FP under Wine in Ubuntu?

cellocgw

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Hi, long time away from these forums, but now I've got a shiny new Ubuntu machine and have loaded up Wine & a few recommended support executables and DLLs (but quite possibly in the wrong subdirectory of Wine's C: drive). I can boot up FP, and load a table, but I can't get the games to start up. The nudge keys shift the table, but nothing seems to work to load coins or "Start" . I have checked the key assignments, so that's not it.

If someone can point me to an FAQ or help page specifically for this, I'd be greatful.


Carl
 
additional info

I also tried running inside PlayOnLinux; after some mucking with graphics drivers I got the games to load, but same problem: nudge keys work, the F1-F8 keys change the table view angle and run that "physics test," but I can't get any key to "add coins" or start the game up.

I've tried both the keyboard number keys and the numeric keypad to no avail.
 
Do you have Visual Basic Scripting (aka Windows Script Host) installed in Wine? That may be the problem with the keys.
Not sure about that, but like the keys in Visual Pinball, the program assigns a different code for the keys than the system key code that Wine might be using by default. However, VBScript definitely controls the Future Pinball user input to the game and the game itself. Like counting credits and starting the game, lauching the ball, adding points, everything.
If you haven't, see if you can install VBScript ver 56. But as the link says, you may need to manually install some of the COM .dlls:

https://forum.winehq.org/viewtopic.php?t=6155

You can see the table, I Think, because Future Pinball uses OpenGL for the graphics instead of DirectX. I have read that you might also download and install DirectX 9c in Wine to allow running Visual Pinball. But I've never done it myself.

Let me know how it's going. Maybe I can remember something else that might help.
 
The link mentions making things easier by using winetricks to install the Windows Script Host v56. This is supposed to take care of file associations, like the .fpt table file (with embedded .vbs script), but you may have to manually associate the .fpt files to Windows Script Host using the Wine Start function. I am not familiar with it:

http://wiki.winehq.org/winetricks
 
Hi, thanks for the suggestions. Sadly, I've tried most of them, including that "PlayOnLinux" Wine interface; the only time I got a table to run was under wine1.2.2 , but the rendering was impossibly awful (white ball on white table background). I'll double-check about putting VBScript under Winetricks.

Or maybe I'll just bite the bullet and add a Windows partition to my hard drive :(

Carl

Do you have Visual Basic Scripting (aka Windows Script Host) installed in Wine? That may be the problem with the keys.
Not sure about that, but like the keys in Visual Pinball, the program assigns a different code for the keys than the system key code that Wine might be using by default. However, VBScript definitely controls the Future Pinball user input to the game and the game itself. Like counting credits and starting the game, lauching the ball, adding points, everything.
If you haven't, see if you can install VBScript ver 56. But as the link says, you may need to manually install some of the COM .dlls:

https://forum.winehq.org/viewtopic.php?t=6155

You can see the table, I Think, because Future Pinball uses OpenGL for the graphics instead of DirectX. I have read that you might also download and install DirectX 9c in Wine to allow running Visual Pinball. But I've never done it myself.

Let me know how it's going. Maybe I can remember something else that might help.
 
Update: looks like I can't blame Wine here -- I reinstalled a vanilla WIndows7 and got the same failure mode. This suggests I need to track down some custom drivers to match the machine and/or cards. Oh, well .



Hi, thanks for the suggestions. Sadly, I've tried most of them, including that "PlayOnLinux" Wine interface; the only time I got a table to run was under wine1.2.2 , but the rendering was impossibly awful (white ball on white table background). I'll double-check about putting VBScript under Winetricks.

Or maybe I'll just bite the bullet and add a Windows partition to my hard drive :(

Carl
 
That white ball stuff *might be* due to enabling Hardware Acceleration in Visual Pinball.
I've seen that effect in Windows also.

Try disabling or enabling Hardware Acceleration (click Preferences > Video options), but when you try it, make the setting, then close Visual Pinball, then reopen it.

You might also need to limit the Preferences > Video Options > resolution pull-down > color depth to 16 bits. Example: 1024 x 768 x 16.

Also, look for "Cache rendered tables" under the Editor > Options > Table menu on the right side of the editor screen, or click to open it from the controls on the left side of the editor screen. If the specific table has it enabled, Uncheck this feature.
When enabled, Visual Pinball will load the pre-rendered table from the hard drive, and if there are errors in the rendering, they will continue while resetting the options will make no difference. The options will only be enabled on fresh table rendering (before you see the table in the Player/play mode).
 
Thanks for the detailed info! I actually ended up saying pffft to WINE and rebuilding my machinge to dual-boot Win7 and Ubuntu, so I'll rebuild FP directly on the Win7 side. -- with your notes taken into account for sure.


That white ball stuff *might be* due to enabling Hardware Acceleration in Visual Pinball.
I've seen that effect in Windows also.

Try disabling or enabling Hardware Acceleration (click Preferences > Video options), but when you try it, make the setting, then close Visual Pinball, then reopen it.

You might also need to limit the Preferences > Video Options > resolution pull-down > color depth to 16 bits. Example: 1024 x 768 x 16.

Also, look for "Cache rendered tables" under the Editor > Options > Table menu on the right side of the editor screen, or click to open it from the controls on the left side of the editor screen. If the specific table has it enabled, Uncheck this feature.
When enabled, Visual Pinball will load the pre-rendered table from the hard drive, and if there are errors in the rendering, they will continue while resetting the options will make no difference. The options will only be enabled on fresh table rendering (before you see the table in the Player/play mode).
 
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