Will there be a Linux version or beta for the release? - Now in beta.

[sakuramboo]

It was mentioned that more information on the Linux version will be available closer to release. Since the release is tomorrow, what can we Linux users expect?

[preludelinux]

i sure hope so , wanted to stream a bit , but will wait patiently
posted in another linux question thread.

Post by CBJ » Wed, 28. Nov 18, 01:37

I think we've mentioned it before, but it's not in the sticky thread: we will try to put the Linux version out as a Beta either at, or fairly soon after, the Windows launch. As things currently stand I think after is more likely, so please bear with us while the dust settles from the Windows launch. With regard to voices, we don't currently have any plans to add voice recordings for the French version.

[sakuramboo]

I read that before. That response was vague. Now that we have the release tomorrow, will the beta be available? If not, how "soon" is soon? Should I expect my Christmas vacation to be occupied or should I be planning to take some days off next year instead?

[CBJ]

I'm afraid we are very much focused on getting the initial launch completed successfully and haven't planned in detail exactly when we will get the Linux beta started. As I said in my previous reply, please bear with us while the dust settles and we get a clearer picture of when we will be able to put some time into preparing it. Given that information, you can assume that it's now pretty certain that it won't actually be on the same day as the Windows launch.

[StarTuxia]

I'm afraid we are very much focused on getting the initial launch completed successfully and haven't planned in detail exactly when we will get the Linux beta started. As I said in my previous reply, please bear with us while the dust settles and we get a clearer picture of when we will be able to put some time into preparing it. Given that information, you can assume that it's now pretty certain that it won't actually be on the same day as the Windows launch.

Thank you, I will spread the news to assume the beta won't arrive at the same time as the Windows release, but from that it sounds like it may not be too far behind (assuming there isn't too much 'space' dust from the Windows launch). Personally, I have already pre-ordered the CE version and will wait for the beta to hit .

[travitar]

Thank you, I will spread the news to assume the beta won't arrive at the same time as the Windows release, but from that it sounds like it may not be too far behind (assuming there isn't too much 'space' dust from the Windows launch). Personally, I have already pre-ordered the CE version and will wait for the beta to hit .

I really appreciate your commitment to Linux and maybe? the free software movement. I am holding back from engaging in a full scale discussion of why it's all important, and for the sake of brevity: thanks.

[Blackphidora]

Thank you Egosoft for committing to a Linux version.

looking forward to the Linux beta!

[exotarih]

Thanks for the confirmation concerning the Linux release. CE has been pre-ordered and I'll be waiting patiently. What I've seen in the streams/videos is looking superb so far, thanks for the hard work Egosoft!

On that note: Have any devs maybe gotten around to running(/trying to run) the game with Wine/Steam Play/Proton/etc.? I'll be definitely trying to do that tonight but it might be nice knowing not to get my hopes up ...

[CBJ]

One of our translators did try it under Wine, but unfortunately there were some DLL-related issues and he couldn't get it to work.

[MakerLinux]

Thank you guys for the feedback. You know, that really makes a difference for a small public like us linux gamers when you're upfront on your plans. I appreciate that. I will be patiently waiting, money in hand. I love X: Rebirth and I have no doubt I'll spend hundreds if not thousands of hours playing X4.
Now, a question: can X4 be considered a 4X game? Because that was the case with X: Rebirth with the CWIR mod.

[mamolian]

Nice one folks! Delighted to hear there will be a Linux version soon! In the meantime I'll enjoy X4 via Windows.

[exotarih]

One of our translators did try it under Wine, but unfortunately there were some DLL-related issues and he couldn't get it to work.

Thanks for the reply!

Just noticed that the game is now available and went for a quick test run with Steam Play/Proton:

* game loads fine, intro plays, music plays, FPS counter looks very okay (for the 1 second loading screen)
* after that, the game unfortunately immediately crashes without any concrete messages in Proton 3.7.8 as well as Proton 3.16-4
* I can produce a ~1.5 MB trace of the crash but only will have time to dig into this tonight.

Also, not asking for any help or support since Steam Play is very understandably not officially supported - just wanted to quickly report for others who might be playing around with Steam Play as well.

Have a great launch Egosoft!

[exotarih]

Just a minor observation: It appears that the crash happens right when the main menu is to be rendered, specifically after/while loading 'utf8_64.dll' from ui\core\lualibs. Apparently this has got the wrong ELF class for Wine x64 and I'm not quite sure why. Anyone up for digging into this together later at night on Discord or something similar?

/edit: Ha, okay - I got it working, well, kind of. We can mitigate the crash by symlinking the utf8.so from the ui\core\lualibs from X:Rebirth to utf8_64.dll in X4. It doesn't crash but the main menu is entirely borked (and doesn't register any inputs I think.) So a proper utf8.so for X4 might help?

https://imgur.com/a/EUIaA52

[Funfi_Pi]

Im currently downloading X4, i trying to get it work this evening. Hopefully its only this error.

[g04tn4d0]

I'm very excited for when I'm finally able to play the Linux version. You know, I'd prefer a native Linux release, but settle for a Wine-compatible version, too.

[preludelinux]

patiently awaits the native Linux client . Thanks for your linux support. need any help testing for alpha or beta builds i have a couple systems for linux testing

[exotarih]

Really feels so close to be able to run ... all the libraries appear to be loading fine except for utf8_64.dll. This reports a wrong ELF header

Code: Select all

1263.247:0022:004f:warn:module:load_builtin_dll failed to load .so lib for builtin L"Z:\\home\\exotarih\\.local\\share\\Steam\\steamapps\\common\\X4 Foundations\\ui\\core\\lualibs\\utf8_64.dll": /home/exotarih/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/392160/pfx/dosdevices/z:/home/exotarih/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/X4 Foundations/ui/core/lualibs/utf8_64.dll: invalid ELF header

raising an exception later on in Wine

Code: Select all

263.247:0022:004f:trace:module:MODULE_InitDLL (0x3b570000,PROCESS_ATTACH,(nil)) - RETURN 1
1263.247:0022:004f:trace:module:process_attach (L"utf8_64.dll",(nil)) - END
1267.355:0022:004f:trace:seh:NtRaiseException code=c0000005 flags=0 addr=0xf7673f ip=f7673f tid=004f
1267.355:0022:004f:trace:seh:NtRaiseException  info[0]=0000000000000001
1267.355:0022:004f:trace:seh:NtRaiseException  info[1]=00000000fe03c018

although I don't know why. The DLL appears to be fine:

Code: Select all

Contents of utf8_64.dll: 143872 bytes

File Header
  Machine:                      8664 (AMD64)
  Number of Sections:           7
  TimeDateStamp:                5ACC91BE (Tue Apr 10 12:28:14 2018) offset 280
  PointerToSymbolTable:         00000000
  NumberOfSymbols:              00000000
  SizeOfOptionalHeader:         00F0
  Characteristics:              2022
    EXECUTABLE_IMAGE
    LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE
    DLL

Happy to serve as a tester, as well!

[Funfi_Pi]

ok i have a idea why it crashed. Wrong lua version installed. Wine map the lua51.dll + utf8.dll with lua5.3.so and that cause the wrong elf version. Next i try to forcfully load compat-lua5.1.so
wish me luck

[Byter]

Thank you so much for taking the time to figure this out. I got rid of Windows like 2 months ago and I would not know where to start. So... thanks again

[radcapricorn]

I don't think Lua/UTF DLLs are the issue. Proton will report "wrong ELF class" for basically every DLL shipped with the game, as it first tries to load a corresponding .so file, which of course doesn't exist - and that's what it's complaining about. Only then it actually loads the DLL (successfully).

I tried running the game through Wine directly (i.e. running Steam under Wine). This is the game's output just prior to generating an exception:

Code: Select all

======================================
File I/O: Could not find file '.\ui\addons\ego_eventmonitor\ui.xml'
======================================
======================================
XLib::XMLInputOpenCallback(): Failed to open the file: ui/addons/ego_eventmonitor/ui.xml
======================================
======================================
AddonManager::LoadAddonInfos(): Failed to load addon info file 'ui/addons/ego_eventmonitor/ui.xml.(xml|xml.gz)': 'Error loading f
rom XML file 'ui/addons/ego_eventmonitor/ui.xml'. Check the log for further information.'
======================================

There doesn't seem to be an "ui/addons/ego_eventmonitor/ui.xml" file listed in the game's *.cat files, although there is a ui.xml.sig file listed for it.

Whether that's relevant to the exception under Wine/Proton, I have no idea.