Linux

[Delsus]

WINE is extremely unreliable when it comes to network from my experience. For example, I just set everything up on ubuntu 12.04 and I am only getting network access when starting the program via command prompt, but not if I launch the exe directly.

And in case of ffxivboot, it fails it's version check no matter how I start it. It might be because I'm launching it from an NTFS partition, idk.

Are you running Ubuntu through Wubi or natively? If native copy your FFXIV files from Windows to an external HDD, boot to Ubuntu and reinstall the game on your Ubuntu partition via Wine (this works from the dvd) then copy the FFXIV files to your installation (overwriting everything) then run the game from the Ubuntu partition and it should work fine.

[KoKuToru]

WINE is extremely unreliable when it comes to network from my experience. For example, I just set everything up on ubuntu 12.04 and I am only getting network access when starting the program via command prompt, but not if I launch the exe directly.

And in case of ffxivboot, it fails it's version check no matter how I start it. It might be because I'm launching it from an NTFS partition, idk.

Okay..

0. Get a NVIDIA graphiccard.. install the original NVIDIA driver (not the opensource one) + Install lib32 version of it ! (when you are at 64bit)
1. Ubuntu .. check your wine version. Ubuntu loves it to use years old wine-versions. Get the newest version at http://www.winehq.org/
2. dump NTFS, copy everything onto ext3/ext4 don't forget to give the executeable-flag to ffxivboot.exe !
3. If you are at 64bit.. reinit your wine -> backup your files. Remove the ".wine" folder. First time start wine with "WINEARCH=win32 winecfg"
4. Install winetricks. Use it to install "d3dx9_36 ie6 winhttp wininet xact and msfont"
5. Start ffxivboot.exe..
6. Have fun at very slow performance (GTX460 3000[win] points vs 600[wine] points [ffxiv benchmark], and thats why a OpenGL client would help..)

I use it everyday, works pretty "okay". Performance is very sh**. But good enough to "not install windows".

At wine 1.3.31 you could use "orm=backbuffer" which .. really boosted performance a lot.. well shadow only worked half with it.
Every version after it you need to use "orm=fbo" it's a lot slower but correctly rendered. If you try to use "orm=backbuffer" you will get an upside down image.

EDIT:
Here is my start script which I use:

#!/bin/bash
export WINEDEBUG=-all
export __GL_YIELD=NOTHING
export __GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK=1

echo "start ffxivconfig"
wine ffxivconfig.exe

echo "set nvidia"
nvidia-settings -l

echo "start ffxivboot"
wine ffxivboot.exe&
FFXIV_BOOT_PID=$!
export LD_PRELOAD=

echo "wait for ffxivlogin"
until pidof "$(winepath -w ffxivlogin.exe)"; do
#wait 1 sec
sleep 1
done

echo "kill ffxivboot (because it's buggy)"
kill -9 $FFXIV_BOOT_PID
kill -9 $(pidof $(winepath -w ffxivboot.exe))

#remove the wine error box ? .. disable the error report..

[Soukyuu]

6. Have fun at very slow performance (GTX460 3000[win] points vs 600[wine] points [ffxiv benchmark], and thats why a OpenGL client would help..)

Uhm.. thank you for taking your time to write down the steps, but I'm not really serious about getting it to run, especially because of the reason I quoted above. It was just an experiment to see if it works out of the box.

I have done most of it already though, except 1. and 2. I only use linux for programming and other university stuff, so my partition is quite small. And I'm happier with win7 UI than I am with what linux can offer me so far.

Still, I'd love to see a native linux client. Would give me more reasons to dump M$ once win7 becomes obsolete (lolWin8)

[KoKuToru]

And I'm happier with win7 UI than I am with what linux can offer me so far.

Thats what you get for using Ubuntu.. lol .. Ubuntu used to be nice..

especially because of the reason I quoted above

Yeah it's too bad.. I am actually trying to find out whats up.
The biggest mistery is that a GT430 and a GTX460 have same peformance at FFXIV with wine.
I believe the render-targets eat up a lot of performance.
When you check how many times wine changes the FBO.. and it's ID's
You can see that it uses the same render-target multiply times for 1 frame.
Which I believe kills the performance, because the FBO will stall..
But probably the biggest biggest mistery is.. Wireframe or not, doesn't matter ... same performance (probably because the FBO gets reused).
Something is really wrong here.. Haven't found the cause yet (I am myself a pretty experienced porgrammer, with some little opengl/wine-hacks I could boost my performance from 8fps to 15fps [made it playable for me..])

I believe when I find the problem.. the performance of the GTX460 should speed up by at least 4 times.
Because it makes really no sense that a GT430 has same speed as GTX460 ! Something is blocking here..

[Huginn]

WINE is extremely unreliable when it comes to network from my experience. For example, I just set everything up on ubuntu 12.04 and I am only getting network access when starting the program via command prompt, but not if I launch the exe directly.

And in case of ffxivboot, it fails it's version check no matter how I start it. It might be because I'm launching it from an NTFS partition, idk.

i am sorry to hear that. the last ubuntu variant i used with it is 11.10 do you have winhttp and ie8 installed? have you tried WINETricks?

[indira]

it wont come to linux just because 90% of people wont know how to use it, most people dont know what a windows command line is. no way they will beable to do an install on linux cuz theres always things you need to install.

[Huginn]

it wont come to linux just because 90% of people wont know how to use it, most people dont know what a windows command line is. no way they will beable to do an install on linux cuz theres always things you need to install.

i would tend to disagree with part of your statement. Although many Linux users prefer to use command line (because it is faster and easier than clicking on a bunch of icons and searching around on the internet), you would not need to use any command line if SE made the game for linux and either themselves made a .deb, .rpm, .yum and apt or let the community do it for them, it would be as simple as putting in a CD or downloading a file and clicking on it to install FFXIV and then click to run it. The only additional installation step for running it on linux (or mac) would be to install linux in the first place, or get a computer that already runs linux.

Most people do not install windows on their computers themselves either.

[Delsus]

it wont come to linux just because 90% of people wont know how to use it, most people dont know what a windows command line is. no way they will beable to do an install on linux cuz theres always things you need to install.

Installing on linux is as hard as the devs want it to be, if they make a package and give it to the repositories distributions of linux use people can get it easily through software centers, apt-get command synaptic etc, they don't have to make files you have to compile into debs and install.

Linux is very user friendly now alot more so than it used to be, also the people who want to play the game on linux probably know how to install things properly anyway.

[Leyza]

it wont come to linux just because 90% of people wont know how to use it, most people dont know what a windows command line is. no way they will beable to do an install on linux cuz theres always things you need to install.

When I first used Ubuntu, I picked it right up. All you really need to know how to do to use the command prompt in Ubuntu is use Google and copy and paste. It's that easy.

To be honest, I prefer the command prompt over the Install Wizard due to it being a lot faster than it. Copy and paste, then Ubuntu does the rest of the work. At least, on Ubuntu. Not sure about other Linux OS.

[Antipika]

Had to.

More seriously, I really don't see any reason for Square Enix, from a pure business point of view, to even consider a Linux release for now. If anything make a Mac version first, then consider Linux. The project lost enough money already, why invest DEV time and support time into something that will not generate enough income?

People here tends to forget that it's not about only releasing a Linux version of the game, but it's about everything that's around it meaning:

• Assuring and maintaining the distribution of the client over the years. (hell even the current XIV client cannot be obtained online in Europe (only NA SE website...)).
• Providing support to all Linux customers which also mean :
  • Having support employees being able to deal with Linux related issues.
  • Having the necessary knowledge base articles / FAQ for all Linux related issues. And that in four languages as usual.
  • Keep on updating FAQ for both Windows and Linux version over time.
• More hassle for update deployment. Windows, PS3 and Linux. Files won't be exactly the same (just like XI had different patches for PS2/X360 and PC).
• For every new patches, longer QA'ing phases. Some bugs that may happen only on Windows may not affect Linux version and the other way around.

That's a lot of work and extra costs. I know that some people will say "whoever uses the Linux version is probably tech savvy enough not to contact SE if he has an issue", yet support must be offered to all customers and all platform/OSes, SE have to.