BZ running with WINE emulator?

All things BZFlag - no [OT] here please
Post Reply
Pesky_UK
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 43
Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2005 9:31 pm

BZ running with WINE emulator?

Post by Pesky_UK »

Has anyone tried it? Did it work?
Find our @bz_flag unofficial group chat on Telegram at https://t.me/bz_flag
User avatar
blast
General
General
Posts: 4931
Joined: Fri Mar 21, 2003 3:49 pm
Location: playing.cxx
Contact:

Re: BZ running with WINE emulator?

Post by blast »

Why would you want to do that?
"In addition to knowing the secrets of the Universe, I can assure you that I am also quite potty trained." -Koenma (Yu Yu Hakusho)

Image
Pesky_UK
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 43
Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2005 9:31 pm

Re: BZ running with WINE emulator?

Post by Pesky_UK »

I'll probably be moving away from desktop to Android tablet in the next wee while and was looking for a way to continue playing BZ.

The only solution I've found so far is to run Linux on an x86 emulator but there are no precompiled BZ packages to download.
Find our @bz_flag unofficial group chat on Telegram at https://t.me/bz_flag
User avatar
Zehra
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 914
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2015 3:36 pm
Location: Within the BZFS API and Beyond it
Contact:

Re: BZ running with WINE emulator?

Post by Zehra »

Pesky_UK wrote: Thu Dec 14, 2017 1:56 pm I'll probably be moving away from desktop to Android tablet in the next wee while and was looking for a way to continue playing BZ.

The only solution I've found so far is to run Linux on an x86 emulator but there are no precompiled BZ packages to download.
I do not believe there is any way of currently being able to play BZFlag on Android.
The whole client would need to be rewritten in Java to get it to work.
Even so, the game experience wouldn't be great on a tablet.

There was some privately done projects to port BZFlag to the Android platform, but only BZAdmin was completed and not a full game client.
Link to forum topic on BZFlag Android Port.
Link to forum topic on Bzflag For Android?!.

My recommendation would be to try something like the BZFlag port Macsforme has made at the BZFlag Embedded Port forum topic.
Currently supported by the Embedded Port: Raspberry Pi, iOS and GCW Zero.
The Raspberry Pi should be able to provide a good experience and BZFlag has been ported to it.

The Raspberry Pi can also run an unmodified client as well and still get reasonable FPS.
Link to forum topic Raspberry Pi port.

-Zehra
Those who are critical of me, I'll likely be the same of them. ~Zehra
The decisions we make are the ones we look forward too and the ones we regret. ~Zehra
There's a difference between knowing my name and knowing me, one shows respect to my name and the other is to who I am. ~Zehra

See where I've last been active at Strayers.
Visit BZList.net for a modern HTML5 server stats site.

Click here to view the 101 Leaderboard & Score Summaries Last updated 2021-01-12 (YYYY-MM-DD)
Latest 101 thread
User avatar
blast
General
General
Posts: 4931
Joined: Fri Mar 21, 2003 3:49 pm
Location: playing.cxx
Contact:

Re: BZ running with WINE emulator?

Post by blast »

Zehra wrote: Thu Dec 14, 2017 4:21 pm I do not believe there is any way of currently being able to play BZFlag on Android.
The whole client would need to be rewritten in Java to get it to work.
That is so very untrue. The Android NDK has existed since 2009, and that allows writing code in C/C++ compiled to "ARM, MIPS or x86 native code".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_s ... ndroid_NDK



Anyways, I don't think WINE emulates a CPU (so even on x86 desktops, you have to install a 32-bit WINE to run 32-bit x86 software). So unless your tablet was running an x86 processor, you'd be out of luck. And I have no idea if you'd even get 3D accelerated OpenGL through that level of chaos, so it would likely be unplayable.
"In addition to knowing the secrets of the Universe, I can assure you that I am also quite potty trained." -Koenma (Yu Yu Hakusho)

Image
User avatar
macsforme
General
General
Posts: 2069
Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2006 5:43 am

Re: BZ running with WINE emulator?

Post by macsforme »

blast wrote: Thu Dec 14, 2017 5:23 pm
Zehra wrote: Thu Dec 14, 2017 4:21 pm I do not believe there is any way of currently being able to play BZFlag on Android.
The whole client would need to be rewritten in Java to get it to work.
That is so very untrue.
You beat me to it. :P This reminds me of the days when people argued that the "entire graphics code" would need to be rewritten to make BZFlag use OpenGL ES. SDL 2 (which we already use) has also supported C/C++ Android applications for quite some time.
Pesky_UK wrote: Thu Dec 14, 2017 1:56 pmI'll probably be moving away from desktop to Android tablet in the next wee while and was looking for a way to continue playing BZ.

The only solution I've found so far is to run Linux on an x86 emulator but there are no precompiled BZ packages to download.
What exactly were you envisioning? Specifically, what kind of input system would you be using? External keyboard? Bluetooth controller?

BZFlag (at least the embedded port) could probably be made to compile on Android with fairly minimal additional work. However, the interface is not conducive to touch controls.
Pesky_UK
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 43
Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2005 9:31 pm

Re: BZ running with WINE emulator?

Post by Pesky_UK »

Zehra wrote: Thu Dec 14, 2017 4:21 pm
...Even so, the game experience wouldn't be great on a tablet...

-Zehra
I'm running the Huawei mate 10 which has built-in desktop mode (similar to Samsung Dex) so it "should" run with external keyboard and mouse.

I managed to install Debian Linux on the phone via a QEMU emulator and while it's not lighting fast it is usable and the external keyboard and mouse are both recognised and working. I'll have a hunt for a BZ package to install to see how it is.
Find our @bz_flag unofficial group chat on Telegram at https://t.me/bz_flag
User avatar
blast
General
General
Posts: 4931
Joined: Fri Mar 21, 2003 3:49 pm
Location: playing.cxx
Contact:

Re: BZ running with WINE emulator?

Post by blast »

macsforme wrote: Fri Dec 15, 2017 2:46 am This reminds me of the days when people argued that the "entire graphics code" would need to be rewritten to make BZFlag use OpenGL ES.
*cough* Yeah, that'd be a silly argument... :)
blast wrote: Thu Dec 20, 2012 2:03 pm It would take a considerable amount of work to port BZFlag to OpenGL ES. Pretty much require rewriting all the graphics code.
(At the time, I thought OpenGL ES wanted to do everything with shaders)
"In addition to knowing the secrets of the Universe, I can assure you that I am also quite potty trained." -Koenma (Yu Yu Hakusho)

Image
User avatar
macsforme
General
General
Posts: 2069
Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2006 5:43 am

Re: BZ running with WINE emulator?

Post by macsforme »

blast wrote: Fri Dec 15, 2017 12:17 pm(At the time, I thought OpenGL ES wanted to do everything with shaders)
I wasn’t going to name names. :) But I think everyone else had the same perception (including me, until I investigated it).

Back to the original issue... you should be able to find a package or create one yourself. If it supports OpenGL ES only, then you can create one from the embedded port.
User avatar
alfa1
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 168
Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 10:21 pm

Re: BZ running with WINE emulator?

Post by alfa1 »

I guess, if you are running Debian over a x86 simulated machine (virtualization), you could first try to compile a linux BZ version locally (Compiling on Linux - Help for Beginners (and Not So Beginners). In the other hand, I run BZ with Wine long time ago and worked really fine (I didn't notice any problem in the short time I tried it); you could, also, try it.
Post Reply