Winlator, DirectX9.0c, Troubleshooting, and Trouble - What to try next?
I'm now running circles so I'm hoping people here have some knowledge and experience to share.
Device: Odin 2 Base, so Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, 8GB RAM.
Winlator: I was running Winlator10 Final but am now trying Winlator@Frost 10.0Final V3.
First the problems, then I'll share my successes for anyone searching those games.
I'm specifically having trouble with River City Ransom Underground, Dust: An Elysian Tail, and Lego City Underground.
I was able to get Fallout New Vegas running by running the Wine Mono installer for XNA/.Net - so I've got that piece down. RCR and Dust are both XNA games as well, so that was something.
What I'm seeing now is that all three of these try to install DirectX9.0c during their in-emulator installation.
RCR has the decency to raise an error dialog when it fails to start. The other two... you just click on the .exe and nothing happens. After a recent Winlator re-install I DO get an app box in the taskbar for a few seconds, but it crashes out with no further progress.
There is a lot of domain knowledge that goes into troubleshooting and dozens of settings permutations so I'm reaching the end of what I can do on my own.
Some things I've noted: DXVK is supposedly the wrapper for DirectX9-11 (and is what I'm primarily using), but it is for translating DirectX to Vulkan, which we don't have here. Is Vektor winlator's version of Vulkan (I'm latching onto the K's here)? Even though Turnip goes with Snapdragon/Adreno (and is what I'm using), should I be on Vektor for DirectX9-11 games?
Is there something like installing Wine Mono for installing DirectX9.0c within the winlator environment, which I haven't found yet?
I tried rolling back to Winlator 7.1.5 glibc but saw basically the same issues - plus a hotter unit just from running the emulator. So I'm back to Frost10.
I'd love a nudge in a productive direction as otherwise it's just chasing the wind. Thank you all!
Edit: I noticed that many of these games like to install their own .NET or DirectX even if you've already run Wine Mono or are set to DXVK wrapper. Question 1: Is this indicative that the game can't "see" those resources and will therefore not work? Question 2: If these things then show up in my programs, is that good or bad? Should I uninstall them prior to trying the game? Is this a good thing (the game has what it needs) or a bad thing (the game is going to look at the wrong resource and crash). I've tried it both ways and neither works - just want it right so it's not a lurking error when I fix something else.
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As noted up top, here are my successes for anyone searching these titles:
My settings are pretty universally Turnip (because snapdragon), DXVK, Box64 in either compatibility or performance.
**Guacamelee**: Ran perfectly with default settings (those recommended on winlator.com). I think this is light enough it'll run anywhere.
**Trine 2:** Crashed after a few minutes the first time. Switched from VirGL to DXVK for DirectX and then it ran perfectly.
**Skyrim**: Ran fine in Winlator10. (Turnip, DXVK, Box64: Performance, all latest versions). However, my unit was running 80-90C and I wasn't comfortable with that. This is why I switched to Winlator10@Frost, and that seems to drop it to 70-75C. Couldn't say why but that's much better. If anyone knows how to get it below 70, I'd be out of the indicator's red zone.
I still have a bar on the left and top of the screen (like, a windows window) and I don't know how to get to a proper "fullscreen" experience without artifacts.
**Fallout New Vegas:** This was the .NET debacle. You need to make a new container, then go to start > system tools > installers > wine mono to install the .NET framework. When you click on this, NOTHING HAPPENS. No confirm, no flicker, no nothing. So I just wait a minute and then do a fresh install of Fallout in the same container and it runs.
**Wavetale**: I've gotten this to load but it always freezes. Sometimes during the first loading screen, sometimes in the menu, sometimes in the second loading screen after selecting New Game. Something is working and something is not, no conclusions yet. Maybe a Unity problem, those all seem to have an issue as well and I haven't gotten that far.