World of Warcraft: WOTLK + GMA3000 (not X3000)

Wylde · Post by **Wylde** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 7:13 am

Hello everyone:)
I have a problem running Wow on wine (ver.1.1.16). When I install wine and run Wow from my Windows's partition, it's running but FPS is very low (about 10 fps). I installed it on my linux aprtition, but nothing's changed. When I add -opengl option, logging screen (first screen after wow starts) it's lagging as hell and all options (I mean all places where text/buttons/etc) are black. In game parts of the screen (about 3/4) remains black and whole game is lagging... (more than before using opengl)
My computer's:

Ga-G31M-S2L
Intel C2D 5200
Intel GMA3000 (integrated)
2GB ram
Slackware 12.2

What am I doing wrong? Do I need any packages for my dist?

Code: Select all

bash-3.1$ glxinfo | grep rend
Failed to initialize GEM.  Falling back to classic.
direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) G33 20090114 x86/MMX/SSE2
bash-3.1$

Thanks for any help...

EDIT:
I'll add that in Windows I get about 30 fps...

Sephiroth · Post by **Sephiroth** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 10:36 am

I'd take a stab a your video card for one. My mother and friends play WoW and my mom had a nVidia 6800 Ultra with 256MB of RAM and it couldn't handle the new expansion. You're trying this with an Intel built-in card. Upgrading my mother to an 8600 with 512MB of RAM fixed the problem. Before that the game would lock-up completely whenever Northrend would come into view.

I also tried running WoW in Wine and had the same problems you describe when trying OpenGL mode. I don't think that WoW and Wine like OpenGL too much together. When running in D3D mode you have to remember that Wine is taking those D3D calls and modifying them then sending them to OpenGL. That takes time and is probably why your framerate is so low in Wine as opposed to Windows.

Still, once you hit some of the end-game areas, you'll be upgrading your video card and I am sure Wine will be fine then.

tparker · Post by **tparker** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 12:40 pm

Sephiroth wrote:

I don't think that WoW and Wine like OpenGL too much together.

I think that more people playing WOW in Wine use opengl than not, for me
it's the only way the game works at all. I would agree that an on board
Intel video card is probably not going to get good performance in WoW,
trying a mid to high level Nvidia card and driver would probably be the
original poster's way to improve framerate.

Sephiroth · Post by **Sephiroth** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 8:42 pm

In Wine, yes. In Windows however, using GL produces no noticeable difference in famerate, and the graphics don't look as nice in many cases due to GL not being fully implemented in WoW as originally intended. In fact, I was having an old version of WoW lock my machine slam up (1.10, eons ago) and once I got tech support, they told me to use OpenGL via "-opengl" and see if it fixed my problem. When it didn't, they told me that GL was never completed in the engine and was mainly used for troubleshooting, such as my case.

Don't get the wrong idea though, I am NOT pro-D3D or anti-GL. I am anti-D3D and pro-GL/AL, and in fact program under Windows and Linux using GL for my 3D graphics needs and AL for audio needs. I just know that GL isn't 100% in WoW, which is a real shame. I also believe that I remember something about a Linux version of WoW being discussed at one point, but it never saw the light of day.

Thunderbird · Post by **Thunderbird** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 11:28 am

There is no issue with opengl in Wine. We directly wrap to native opengl. The issue is the poor 3d performance of the intel drivers. You could try to upgrade to the latest drivers to see if that helps a bit. The drivers are the whole problem. Only on Nvidia the drivers offer similar performance as on Windows, Ati performance is becoming better too but Intel isn't that great (their Windows and Linux drivers are completely different and don't share any code).