I imagine that most developers choose not to retain older versions because of support issues. Having to determine which version of the game is being used to troubleshoot the user's problem would be a pain in the butt! Of course, the solution would be a notice from the developer that they will only provide support for the latest version.

It reminds me of a bug report experience I had long ago with Morrowind. I had discovered an issue and decided to report it to Bethesda. I had to applaud the tech on this one. I was so embarrassed. It turned out I hadn't installed the latest patch, which had been out for awhile. The Bethesda tech, once realizing this, just politely told me that the bug had already been addressed in the latest patch and provided a link. 😆

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Quoting: Caldathras

And most games do exactly that. They ship their 32bit modules.(not all 32bit libraries, mind you, but still!)

And it's a shame more of them don't ship ALL of the needed libraries (32-bit or 64-bit). It's annoying to download a supposedly universal/generic installer only to have it fail on account of a missing version of a particular library. If they did, I'll bet we wouldn't have to worry as much about old native games failing in newer versions of Linux. (Missing libraries even happen with flatpaks & AppImages due to poor packaging jobs by devs.)

Looking at you, OpenMW 0.50.0!

Steam Linux Runtime 4 turned out to be the solution to getting OpenMW 0.50.0 to run on my less current but still supported version of Linux Mint (Version 21.3). I posted a how-to comment here:

How to Setup OpenMW for Modern Morrowind on Linux

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Architect of Ruin looks very interesting. The no AI stance makes it even more so.

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Quoting: eggroleAs more "normies" come over to linux and want one-click everything, you will get a more windows like experience whether you like it or not. ::SNIP::
It will move linux in general from an enthusiast OS to an everyman OS.

What an oddly binary point of view. Either this or that with no grey areas. Linux has always been about the grey areas. A hardcore enthusiast distribution like Arch isn't going to disappear just because former Windows users want a less complicated experience. As always, Linux will provide both and then some.

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Quoting: Eduardo-Thiesen

Quoting: CaldathrasDrakan: Order of the Flame is my favorite dx6 game.

Thank you very much, I was beginning to think I had imagined this thing 😅.

You're welcome.

Unfortunately, Drakan: Order of the Flame is abandonware now. You won't find it for sale anywhere. Surreal Software no longer exists and the IP is apparently owned by Warner. They seem indifferent to it. There is a strong fan community out there, however.

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Can't be bothered. I just go to the IsThereAnyDeal site for most of that info. So this plugin doesn't interest me.

I don't trust LLM summaries. They are woefully inaccurate and have to be double-checked for accuracy. I've found that, most of the time, they substitute unrelated info and create a false report.

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I'm quite happy with Linux Mint myself.

I tried rolling / semi-rolling distros for a while. The constant updates kept destabilizing my game installs. I finally got frustrated and decided to give my daily driver distro a try as a gaming O/S. The only thing I changed was the desktop environment. I went with XFCE instead of Cinnamon. I have been quite happy with the stability I've gained.

Tried Fedora once. It was just too unfamiliar an environment for me, despite the intuitiveness of KDE Plasma.

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Quoting: TevurYeah, you will get ignorant and stupid af, but at least you're happy

Nah. Most of it is just propaganda and fear-porn anyway. Just find a less manipulative, unbiased source for your news instead, and accept that a lot of the so-called "news" is not actually stuff you need to know -- especially opinion pieces. And, yes, you will be much happier less stressed. (Being ignorant does not make you stupid, btw.)

And now, back to the topic of this thread ...

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This is for those looking for a solution that doesn't involve Flatpak. It is primarily intended for desktop Linux users. Although, I imagine with a little tweaking, It might work for Steam Deck as well.

Spoiler, click me

There are many ways to install OpenMW. There is even an unofficial AppImage available. The distro repositories almost always offer an out-of-date version. In the past, I used to install via the LaunchPad PPA (only works for Ubuntu derivatives). The problem with PPAs is that they have to be reinstalled with every major version upgrade of your distro. If you are slow to upgrade, the PPA will eventually update to a version of OpenMW that will not run on your outdated distro. Updating uninstalls the version that currently works and then fails on installing the new version.

Option 3) Direct Download

https://openmw.readthedocs.io/en/stable/manuals/installation/install-openmw.html#direct-download

Recently, I discovered that OpenMW offers a Direct Download "installer" on their GitHub site. This archive acts just like the Windows installer, allowing you to keep multiple versions of OpenMW installed in Linux.

Spoiler, click me

NOTE: By default, all installations share the same saves and configuration. There is a feature that was introduced with version 0.48 that allows you to set up a "portable install", which allows you to isolate a particular version with its own configuration and save files.

https://modding-openmw.com/tips/portable-install/

The problem is that the installation instructions from the online guide are written very poorly. All they say is "run the install package once downloaded. It’s now installed!". It is not that easy. For one, the "installer" is an archive, not an executable. For two, they assume that you know what file to run once the archive is extracted. Here are my expanded instructions:

1) Download the latest Direct Download archive from the GitHub Releases page.

2) Extract the archive to the folder/location of your choice.

Spoiler, click me

NOTE: If you want to maintain multiple versions, keep in mind that only one of them can be in your default PATH. In fact, it would probably be better to keep the lot of them out of your PATH altogether. Instead of treating the executable/script like a system command, you will just have to provide the entire folder address to launch the game.

This, however, also makes the installation somewhat portable since you can place folder wherever you want. Combined with the "portable install" feature described above, this means you won't even have to have the game installed in your File System partition at all.

3) Launch the "openmw-launcher" script from within the folder.
.... a) If you are simply upgrading, it will use your existing configuration. You are good to go.
.... b) If this is a fresh installation, the launcher will offer to run the OpenMW Wizard to help you set everything up (see Option 1 of Liam's guide above for the rest of the steps).

4) If the launcher script will not start, then you have very likely encountered the rather infamous glibc issue (you can verify this by trying to launching the script in a terminal).

Spoiler, click me

GLIBC Compatibility Issues

One of the big concerns that I have with the OpenMW project is that they don't clearly notify Linux users of a change in system requirements (which they could include with the text for each release on GitHub). The OpenMW Team occasionally increases the version of the glibc library required without clearly advising their Linux users of this change.

For example, the latest version of OpenMW (0.50.0) requires glibc 2.38. This is only available on Ubuntu 24.04 (Mint 22) or higher. (Still running an earlier distro version? Surprise!)

The solution is quite simple. You need to integrate the game into the Steam Client and set the compatibility to Steam Linux Runtime 4, which is based on Debian 13.2 Trixie (and supports glibc 2.38).

5) Make sure to download the latest version of the Steam Linux Runtime (currently Steam Linux Runtime 4).

6) To add OpenMW to the Steam client, choose the option "Add a Non-Steam Game ...". You may have to manually point Steam at the location of the openmw-launcher script (I did).

7) Go to the Properties menu for openmw-launcher and select "Install Compatibility Tool". Choose the latest Steam Linux Runtime, which you downloaded in Step 5.

8) Update and customize the Steam Library entry to your preferences. You should now be good to go.

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The thing I don't get is why does it have to be a 100% switchover? Such binary thinking -- either all-in or all-out. Why not set up a dual-boot first? Then the new Linux user could gradually shift over as they learn to work with Linux and/or find alternatives that do work for them in Linux. All they have to do is persevere.

There are always going to be one or two pieces of Windows software that won't work solidly in Linux. That is what dual-boots or virtual machines are for...

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