WoW in Wine

[Inaeth]

I know this has to be the most frequently asked question when it comes to gaming in Linux, but I'm pretty much stumped in my problem. I do not know whether if I'm up against the limits of my hardware at the present moment, or if I'm just at the limit for what Wine, and other translation layers based on Wine, can do for running World of Warcraft on Linux.

My system is a 2.8 GHz Intel Celeron processor, running with 1 GB of memory, with an nVidia 7800 GS OC AGP card with 256 MB of on-board memory. The current nVidia drivers that I have installed are the ones that come with the Mini Edition of Sabayon Linux 3.3. So, I think that would be the 97.55 version. (Don't have a DVD burner right now, as the previous one burnt out on me. That'll be the last time I buy anything off-name at Wal-Mart.)

I have tried running Wine in different Windows Compatibility modes, as well as running WoW in OpenGL and DirectX mode, all with the same result- a paltry 8-15 FPS outside, and maybe 25 FPS inside. The current HKCU Keys that I have loaded into the registry are:

/Software/Wine/Direct3D/DirectDrawRenderer=opengl
/Software/Wine/Direct3D/OffScreenRenderingMode=backbuffer
/Software/Wine/Direct3D/opengl=enabled
/Software/Wine/Direct3D/RenderTargetLockMode=auto
/Software/Wine/Direct3D/UseGLSL=enabled
/Software/Wine/Direct3D/VideoMemorySize=256

Should these Keys be loaded under an OpenGL section under Wine as well? Is this why I have such miserable FPS in the game? Within the config.wtf file, I do have the 24 bit Color Depth options set, along with the gxApi set to "opengl".

Does anyone have a configuration similar to mine where they are getting decent FPS? It's not like I expect it to run at the same speed that it would under Windows, but I do know that the Video Card should be able to give me more FPS than what I'm receiving right now.

I also do not know if this will reflect a bad setting on my part, but it does not matter which setting I have the resolution set to. No matter what the resolution, I will still receive the same FPS. Anyone think they might know what's going on?

P.S. I've tried Cedega, all engines from 5.2.9 to 6.0.2, and the newest Crossover Linux. All of them have the same problems.

[P4R4D0X]

i get ~100 fps on a similar spec pc with wine-0.9.40 in a seperate X session, alot better than it runs in windows

[Inaeth]

Hmmm....

I forgot about that. I'll try and start the game on a separate X Server session, and see if that improves my FPS or not. If it doesn't, then I'll downgrade to Wine .9.40 and see if that helps.

Anyone have an idea about which version of Wine runs WoW the best? On the Applications Database over at the Wine site, there's a lot of conflicting opinions on that topic. However, I'm thinking that under Sabayon Linux, everyone should be able to come to some sort of a conclusion of what will work best for this distro. (Before the user modifies it, that is.)

[Inaeth]

Okay, to update: I've tried running the game on its own X-Server session, and there was no noticeable increase in the FPS. Right now, I'm upgrading to Wine .9.43, but as this will take a while due to the dependencies, I'll post on whether or not if it worked in the morning.

[Inaeth]

Keeping this thread updated, as WoW seems to be the game that most people who are new to Linux can't leave behind, and we, as an OSS community, must not fail to forget. (Blizzard has over 10 million subscribers, after all...)

In the new version of Wine, WoW works flawlessly! Wine 0.9.60 should be able to run WoW with voice chat, antialiasing, graphical mode changes, etc. However, one key to still use in the regedit is the DisabledExtensions key, as detailed on the WoW page in the WineHQ Applications Database. On my system, I've noticed that the Frames Per Second shoot through the roof with that little registry tweak enabled.

Also, as to why this game was giving me such a problem before, it was due to hardware limitations. The L2 cache on the old Celeron processor that I was using was limited to 128 KB, which throttled the rest of the graphical subsystem. Add that in with a measly 100 MHz Front Side bus, and one can see why these 3-D games did not work too well on my system.

Inaeth
"Always strive to do right. It will gratify some, and infuriate the rest." -Mark Twain