Linux versus Windows

General chat related to ScummVM, adventure gaming, and so on.

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albadross
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Linux versus Windows

Post by albadross »

criezy wrote
Also I am somewhat interested in your claim that the Linux version does not do as good a job as the Windows version. Are some features missing, some bugs present, or is it just general performances (e.g. cursor lag, some games being slow)? This might not be the thread where to discuss this, but I think we would welcome bug reports and features request on our new shiny bug tracker. Or you could start a new thread on the forum if there is something to discuss.
I knew that as soon as I wrote I did not find ScummVM Linux as good as Windows, I would be asked why.

First of all, let me give you some background. I have been an adventurer ever since the Infocom days and have been using ScummVM Windows for years and years, building up a collection of 100+ ScummVM adventures (all of which, where possible, have complete sets of savegames). When I changed to Linux Mint in June (a complete novice), I found that, sadly, some games did not work in Linux as they had in Windows. Furthermore, as you can imagine, because I have completed so many games, the ones I work on these days use daily versions of engines that are still under development and yet to gain official ScummVM approval. So I do all of this at my own risk - and is also the reason I tend not to submit bugs.

It would be impractical for me to re-test all my adventures - my time and enthusiasm are limited. But I will give you some examples of why I came to the conclusion that I did back then.

1. Amazon - Guardians of Eden bombed out when the start button was clicked. The game was completable on Windows (thanks Dreammaster for your help).

2. Gabriel Knight 1 & Myst - Game data not found on Linux but the games were completable on Windows.

3. I have completed 12 Wintermute games on Windows including all 8 Carol Reed mysteries. But in Carol Reed 10 & 11 (but not the others), the savegames cannot be loaded from the Linux ScummVM menu (as they can in the ScummVM Windows version). Though they can be loaded in-game.

Now I realise that things may have changed in the Linux build since June when I last downloaded it. And I do not believe anyone has worked on Wintermute for a while. So, as for today, I am happier to use the Windows version under Wine. I get working what I can get working - that's life on the bleeding edge. And then wait for the next problem to be solved.

P.S. While on the subject on the bleeding edge, I actually pay a lot of attention to the daily commits page and the bug tracker (for reasons mentioned above). My impression is that the tracker might be shiny and new, but the bugs are getting old. There was a push on bugs just before ScummVM 1.8.0 was released but not many seem to be being sorted out since.

P.P.S. I have just read what I have written above and it feels very 'moany'. Trust me - I am eternally gratefully for all the pleasure the ScummVM team have given me over the years.
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sev
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Re: Linux versus Windows

Post by sev »

albadross wrote: It would be impractical for me to re-test all my adventures - my time and enthusiasm are limited. But I will give you some examples of why I came to the conclusion that I did back then.
That comes as a surprise, since most of our developers are developing on different flavors of *nix, and Windows port maintainer has practically zero time for the port-related activities (or any ScummVM activities whatsoever).

It would be great if you report about these as soon as you encounter them, especially those annoyances with crashes or inability to perform basic actions such as loading a savegame.

You may do it as part of the just announced 1.9.0 release preparations.


Eugene
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criezy
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Post by criezy »

Thank you for taking the time to write this.

My reaction in the other thread about being interested in why you considered the Windows version to be better is because, as sev wrote, that also come as a surprise to me.

Dreammaster is developing on Windows, so indeed when using bleeding edge versions to play games under developments on which he is working, the Windows version of ScummVM may turn out to be more stable (this would go the other way for other games though, depending on the platform on which the corresponding developers are working).

And while I will admit we sometimes take time to fix bugs (so many things to do, so little free time :( ), we always welcome bug reports. And hopefully with the testing period starting for the 1.9.0 release there will be a similar push to what we saw just before the previous release. :)
albadross
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Post by albadross »

I did draft a reply saying that I would re-visit problems that I had had using ScummVM Linux. I intended to load the latest development build and see if I fared any better.

Confession time.

I now remember why I did not carry on with the Linux version. Being a novice at the time, I was only able to get the official Debian releases working on my machine. I couldn't get the daily development builds to run.

A bit older and a bit wiser now, I have had another go and feel I am getting nearer success. Real life is in the way at the moment but I think my best course of action would be to use the Help forum.

So please don't be offended/surprised by me turning back from ScummVM Linux - I just wasn't able enough to get it to work.
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sev
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Post by sev »

Oh, please, don't worry. By saying "I was surprised" I meant that I was puzzled how such gross and obvious problems slipped into the Linux port which is much more tested among the devs that the Windows.

When you say "Debian", to me it sounds like you could easily have 1.6.0 or 1.0.0 as the latest there. They've been pretty slow on updating the packages (see the xscreensaver drama). So no wonder the latest things did not work, or you were not able to load the saves from a newer version.


Eugene
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Graxer
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Post by Graxer »

I haven't used the Linux port in a while, but when I did I always found it best to compile it myself. That way I knew all the engines were as up to date as they could be. (Although you will need to state that you want to enable all engines in ./configure so that the ones that are still heavily in development are included) I recommend trying that out if it is something you are interested in exploring.
albadross
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Post by albadross »

I don't really have any time to progress my Linux testing or to learn how to compile ScummVM myself because of a recent close family bereavement. At the moment, ScummVM is just a happy distraction for me.

To round things off for now, what I know I got running natively on Linux were :

- 1.7.0 (from the latest version in the Linux Mint repositories)
- 1.8.0 (downloaded from the ScummVM website release binaries)
- 1.8.1 (also downloaded from the ScummVM website release binaries)

I know it was these versions running because the information comes up at the top of the main menu screen.

Perhaps, I will try again when the 1.9.0 binary is released. But, as you can tell, it is working on the development builds that I enjoy the most - so that will have to wait.
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somaen
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Re: Linux versus Windows

Post by somaen »

albadross wrote:3. I have completed 12 Wintermute games on Windows including all 8 Carol Reed mysteries. But in Carol Reed 10 & 11 (but not the others), the savegames cannot be loaded from the Linux ScummVM menu (as they can in the ScummVM Windows version). Though they can be loaded in-game.
That sounds odd, would you be able to mail me one of the saves in question (any save for Carol Reed 4 through 9 will do). I'm reachable at my username @scummvm.org.

Would you also be able to give me the relevant entries in scummvm.ini and .scummvmrc for the games in question?
KuroShiro
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Post by KuroShiro »

albadross wrote:I don't really have any time to progress my Linux testing or to learn how to compile ScummVM myself because of a recent close family bereavement. At the moment, ScummVM is just a happy distraction for me.
I would suggest trying the following:
Open up a terminal in Linux and enter the following commands in order...

sudo apt-get install g++ git make libsdl1.2-dev libjpeg62-turbo-dev libmpeg2-4-dev libogg-dev libvorbis-dev libflac-dev libmad0-dev libpng-dev libtheora-dev libfaad-dev libfluidsynth-dev libfreetype6-dev zlib1g-dev
git clone https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm
cd scummvm
./configure --enable-all-engines
make && sudo make install

That should compile scummvm with all engines and most features enabled, and allow you to run it by typing 'scummvm' in the terminal. After doing the above you can re-compile scummvm at any time by going to whatever directory you have the source in and entering the command:

git pull && ./configure --enable-all-engines && make clean && make && sudo make install

Good luck.
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tsoliman
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Post by tsoliman »

Alternatively, instead of "make install" (too late if you've already ran it)

Code: Select all

git clone https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm 
cd scummvm 
mkdir build
cd build
../configure --enable-all-engines 
make
Then all of the build artifacts are in scummvm/build

To run it you can do ./scummvm from that build directory.

To update you do "cd scummvm/build" followed by "git pull && make"

The rationale being to contain build artifacts.

I also symlink the needed dist files into the build dir (since it is the current working dir when you run ./scummvm from inside of it as follows:

access.dat -> ../dists/engine-data/access.dat
drascula.dat -> ../dists/engine-data/drascula.dat
hugo.dat -> ../dists/engine-data/hugo.dat
kyra.dat -> ../dists/engine-data/kyra.dat
lure.dat -> ../dists/engine-data/lure.dat
mort.dat -> ../dists/engine-data/mort.dat
neverhood.dat -> ../dists/engine-data/neverhood.dat
queen.tbl -> ../dists/engine-data/queen.tbl
scummclassic.zip -> ../gui/themes/scummclassic.zip
scummmodern.zip -> ../gui/themes/scummmodern.zip
sky.cpt -> ../dists/engine-data/sky.cpt
teenagent.dat -> ../dists/engine-data/teenagent.dat
tony.dat -> ../dists/engine-data/tony.dat
toon.dat -> ../dists/engine-data/toon.dat
translations.dat -> ../gui/themes/translations.dat
wintermute.zip -> ../dists/engine-data/wintermute.zip


Again, all of this is moot if you already ran "make install"
albadross
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Joined: Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:55 pm

Re: Linux versus Windows

Post by albadross »

somaen wrote:
albadross wrote:3. I have completed 12 Wintermute games on Windows including all 8 Carol Reed mysteries. But in Carol Reed 10 & 11 (but not the others), the savegames cannot be loaded from the Linux ScummVM menu (as they can in the ScummVM Windows version). Though they can be loaded in-game.
That sounds odd, would you be able to mail me one of the saves in question (any save for Carol Reed 4 through 9 will do). I'm reachable at my username @scummvm.org.

Would you also be able to give me the relevant entries in scummvm.ini and .scummvmrc for the games in question?
Email sent with savegames. Thanks for looking into it.
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