Dragon Age: Origins Forum

I'm running Ubuntu 10.10 x64 and CXgames 10.0.0 with 6GB of ram and a 2.6 GHZ Dual Core Intel Core 2 Duo riding a Nvidia 260GTX with 1GB of Dedicated Video Ram. I installed using the C4P/Tie, that didn't work, so I did a fresh install starting with a blank bottle and just installing the game on that. Afterwards I installed all the suggested runtime support packs used in the C4P. That worked when done in reverse order somehow.

Great the game runs! .... technically. As mentioned before, I greatly exceed the recommenced specs and even on the lowest of the low settings (see below) my computer barely pushes out 1 Frame Per Second. So unless I'm missing something here, this game really doesn't deserve even a silver rating. I mean yes, it does render the player... but what good is that if it's like watching a cheap sideshow? I actually bought this game based on the glowing input I recived here, and while annecdotal, I at least expect it to be honest.

Who really is running this game at a minimum of 30FPS on low settings? Does one need 4 SLIed 200 Series cards hooked to a dual i7 rig with 16GB of ram and a SSD to run this at 30FPS? ... Sorry I'm venting my frustration. Having to dual boot for one game is more painful than a root canal... (Actually if I could get this working for the cost of a root canal, I'd probably take it! )

[VideoOptions]
FullScreen=0
ResolutionWidth=800
ResolutionHeight=600
RefreshRate=67
UseVSync=1
UseTrilinearFiltering=0
UseTripleBuffering=0
UseDesktopGamma=0
Gamma=0.5
TexturePack=0
EnableShadows=0
EnableFrameBufferEffects=0
AntialiasingLevel=0
AnisotropicFilteringLevel=0
GraphicsDetailLevel=0
ForceLowSettings=1
DisableMRT=1
DisableAspectRatioCorrection=1

Hi Brandon --

What's you videocard driver/OpenGL lib situation there? Paste back the last 6 lines of console output from one of the following commands;

[if installed in /opt]

/opt/cxgames/bin/cxdiag --debug

[if installed into your homedir]

~/cxgames/bin/cxdiag --debug

Cheers!

Did you have any issues with installing Nvidia PhysiX? I don't have the game or an NVidia card but there is something on the tips and tricks about this and I've never gotten this to work.

Between 3D card settings, PhysX, and DRM, the installation of this game can be a real pain. The crosstie is supposed to help with that. I'm sorry that so far it doesn't.

@Don, does the crosstie distinguish between installing a game on CXG Linux or CXG Mac? That is, could it be that the current version of the crosstie is aimed at helping Mac users install the game?

Alejandro Moreno wrote:

Between 3D card settings, PhysX, and DRM, the installation of this
game can be a real pain. The crosstie is supposed to help with that.
I'm sorry that so far it doesn't.

@Don, does the crosstie distinguish between installing a game on CXG
Linux or CXG Mac? That is, could it be that the current version of
the crosstie is aimed at helping Mac users install the game?

Hi Alex --

It is one thing I asked for, and I'm not alone - but we can't do such yet, and to actually implement it would be part of a future CXG release afaik -- I ~think~ it's something being considered, but no idea beyond that at this moment, I'll see what I can find out...

Cheers!

caedis@host:~$ nohup /opt/cxgames/bin/cxdiag --debug
nohup: ignoring input and appending output to `nohup.out'
caedis@host:~$ tail nohup.out -n 6
found libssl.so.0.9.8
getrlimit(RLIMIT_AS) returned 0, max=-1
default screen=0, planes=24
OpenGL vendor = 'NVIDIA Corporation'
OpenGL version = '3.3.0 NVIDIA 260.19.06'
NVIDIA version 260.19

David. wrote:

Did you have any issues with installing Nvidia PhysiX? I don't have
the game or an NVidia card but there is something on the tips and
tricks about this and I've never gotten this to work.

No issues with PhysX install

Just to reduce the number of variables and make things easier for you guys (hopefully), I created a fresh bottle using the CrossTie only, allowing it to do it's thing all the way through. I got a small error towards the end of the install, but the installer was able to finish normally. However after clicking "play" on the launcher, the main binary throws the following error:

"Runtime Error!

Program: C:\Program Files\Dragon Age\bin_ship\daorigins.exe

R6034
An application has made an attempt to load the C runtime library incorrectly.
Please contact the application's support team for more information."

Also, I saved the install log created by CXgames installer. It is located here. The debug log for the daorigins.exe is located here. Hopefully we can improve the crosstie to prevent the R6034 error, as it seems to be more and more common with CXgames users.

I realise DAO isn't "officially" supported. But I think anything that contributes to the success, contributes to even supported apps in the long run. So thanks for any help that can be provided.

Hi Brandon --

Thanks for the cxdiag output - aught wrong there by the looks.

Going by the winehq appdb entry, there's a need for vcrun2003 & .net2.0

http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=18283

That would largely gel with the error you're seeing, but of course
the only way to find out is to try it and see. The c4p/tie does not
include these runtime deps ; it installs the following;

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1
NVIDIA PhysX system software
directx9modern

...going by winehq, you should try ...

Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0
Microsoft Visual C++ 2003
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005
NVIDIA PhysX system software
directx9modern

....I don't have this title, so I'm merely collating information,
but I think I would try...(in installation order)

Microsoft Visual C++ 2005
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1
directx9modern
NVIDIA PhysX system software
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0
DA:O

..keep us informed...

Cheers!

Consarn it! 😊

I should be going to sleep, but first I'll try changing the crosstie to your suggestions, Don.

I'll report "shortly."

Success!

I modified the crosstie to follow Don's suggestions, then used it to install the game. It went very well. There was an error at the very end, but the game is running normally.

(Note: I had already tried the old crosstie like a week ago and was not happy with its results, but I had not had a chance to peek into it until tonight. I'm pretty happy with it now.)

Can we get some Mac people to test the new crosstie once the ninjas aprove my new version? Oh, and Brandon too, of course!

Hey

I wonder if the crosstie will work with Dragon Age The Ultimate Edition (this is the version that includes all the DLC content).... on my Mac. I am hoping to find some time today to test it out.

Yeah. I am really looking forward to it.

Excellent! glad to hear it. I'll have to try this out on Thursday or Friday to see how it goes. I have my last trip to MEPS today and tomorrow.

Excellent! So the CrossTie works now, mostly. installer.exe crashes at the end. but apparently it was just doing some clean-up post install.

However, I'm back where I started now. Same settings mentioned in the OP, with same performance issues, given the same hardware.

Do we have any way to boost performance to an acceptable level? I'm defiantly accustomed to losing some performance with Wine, but this is too much to be normal. On windows this hardware maxes out the FPS counter at 60+FPS and with Linux, <1FPS. I heard something about earlier kernel versions permorming much better than my current. (2.6.35-25-generic x86_64 GNU/Linux)

Brandon B. (Caedis) wrote:

Excellent! So the CrossTie works now, mostly. installer.exe crashes
at the end. but apparently it was just doing some clean-up post
install.

However, I'm back where I started now. Same settings mentioned in
the OP, with same performance issues, given the same hardware.

Do we have any way to boost performance to an acceptable level? I'm
defiantly accustomed to losing some performance with Wine, but this
is too much to be normal. On windows this hardware maxes out the FPS
counter at 60+FPS and with Linux, <1FPS. I heard something about
earlier kernel versions permorming much better than my current.
(2.6.35-25-generic x86_64 GNU/Linux)

Kewl, that would seem to have the install profile ironed out - thanks to Alex and yourself for the legwork & tests....

Less than 1 FPS? Ouch .... hang on a sec ...

bash-$ ls /usr/src
2629config linux-base linux-2.6.34 old.config vboxdrv-2.0.0
2629config.old linux-2.6.29 linux-2.6.35.7

Ok... two stories here -- 2.6.35.7 broke things here ; I didn't chase the
reason (I was looking at something unrelated to CX actually) ; iirc, it broke
all my Source titles, but there may well have been others -- I receded back
to 2.6.34 where life is a lot saner - that all happened Oct/Nov last year...

..beginning of this week, another user complained TF2 was broken in linux ;
I was able to confirm the issue -- it was a good catch, in as much as the
only thing I'd changed on system (since debugging this and other titles
like it in 10beta) has been the nvidia driver set (260.19.21 -> 260.19.36)..

..ergo, and because I don't believe the 260.xx.xx series have been quite as
good on this rig/kernel, I dropped back to the nvidia 256.53 release again,
and everything's good again and TF2 runs as it should (like it was in beta
testing) ....

These are just experiential pointers (recent) ; there's too many variables
to consider if such may be at play in your situation or not, but, seeing as
you mentioned kernel version, there might be more to that than 'passing glance'...

I see in your config paste, "RefreshRate=67" - where is that figured derived
from? How did you arrive at this value?

Cheers!

Oh, man. Now I'm confused. I have the same nvidia drivers and kernel version, and FPS has never been an issue with me.

What are we missing? Nvidia settings? Weird desktop compositing settings?

Interesting ... we'll just have to keep chipping away at it until we find the culprit ; it is curious tho', I agree...

Artist Formally Known as Dot wrote:

Ok... two stories here -- 2.6.35.7 broke things here ; I didn't
chase the
reason (I was looking at something unrelated to CX actually) ; iirc,
it broke
all my Source titles, but there may well have been others -- I
receded back
to 2.6.34 where life is a lot saner - that all happened Oct/Nov last
year...

[...]

I see in your config paste, "RefreshRate=67" - where is that figured
derived
from? How did you arrive at this value?

I checked my native refresh rate, idk why in the world that config was set to 67. I set it to 60, and it seemed to reduce ground texture errors.

I grabbed the NVidia 260.19.21 x86_64 drivers, compiled them and they yielded slightly better performance. However I'm still sitting at <5FPS

I've never had to compile a non-standard kernel before, so I may need some hand holding on this one. I'm running KUbuntu 10.10 X86_64. How would I go about getting the source to compile 2.6.34 since I believe it pre-dates Maverick.