am.

As an aside, I was able to remember my old password and my character and gear still exist after all these years so that was pretty neat to see. Looking forward to Green [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]!
Last edited by Farnham; 06-04-2019 at 11:08 PM..
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Old 07-03-2019, 07:39 PM
hackoon hackoon is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2019
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Great writeup! I referenced your post in trying to get EQ on my Antergos install.

Any clue about resolution scaling?
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