Intel Graphics, OpenGL, Afterlight, runs on Wine for Linux news

[DedZedNub]

First, this is NOT A SOLUTION. I wanted to highlight certain information in case some programmer wanted to make a solution. As you know many of us using Intel gpu's run into this error running UFO Afterlight:

"ver: UFO: Afterlight v1.7 file:,\core\BasicOglWnd.cpp line:207 wglChooseixelFormatARB() failed!"

Some facts:

1) Did you know that UFO Aftershock and UFO Afterlight will run on Wine?

Let me clarify what this means. You can run this game on an Intel gpu if you have Wine pretending to be Windows running on Linux, for example, but you can't run it on Windows. How do you like that Rubik's cube? What is Wine?

"Wine (originally an acronym for "Wine Is Not an Emulator") is a compatibility layer capable of running Windows applications on several POSIX-compliant operating systems, such as Linux, Mac OSX, & BSD. Instead of simulating internal Windows logic like a virtual machine or emulator, Wine translates Windows API calls into POSIX calls on-the-fly, eliminating the performance and memory penalties of other methods and allowing you to cleanly integrate Windows applications into your desktop."

I'll get back to this curiosity in a moment.

2) The problem has something to do with OpenGL and supposedly Intel Graphics Drivers. The reason I say supposedly, is that clearly it can be worked around. It isn't the Intel hardware per se, it's a combination of what the game is looking for in pixel format and what the Graphics Driver is supplying it, as I understand it. Let me give you some edited posts of interesting stuff I found today searching the web:

".... The problem is in Intel's opengl library, ig4icd32.dll. wglchoosepixelformatARB() is actually there .... If the game developers are still willing to try, UFO games fail on wglChoosePixelFormatARB() because of WGL_BIND_TO_TEXTURE_RGBA_ARB "

Ok, now some of the things that person said in his post were slightly inaccurate, so I edited them out. However, the rest pretty much confirms what we find if we go to the Wine AppDB, which is where Wine lists, solves, and works on compatability and other bugs. I'll give the links to that next.

3) Here we see detailed bug reports and a solution running the game on Wine (think Windows via Linux simulation). At the bottom, they have another bug report and solution thread for UFO Afterlight, so I'll provide both links for you to look over.

Here is the key one on Afterlight:

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8037

Here is one about the mouse cursor not shown right in Aftermath:

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12248

This was the link I found in a search engine which made me find those above, note the very bottom of the page has problem 8037 and our exact problem:

http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=5914&iTestingId=23931&sAllBugs

4) Summary (or what does this all mean):

First let's show the key text on the WineDB that best explains it to a coder:

"
Roderick Colenbrander 2007-07-28 15:26:23 CDT
It seems that this program is very critical to the pixelformats it receives. We
only have a single pixelformat for window rendering. At the moment I'm offering
this main window format and all float (offscreen) formats. I could mark some
other standard pixelformats as offscreen only. That would fix this program.


Comment 8 Reco 2007-08-11 13:31:05 CDT
Finally, wine 0.9.43 fixes this bug.


Comment 9 Roderick Colenbrander 2007-08-12 13:29:33 CDT
Actually I'm surprised that the bug has been fixed. I have added some pure offscreen pixelformats. Further I have improved wglChoosePixelFormatARB. I wonder which of the changes did it. "


We know that it is an OpenGL issue pertaining to Pixel Format with the Intel graphics driver. We know that it can be fixed rather easily by someone knowledgable in OpenGL, pixel formats, and probably graphics driver construction. Given the above, it might be possible to fix it in a day, all depends on their experience in this area.

One other minor thing, but as you recall from the posts here, the module that alerts us to the issue has, I believe, a .cpp ending. That means it is a C++ module. That's a programming language, much like Basic, Fortran, C, Pascal, etc. The module is probably a canned module provided with either the game or OpenGL or the drivers. Point is the person probably has to know some C++ as well.

5) Final Notes and a Plan:

If someone posts regularly on the WineHQ board, it might be cool to see if someone could answer if the fix there could be easily "ported" to a regular Windows solution. My guess is that it could be easily done by one of those gentlemen who worked on the Wine solution, if they have adequate knowledge of Windows programming as well. They probably do, since their field of expertise is basically the simulation of the Windows API on Linux etc.

Another thing we could do is try and find somebody who is knowledgeable in OpenGL and graphic driver construction who might be able to solve this for us also. For example, there were years back some graphics cards that used not OpenGL nor DirectX. They were called Voodoo Graphics and had a native graphics system or API called Glide. Well, over the years, when those Voodoo cards became extinct or no longer for sale, Glide "wrappers" were created that could run these games on current graphics cards via OpenGL or DirectX. Basically, a "wrapper" translates graphics driver calls into calls for another "API" of graphics. So the calls to Glide then went to the "wrapper" which intercepted these calls as if it was Glide, then translated them into the correct calls to either OpenGL or DirectX. From there OpenGL or DirectX performed the necessary work to show on screen what the game intended.

6) I hope you did not mind my post. My hope is that some charitable programmer or perhaps by our networking to find one, might decide to provide us with either some key guidance or code a solution. This information might be invaluable to that person, saving them an hour or so. I do not have this skill.

By the way, there is a great wealth of information, including code, in the various WineHQ threads, you simply have to understand that code and its purpose.

It does seem like a great shame that a game like this, that so easily could run without any lag on Intel integrated gpus and would be very popular on laptops that did, does not have this solution. The publisher really should have someone conversant in the above subjects take a quick look at it. An experienced programmer in this field could probably solve it very quickly. I might be willing even to pay for such a patch as a DLC, not much mind you, but perhaps to throwaway a dollar, if it worked.

Yes, most of us can just get other graphics solutions. But this is not so for laptop users, although I suspect if we had a graphics emulator we could bypass this issue. Also we might be able to contact Intel to fix it, since it is clearly not a hardware issue. In fact, it is not really a driver issue, in that it only affects a few games. It is as if the game and the driver do not agree or provide each other with sufficient pixel formats to solve the problem, or a lack of communication.

My guess is that it probably requires the correct placement of about 10-100 lines of code and no more. But that's a guess.

Anyway, thanks for your time, and if you know any programmers who know more, have them take a look at it and see if they know someone who knows someone who might be able to solve it or isolate the issue further and provide more clarity. Thanks much.

EDITED several times to provide clarity, context.

[SenniTreborius]

Actually, I got this result after starting a new game, using the task manager to exit, then editing the options.cfg. Played ok for a few hours. But then I exited without saving. On the next run I get this error. The Options.cfg disappeared (??), and then I get this error every time I try to run it since. Would it be possible to get a copy of the option.cfg from someone so I could try putting it in the profile that is created just prior to the crash?

[SenniTreborius]

Managed to create and options.cfg. This is how.
Verified the games cache (to delete all the tinkering I had done).
Ran the game to create a new profile.
IMMEDIATLY ENTERED Ctl+Alt+Del to start Task Manager before the game crashed.
Then just exited task manager, as the game was not running.
Voila, a new profile with an options.cfg which I could edit.

[DedZedNub]

Robert,

Glad you got that working, but it is not the same issue. On some systems your issue does pop up, usually it had to do with not being able to get through the intro movie, game crashes before saving the config for the profile, so you have no config set up when you go back in, most frustrating. Glad you were able to solve your problem though.

For Intel gpus, meaning for the graphics chips, that will not solve the problem, it's a different issue, and one of longstanding.

[michaelwic]

A lot of games, not just this one have trouble running on INtel Integrated Graphics. The real problem is that INtel HD is not made for gaming. If you play a lot of games you should consider getting an NVIDIA or ATI graphics card for your desktop, or just getting a new laptop with better graphics if you can afford it. A $50 graphics card add-on to a desktop can handle almost any game at low quality or resolution.
However, a laptop with a decent graphics card can be quite costly. The cheapest laptops I have seen with a decent GPU are at least $600 new, whereas most people get the Walmart Special Laptop for about $300 give or take $100.

For clarification I understand that in this particular situation the game can run on Intel HD, but the problem could be worked around through programming. However, Im sure that the game would run smoother at higher quality with a real GPU.

[DedZedNub]

Yeah, ok. I have over 150 Steam games, also about another 45 from Gamersgate. I also have another 100 or so on CD/DVD. I have only 3 games that don't run on Intel HD Graphics. Maybe 5 if you count the UFO series at three games. Ok? ok.

What I'm getting at is look at the forums. How many of those same games don't run on an ATI. Or don't run correctly. Maybe 10-20 run wrong, at least. How about Nvidia, read the forums, say about the same. So exactly what is the point, I think it is fairly obvious.

This is a specific issue with the way the game and Intel HD Graphics. Sorry. It has nothing simply to do with the Intel HD gpu not being sufficient. You guys keep pumping this stuff out. Sure, it's not meant to run the most modern games at high or ultra settings. But I can run just about every new game I've ever tried fine at medium. This is an older game that runs fine on older AGP cards. It's an issue with this game's setup and the way it works with the Intel drivers and gpu. And yes, the Intel gpu runs plenty of the DOSbox games fine as well.

I went over this up above. It's already fixed on Wine. That's pretty sad, because basically, that's an emulator of the Windows environment running on an Apple operating system. Sure, I can and do have a graphics card that I will eventually put in if I decide to for running some games better. But in reality, I don't think that I will be able to run every game with either an ATI or Nvidia card either, because in the past, they didn't run all the games either, and many with errors. Just the way the reality is.

I was going for a specific solution. Let's not go the route here of preaching the old saw of get a bigger computer and spend more bucks when the solution is already apparent via software on another operating system that emulates Windows.

Please. Thanks.

[SenniTreborius]

I installed steam for ubuntu with wine. Now all problems have been resolved. Thanks for the information. PS my laptop works faster in Ubuntu.

[DedZedNub]

Great to hear Robert. There seems to be something up there lately with Wine. Can't remember exactly where I read this, but there was another game somewhere that also is successfully running under Wine and it's sort of Direct X and Open GL workarounds/fixes, that does not work under Windows.

I'll try to remember what it is, look it up and post in case. But it was for another older game, and several posters did find success in Wine's graphics environments over Windows.

So they are making some major advancements. In fact, they these players were actually using some of that under a Windows environment, as workarounds, and having success.

So if I can find that again, there may be some way around it. I think it was for Dungeon Keeper 2, and was being talked about on the Gog.com forum for it. It's ones of the methods being used to get some versions of Dungeon Keeper 2 to work.

At any rate, it used some of the graphics solutions in Wine to get around the issues. Makes you wonder who knows more about all this, the Wine guys or Microsoft, or what the various motivations are.

[SenniTreborius]

Thank you for all your help.
FYI, my favourite games are TWRome, Homeworld, and the Xcom/UFO series. Just found SotSE, which I think will be great. Also like Oblivion (better for spellcasters than Skyrim). I've been away from gaming for a few years. Any suggestions?

[DedZedNub]

I have never played Homeworld, but the others all seem very good. I would guess that Sins of a Solar Empire would match that preference nicely. Lots of mods for Sins also.

I know the first Rome Total War seemed very good, from what I played of it, I just got the collection when on sale at Gamersgate for $3.25. Medieval 2 and Shogun 2 are both very good also. I would not go back farther than the 1st Rome Total War because of likely incompatibility issues. Remember to get those, if you want to, on sale. 75% is so common, several times a year, that you really should not pay more. Steam and Gamersgate have them on sale 3-6 times a year, the bundles are often the best price which include all the DLCs. I'm holding off on Rome 2, don't forget most of these have lots of mods also, which as yet I have not tried.

XCom and UFO are excellent series of games. You could spend forever playing those. Each has their own sort of gaming philosophies. UFO Aftershock is probably the best of the UFO games. The old X-Com games are very good, but you have to be able to deal with the graphics and the interfaces. The modern XCOM games, like Enemy Unknown etc, are surprisingly good. They all play a bit differently, but are amongst the best games ever made.
By the way, there is supposedly a very good mod for XCOM:EU etc, it was highlighted I believe on PC Gamer, if you want to play again a bit differently. I still have to finish my current campaign though, time keeps getting harder to find and manage.

If you care to try Jagged Alliance 2 when on sale at Steam or Gamersgate, for example, plan on paying less than $3, and install the free 1.13 version available on the Internet at:

http://ja2v113.pbworks.com/w/page/4218339/FrontPage

In my opinion, and the opinion of many other JA players, this is the best version of any of the Jagged Alliance 2 games, don't waste your time on Wildfire unless you want to tear your hair out. 1.13 is very customizable, adds tons of features all which you can turn on and off, and improves the original very good JA2 to excellent.

Oblivion and Skyrim were great. If you can deal with the nostalgic look and want some surreal older fun, Daggerfall is available for free from Bethesda, and was an incredible game at its time. You could even climb buildings, and it was part of that Elder Scrolls universe. I personally think of the later games that Skyrim and Oblivion are best, since they are also heavily and actively modded, I don't think it is worth going with Morrowind, although that played differently. Besides, it will likely be a full mod for the others soon enough, if not already.

You probably meant Sins of a Solar Empire, which seems very good. Swords of the Stars 1 in that Enhanced edition seems very playable. There are built in tutorials, plenty of good features. The interface is excellent, which will allow one to progress well in involved campaigns. Ease of use seems to be a great strength for it. It's a good substitute for Master of Orion 1 and 2, although if you don't mind the graphics issue, those are good also, if not real-time and a bit dry compared to Sins of a Solar Empire.

This week I don't have much time to spend on posting, so I'll leave it at that. You can find quite a few games you might like in my library, I think that's available to browse. Of course, I own many other games not on Steam, mostly from Gamersgate.

Cheers.

[SenniTreborius]

thank you, you are a mine of information!

[DedZedNub]

If you end up liking the original X-Com games (such as X-Com UFO Defense and X-Com Terror From the Deep), you might also like to try UFO Extraterrestrials Gold. It is also turn-based, the Gold version comes with a set of mods and added features and plays similarly, but has better graphics. All of those are turn-based.

X-Com Apocalypse was made by Microprose as were X-Com UFO Defense and X-Com Terror from the Deep (european names vary somewhat check Wikipedia for alternate names if overseas. Apocalypse was realtime pausable, but could also be played turn-based. In that regard it was like most of the UFO series of games (Aftermath, Aftershock, Afterlight), which also were realtime turn-based. UFO Extraterrestrials was turn-based like the early X-Com games.

XCOM both the Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within add-on, are more modern games with the use of cover dynamics and soldier classes, while being played in pausable realtime. They are very good also, but although the game theme is similar, they play quite differently.

I just picked up a back-up copy of Jagged Alliance 2 from Gamersgate as part of their Jagged Alliance Classics bundle for $3.25. If you wish to play it, as above I recommend the 1.13 free version at the address mentioned in previous post. It not only extends the game, but allows a higher resolution, customizable options, easier to modify, and allows you to play with more characters from other episodes while keeping balance good and AI is improved. It isn't a fight against aliens, but in almost all other ways it is very similar if not better than original X-Com series for turn-based combat.

All of these games are on sale often, so again, shoot for at least that 75% off target.

On sale you might also be interested in Knights of Honor or the King Arthur Collection of games, which are similar to Total War. But after a while it is hard to justify getting a ton of every type of game just because they are classic or close to it in quality.

Just wanted to follow up for clarity there.

[SenniTreborius]

I am overwhelled with the choices you present. I love the TW franchise though I have not bought rome 2 as its AI seems to be faulty. Have not heard of the knights of honour or the king arthur collection of games, will peruse later . Jagged alliance looks good. It amazing how cheap the sales bundles are on gamer's gate. never really looked there before. I think I have enough choices to keep me going well into retirement. So many games so little life.

[SenniTreborius]

By the way i've just joined gamer's gate but I was wondering how to use it in ubuntu. I have steam for ubuntu. Is there some equivalent for gamer's gate games or do you just run them through wine. (Which I have never done as I installed ubuntu steam to use for wine just so I could play aftershock. Though, strangely, this has begun a sort of adventure a la the road goes ever on).

[DedZedNub]

Senni,

Unfortunately, I don't run Wine. I'm on a PC and run Windows. That's what made the realization of what was going on with Wine solving the issues with UFO Afterlight so amazing. Likewise, how it seems to be a potential solution for Windows gamers working with Dungeon Keeper 2.

I just use Internet Explorer on Windows to access Gamersgate. Unfortunately, I have not used Ubuntu and cannot tell you how or if that is possible.

It is possible to email Gamersgate Support, I believe the option should be available from your account down on the lower left column of clickable options. Sometimes some of those are groupable clicks, by that I mean they open a larger menu of items to expand or hide the long list for each category. I found that usually Gamersgate Support can answer your questions within 2 business days and are quite helpful and friendly. You might also post a Game Tutor question and perhaps some Ubuntu users of Gamersgate may help you out.

I hope I did not mislead you unintentionally, I am not sure if the above games I mentioned do run on Ubuntu. I apologize if I have, I somehow did not realize or consider that in my replies.

Best wishes.

[SenniTreborius]

As always you have been more than helpful.