Linux Seal of Approval

hotfrostworm

I had fun hanging out on these forums and in the game. Just wanted to let any and all WINE users know, the game has been tested on Preview and the graphics and audio works pretty damn good on Crossover, Play on Linux, and WINE 4.x formats. I tested both Live and Preview on 5 different machines, they all performed well compared to their native Windows OS. The current stable release of WINE 4.0.3 can be installed and the game can be executed from the Cryptic Launcher. I didn't test Arc Launcher, as I saw no need to do so.

Remember if you need help to setup your Chrome OS, Ubuntu, Debian, etc. there are forums for each Linux distribution. Also use the proper forums for your version of WINE; WINE HQ, Play on Linux, and Crossover all have forums particular to their builds. Once you have those working then, you should come here and ask around for assistance. I will not be back until the second or third week in January. I would have like to have done more testing, but the holidays are what they are, and family comes first.

The weakest machine I tested this game on could not handle Windows 10 as it was about 8 to 10 years old and only had 2 GB of RAM and a 1 GB Nvidia card. I put Ubuntu 16.04 on it and ran straight WINE 4.0. It has little issue with game. Boot time for the game was about 90 seconds, so I could log in and go fetch a coffee. Frames per second ran (depending on the zone) between 15 to 25 FPS. I think that is pretty good for an old coffee grinder. What amazed me the most was the task manager reported the game was only using about 49% of the memory.

After I return, for more testing of module 18 Live in January and February, I will post more results on the various machines and benchmarks for those using OS other than Windows. I plan to give Neverwinter high grades working with Linux OS. Enjoy your game.

hotfrostworm

I am back, for a weekend of testing the now Live module 18. So far, so good. The only issue that exists now, that did not exist prior to module 18, is the chat server dropping the client.

What this means; the chat server is a separate IP from the game and login server. When the Linux OS player swaps toons, they get disconnected from the chat server. After logging into the new toon, they are a ghost in game. They can still perform all game activities but are not registered in any social menus. They cannot broadcast chat, nor can they see chat or send mail. The user can receive mail and retrieve items from mail. They can be seen walking around in game environment, but there is no way to inspect, whisper, or interact with the user.

Does this pose an exploit? Unknown at present. It seems unlikely.

This state only remains in effect as long as they don't log out. If the user logs out and back in, the chat server establishes a new connection.

Where does the fault lie? Specific changes were made to the network software by Cryptic. Wine converts DirectX and Windows API library calls into OpenGL or Vulkan library calls, it has little, or nothing to do with networking. Wine uses the existing network interface to communicate with the internet. Wine is focused on audio and visual and less on internet traffic. For anything "Explorer" or browser related a separate program is used called Gecko. Gecko is a Mozilla based browser that supports; Android, Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Is there a fix / patch for Wine? Without knowing the root cause, it is very unlikely there will be one found unless other mainstream software applications have a similar issue. This is unique to one application. Cryptic's two other games, Champions and Star Trek, are not experiencing this issue at present. However the current solution is to back out of the game to the login screen, enter the password and select the next toon to be played.

The regrettable news is, I cannot give the application, in this current state, a 100% working status on the various Linux web sites. I will be compelled to give it a gold rating instead of platinum in my reviews. I will continue my tests through February and post my findings in March. However the Linux gaming community is still young and small. Demographics tell us, less than 2% of online gamers surveyed reported using Linux OS. As with any survey, they are never 100% accurate and should be taken with a pinch of salt.

nitocris83

While we don't officially support Linux for our game, I wanted to take a moment to appreciate this write-up. Very thorough and detailed! Thank you!

hotfrostworm

@nitocris83 no problem, hope everything works out, for you and your company. I have been a programmer on a wide variety of systems since the late 1980's. I can relate to the problems when you are debugging 10 million lines of code, looking for a few errors that got by syntax checking. Back then, we had to actually print out a hard copy on paper and get the team looking at different sections. The code on those old systems was not real good to look at on the monitor.

My wife plays the game, I am just having some downtime between contracts. Once tax season hits, things pick back up in March for me. The only reason I have for any deadline, my paid work takes priority over my hobbies. If this bug continues into March, it will be noted in workarounds section of my reviews. I don't include game bugs or Windows only bugs on my review, this is about Wine being able to translate the graphics and audio from Direct X to OpenGL or Vulkan. I was very surprised by this new "dropping the chat sever" bug, it intrigues me. Wine has little or nothing to do with networking, passing the internet functions to the Linux.

I am studying WinINet and WinHttp, looking for clues. If I figure something out, I will let you know.

hotfrostworm

Spending another weekend afternoon looking in this issue and any connections with other connectivity issues to your network. It is obvious the GameClient.exe was change in someway, that isolated Linux OS, and now the chat server drops out between choosing characters. I have no first hand insight on how the program is coded on your end, and I have exhausted all my ethical avenues on this end. I doubt I will have any time available next week to do any more with the client error.

Error: Internal Chat Server Error.
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/comment/13140856

Assuming it works on Windows OS, you have done your part. However as an IT professional and programmer, I would still look into this error. It seems the changes you made to your client's networking software is having issues with Windows systems as well. I believe this showed up in several other unanswered threads on this forum.

Still Can't Get Into the Game
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1253972/still-cant-get-into-game

Crash Report Investigation 1-24-2020
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter/#/discussion/1254033/crash-report-investigation-1-24-2020

Only some of these issue, can be indirectly traced back to user equipment and/or user software failures. Since this connectivity issue has continued for over a month, I assume those who can't log in, stopped trying to log into the game. There is an old saying, where there is smoke, there is fire. I have my own axiom based on this; Where there is smoke, there is fire, and we have a limited time to put that fire out before it spreads and engulfs the system. I really wish I could help further. Good Luck with the debugging.

hotfrostworm

Anyone having issues with running this application on an older PC should look into this build.

I recently did this on an HP using LXLE you can download the iso from the webpage and run it off a usb key drive. With only 4 GB of RAM this game in idle consumed about 30% to 40% and while playing jumped up to 90% of CPU resources. The RAM was a constant 1.8 GB.

As I said, I used a usb thumb drive 32 GB but the files only need 2GB. You can boot and try it before you install, options to install side by side with your current OS or do full install. Here is what you need to run Neverwinter with this OS;
After you install and reboot, you need to use a terminal window (sakura) in that window you will type, sudo apt install wine-stable. It will install 3.0 version which is old. So you then need to head to Wine HQ and follow the install for Ubuntu 18.04 on there. If you did the side by side install you can run Neverwinter by finding the Neverwinter.exe and clicking on it. If you nuked your drive and did the full install you will need to install Neverwinter.

If anyone is interested in this, I will post some screens and maybe a video later. This is done so people with machines 10 years and older can use programs like this without the need of buying additional RAM. You still need a fair graphics card. This machine runs an old Radeon 1GB. I was still able to surf the web, play the game, record a video, and without crashing or much latency.

Here is that video I promised.

https://youtu.be/l5d0HMgRhMI