Mods tested on OpenXcom 1.0 on Linux (compiled xubuntu 12.04 build)

[Arthanor]

I've had issues with the Colored Armors mod as well, because of case sensitive file names. A few renames and it runs in the game fine though. Now I just have to research the proper things to unlock the armor and try it on!

[new_civilian]

I do not have the slightest experience with linux....

But what exactly is the problem with the mod? Are some graphic file formats not supported? If yes, I could change them.

[Arthanor]

Linux has two main issues when it comes to mods:

1- It's path really are case sensitive, unlike Windows, so if you mess up and your .rul file has a case error in the path to some resources, the mod will crash and claim that the resource is missing. That's usually an easy fix, although playing "Find the odd case" is sometimes more difficult that it should be.

2- For some reason, OpenXCom does not handle resource directories for HandObs, bullet animations or sprites well at all. It doesn't use them in the order that the names imply (I never looked into what the order is, although there is one), so the result in game can look really weird.

The main offenders are weapon mods, where you get the HandOb for facing a different direction than your soldier is actually facing, resulting in weird looking shoulder mounted (or missing) guns. With spritesheets, the result just doesn't make any sense and it looks like nothing. The first gazer I saw was a ball of arms and legs. I thought the creator went crazy.

The fix for this is a bit more difficult, but you have to combine the pictures into a sprite sheet. Falko's modding toolbox has an image combiner and it works wonder for that. I usually try to pester mod makers to get their images into sprites so others don't run in the same issue.

[Falko]

perhaps i should post my partial fix for linux path problems here

change /path/to/ruleset/folder and /path/to/resource/folder accordingly
and try this in commandline:

Code: [Select]

find /path/to/ruleset/folder -type f -name "*.rul" |xargs |sed -i 's/^\(      [0-9][0-9]*: .*\)$/\L\1/g'
rename 'y/A-Z/a-z/' /path/to/resource/folder
could be that some distribution dont have included "rename" but in most its installed

it makes all lines in ruleset that begin with 6spaces a number  aa colon and a space lowercase
the rename makes files and directories lowercase

there is still the problem of Maps not correctly named
in most cases the rulesetname is uppercase
to make all maps uppercase

Code: [Select]

rename 'y/A-Z/a-z/' /path/to/data/folder/MAPS
rename 'y/A-Z/a-z/' /path/to/data/folder/ROUTES
rename 'y/A-Z/a-z/' /path/to/data/folder/TERRAIN
iirc the MAPS/ROUTES/TERRAIN folder need to be uppercase too

still  mods that do not need such fixes are prefered

[new_civilian]

Thanks for the detailed explanation, Falko! The sprite issue would explain the problems some of my weapon mods have, I will take a look at them.

[hellrazor]

I am using Ubuntu 14.04 at the moment and every time i try out a new mod ido the following things:

1 First Check the ruleset file and directories if they are case sensitive and if filenames are correct
2 Second Check for Spritedirectories combine those file with the spritecombiner and adapt ruleset accordingly.

So far i haven't any issues getting a mod to work properly with this.
Even thou we should probably think about a stringent naming System.

Directory structure:
MAPS for maps
ROUTES for routes
TERRAIN for terrain
Resources for Extrasprites/sounds
Ruleset for yaml files

Directories for MAPS ROUTES and TERRAIN should be UPPERcase.

MAP files, ROUTE files and TERRAIN files should also be UPPERcase including file ending (e.g. UFO170.MAP)

Resources and Ruleset directory should start with uppercase followed by lowercase
Mod specific directories in Resources should use: My_Mod_Resources_Blah_Blubb
Ruleset yaml files should also use My_Mod_Ruleset_File.rul

Sprites:

For Handobs:
HandOb_My_New_Weapon.jpg /. gif / .png
For Floorobs:
FloorOb_My_New_Weapon.jpg /. gif /.png
For Bigobs:
BigOb_My_New_Weapon.jpg ...

Sound should have following:
Sound_Fire_My_New_Weapon.wav for example

Animationsprites should be combined and not put into a spritefolder (-> Spritecombiner)
Naming example:
Sprite_My_New_weapon.jpg or My_New_Weapon.jpg

I think this should solve most issues.
Those are my personal rules for naming files and directories and so for noone complained an issue regarding this.

[niculinux]

Excellent post hellrazor!!!! That should be added to the ox wiki!

As for uppercasing/lowercasing - at least in ubuntu - I found oput a couple fo utilities, see this post. Windows user whi may contribute to the cause may use bulk rename, a freeware utility 

[niculinux]

Summer update: a new addiction, the HardMod version 0.11. Hobbes Terrain Pack is not 1.0 compatible anymore from 1.9.3 and up. Older versions are outdated and not avaiable anymore, but the 1.5 version is avaiable at these forums, i've linked ot on the first post. 

edit: Hobbes has very very kindly provided the 2.5.2 version!!! I'll try it, hopefully with work with linux i hope, of not please refer to the first post since support for that mod is completely abandoned.

edit 2: 2.5.2 version removed by author's will.

[niculinux]

Probably last update:  YetMoreUFOSs (0.6) and Solar's new UFOs (0.6d) mods both seems to be working, while HardMod (0.12) is very very buggy and substantially umplayable HardMod was removed because uses nightly mod structure.

So since modder seems to have abandoned openxcom 1.0 i won't be able to test for that verison. Thanks anybody who contributed! <3

[KingMob4313]

Just fixed the Equal Terms 1.02 version so it should work on *nix. Check the other thread.

Made my own app in C# for checking the rul file against the directories and files.

[niculinux]

Thank you!  There is a 1.03 version located here tryed on 1.0 and it worked, just updated first post!

[KingMob4313]

Thank you!  There is a 1.03 version located here tryed on 1.0 and it worked, just updated first post!

Thanks again man.  You are a life saver.

[Leprechaun]

Sry, I need a break now. I'm really sad to see I'm the only linux game user here 

You aren't. But time is a factor for me. I only have a few hours per week to fiddle with XCom, and I can use them to play or to compile. So generally, I play, using the original game and DosBox.

I wanted to get into OpenXcom because of the Final Mod Pack. But the FMP says it requires a nightly from at least 28 July 2015. That means I have to compile it. I *can* compile it, but what's the point in spending all my play time compiling a game, that I have to recompile every time a new bug is fixed?

I use Linux Mint. If there are others, perhaps we can set up a distro, that will offer a rolling update similar to Ubuntu builds, i.e. you don't have to drop everything and start over just because someone fixes a bug. And if not, I still find the original game on DoxBox a lot of fun.

[Arthanor]

nah, we're a few linux users here, nothing to feel depressed about indeed.

Have you tried to compile using these instructions? I had a terrible time of it, until somebody shared these and it has been super easy ever since. Also make sure you have the proper dependencies installed.

Using git, you can access the code as it was at any point in time, which makes it super easy to get the proper nightly for things, you can apply patches as well to customize your experience (ex.: Manufacturing profit, show soldier improvement) and you can update your game to the latest nightly in very few commands.

OpenXCom is much better than DosBoxing the original! Give it a try. It should be maybe one gaming session invested, but then every session afterwards will be much better

[niculinux]

Absolutely agree with Arthanor, but peraphs the most easy way to play os to use openxcom extended; once you download openxcom, then grab the excutable from the mod portal page. After that you only to install a few dependencies and you're ready to go! It's really a pity there are few linux user here..i hope more people would swithc to linux!!

At least for me, i gonna stick with this option, unsless the eventual 2.0 milestone get packaged for ubuntu! For those interested please browse this thread Before i ise to run it in wine (!!!) but i really can assure to other new to the game that on linjx runs more smoothly and even faster!