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Red Baron3d MMP game is running on SuSe linux , but any linux would work and Wine
currently tested: OpenSuSE v15 upto Leap  with crossover 19   or  Wine 4.x

All graphic settings to max (directdraw)
Average 40-190 FPS  (low / midrange nVidia GTX 1650 card)

Glide 3dfx emulation with OpenGLide
FPS 100-200, FSAA 4x, jpeg quality 90%
play = smooth


  8core 64bit AMD 8350 (2017) (*)

(* The 2-way processor doesn't make a difference; RB3d only uses *one* cpu  Anyway,  it is the graphics card that does most of the work )

Below: core i7 Laptop, intel HD graphics running openSuSE Leap 42.2









It is possible  to run RB3d on linux by using Wine , just like other windows games/apps.

It was tested beginning on openSuSE 10 and now, 10 years later, on v15. Comparable other linuxes (Fedora, Ubuntu etc ) work too.

Wine
, is short for Wine Is Not an Emulator. It is linux software, with two "faces". One side facing linux, to e.g. draw a picture or show a form or a menu, the other face is facing the windows application you are running that is requesting to draw these pictures, forms and menus.
Any error or bug in the windows application does not go away. It will still be there.

Wine is not perfect. Quite a few apps do not work, some might never work.
For RB3d, it does work.

However: if you do not like to tinker with Linux, you can get software that manages the wine / windows setup for you by a graphic environment:
Crossover from CXoffice is one of them I can recommend, use it myself. Saves time :-)

Cxoffice also support World of Warcraft and most Half Life 2 games (Counter Strike, Counter Strike:Source ) website: Crossover  (costs money, 40-60 USD)
Free stuff to configure wine on most linuxes : playonlinux. search your distro's package tool.

 (USB) joystick:
does work properly. even your old MS sidewinder 2 will work .... ;)


Programming your joystick.
like windows, there is no out of the box functionality, you depend on vendor support. there is none afaik for linux, so here is 2 alternatives I know to work:
- qjoypad, a linux app. search your distro.

For more capabilities ( free format key sequences under a stick button, etc)
- Authotkey, a windows app. However, you need to program it.
for your convenience, here is a pre-cooked setup that works fairly well: rb3dplusv2.exe but you can't change the key assignment...

-- info on key assignment for rb3dplusv2.exe :
POV:: as you would expect.

joy2::          ; "L" key or Map key. ( but is also panning button...)
joy3::          ; "B" key. : cannot be reassigned, always drops a bomb.... do not change it.....
joy4::          ; "E" key or "F" key: ok, only internal
joy5::     ; Shift key, changes some buttons function. (butt: 2, 4
joy6::         ; F5/ F1 toggle : 1x only
joy7::          ; F8 enemy external view, your external view :ok, internal only
joy8::          ; Selects enemy that you can then trace with "D" key : ok , swaps intern/extern
Joy9::          ; "N" key : ok, int & ext
joy10::         ; "T" + "F8" key, who shot you last : ok, int & ext

if you want to modify the script to suit your needs, it is here: RB3d-AutoHotkey.ahk  IF you want to
do that, you must also download and install AutoHotkey itself from  here  or you wont see any change.


Directdraw

- RB3d single play works without a glitch (except for the glitches it has by itself )
- RB3d MMP ditto
works fine, highest FPS, although not as nice as 3dfx Glide emulation.
As in win2000, do NOT use the F5 key as the first function key, because it will crash you to the desktop.
(Wine *is* compatible, sometimes.... ;-) )

Hit F4 first, after that there is no problem using F5. (this is old info. hope you are not using windows 2000 still..... )

Glide Emulation

ZeckenZack's Glide wrapper. Download on
Zeckenzack's Glide page,
otherwise it is here: (vers 0.84c)
On intel HD graphics, good results with nGlide get it here

- RB3d SP works fine. good fps.



OpenGLide:
- MMP: chatline invisible (but works), no overlay (chat-) text, in-game menus have no text.
- SP: same. is much less of a hindrance, since their are no other players....
not recommended, but you might have to if you have a ATI card (radeon or such)




Installing wine / setting up RB3d
What do you need:
- you need
- a reasonable PC ( think 2 Ghz or faster )
- "midrange" graphics card with 3d hardware acceleration  support. ( think 50 - 100 USD )
- RB3d memory: same as windows (you are in fact running a windows program, remember ? )
- recent linux distribution ( SuSe, RedHat, etc)
note: Linux's emulated openGL (mesaGL c.s.) is unusable. (nobody uses it, anyway)

- ATI and Nvidia support Linux with full 3D hardware acceleration. Native Xorg acceleration works too, but slower (nvidia / ati )
- athlon 2000+ / intel Pentium 2 Ghz or better should certainly work, lesser boxes: try and find out.....
- graphics card with 64 MB with good openGL support

What do you need to do ?
- install recent linux distribution, (opensuse Leap, fedora, Ubuntu, etc. install the kernel sources too (needed for graphics card installation), choose the KDE desktop, also install the multimedia and wine windows run-environment. If asked, also choose 32 bit compatability if you are installing 64 bit linux. (these are usually installed by default.)

- this doc assumes you are using KDE desktop on SuSe linux. As long as you stay with KDE differences will be minor.  My graphics card is a Nvidia, cannot test on ATI anymore.

- SuSe / ubuntu  automatically sees your windows drives at installation time and assigns them a folder (e.g. /windows/C for your C:\ drive )
, to enable you to read + write (NTFS / FAT32 ) your dos/windows files.

- If your distro did not already do that (OpenSUSE does it automagically as soon as you setup your automatic updates and included the ATI or Nvidia repository )  download your graphics card drivers for linux from the vendor ( SuSe 11 can directly download from ATI or NVIDIA: setup your software repositories ).

If you download manual, make sure you have the right driver version: 32 or 64 bit. This has to match your Linux operating system "bitness:" 32 or 64.  you *can* run 32 bit linux on a 64 bit AMD or Xeon.

To check, click on "My computer"
The chip icon shows you what you are running on, unless you installed 32bit on a 64 processor. In which case you knew you chose that in the first place........
Linux has been on 64 bits for a long time, unlike windows. Coming from windows, it is easy to make the wrong choice, since you never had to worry about it.

If you still doubt wether you run 64 or 32 bit linux, open a console and use the command "uname -m"
it responds with the linux architecture of the running kernel.
x86_64 or IA64 is 64 bit linux, anything else is 32 bit.
IA64 ( Itanium ) does not support running 32 bit software, so that wont work.






- and get the graphics card to work. to check, open a console and start "glxgears" and enlarge the window that has appeared containing 3 spinning gears..
Every 5 seconds a FPS will be reported, should be around 100 or much more. If it is (much) lower, your installation of the card failed. refer to the instructions what to do. The glxinfo command tells you directly wether you have hardware accelerated rendering.

The Nvidia package has a GUI configuration app. Normally you can find it on the KDE menu, just like in windows...... if not:  Open a command window and type nvidia-settings + [enter]
and you will get this:


  • Nvidia installer works without a glitch. SuSe users: Use the NVIDIA<version-name>.run installer, this always works. As time goes by, you will get kernel / kernel source updates, and the NVIDIA installer automatically generates the correct modules. The YAST method works well on SuSE 11 or better. ( NVIDIA  / ATI )
  • ATI installers for older cards ( e.g. radeon 9250 or older  )  might be problematic for people who do not read the fine manual. Once they work, it works fine, excellent performance.
  • The latest ATI installers ( 8.29 and newer) work fine,  without tinkering. They do not support radeon cards 9250 and older, though.....

- before trying RB, check that your sound works ( you should hear the clicks when using RB menu's.)

 and check that your joystick works. ( click on start, personal settings, peripheric, joystick: )
when moving the stick, the numbers should start changing.




- XP only:  (and Vista, but I never tried and do not intend to....)
XP and Vista (newly installed) use NTFS by default. Linux can read and write on NTFS.
Browse to the sierra folder and drag it to for example your home folder. The browser will ask you if you want to copy/move the folder and all it's files. Tell it to copy your Sierra folder.
Now you can write your RB files (save your config settings, for example.....), and you cannot damage your windows install.

- open a console window from the taskbar and type "winecfg" + enter to configure wine. you will get after a few seconds a windows like this:



- you can set all kinds of stuff, go for the basics initially. Windows version Win95, win98 en win2000, XP worked for me equally well. Did not try the other ones, since they are too old.

- Click on the "Drives" tab and use the "automatic" detect, it works fairly well, these days.

For the do-it-yourself-type-of-customer:
Basically, you need to tell where your RB3d windows files are and what drive letter you want to assign. which letter is totally irrelevant.
- CD/DVD usage: the 6 clicks on the kreuz for playing without CD work as you might expect; if
you want to use the RB3d disc, assign the CDROM/DVD a drive letter (whichever) as well.

- Sound setting in wine: defaults to alsa / somethimes combined with pulse. Have not heard of sound problems with linux for years now..
Any ac97 based card, soundblaster and other popular cards will work. ( and so does my exotic turtle beach vortex II, which does not work at all in XP )



That's it.
- Open Konqueror, browse to the folder containing baronMMP.exe or baron.exe
- right click, and pick "Open with wine"
- click and play.
 the installer creates desktop and menu links for you ( KDE, Gnome ) for you.







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