Your host OS?

[cubbs80]

I'm in the process of getting back into WoW and I was curious about something. How many of ya'll are running something other than Windows for your OS?

I've done some rudimentary dual logging with windows in the past but I'm about to see what I can accomplish under Ubuntu 6.10 with Wine.

Oh, and credit yourselves for getting me back into the game.. I've been away for a few months now.

[Xzin]

I run a wide range of OSes depending on the application and what I set the box up to do. For multiboxing, Linux gives a nice cheap option. WoW runs pretty well on it (under WINE) - but XP is in my view a better option (for now, this will change when 3d virtualizaion and OpenGL gaming (and/or more cross platform games) becomes more commonplace. I still give it at least 3 - 5 years before gaming (as in the latest popular release games) under linux becomes more commonplace). WTB open source graphics card drivers.... where r u? WTB more developers working with OpenGL + DX10... WTB stable Geforce 8 drivers from nVidia *glare*.

How To Guide to WINE + WoW:
http://www.latenightpc.com/blog/arch...use-linux-101/

If you wish, Cedega, from Transgaming will allow you to run WoW pretty much flawlessly, with a few graphical issues from time to time. It costs $55 per year though - per machine (or $5 per month, per machine). After a few months, you might as well just buy an OEM copy of XP unless you really like linux.

http://www.transgaming.com/index.php...&ceid=29&meid=

I wish I can give you a bit more information - I am not as solid on my WoW under linux knowledge as I would like to be. Perhaps somebody else a bit more savvy can chime in.

[cubbs80]

Thanks for your reply Xzin.

I'd considered Cedega, but I just couldn't stomach paying $5 a month for it. Like you said, that money's best spent elsewhere.

I've also considered going out and buying a 7xxx series nVidia card to replace my x1650 ati card. The only reason I'm still running the 6.10 version of Ubuntu and haven't upgraded to 7.04 is the incompatibility of my graphics card drivers. Once nVidia gets the 8xxx series drivers sorted out, I'll probably buy an 8600 chipset card. I hate to go out and spend $150 or so on a 7xxx series card when I could get an 8600 for close to the same price.

I'm anxious for this thing to finish patching though so I can get to tinkering with it.

Here are a couple of links for Linux WoW installations using Wine.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WorldofWarcraft - Ubuntu community supported site with detailed instructions on installation / tweaking

http://www.wowwiki.com/Linux/Wine - a good general purpose WoW/Wine guide on WoW Wiki

Between the site you linked and these, I'm sure anyone should be able to get some good information.

[Xzin]

Keep in mind that a decent, midrange 6,7 or 8 series card - pretty much a 6600 GT or better (6800, 7600, 7800, 7850, etc) card will be able to run WoW at reasonable settings with max sight distance.

Plus, WoW is capped at 60 FPS (although I THINK you can override that).

So, for your non main boxes, even a cheapo PCI-E card can get you up and running:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143084

Here is one for $43 after rebate but the reviews are not so hot. Bottom line is that for $75 bucks you can get a high quality, playable graphics card. If you really want, upgrade to 8600s, like I did. More than good enough for boxing purposes - can literally run 2 copies of WoW on a decent dual core system (with 1.5 gigs of memory or more) and will pump out 60 fps almost constantly no matter what is going on. They run about $150 - $180 depending on the type - 8600 GT or GTX.

I skipped the entire 7 series generation - going from 6 to 8. There just was not a compelling enough value to go from 6 to 7 to 8, especially given that WoW has such a low graphics requirement.

That said - the 8 series is still a bit unstable graphics wise. It does not crash for me but my 8800 GTXes still have some features missing and some oddities. For general WoW playing though, the 8 series is a good bet. Just don't get a 8200 or something aimed at the low end. Those cards have nearly crippled level of functionality.

Personally, I stay away from ATI/AMD (AMD processore are fine - their graphics cards are horrible for linux). Their open source driver support is horrible right now. nVidia is not much better but at least it is workable. ATI/AMDs is just so horrible its not worth considering in its current state.

[cubbs80]

I actually just have one physical box at the moment. Haven't taken the plunge to buy dedicated WoW hardware just yet. My only machine at the moment is an off the shelf HP that has some issues with XP for some odd reason. That's a story for a different day.

At any rate, I'm going to try to play two characters on the one box if I can and see if I can get the hang of it. If so, I'll probably go to two machines and then maybe to three. Jumping into five all at once is a little outside of my budget at the moment.

In the midst of all of this alternate OS talk? The second machine will probably be a MacBook Pro. They just refreshed them to the Santa Rosa architecture and the nVidia 8XXXm video chipset.

[Xzin]

By 8XXX, do you mean 8200 or another mobile processor? I always cringe at the prospect at playing WoW on a non gaming laptop - images of shared video memory, slow processors and limited memory dance through my head - but that said.. based on what I have read.. yo tengo sed...

..... yeah ok

Anyway.

With a modern processor and an ACTUAL video card setup, I don't see why you could not play on a laptop with playable results as long as it has a gig or more of memory and a decent enough video card. My gut says the mobile 8XXX series may not benchmark with enough oomph but I don't want to be premature - they might. All else equal though, desktop > laptop for WoW but there ARE plenty of laptops out there that can play WoW just fine. That of course depends on your version of playable Seriously though - it is worth exploring deeper for sure. It might run 60 fps constantly with the video card. Find out more about it though if you can.

[cubbs80]

We must both be watching closely. I'm trying to get the 2.1.0 patch to apply correctly, no luck so far.

The new MacBook Pros have the 8600m GT chip, which was just released within the last month or so from what I've found.

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/

I've not seen very many other laptops sporting this architecture as of yet, the only others being from ASUS and available through newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...k=&srchInDesc=

I hope that link works.

Edit: I forgot to mention it but I've been wanting/needing a laptop for a few things lately, so I decided to look at desktop replacement class boxes so I'd have more versatility.

I'm on a bit of an anti Windows run lately and have been looking at solutions that keep me away from Redmond but I'm sure the most viable ones will always end up with some sort of Wintel type box.

[cubbs80]

A bit of an update here since Xzin and I were running a dialog.

I did manage to get WoW up and running with Wine on my Ubuntu box. However, I wasn't able to get Wine to run two instances of WoW. If anyone has any idea how to do this, input would be much appreciated.

As far as in game is concerned, I got inspired from looking at Nihilum's site and decided to roll a BE pally after being a hard core Alliance guy since I started playing. I spent the better part of a day tinkering with my interface and so far it looks remarkably similar to Awake's from that guild:

http://www.nihilum.eu/image/2224/ - that's his UI, not mine. My character is only level 17 at this point so I haven't had a chance to try out some of the raid addins. If you don't have Grid though, that's a seriously nice little bit of code. It's the 5x5 box next to his chat window.

Awake's UI can be downloaded here:

http://www.nihilum.eu/forum/user-int...interface.html

Most of the addons are Ace2 based and highly configurable. There are several included that I've yet to even comprehend what they actually do. One that I think is VERY handy is a small bit that tells you when you've gotten aggro by flashing "AGGRO" in big red letters in the middle of your screen. It only works when you're partied though, so it's not annoying for soloing. I could drone on about all of the cool things that are buried in that package, but I suggest you download it and try it out yourself.

[Xzin]

However, I wasn't able to get Wine to run two instances of WoW. If anyone has any idea how to do this, input would be much appreciated.

You need two directories of WoW. Copy and paste one and then run both .exes separately. That SHOULD do the trick.

I second the Ace2 framework mods. They are compact, well written and tend to be of higher quality than most mods. Most importantly, they have a small memory footprint and better (or "why didn't I think about that") kind of features.

[cubbs80]

I tried that, my friend. I think it has something to do with the way Wine handles the .exe. I thought I'd be able to run Wine with a virtual desktop fixed to 1680x1050 and then run each client windowed at a lower resolution. When the second client runs, it fouls up the first client and never opens fully.

If I could force the second client into a second instance of Wine, I think it'd fix the problem. Or, something I just thought of would be to use Cedega to run the second client... assuming Cedega doesn't share any of the Wine files.

As far as a single instance of WoW is concerned, I'm getting between 30-60 fps with my Radeon x1650 card. I have the settings turned down quite a bit though, almost minimum. I'm thinking that if I had a nvidia chipset card and better drivers, I could jack the settings up more.