Need help with ROTT MUltiplayer in Source Code Versions through Linux and Windows

[ufo_warviper]

A version of this was e-mailed to the WinROTTGL duo team. I merely rudimentarrailly edited this e-mail before posting here, so there are probably grammar mistakes!



I am sorry if this is a bit long. IF you read any of this PLEASE READ FIRST PARAGRAPH (and 2nd too). The rest is mainly background information of what I have attempted for Rise of the Triad multiplayer that I have provided for reference if you need it. I've spent dozens of hours working towards getting High Resolution/OpenGL Multiplayer of Rise of the Triad through Windows and Linux Machines. I have had success networking Linux and Windows machines for the old low resoultion versions through DoSBOX but my failure with the new High-res versions eludes me. I am really frustrated and need help badly. I have about 8-12 different ROTT folders that I have been working with. I've tried WINE, WINROTT. WINROTTGL DOSBOX, Linux NAtive RPMS, Linux native installers, compiling the source, DOS pathces and more. and have nowhere to turn but to the ROTT experts themselves. The objective I am trying to accomplish means so much to me that I might be WILLING TO DONATE to winrott's or your other rott projects' development through a PayPal transfer if you can successfully help. After seeing the excellent work of WINROTT incorporated into the Fedora Linux RPM version I am willing to do whatever I have to do to get ROTT networking with Higher resolutions than 320x200 or OpenGL if I'm lucky. I Don't care which of the previously mentioned or other methods it takes, I want it done, somehow someway.

My family has legal copies of the Deluxe shareware and the Registered Version of rise of the Triad on CD. We have 4 Fedora Linux Machines a Laptop with Windows Vista, and a Laptop with Windows XP. We found that the Fedora Linux Packages contains WinRott's code for High Resolutions of Rise of the Triad. We were really impressed with your fantastic work. We were also equally grieved that the Fedora package version HAS NO MULTIPLAYER binaries for either the TCP/IP or IPX/SPX protocols. Your work inspired me to attempt getting my windows machines and Linux Machines to connect together in sweet Hi resolution action. I worked very hard and succeeded after several days in getting connectivity between the Linux and WIndows machines through DOSBox in ROTT 1.2 registered and shareware in our favorite maps Rise and Tide and THe BOX. I used the IPXNET TCP tunneling thing. We've been having fun, but the Fedora Version and the Windows WinROTTGL versions whetted our appetites for more.

Although it is great to once again be able to fire up ROTT, I want the Hi resolutions that WinRott offers. So, I had the idea of copying over the .wad, .rot, .rtc, and .RTL files from the Fedora .rott folder into my Rise of the Triad Directories where I mount my C Drive for Dos BOX. THat failed because ROTT made default copies of its files. (Sometimes silly ideas like this actually work!)

I thought I could maybe compile the icculus source code and work wtith that. I couldn't even figure out how to compile a default shareware copy of the icculus or original source ports. I would be excited about even getting connectivity between Linux and Windows through a Hi Res Shareware because Rise and Tide and the Box are our favorite maps. I've tried enabling all the SDL packages in the Fedora repositries. This allowed the source to compile for a few seconds longer before failing. the "make clean" command doesn't appear to work. I also read of someone who supposedly compiled WinRott for linux easily as I was doing research but I now I cannot find the guy's post.

I am working towards an engineering major and have had only an introductory course on Java and C++. All these software gurus (including forum posters and 3drealms) have nonexistent to mediocre documentation for novices like me. All the time I see guys who post source code "patches" in forums that contain code and I do not know what to do with them or whether I am supposed to put them in some directory in the source tree or edit or find the file with the same name and replace the code.

After much frustration with compilers, I thought about the possibility of a High res patch for the DoS Version existing. If So, than I wouldn't have to go through the headache of copmpiling the source. I can't find one. It appears that a 640x480 patch once was created by a guy named Lon Matero. Although it was deleted from his site, it seems that I have located a source code version of it somewhere. Once again I don't know what to do with a sourcecode based modification.

[Dopefish7590]

Ever tried VMware? It will allow you to install Windows and use multiplayer in WinROTT or GLROTT.

[ufo_warviper]

Thanks for the reply dopefish. Cool. I'll have to give that a shot. Will it be alot slower than WINE? Iwas able use a program called winefile to browse to my WINROTTGL directory. However, I had to disable all sound and music for it to run winrottGL without freezing. I'll post the WINE debug info if anyone wants. Some of the machines Im running ROTT on are as slow as THunderbird 1333 and an Athlon XP 1500+.

[Dopefish7590]

Yes it will be slower then WINE... This is because you are not simply emulating a windows enviroment. You are emulating an new computer and its hardware, then installing an OS yourself.

[ufo_warviper]

I downloaded VMware-player-2.0.2-59824.i386.rpm and installed it after searching for a while online. This is not the newest version but its all I could find with the Dowloads section of the VWware site being modified. I eventually found out you can't actually create VMs with VWware player. So I went to http://www.easyvmx.com/ and selected Easy Vmx. went through the steps and made a few configuration options and double-clicked the vmx file like they said. I am not sure what the next step is in setting up VMware Player. Since I already activated all the copies of Windows XP on other machines at our place, I intende to install Windows 98 since it requires no activation to keep the setup process simple. So, all in all What steps do I take to get to the point where I can virtually boot to a command prompt and pop in my Windows 98 CDs?

[ufo_warviper]

Ok, I reinstalled Fedora on one of my Systems. We now have 3d rendering, sound , and almost everything working in WINROTTGL using WINE except music and multiplayer.. To get WinRottGL working in WINE we must use a program called "WINEFILE", (a File Browsing utility similar to Windows explorer) instead of running it through WINE like one would regularly run. You must disable Music when winrottgl.exe is opened. I would still like to learn VMPlayer and I might still need it if I can't get WinrottGL to network through WINE. When I check the mutliplayer, as soon as i grab a connection type from the <Select Service Provider> List, the game crashes. I'm not in desparate need of music, so as long as we get Networking to work I'll be extroardinarilly happy.

Also, I wonder if there is anyway possible to Hijack the IPX Tunneling capabilities that DOSBOX provides and select Win95 or Win98 in Wine and piggyback it on top of dosbox. Maybe the devs of WinRottGl could incorporate the networking portion of Dosbox's sourcecode to run WinRottGL. I read of the Devs struggling with the multiplayer portion of the code for this game. Networking ROTT through DOSBOX on the old DOS versions WORKS. The newer versions of ROTT are based on the old DOS versions, so I don't see why it would technically be totally impossible.

[ufo_warviper]

WOOT!!!! I just got a 2 player game working through WINE!!!! I'm going to post how I did this soon with WINE's DLL overrides. I didn't thoroughly test so I'll report in as I make progress so that anybody can play this game networked cross-platform!

[ufo_warviper]

The multiplayer in WINROTTGL is so unstable my Windows and Linux Machine (using WINE) in a 2 ploayer game become unsynchronized in either immediately or less than 2minutes. Does this happen Windows to Windows? If there is any way I could compile WinRottGL for windows that would be great. And Dopefish, could you answer my questions about VMWare player in previous posts? You've been really helpful. In fact your the only one who bothered to reply. I reallly appreciate it Dopefish.

[jbailey]

In order to compile winrottgl, you will need msvc 7.1 or later, I've
successfully compiled the last source code release with msvc 2008, I've been
trying to figure out how to compile the same code base with cygwin, but so
far, no luck...

[ufo_warviper]

Okay, I just checked my Fedora Repositories and I see about a dozen "msv" packages which appear to be Java related according to their descriptions. I'm going to browse around if I can find an "msvc" RPM package online somewhere that works with c or C++. However, I don't think Microsoft would release Visual C++ for Linux. I'm surprised I found Java Packaged to be honest. Do you think some other C++ compiler work like GCC?

BTW, just to be sure, with MSVC, you got Linux binaries instead of exe's right?

Also, will I need glibc, gcc, libstdt, SDL packages, etc to get this thing going? Any others? Thanks JBailey.

[jbailey]

Msvc is a windows based compiler, it produces, exe, dll, and a few other
windows specific formats, it doesn't produce linux compatible 'executables',
even cygwin/cygnus is a linux like environment that runs on windows. To
really stand the best over-all chance of compiling winrottgl to run nativly on
linux, you would need a full-blown linux system, (no windows), and all my
pc computers are windows based, that's why I thought my efforts on trying to
do this would be unlucky. The good news is you can install gcc on a real
linux system and go from there (and it's free!).

[ufo_warviper]

My 4 desktops aren't using virtual machines to run Linux. Heck Dopefish reffered me to VMWare the other day, and I didn't know what to do. I'm running real Linux Partatitions on these. 2 of them are Full Linux systems with No Windows Partitions whatsoever. 2 of them are dual-boot. As long as the dual-boot operate within their default Fedora Linux partitions they a are a Full-blown Linux system.

When BIRGER releases the 1.4 source, would you mind taking a peak if I have any questions. If I succeed, I will submit the binaries to the project.

[jbailey]

Sure, no problem, I'll help you as much as I can...

[ufo_warviper]

Any Idea when the WinRottGL source will be released. I can't wait!

[jbailey]

There has been a update to winrottgl, it is now 1.42, and the sources are
available...

[ufo_warviper]

Sweet, I'll check it out!

[ufo_warviper]

I just downloaded the Source and there is no "make" file that usually comes with a source code. I did notice a Project file so I am going to check the repositories and see if I can download an editor with a compiler that can handle visual C Project fIles.

[jbailey]

I managed to get some files converted, you'll probably need to change the files
a little to work on your system though. See attachment..

[Jim Bentler]

Here is my patch to get the source posted at http://home14.inet.tele.dk/Bna-Info/linuxglrottsrc.zip to compile. I'm not sure if someone has done anything already, but I ran into a fair number of problems before getting it to work.