Dangerous Waters and Linux.

[kgsuarez]

Hello all.

I've mentioned this in bits-and-pieces in some other threads, but I've decided to post the news in a new thread because I think it is somewhat significant.

Over the past couple of weeks I've been testing various methods of running Dangerous Waters under the Linux OS. I've uncovered some key information in the process that I would like to share with you all.

Wine is a program for Linux that allows you to run programs, and games, designed for Windows. Up until recently we were all having trouble running Dangerous Waters through this "compatibility layer" known as Wine. Early versions of Wine produced many issues with DW. Eventually most of these issues were addressed, except for one. No matter what we couldn't get sound working. Now there's a solution.

Install Wine version 1.3.5 and open the "Configure Wine" program. (I think the command is "winecfg.") Go to the Graphics tab and select "Emulate a virtual desktop" and de-select "Allow Pixel Shader." You will also want to configure your sound drivers and file paths to your liking. I use the ALSA sound driver and allow Wine to auto-detect my drives and user directories. Make sure to edit the path for your virtual D: drive so that it points to where you plan to mount the install disks.

Mount your first disk and start the install. When prompted for the second disk you will have to issue the command "umount -l /cdrom." (Replace /cdrom with the path to your mounted disk if located elsewhere.) It is very important that you use the "-l" switch. (This switch is a bit of a hack, and not the kind of thing you want to make a habit out of, but I can't figure out any other way to unmount the disk.) When you resume the install the progress bar will disappear. Grab the top border of the install window and drag it downwards to reveal the progress bar again. The rest of the install should be fairly straight forward from here. (Make sure to patch to version 1.04 and install LWAMI too! )

The next step is to play around with the sound files so that they will play properly. Fetch the following program: http://subguru.com/DW_missions/scsoundedit.zip

Locate Dangerous Waters\Audio\Sfx\sfx.agg and use the above program to extract the .wav files from it. Remove or rename sfx.agg and then add the prefix "sfx.agg+" to all of the .wav files and leave them in the current directory (Dangerous Waters/Audio/Sfx). Use a batch renamer for this. I recommend GPRename, but you can google for some one-liners to paste in a terminal instead.

Next we must do the same thing to the vehicle specific sound files. Locate Dangerous Waters\Interfaces\AkulaII\sfx.agg. (In this case I am only modifying the sfx.agg for the Akula. If you want to drive one of the other platforms just use this same method on it.)

Extract the .wavs from the vehicle specific sfx.agg and remove or rename the sfx.agg when done. Again, we will leave them in the current directory (Dangerous Waters\Interfaces\AkulaII) and add a new prefix to their names. All the .wav files must be renamed with the prefix "sfx.agg+".

After these modifications are made the game will run with all sounds.

One problem we have encountered so far is that the 688(I) does not work as it should. The game crashes when you try to load a 688(I) mission. The Akula works fine. The Seawolf and the Kilo appear to work fine too. I have not tested the FFG, Helo, or the P-3 so I can't comment on those.

Another problem I have been experiencing involves a process called "pulse-audio." I don't know all the details, but it is some kind of sound server. I have read of problems with pulse-audio and Wine before. My solution is to close all sound related programs and do a "killall pulse-audio" before starting DW. (Don't worry, pulse-audio restarts a few moments after you kill it. All we're doing is esentially restarting it.) Some people have disabled pulse-audio altogether, but I haven't found that to be necessary.

That's about all I've got to say about that for now. I'll post a link to the new test results on WineHQ once they have been reviewed and posted. I might also put up a screenshot or two later. Feel free to ask me any questions, as I am sure I've left out a few details here and there.