Ubuntu or Wine for BG1?

[grogerson]

As the topic says.

 

My intent is to have a Linux partition with just enough additional space to install BG1 with mods, primarily mine to check it out. The reason? Others have converted my BG1 Tweaks mod for use on OSX, but Linux is still posted at v1.

 

I won't be able to check the OSX version, but I can at least do to for Linux, and take this much responsibility and make it easier for the Admins and others who maintain the files here.

[Wisp]

You may want to look into using a virtual machine instead of a partition. You can use e.g., VirtualBox, which is free and had good support for Ubuntu last I checked.

 

As for Wine, it is an emulation layer you install on a Linux-based OS, so it is not something you would use instead of Ubuntu. You install Wine on Ubuntu (and then BG1 in the emulated environment provided by Wine). When you get that far, I think you will find it easier if you import an already installed copy of BG1 into Wine, rather than try to run the installer.

[lynx]

Wine is technically a translation layer for the various windows apis, so it is faster than true emulators in virtual machines. If it works, it works great, including the game installer and playing, so the mode of game installation is not really important. Just don't run weidu through wine, but use the linux binaries for mod installation instead.

 

If you need a one time check for bg1 tweaks, I can do it for you.

[Miloch]

Actually, the modern method of modding is platform-independent. The only thing you really have to watch is tilesets (.tis files) and audio (particularly .ogg to .wav conversion, which should be obsolete what with providing native compressed WAVs which is the IE native format anyhow). None of that should be relevant to BG1 Tweaks, and even if it is, there is a fairly simple template which which to do it (I think Wisp has one posted, and I've used pretty much the same in other cross-platform mods). The idea is not to have 3 versions of the same mod because one will suffice well enough one all platforms.

[grogerson]

@ Wisp - Thanks for the info on VirtualBox. I'll look into it. As for Wine, my brother mentioned it goes into Ubuntu as well. He runs various Windows environments, but his dislike of MS and their "handling" of files, memory and more got him to look into Linux. He also suggested installing Linux on a separate drive from my Windows drive.

 

@ lynx - Thanks for the offer, and it's welcomed. It may be a bit, though. I've two possible bugs, but they may also be tied to a bad bit set in the BGMain file. Zed Nocear's VarFix v2 had a bad offset in the TP2 for the 1.1.4320 international version, which I was running. He's been informed and has corrected the mod.

 

@ Miloch - One mod for all three platforms is a good idea, but I'm just now getting into that. In other words, I've no idea how to do it or where Wisp's template is. Can you link it here? And ... I have one .wav file in the mod. You know, Shut Up "You must gather your party..."? Will that cause problems?

[lynx]

That should be fine. Besides what was already mentioned, the biggest problem is that linux and mac have case sensitive filesystems, so it is very important how you're cAlliNg your files when referencing them.

If you have all the code in a weidu template file, there's no porting to be done. Save of course for the mentioned names.

[Miloch]

If the .wav is already wavc (which it should be) then no worries, you can just COPY it over regardless of platform. Just look at the header with a hex editor if unsure (or try to play it with a normal media player - it should fail if compressed, but will play in NI with acm2wav present). Wisp had some code up at PPG (I think) on how to use tp2 code for 3 platforms rather than .bat/.sh files but I can't find it, and you don't really need it (it is used in mods like Fishing For Trouble anyhow if you do want to look at it) since you probably don't have batch files. Otherwise, just look out for stuff like case-sensitivity and also look at cmorgan's post in the workroom. What I do is just package everything with both the Win and OSX files except for WeiDU, which for OSX and Linux, that handful of users can download from weidu.org on the rare chance they don't already have it. It is still G3's standard to have 3 different packages and 3 different maintenances but they should really get away from that.

 

Edit: oh, and if your .wav isn't compressed then use Sam.'s PS GUI to convert it or batch convert if you've got a bunch of them.

[grogerson]

...Others have converted my BG1 Tweaks mod for use on OSX, but Linux is still posted at v1.

I was incorrect on this. It seems it's the OSX version that's still at v1.

If the .wav is already wavc (which it should be) then no worries, you can just COPY it over regardless of platform. Just look at the header with a hex editor if unsure (or try to play it with a normal media player - it should fail if compressed, but will play in NI with acm2wav present)...

It appears to open with WinAmp, but at zero bites and zero seconds how can I tell - even in NI? Though when the original file was exported using NI it opened in WinAmp but gave no size or time, so that suggests my Tweaks version is not wavc. I'll check out your link to the PS GUI shortly...

[Miloch]

It appears to open with WinAmp, but at zero bites and zero seconds how can I tell - even in NI? Though when the original file was exported using NI it opened in WinAmp but gave no size or time, so that suggests my Tweaks version is not wavc. I'll check out your link to the PS GUI shortly...

Look at the header with a hex editor, as per the IESDP, it should say WAVC if compressed. Doesn't appear to be. Probably doesn't make a difference for a .wav with no data, as you can COPY it either way regardless of OS.