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[SOLVED] Graphics Issues with DEFCON in Ubuntu 10.10

Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 8:42 pm
by ocmsRzr
Hi,

I recently purchased DEFCON on steam as part of their holiday sales. I want to run the game in linux, and have read that you can put the authkey in ~/.defcon/authkey and it will work until the steam key expires in which case I'll need to update the key.

My problem is that when I run defcon (~/defcon/defcon) the game starts and goes to the main page with the wireframe globe. Initially the entire screen was black with the exception of a sliver at the top of the screen where I could see the globe. I decided to revert the SDL libraries from the ones included to the system libraries, and this made it so that when I launch all I see is the wireframe globe. On other occasions the main lobby page will flicker through and I can see things, but it doesn't ever stay long enough to do anything.

I've tried with the default settings and the settings available from my preferences in steam, neither work.

Code: Select all

$ glxinfo | grep render
direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R300 (RS400 5975) 20090101 x86/MMX+/3DNow!+/SSE2 NO-TCL DRI2


I've also updated to the latest open source ati driver which is supposed to have good 2D and 3D acceleration support for my ATI Xpress 1150 integrated graphics card.... I'm running on a dell 1501 computer. The game runs fine in windows, so I'm guessing its a library issue in linux. I'm fairly literate in linux, so I should be able to handle digging around if needed.

Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 9:07 pm
by bert_the_turtle
This could be a screen initialization problem; sometimes, Defcon picks 8 bit visuals. Edit the file ~/.defcon/preferences.txt and make sure it contains

Code: Select all

ScreenWidth = 1024
ScreenHeight = 768
ScreenWindowed = 1
ScreenColourDepth = 32
ScreenRefresh = 60
ScreenZDepth = 24

(Width and Height are up to you, of course, and you should pick 16 bit colour depth if that's what your display has)

Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 11:46 pm
by ocmsRzr
Sorry, this doesn't help, here's my preferences.txt:

Code: Select all

ScreenWidth = 1280
ScreenHeight = 800
ScreenWindowed = 1
ScreenColourDepth = 32
ScreenRefresh = 60
ScreenZDepth = 24
 
SoundLibrary = dsound
SoundMixFreq = 22050
SoundMasterVolume = 255
SoundChannels = 32
SoundMusicChannels = 8
SoundHW3D = 0
SoundSwapStereo = 0
SoundMemoryUsage = 1
SoundBufferSize = 512
SoundDSP = 0
 
RenderSmoothLines = 1
RenderBorders = 1
RenderCityNames = 1
RenderCountryNames = 0
RenderWater = 2
RenderRadiation = 1
RenderLowDetailWorld = 0
RenderObjectTrails = 1
RenderLobbyEffects = 1
 
NetworkMetaServerPort = 5009
NetworkServerPort = 5010
NetworkClientPort = 5011
NetworkUsePortForwarding = 0
NetworkTrackSynchronisation = 0
 
InterfaceTooltips = 1
InterfacePopupScale = 7.00
InterfaceSideScrolling = 1
InterfaceCameraDragging = 1
InterfacePanicKey = 1
InterfaceStyle = default.txt
InterfaceZoomSpeed = 1.00
 
PlayerName = occmsRzr
ServerName1 = LAN
TutorialCompleted = 6
RenderNodes = 0
AmbxEnabled = 0
 
InterfaceTextLanguage = english
 
ServerName2 = New Game Server
ServerName3 =
ServerName4 =
ServerName5 =
 
WindowUnitCreation = 0.100.100.400
WindowScores = 1110.0.170.193
WindowToolbar = 643.735.637.65
WindowWorldStatus = 435.0.420.25
ModPath = WOPR;v1.8;
ScreenAntiAliasing = 1
InterfaceKeyboard = -1


Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 12:20 am
by bert_the_turtle
You may want to get rid of that:

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SoundLibrary = dsound
SoundMixFreq = 22050
SoundMasterVolume = 255
SoundChannels = 32
SoundMusicChannels = 8
SoundHW3D = 0
SoundSwapStereo = 0
SoundMemoryUsage = 1
SoundBufferSize = 512
SoundDSP = 0
It's from copying over preferences.txt from Windows, right?

Also, maybe messing with these helps:

Code: Select all

RenderSmoothLines = 0
RenderBorders = 0
RenderCityNames = 0
RenderCountryNames = 0
RenderWater = 0
RenderRadiation = 0
RenderLowDetailWorld = 1
RenderObjectTrails = 0
RenderLobbyEffects = 0

ScreenAntiAliasing = 0

Most only have an effect in the game, but SmoothLines and AntiAliasing would already be active in the title screen. At this point, I'm just guessing. I have zero experience with ATI cards and certainly none on Linux.

Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 12:37 am
by ocmsRzr
Render lobby effects = 0 solved it!

Thanks for the help, I should hve read the preferences closer...