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BZ running with WINE emulator?

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 11:19 am
by Pesky_UK
Has anyone tried it? Did it work?

Re: BZ running with WINE emulator?

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 12:12 pm
by blast
Why would you want to do that?

Re: BZ running with WINE emulator?

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 1:56 pm
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.

Re: BZ running with WINE emulator?

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 2:23 pm
by trpted

Re: BZ running with WINE emulator?

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 4:21 pm
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

Re: BZ running with WINE emulator?

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 5:23 pm
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.

Re: BZ running with WINE emulator?

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 2:46 am
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.

Re: BZ running with WINE emulator?

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 8:33 am
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.

Re: BZ running with WINE emulator?

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 12:17 pm
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)

Re: BZ running with WINE emulator?

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 9:07 pm
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.

Re: BZ running with WINE emulator?

Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2017 12:08 am
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.