Civilization III and Linux

[Agroschim]

Wasn't that usefull... I'm sorry.

I'll post the error messages Wine gives when I try to start Civ III:

fixme:x11drv:X11DRV_desktop_SetCurrentMode Cannot change screen BPP from 32 to 16
err:ole:CoGetClassObject class {5959df60-2911-11d1-b049-0020af30269a} not registered
err:ole:CoGetClassObject no class object {5959df60-2911-11d1-b049-0020af30269a} could be created for context 0x1
fixme:font:CreateScalableFontResourceA (0,"LSANS.fot","C:\\Spiele\\Civilization III\\Conquests\\LSANS.TTF",(null)): stub
fixme:dsound:DllCanUnloadNow (void): stub

 

[Frasco]

Hi. I just installed C3Cv1.22 on my Hardy Heron using wine-0.9.59. Installation went flawless and so did patching. Had to crack to no-cd in any case, but that went well too. However on running the game an in-game window announces an error loading font (error code: 13) and just closes.

Already tried copying LSANS.ttf to font folder and such with no success. Ideas anyone? Thanks.

 

[ivan10789]

the same thing happened to me. I have Civ3 installed on ubuntu 8.04 and it gives me an error message when the .exe file runs that there is a error 13 font problem whenever i run it in wine. i copied lsans.ttf and also lsans.fot to the windows/font directory, but am still having problems. No one on the internet seems to have found a way to run this game in the latest version of ubuntu. i think it might have something to do with the os fonts. unfortunately, I can't find a way to block the screen fonts in hardy heron ubuntu or find the right combo that will allow the game to run. Someone please post help!!!

 

[t0mme]

I too have this error code 13! I'm running Ubuntu 8.10 with the latest wine (1.1.10). I've copied LSANS.fot and .ttf to every directory which might be useful. Though it has a gold status on winehq, there are a lot of people not being able to run the game.

And I can't use a virtual machine, as I do not have Windows installation discs (only system restore discs).

 

[ville-v]

The expansions have some kind of "please don't use wine"-feature, which will delete LSANS.fot. Change ownership to root (use chown) and programs you run cannot delete it anymore. LSANS.fot should be in main directories of the game and of the expansions. After you have done that, just delete all the Art/Movies directories and game will run fine with standard Wine (even though it is a bit slow).

 

[Enny]

Hi there,

I have been playing C3C for years on my windows PC but right now I'm having trouble to make it working on Ubuntu 9.10 and Wine 1.1.32. I do have Civilization III Complete (english) - Green Pepper Edition, which contains 3 CDs.

Here are the problems I have been trying to fix:

1.) Installation problems
For some reasons Wine doesn't update the CD-Rom when changing the CDs to install from CD2 and 3. So installation wasn't continuing after the first CD.

The solution was to copy all discs in one directory and start the installation from there. Finally it worked...

2.) Starting the game problems - Error Loading Font. (error code 13) !!

Driven by try and error I tried to start the game over the normal Wine menu and got the error code 13.

I found the solution here:
http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=4017

What I had to do was to don't start the game without running the FONT stuff in the background, else the game deletes the LSANS.FOT file, which looks to be mandatory for the game. Finally I cut (not copied) the files LSANS.FOT and LSANS.FTT from the Conquests folder and paste them back. Afterwards I needed to change the rights on those files, like this: sudo chown root LSANS.* . Finally I had to start the game with the following command:

wine LSANS.fot & wine Civ3Conquests.exe

OR

wine LSANS.fot & env WINEDLLOVERRIDES=ole32,oleaut32,rpcrt4=n wine Civ3Conquests.exe

The last command is related to the solution from the link above. Anyway the error 13 was gone, but now Error Loading Font. (error code 28) !! was thrown.



3.) Starting the game problems - Error Loading Font. (error code 28) !!

Referring to a lot of threats here and on the Internet, this problem is very easy to be fixed in Windows, just rename the LSANS.fot to something else, and thats it. Well - using Linux and renaming LSANS.fot means to end up in error 13, which doesn't help at all.

Right now I'm stuck trying to fix this problem and still gathering information about the cause of this issue.

Referring to this link:
http://thunderpeel2001.blogspot.com/2007/03/small-update-civilization.html

the information within the .fot file are telling C3C where to find and how to use the LSANS.FOT during the game:

Within the LSANS.FOT file is instructions for Civilization to load the LSANS.TTF (the LucidaSans font file) from "C:\BreakAway\Civ3\Conquests\LSANS.TTF", and if the file isn't there, the game won't load. Of course, this isn't even the default path for the game, so why Breakaway games should include this file with their patch is beyond me. But they did.

So if this guy is correct, it would be enough to create new folders as above and place the LSANS.TTF. Ok, let me make it short - it doesn't help at all. But if he is right maybe the key is to set the correct path... which maybe differs from his.

I would really appreciate if someone could help me out....

Greetings
Enny

 

[Enny]

OK, guys I found a first soultion for this issue:
http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3498

cd ~/wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Atari/Civilization\ III\ Complete/Conquests/
sudo cp LSANS.TTF LSANS.fot
chattr +i LSANS.fot

Please don't ask me what it does exactly but it works for me now, even very slow and screen resolution is set to 800 x 600...

Have fun
Enny

 

[Padma]

You copied LSANS.TTF to LSANS.fot, and set that file so it cannot be moved, deleted, or changed in any way.

 

[aberwak]

I used Cedega last summer to install Civ 3. It worked just fine. I have many saved games to show I was successful at using it. Since then, however, I've upgraded Ubuntu from 8.10 to 9.10. Civ 3 no longer will load. I'll get the startup screen, but then it just goes back before getting to the menu. I think it's likely a graphics thing, possibly caused by the intro movie. Is there a way to disable the opening video (or does anyone have any other suggestions)?

 

[Padma]

In the civilization (or ptw or conquests, depending what you play) .ini file, look for a line that reads
PlayIntro=1

Change the "1" to "0" to disable the movie.

If the line doesn't exist, add it.

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Thanks for this thread, Padma... Ever since seeing how bloated and buggy the last two "upgrades" to Windows have been, I've been seriously thinking about jumping ship to Linux, but was afraid that most of my games wouldn't run (I do know that Unreal Tournament should and all my old DOS games will run under DOSbox), but this should help....

(I'm thinking about getting Slax to play around with for a bit to familiarize myself with Linux to see how it works and such without having to install it on my computer....)

 

[Padma]

Generally speaking, although I am a Linux advocate, I recommend serious gamers to stick with Windows. Most commercial PC game companies use Windows-specific engines and other tools that make porting to Linux problematic.

Case in point: Civ5. This game will require DirectX11. OpenGL can do everything that DirectX can do (it is the base for DirectX ), but the engines and internal tools used in development depend on DirectX rather than OpenGL. Fortunately, wine and related tools are getting better at supporting Windows games.

Slax? I've heard it's a good live-CD implementation of Slackware. Should be good to learn about how Linux works. For ease of use, I would also recommend the live-CD versions of PCLinuxOS, Mandriva, Linux Mint, and Simply Mepis.

 

[albatros13]

And here i thought it's about linux and civ 3 in general. Instead, it's an ad for cenega and stuff.

You can absolutely play just with wine(windows emulator in linux), no special software needed. Needs some configuration and maybe with some versions of civ3-s needs dlls here and there and resolution fixes, but from my experience - works pretty much out of the box(arch linux user here, with kde environment).

 

[nick0515]

I just posted a separate thread recently with the instructions for how I managed to get Civ 3 working on GNU/Linux (Fedora 25 with Gnome 3 desktop). It's working great so far. Using Play on Linux/Wine to install.

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ-3-on-gnu-linux-with-play-on-linux.614975/