Monster Rpg 2

Are you looking for any Linux distro? Or are you looking for some specific targets?

Hello,

I'm looking for testers for operating systems that haven't been tested. So far what's covered:

Ubuntu
Fedora 13 x86
Arch x64
openSuse x64
Funtoo x64 (this might cover gentoo also, not sure)

Some I would really like to test are:
Arch x86
Fedora, latest both archs
Latest openSuse both archs
Gentoo both archs
Mint both
Debian both
Slackware both

I don't think I need people to test the whole game on all of these distros. Maybe someone wants to be a basic coverage tester and install all of these distros and make sure that 1) the game starts up, 2) it runs with all features such as sound working. 3) you can play through the first battle (this is a 5 minute test). You could probably get away with testing only one arch per distro, varying back and forth such as Arch x86, Fedora x64, opensuse x86 and so on. If someone wants to do this that would be really great. If not, I might do a little more spot testing myself.

Thanks

I would be willing to help out. Would testing in a VM be ok?

Sorry, the game uses OpenGL which is not reliable in most VMs. I wouldn't count it as a valid test. Thanks for the offer though.

Do you think acceleration is needed? (I didnt sys any system requirements on the web page, but I only looked a minute or so.) I have a couple of x86 laptops I could reinstall to help cover the 32bit flavors.

Also, big kudos for trying to cover so much. I would have said to just test debian, fedora and maybe something like opensuse or the latest mandrake incarnation. Smaller distros or ones that allow heavy customization like Gentoo are probably a little over ambitious. (I say that as a Gentoo fan.)

I think it's fair to say that Linux distros need to cooperate more on compatibility matters. I'm thinking LSB but better. I was just bummed because I don't know how to buy from Canonical's app store without running a newish Ubuntu. It didn't matter if I could make it run.

I've tested it a bit on Ubuntu 11.04 with open source AMD drivers, no problems all pretty smooth.

Quoting: "Eddward, post: 1518"I think it's fair to say that Linux distros need to cooperate more on compatibility matters.


Not saying I disagree with you, but what exactly would you suggest they do differently?

On the whole I have not had any real compatibility problems even with really old Loki games, or with more modern games built on other distros (TTimo builds the id games on Debian, for example, and I never had any problems on Fedora). We of course appreciate the broad testing being conducted by the developer in this case, and it certainly will make Monster RPG 2 a better product, but the Linux "distro incompatibility" bogeyman is for the most part overstated. If you use standard libraries (SDL, OpenAL, OpenGL) then for the most part you are golden.

Just a quick status update... a few people have tested a bit on Arch Linux, and it appears to run fine there. Thanks for that. The update is taking longer than I expected, but it will be ready as soon as I can manage. Probably need a good 2 weeks to a month extension. It will get done though. Thanks for your patience.

Hamish, you are right that it is possible to still run old games, but I've had trouble with them. You have to jump through hoops sometimes like getting compat libs and the like. For Terminus you have to run

echo "terminus 0 0 direct" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/ossrnecho "terminus 0 0 disable" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0c/oss

Some programs dynamically link and you run into problems because different distro build different versions of packages. You get problems with some things because GTK 1 is dead. You have the mess that came with pulseaudio and all the games that had to release updates to support it. I've had to fight to get FAKK2 Heavy Gear2 to work at times. rnrnBut I guess what I really meant was "LSB, but better." A larger list of library ABIs that a developer can reasonable rely on. Maybe LSB got better since I last looked at it.rnrnAlso, I think that all of the native package managers need to provide a common, generic install interface that installers like bitrock, mojo and can target to tell the system "I'm installing this list of files as a package named Foo" so the package manager can be aware of the files, checksum them if it wants and uninstall them if needed. I could see an easy way to bolt that onto portage. I'm not as familiar with rpm or dpkg but I believe it has to be possible. I wouldn't expect dependency management and I wouldn't try to update management in pass-one. Just a simple 'put these files on the system and give them a name' API for all distros with maybe some architecture queries so a developer doesn't need to make and maintain a 32 & 64 bit deb file, rpm and tarball while drawing the ire of users on systems that have some other package manger. That is wasted duplication in most cases.rnrnThese problems are not the end of the world and it can be overstated. Assuming I have a means to purchase a program in the first place I can usually get it to run. But when it comes to Linux as a platform to support, it's still more difficult than the other platforms. That's not a boogie man. It doesn't need to be and it can be addressed in a manner that doesn't destroy the ability for retain the qualities their target audiences like. rnrnLastly, asking (or expecting) an indie developer to maintain support matrix like the one trentg valiantly listed I think is unreasonable. I love that he's giving it the effort, but I wish it didn't seem necessary.rnrnAlso, sorry about my apostrophes getting mangled. I don't know what I'm doing, but I read my post and I see them getting back whacked or omitted or both. I only see it in my posts, so it's something I've got messed up. I find it annoying and I bet other do too. I don't mean to.

Okay, first off, could you please segment your posts please? That along with the apostrophe thing makes it somewhat difficult to read.

May I suggest next time you have a problem you check to see if Linux Installers for Linux Gamers has an installer for it? They provide installers, usually for older titles, that come with scripts and libraries to make them work without any problems on modern systems.

What would be really great is if we could have a GOG for Linux games, such as the old Loki titles, Hyperion titles, Terminus, and the like. May be too much to hope for, but that would make things a lot easier.