tain.totalcodex.net

I'm going to avoid all the backstory and get right into it. I'm running Soulblighter from a Windows disc that came in the Worlds pack (it's just packaged this way, I believe it is identical to the regular individual retail version).

I use Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal and installed Wine through the process described elsewhere and the Software Center. I installed Myth through Wine, and updated to version 1.7 here. I can run it flawlessly in all rendering modes with cutscenes and all, however after a short time of play, probably around fifteen minutes or so (sometimes less, sometimes more), the computer completely shuts off. I'm talking hard shutdown as if I'd removed all power sources. I'm COMPLETELY stumped.

There is a native Linux build of Myth II being tested right now. You can reply to this thread for access to that beta. Maybe that build will run better for you.

I'll definitely check it out, but the problem-solver in me is going to obsess about this. It doesn't even get the opportunity to produce an error log D:

You mentioned 1.7, but are you at least running 1.7.2?

Ya, sorry for not being specific

Well I'm no Linux user, but there is this Wine related thread with information that might be of some use to you.

I tore through that a couple times before caving and posting. I hate making duplicate queries so I checked the forums for about two hours to no avail. I didn't even find anybody with the same problem. The closest I got was a number of wine users have issues with the sound cutting out after about half an hour, then a simple save and reload fixed it.

It sounds like a hardware problem more than anything. Your system might be overheating and resetting due to internal sensors.

That was something I had considered, but nothing FEELS particularly warm. I've used this laptop to run many modern games in a Windows environment with no issues and it actually felt significantly warmer.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834101177

^That's the system I'm using, dual-booted with Windows and Ubuntu

Agreed, this is undoubtedly hardware related. If it is heat related, enabling the 'Max FPS' feature may be helpful - your system will use a lot less power doing 30fps instead of 500.

There are often tools for your motherboard to monitor temperatures as well (may or may not support Linux). The odd time something will end up in an event log in windows when such a shutdown occurs - is there an equivalent log file to look at in Linux?

Also probably worth running a memtest.

So I haven't had the opportunity to play extensively, but capping the frame rate SEEMS to have solved the problem. While everything felt fine, something deep inside must've been quite warm! Thanks guys! I'm a little embarrassed it was something so simple, but I'm happy it's over.

I'm still going to participate in the Linux beta to try and help out, but at least now I can cause some mayhem through the single campaign when I get bored

Hardware problems are never "simple", so no need to feel embarrassed. Glad you got it working although it might be worth looking into why the hardware is overheating as well in case you hit the problem in other games too, etc. Although I guess Myth is all one needs anyways

I've never had the issue with modern games that are much more graphic intensive. I think they probably have some preventive systems in place. Myth on Linux just lets the thing go hog-wild without any communication with the hardware

Omnispork wrote:I've never had the issue with modern games that are much more graphic intensive. I think they probably have some preventive systems in place. Myth on Linux just lets the thing go hog-wild without any communication with the hardware

No modern games that I know of have such a mechanism (nor would there be any way to write something like that robustly) - other than implicitly sometimes with v-sync. What "modern games" have you been playing on Linux and have you tried them with V-sync off?

Anyways every workload is unique though, so it might be that Myth is just happening to hit something.