Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura Forum

I've detailed a howto to get Arcanum installed and running under the current version of Crossover Games.
You can find it under the Tips and Tricks section for this game.

• any comments, tweaks or suggestions, please post in this thread.

MoLE wrote:

I've detailed a howto to get Arcanum installed and running under the
current version of Crossover Games.
You can find it under the Tips and Tricks section for this game.

• any comments, tweaks or suggestions, please post in this thread.

Hi,

No offense or anything like that, but, seeing as you asked.
...you should read this thread;

http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/advocate_center/forum/?t=1;msg=64395

...and make your entry comply, before a Ninja spots it and cuts it out...

Cheers!

Artist Formally Known as Dot wrote:

...you should read this thread;

http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/advocate_center/forum/?t=1;msg=64395

...and make your entry comply, before a Ninja spots it and cuts it
out...

Cheers!

Thanks for heads-up Don. I've left in the reference to lack of appropriate copy protection support in cxgames, hopefully this isn't a violation.

If you want to play Arcanum really easily, I would suggest buying this version of it : GOG.com Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura.

I used an XP bottle and just installed it. This version has no DRM deadweight along with it and works pretty well. I've had similar luck with other GOG.com versions of games.

I've easily installed also the High Resolution patch (and various other additions) to that one and playing happily on CXGames 8.1.4 on Linux with really minor graphical glitches at a resolution of 1900x1100. Just needed to define the desktop size in winecfg to that same resolution as while patching the game and it worked great.

Jukka Palko wrote:

If you want to play Arcanum really easily, I would suggest buying
this version of it :
[link=http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/arcanum_of_steamworks_and_magick_obscura]GOG.com
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura[/link].

I used an XP bottle and just installed it. This version has no DRM
deadweight along with it and works pretty well. I've had similar
luck with other GOG.com versions of games.

I've easily installed also the
[link=http://www.terra-arcanum.com/downloads/]High Resolution patch
(and various other additions)[/link] to that one and playing happily
on CXGames 8.1.4 on Linux with really minor graphical glitches at a
resolution of 1900x1100. Just needed to define the desktop size in
winecfg to that same resolution as while patching the game and it
worked great.

Thanks for the info Jukka.

I wonder if we should be creating separate app entries for each version, similar to that on the appdb.winehq.org site. I note we already have separate entries for steam and non-steam versions of games.

A couple of issues that you have raised - yes, it's cheap and easy to get a non-DRM version of this game currently, but to me part of the joy of wine and crossover is to be able to run those old abandoned apps without having to use an abandoned OS.

Additionally my own ethical viewpoint is - why should I have to pay twice for the same thing? I already own Arcanum and paid AUD$79.95 for it back in the day. Support for copy protection schemes I feel is an important area for wine and crossover to be addressing, as this stuff isn't going away any time soon.

I guess the reason I haven't used the unofficial patches and addons is that I really wanted to test the game the way it was originally presented back in 2002 (and re-use my old savegames, of course.....)

Can you be more specific about what "really minor graphical glitches" you experienced? Did you have to use the -no3d and -doublebuffer arguments to launch the game?

Any other advocates have any views on this? Should I be taking this discussion to another forum?

Just my 2c.

MoLE wrote:

-snip-<

Thanks for the info Jukka.

I wonder if we should be creating separate app entries for each
version, similar to that on the appdb.winehq.org site. I note we
already have separate entries for steam and non-steam versions of
games.

Hi,

Still a point of conjecture this...ie; yes, we have Steam/non-Steam versions of game entries,
and yes...in the non-Steam case, it's often the case that CD/DVD/digital_download versions all
reside under the one entry...ie; like here, with the GOG version making an appearance. This situation
is known about, is somewhat linked to c4p...and...none of the Ninja's and/or devs have really made
a decision on this one way or another -- I suspect, after CXO-9.0 ships, some resolve about how branched
the C4 tree is going to be (wrt entries for each media type) will be made...

MoLE wrote:

A couple of issues that you have raised - yes, it's cheap and easy
to get a non-DRM version of this game currently, but to me part of
the joy of wine and crossover is to be able to run those old
abandoned apps without having to use an abandoned OS.

Additionally my own ethical viewpoint is - why should I have to pay
twice for the same thing? I already own Arcanum and paid AUD$79.95
for it back in the day. Support for copy protection schemes I feel
is an important area for wine and crossover to be addressing, as
this stuff isn't going away any time soon.

...not going to happen anytime soon -- in some many cases of copy protection schemes (especially disc based CD/DVD checks)
they probably will never work ; simple reason, they need a 'real' running Windows kernel to work. For the Mac it's worse
here (OSX scsi driver limitations). The other reason some of these things will never be fixed, is it's part of his sort of
software's nature to be such that it can't be circumvented - that's the point, this is the sales pitch thrown at the game
company looking to incorporate DRM in their titles, from those companies specializing in DRM software. Companies like GOG.com
-legally- remove the DRM, problem solved....many times, it's the only way such a problem can be solved. The problem won't go
away for as long as the physical media exists (CD/DVD) -- a lot of the time (not always) the problem is solved by digital
download versions (Steam, direct2drive, others...) -- the DRM is still there, you just don't have to deal with the raw disc
access. The problem is literally removed by vendors such as GOG.com - I guess you either support people like GOG.com so more
DRM free titles get released (which you can install and play your old saved games ;), or you sit there looking at discs that
may -never- work otherwise in crossover/wine -- bit of a blunt point, it is however accurate. In essence, the original title
you bought for AUD$80 is going to be worth more, in the box, in pristine condition...in say 20+ years time on ebay for the
collectors of such things to haggle over and make you a tidy profit. Pity I couldn't say the same for the 40MB scsi
hdrive I bought 20+ years ago in Sydney for a piffling AUD$740..... ;)

MoLE wrote:

I guess the reason I haven't used the unofficial patches and addons
is that I really wanted to test the game the way it was originally
presented back in 2002 (and re-use my old savegames, of course.....)

Can you be more specific about what "really minor graphical
glitches" you experienced? Did you have to use the -no3d and
-doublebuffer arguments to launch the game?

Any other advocates have any views on this? Should I be taking this
discussion to another forum?

Just my 2c.

Views on what?...disk based DRM and better support thereof? Or would you like my view on the fact
that I too have a couple of CD based games going nowhere for exactly the same reason - disc based
DRM? Or views on using 'unofficial patches'? Watch the thin line being walked here...wrt your .err..
lets go with 'passion' to play the original game, the original way it was meant to be played, the
way you played it in the past..etc etc..that may be a dream, or, you're trying to remove the one
part of that equation that made it so...ie; windows....this might be breaking the dream in effect,
if you get what I mean...ie; even I myself have an old 500mhz win98 box with a voodoo-2 specifically
to play some games -- it's not that I want to maintain the dream, that's the only way to play them.
Using 'unofficial' patches is discouraged -- the main problem I have with this (besides legality)
is easy to example -- 'official patches' are created by those who created/coded the game and so have
the source code, and good patches can be made that avoid creating other issues elsewhere in the game.
'Unofficial patches' are not this -- they are usually 'hacked' or reverse-engineered patches that
can (stressed because it's been proven) introduce other program misbehavior not evident in the
original software. In the case of crossover/wine, this can lead to a premise wherein someone may
believe something else is the cause of their problem (linux/Mac/crossover/wine/videocard/drivers ...take
your pick there ;), and have people looking into a problem that doesn't actually exist - the unofficial
patch is the problem....

Hope that helps some...oi! that'd be 5cents, right?, since they got rid of the copper ;)

Cheers!

MoLE wrote:

Jukka Palko wrote:

If you want to play Arcanum really easily, I would
suggest buying this version of it :

[link=http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/arcanum_of_steamworks_and_magick_obscura]GOG.com
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura[/link].

I used an XP bottle and just installed it. This version has no DRM
deadweight along with it and works pretty well. I've had similar
luck with other GOG.com versions of games.

I've easily installed also the
[link=http://www.terra-arcanum.com/downloads/]High Resolution
patch
(and various other additions)[/link] to that one and playing
happily
on CXGames 8.1.4 on Linux with really minor graphical glitches at
a
resolution of 1900x1100. Just needed to define the desktop size in
winecfg to that same resolution as while patching the game and it
worked great.

A couple of issues that you have raised - yes, it's cheap and easy
to get a non-DRM version of this game currently, but to me part of
the joy of wine and crossover is to be able to run those old
abandoned apps without having to use an abandoned OS.

Additionally my own ethical viewpoint is - why should I have to pay
twice for the same thing? I already own Arcanum and paid AUD$79.95
for it back in the day. Support for copy protection schemes I feel
is an important area for wine and crossover to be addressing, as
this stuff isn't going away any time soon.

I do agree that it is a pity to be paying again for a game that I've also paid for once already but gog.com also removes me the necessity of keeping my game CD/DVD in mint condition as the installation file can be downloaded always again from GOG web site. CD/DVD based protection can be a pain when the media gets broken. No worries of that with GOG.

I do also feel that anything that promotes freedom from DRM is the right way to go. Steam mostly nicely removes the need for additional DRM but unfortunately they also have games that include extra DRM software. :(

MoLE wrote:

Can you be more specific about what "really minor graphical
glitches" you experienced? Did you have to use the -no3d and
-doublebuffer arguments to launch the game?

Well, I'm not sure whether the glitches were due to the high resolution patch or did they come without it as well. I installed the patch right away and did not even try more than getting to the opening screen without it. The really minot graphical glitches are the mouse mssing up a bit when moving it around but it does not happen all the time. And sometimes it seems that the screen has small red stripes in random spots. Otherwise it just works. And no, I did not have to use any arguments to launch the game.

EDIT: I doublechecked where these minor graphic issues come up and it looks like it's mainly in the menu before starting to play and everything that has a lot of black screen space. Mainly it's the mouse leaving a red trail behind it, nothing else. Haven't checked if this is something that comes without having the high resolution patch installed. However, the game runs great and animations run smoothly and I'll definately enjoy this title now on my Linux. :)

Well this has turned into a really interesting thread...

Artist Formally Known as Dot wrote:

Still a point of conjecture this...ie; yes, we have
Steam/non-Steam versions of game entries,
and yes...in the non-Steam case, it's often the case that
CD/DVD/digital_download versions all
reside under the one entry...ie; like here, with the GOG version
making an appearance. This situation
is known about, is somewhat linked to c4p...and...none of the
Ninja's and/or devs have really made
a decision on this one way or another -- I suspect, after CXO-9.0
ships, some resolve about how branched
the C4 tree is going to be (wrt entries for each media type) will
be made...

Good to know the powers that be haven't made up their mind as yet. I know it's confusing in terms of rating the game as it's presented, when there are multiple versions the rating is based on.

Artist Formally Known as Dot wrote:

in some many cases of copy protection schemes (especially disc based
CD/DVD checks)
they probably will never work ; simple reason, they need a 'real'
running Windows kernel to work. For the Mac it's worse
here (OSX scsi driver limitations).

I was basing my hope on the winehq "myths" FAQ which seems to suggest that some copy protections schemes do work. Some (like starforce) I guess will never work on wine.

Artist Formally Known as Dot wrote:

The other reason some of these things will never be fixed, is it's
part of his sort of
software's nature to be such that it can't be circumvented -
that's the point, this is the sales pitch thrown at the game
company looking to incorporate DRM in their titles, from those
companies specializing in DRM software.

I'm not a developer, but my understanding is that one of the goals of wine / crossover is to provide an environment in which software can run as intended, without circumvention.

Artist Formally Known as Dot wrote:

Companies like GOG.com
-legally- remove the DRM, problem solved....many times, it's the
only way such a problem can be solved. The problem won't go
away for as long as the physical media exists (CD/DVD) -- a lot of
the time (not always) the problem is solved by digital
download versions (Steam, direct2drive, others...) -- the DRM is
still there, you just don't have to deal with the raw disc
access. The problem is literally removed by vendors such as GOG.com

• I guess you either support people like GOG.com so more
  DRM free titles get released (which you can install and play your
  old saved games ;), or you sit there looking at discs that
  may -never- work otherwise in crossover/wine -- bit of a blunt
  point, it is however accurate. In essence, the original title
  you bought for AUD$80 is going to be worth more, in the box, in
  pristine condition...in say 20+ years time on ebay for the
  collectors of such things to haggle over and make you a tidy profit.
  Pity I couldn't say the same for the 40MB scsi
  hdrive I bought 20+ years ago in Sydney for a piffling AUD$740.....
  ;)

This is a really good point, and is indeed the way the world is going. eg: itunes, amazon Consumers are becoming less and less tolerant of having to deal with DRM themselves, so it makes sense for companies to work around this using digital delivery methods. This business model moves up more in line with one of the benefits of open source software - the ability to install on multiple machines easily. I will probably be buying my first steam and gog.com games sometime soon...
I wasn't intending to come across as being ultra-cheap wrt buying the game again. My intention was to try and make crossover / wine better by providing an honest assessment of what I have. Sadly the box isn't in great condition, but the contents are. I hope I don't ever have to ebay it.

Artist Formally Known as Dot wrote:

Views on what?...disk based DRM and better support thereof? Or would
you like my view on the fact
that I too have a couple of CD based games going nowhere for exactly
the same reason - disc based
DRM? Or views on using 'unofficial patches'?

Again my imprecision has got me into trouble. I was really referring to the more general discussion regarding multiple entries for the same game for different versions.

Artist Formally Known as Dot wrote:

Watch the thin line being walked here...wrt your .err..
lets go with 'passion' to play the original game, the original way
it was meant to be played, the
way you played it in the past..etc etc..that may be a dream, or,
you're trying to remove the one
part of that equation that made it so...ie; windows....this might be
breaking the dream in effect,
if you get what I mean...ie; even I myself have an old 500mhz win98
box with a voodoo-2 specifically
to play some games -- it's not that I want to maintain the dream,
that's the only way to play them.
Using 'unofficial' patches is discouraged -- the main problem I have
with this (besides legality)
is easy to example -- 'official patches' are created by those who
created/coded the game and so have
the source code, and good patches can be made that avoid creating
other issues elsewhere in the game.
'Unofficial patches' are not this -- they are usually 'hacked' or
reverse-engineered patches that
can (stressed because it's been proven) introduce other program
misbehavior not evident in the
original software. In the case of crossover/wine, this can lead to a
premise wherein someone may
believe something else is the cause of their problem
(linux/Mac/crossover/wine/videocard/drivers ...take
your pick there ;), and have people looking into a problem that
doesn't actually exist - the unofficial
patch is the problem....

I guess I'm not that nostalgic that I want to re-create the entire experience of yesteryear. My goal in posting this stuff is to try and make crossover / wine better. I should probably clarify my postings in the sense that I should be providing feedback strictly based on using the official patches. If I can get it working using other means then this might be worth mentioning in an application's forum, but the official rating should really be based on the de-novo game as it is presented, would you agree?

Trouble?...what trouble? 😉

Andrew posted:

I guess I'm not that nostalgic that I want to re-create the entire experience of yesteryear. My goal in posting this stuff is to try and make crossover / wine better. I should probably clarify my postings in the sense that I should be providing feedback strictly based on using the official patches. If I can get it working using other means then this might be worth mentioning in an application's forum, but the official rating should really be based on the de-novo game as it is presented, would you agree?

All postings to an app/game's C4 forum, tips&tricks, or else in the general forums here
at codeweaver's site, should only pertain/deal with the original, legitimate software and/or
the original, legitimate software's "official" patches (those patches created by the game's
developer and/or third-party mods approved by said title's developer. Of course, this can
include any manglings/configurations one might implement in wine in wine to get it going,
but we cannot mention at all anything to do with, or any program/software that circumvents DRM.

Some DRM methods do work in wine -- just remember, most of what is recorded over at WineHQ
is typically linuxcentric...ie; disc based DRM that does work in linux, probably only does
so because the linux scsi drivers allow raw device access in userspace - this isn't the case
for Mac unfortunately, and wrt to the crossover case, we need (try) to hold contingency for Macs.

As far as supporting old titles based on a windows OS versions that are themselves deprecated
in the real world, this has an unfortunate catch to it...what do the codeweavers devs concentrate
on? Do they concentrate on a product that enables all the current, modern and ever being released
game titles appearing everyday...or....do they concentrate on such things as getting DRM working
on titles from the past, which may distract from any improvements wrt the modern OS/games versions?
For example....what's going to sell more crossover titles?...a crossover release that lets people
play new games such as L4D2 or StarTrek Online, or a version that supports DRM methods that are
themselves many times mor ethan a decade old? And then, what happens if the devs devote all this
time and effort to get an old title running, only to find 2 days before they release the changes,
someone like GOG.com releases a DRM free version? Remember, it's not only us crossover/wine users
wanting DRM removed from old titles - winXP/Vista/7 users also want these things removed, because
the DRM doesn't work for them in the modern windows releases either...

You realize I could easy write 40pages on this topic? 😉

Cheers!

I just installed the GOG version into an XP Bottle with CXG Mac 8.1.4 and I can hardly get it to work at all. First, the movies don't play properly; the sound plays, but the screen remains black. Second, the mouse leaves little graphical glitches on the screen as it moves around. And third and worst of all, the in-game graphics draw horribly, and the game runs at maybe 3 frames per second. Finally, I did try installing the hi-res patch, but it does nothing. There is no option in the game to increase game resolution, and while I did set the bottle to emulate a virtual desktop, which I set to my desired resolution, there was no effect--the game still runs at 800x600. I can't even find any instructions on how the patch is supposed to work.

Any thoughts?

Clocknova wrote:

I just installed the GOG version into an XP Bottle with CXG Mac
8.1.4 and I can hardly get it to work at all. First, the movies
don't play properly; the sound plays, but the screen remains black.
Second, the mouse leaves little graphical glitches on the screen as
it moves around. And third and worst of all, the in-game graphics
draw horribly, and the game runs at maybe 3 frames per second.
Finally, I did try installing the hi-res patch, but it does nothing.
There is no option in the game to increase game resolution, and
while I did set the bottle to emulate a virtual desktop, which I set
to my desired resolution, there was no effect--the game still runs
at 800x600. I can't even find any instructions on how the patch is
supposed to work.

Any thoughts?

Interesting difference. I haven't had any issues with movies, they run great for myself and the graphics draw nicely. The mouse does leave a really minor mess behind it for myself too, but I guess it doesn't show that much on the higher resolution that I'm using.

The high res patch installation. Yeah, sorry, I did not say that clearly enough as I was typing the first post on my phone. :D

The High res patch files are installed via the exe to the game and just specify where the game was installed to it. After which it should execute a bat script that really does the weidu configuration run. This is easier to start via terminal using cxexec (sorry, at work now so I don't have cxgames installed here) and specify the bottle you used for Arcanum and the bat file as the command. That will ask you a bunch of questions and you're set to play on higher resolution once you define the virtual desktop to the same size as you set with the highres.bat.

Here are the installation instructions from the readme.

Installing:

Run the installer and follow the on-screen instructions. The installer doesn't auto detect your Arcanum folder, please be careful.

Changing to another resolution/Uninstalling:

Go to your Arcanum folder and run HighRes.bat (do NOT run Setup-HighRes.exe directly, it won't work).

Upgrading:

When upgrading to a new version of the high resolution patch or the UAP please uninstall the current version of the high resolution patch by running HighRes.bat.

Thanks. I'll give it a try later. The patch I downloaded didn't come with a readme.

EDIT:

I reinstalled everything, and made sure that the patch went into the proper folder, but the .bat file will not run. As a matter of fact, I've never been able to get a .bat file to run in Crossover. Has anyone. At any rate, perhaps I can get it to work in Windows. I'll try later.

Installed and ran the patch in Windows, then transferred to a bottle. Resolution is right now, but the game still won't run properly. I uploaded a screenshot of what the game window looks like.

I'm currently running the GOG.com edition on Crossover Games for Mac 8.0 on an aluminum MacBook.

At first nothing ran (black screen, audio), but after a quick google I found if I ran it with the commands "-doublebuffer -no3d", I could run it fine.

I am, however, stuck on getting the HighRes patch to work.
The original .exe successfully runs. However, the HighRes.bat fails to execute, meaning I can't get Setup-HighRes.exe to run and apply the actual patch.

HighRes.bat contains the script:

@echo off
Setup-HighRes.exe --nogame

I have tried launching Setup-HighRes.exe with the command "--nogame" from the "Run Command" option in Crossover Games, but with no success.

Any suggestions, anyone?

Thanks in advance.

When you do the "run command" option when you invoke Setup-HighRes.exe --nogame, can you tick the box to generate a log file and attach it to a post for us?

This might help work out where the problem lies.

Gineton Alencar II wrote:

I'm currently running the GOG.com edition on Crossover Games for Mac
8.0 on an aluminum MacBook.

At first nothing ran (black screen, audio), but after a quick google
I found if I ran it with the commands "-doublebuffer -no3d", I could
run it fine.

I guess it's the difference between Linux and Mac that I haven't needed those switches. Might try the doublebuffer switch though to see if it helps on some of those minor graphical glitches I've had.

Gineton Alencar II wrote:

I am, however, stuck on getting the HighRes patch to work.
The original .exe successfully runs. However, the HighRes.bat fails
to execute, meaning I can't get Setup-HighRes.exe to run and apply
the actual patch.

HighRes.bat contains the script:

@echo off
Setup-HighRes.exe --nogame

> I have tried launching Setup-HighRes.exe with the command "--nogame"
> from the "Run Command" option in Crossover Games, but with no
> success.

> Any suggestions, anyone?

> Thanks in advance.

You have to run it in a terminal window manually as it needs a command shell in which to ask the options from you as it doesn't have any GUI for the work. Below is the way I ran it with my installation paths on Ubuntu.

```$ "/opt/cxgames/bin/wine" --bottle "Arcanum" /games/Arcanum/HighRes.bat```

Any way of running a similar command on mac osx?

On either platform, you can run it from Run Command if you precede the path to Setup-HighRes.exe with "wineconsole". So, the command field in the Run Command dialog might contain something like:

wineconsole "/some/path/to/Setup-HighRes.exe" --nogame

It might be easiest to use the Browse button to pick Setup-HighRes.exe first, then add the "wineconsole" before it and the "--nogame" after it.

You could also run the .bat file similarly. Or, if your prefer, you can run "wineconsole cmd" to get a Windows-style command prompt in a console window. Then, you can cd to the appropriate directory and execute the program.

Lastly, for Mac OS X, if you want to run wine commands directly, you can toggle open the Debug Options section of the Run Command dialog. There you'll find an Open Shell button which will launch Terminal, open a new window, and configure the environment in that window for working with CrossOver's wine command and the selected bottle.