Operating system compatibility

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[edit] Overview

This page tell you if Vga Planets 4 will run on a specific Operating System, and if special step are required.

For all OS make sure you make the following steps.

  • Do not use any spaces in the game directory (Like "C:\Planets 4")
    • Best is to use the default directory C:\Planets4. Something like D:\Games\Planets4 is safe, too.
  • Make sure the directory C:\Temp exists, if not create it. Make sure you have read, write and deletion permission on this folder.
  • Make sure you also have a Temp directory in the main planets dir, like C:\Planets4\temp.

Check the Specific advice for your OS, if still having trouble see Bugs

[edit] Win95

[edit] Win98

[edit] Win98SE

[edit] WinMe

[edit] Win 2000

[edit] SP1

[edit] SP2

[edit] SP3

[edit] SP4

[edit] Windows XP

  • Working

[edit] SP1

  • Not tested

[edit] SP2

  • Work perfectly

[edit] SP3

  • Working fine
    • confirmed by 8+ users (From Drewhead: Dumbo, Crad, Miedeth, morningstar, DeerHunter, corvusarpa, Ataraxa) (From Newsgroup: General Khael)

[edit] Windows Media Center

[edit] Windows Vista

Working

[edit] Solution 1

  • Do not use any spaces in the game directory (Like "C:\Planets 4")
    • Best is to use the default directory C:\Planets4. Something like D:\Games\Planets4 is safe, too.
  • Make sure the directory C:\Temp exists, if not create it. Make sure you have read, write and deletion permission on this folder.
  • Make sure you also have a Temp directory in the main planets dir, like C:\Planets4\temp.
  • It works fine on Vista. If you have problems with unpack RST´s this is because you don´t have the rights to do that in the specific folder. Change the rights and everything is working. You only need the replacment VCR.
  • What location are you using for your RST/TRN files? If you have them set under "Program Files (x86)", those directories are now locked down with UAC. Either right click on Planets4.exe and select "Run as Administrator" or change your RST/RTN paths to use a non-UAC locked location (somewhere under "<SystemRoot>Users<YourUsername>" should work fine, but I drop mine on a seperate FAT32 drive to avoid all problems.) Aphor Noethe (drewhead)
    • You might have to repeat the procedure for other exe-files (like vcr.exe)

[edit] Run this program in compatibility mode for

On start menu, right click on the program you want to launch
From pop-up menu, select properties
In pop-up window, select Compatibility tab
Under Compatibility tab, in Compatibility mode area, check box next to "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" (Try Win Xp or Win 98) Use list box to choose preferred operating system.
Click on "Okay"

[edit] Solution 2

  • I had problems with the RST, too. As a workaround I use an Windows XP running in a virtual machine (Virtual PC). Microsoft provides both Virtual PC and a legal(!) XP image for free. The only drawback is that the image will only work till August - well, still better than nothing ;)
    • Download Virtual PC here
    • Download the Windows XP image here

[edit] Alternate VCR

Trouble running the default VCR ? Not working ? No sound ? Try this one from Tim.
VCR.EXE 4.000.015 vcr15mix.exe (255 k) Does not use DirectX (uses wavmix32.dll )

[edit] Windows Vista X64Version

Problem solved for vista64!

The problem was, that a 64bit OS cannot extract the provided exe files.

[edit] Workaround A

Winzip can extract it, you just need to right click the packed .exe and unzip it directly. For some reason the executable extraction is blocked, but Winzip still recognizes it as a zipped file. Zolzar

[edit] Workaround B

Copy your planets folder to a 32bit machine,DL the VCR15mix, execute and overwrite.

Copy overwrite back the modifyied files to your 64bit vista, bingo.

Vista 64 can extract the April 1st, 2008 Complete shareware package v4r23.exe (29 meg) (big exe) without any problems, however the fix for the VCR (vcr15mix.exe (255 k)) , as well as the race pack exes only can be extracted on a 32 bit machine. Again, they work nicely on vista64, its apparently just the extraction which won't run.

Entropy

It would be nice if Tim site would provide a zip file in place of the replacement vcr and racepacks changed after the April 1st, 2008 for the 64 bit version. Or we could have the zip hosted at the wiki or drewhead. Lord Lancelot 10:47, 11 November 2008 (CET)

[edit] Linux

  • working with some oddities and some (infrequent) crashes

[edit] Wine in Linux

  • Host & Client p063/064/065 will run with a reasonably current wine. Host works out of the box, client requires some tweaking:

(copied from the wine test-report) Getting the Client working: I set the library olepro32.dll to (native, builtin) to get it to work, AND start from within the same directory (from a linux prespective) as the actual planets4.exe executable. Everything works fine for me, except on the first run, the map was blank. A restart fixed this, and I've never seen the problem again. You MUST install to "C:\Planets4" Getting the VCR to work: I downloaded from planets4.com the vcr15mix.exe file, unzipped it to a temp directory, renamed all the files to their lowercase versions, and copied them into "C:\Planets4". Now the VCR works.

[edit] My experience so far:

I've been playing exclusively on Linux for about half a year now. All the tools I'm using (Scriptzors, Diplomat, raceview/host/master) work. The client works, but there are some annoyances. I'd rate the usability about 90%, compared to Windows XP.

Problems/workarounds:

  • Blank map: On startup every now and then the map is blank (this keeps happening in my case, seems to be connected to starting a new game / unpacking an rst in a new slot). Zooming in/out usually fixes it. Selecting an object through the data-grid, centering on that object and zooming always fixes it.
  • Resource Ring Display: Appears always on top of the map, disappears after dragging to the side. It reappears in the new location after clicking on the button again.
  • Object selection pop-up-window: If one clicks on a map-location with multiple objects, a selection window appears. If this is not used (closed, something selected from it) and one clicks on another part of the client, it disappears into the background. Further clicks on the map do _not_ bring it to the foreground again. If the window shows up in the taskbar, it can be brought to the foreground that way, otherwise I restart the client.
  • Crashes: The frequency of crashes is higher than in Windows. I'd guesstimate something on the order of two-three hours between freezing. I run it from a console, and ctrl-c, arrow-up, return brings it up again very quickly.


It's worth it for me, since planets was the last application I was using Windows for. Running it slightly degraded on Linux is a big win for me compared to rebooting every time I want to play. HTH, YMMV, HAND

Rumata 14:29, 7 June 2008 (CEST)

[edit] My experience too

It's not easy to understand how to install wine so I will tell you the process that I did on my Ubuntu laptop.

Process to install planets4 with wine:

  1. Install latest version of wine
  2. Install Planets4 from command line with : wine v4r23.exe
  3. Find and download fron Internet olepro32.dll. It's easy.
  4. Copy this library to .wine/drive_c/windows/system
  5. Start wine configuration utility: Configure Wine
  6. Go to the "Librarys" Tab and find the olepro32. Add them and set config to (native, builtin).

Now planets4 runs good but you must install the VCR as It's said over

Problems that I have:

  • New windows on Planets4 over wine does not works good. When you click on datapad and select one new window, that new window does not go to the "top" level so it's displayed on the botton on the datapad. You must move datapad to see your ship or base that is very, very nasty. I do not know how to fix this error.

Zaabur 18:43, 11 December 2008 (CET)

[edit] Virtual Machines in Linux

[edit] Virtual Box 1.5.6_OSE

Virtual XP ussing Virtual Box in Linux does not work for Planets4. XP works good and you can install Planets4 and see your turn, view VCR, etc, etc but If you click on Datapad to move the map, It seems that this action is not supported by Virtual Box and the screen go to max or min X/Y of the map and you cannot unlock this movement.

It seems that Virtual Box does not manage fine the OnRelease of the mouse when you try to un-click from Datapad. Zaabur 12:13, 29 October 2008 (CET)

[edit] Vmware Server 2.0

Works perfect on this product with virtual XP. Only thing to speak about is that you must install Vmware graphic drivers on your virtual XP to have good mouse performance. Zaabur 12:13, 29 October 2008 (CET)

[edit] Mac

[edit] OSX

No

[edit] Mac with windows

  • Parallels Desktop for Mac to create a WinXP virtual machine. This solution is fast for a VM and is constantly being improved by the developers. This doesn't require rebooting and I can run OS X simultaneously.
  • Windows XP on a Mac through Boot Camp. (Need to reboot to alternate betweem Windows Xp & OS X)

[edit] Emulation Software / Virtual Machine

[edit] VM Ware

[edit] Wine

[edit] Darwine

It's a port of Wine to the Mac.

The Darwine project intends to port and develop WINE as well as other supporting tools that will allow Darwin and Mac OS X users to run Windows Applications, and to provide a Win32 API compatibility at application source code level.

Darwine

Host and Master only (does not work with planets 4 client)

[edit] Notes

[edit] See also

Retrieved from "http://planets4.hood-net.org/wiki/index.php/Operating_system_compatibility"
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