Trackmania in VirtualBox?

[maystorm]

Hi,

I'm trying to get Trackmania (TM) United Forever running in VirtualBox. It runs fine under Wine (1.1.28). As I read that VirtualBox uses wrapper DLL's from the wine project to get support for DirectX, I decided to try it in VirtualBox.

My system specs:

VB version: 3.0.4-OSE
Linux host: Gentoo with Kernel 2.6.30
Guest: Windows XP SP 3 (en)
Guest additions: installed in safe mode according to recommendations
Graphics card: Nvidia Geforce GTX 260

OpenGL is working in VB: QtGears for Windows gives 3.200 fps (vs. 13.000 fps on Linux)
Directx is working in VB: verified with dxdiag.exe and tested winamp with the Directx plugin monkey which works fine (50 fps in fullscreen 1280x1024)

So, I assume that Directx itself is correctly set up. Installation of TM works fine and I can start the game launcher which is a non-directx program to configure game settings.

First thing I noticed here is that the graphics card is found to be a Nvidia Geforce FX 5200 with 123 MB RAM (my GTX 260 has 896 MB RAM according to the Nvidia control settings tools run on Linux).

When starting the game I can see that a new windows opens which quickly disappers and nothing happens afterwards. There is no error output from the game on the command line from which I started the game.

As I said TM is working fine with wine. I followed this Howto: http://wiki.spielen-unter-linux.de/inde ... ns_Forever

I suppose that TM should also work in VB if it run with wine. Any hint someone?

PS: There is also a fully functional freeware version of the game, called Trackmania Nations Forever, for those who want to try the game themselves. Go here: http://www.trackmania-the-game.de:8080/tmu/ (German) or here: http://www.trackmania.com/index.php (English)

[popolon]

I have exactly the same behavior running Windows XP in my virtual Box on top of Max OS X Snow Leopard. I really love Virtual Box, since it lets me do my work without having to have a windows machine. It''d be great to be able to run Trackmania or other games, so that I can definitively get rid of my windows laptop...

Has anyone had better luck running trackmania?

[Sasquatch]

Proper 3D in Windows Guests requires to install the GA in safe mode.

Mac users should see the manual, Known Limitations. Mac OS X currently does not have the ability to give 3D to guests.

[maystorm]

Proper 3D in Windows Guests requires to install the GA in safe mode.

3D as such is working fine. See original post. It's just Trackmania not running.

[Sasquatch]

Does the game run in Wine? It probably doesn't, which explains why it won't run on your VM either, as VB uses the Wine libraries to translate DX to OGL.

[maystorm]

Does the game run in Wine? It probably doesn't, which explains why it won't run on your VM either, as VB uses the Wine libraries to translate DX to OGL.

Please take the time to read the original post. Thank you.

[Sasquatch]

Does the game run in Wine? It probably doesn't, which explains why it won't run on your VM either, as VB uses the Wine libraries to translate DX to OGL.

Please take the time to read the original post. Thank you.

He uses Wine 1.1.28, but since when is it working? It's possible that the D3D libraries they have for Windows, that VB uses, are based on version 1.0.1, which might not work with the game. Still, Wine and WineD3D are separate things, there never was a claim that every game works in VB.

[maystorm]

He uses Wine 1.1.28,

"He" is myself.

but since when is it working?

I don't know since when it is working. I tried with Wine 1.1.28 for the first time, and it's still working with 1.1.32.

It's possible that the D3D libraries they have for Windows, that VB uses, are based on version 1.0.1, which might not work with the game.

Perhaps it is possible to use the D3D libraries from the Wine project in VB? Does someone know which files would need to be replaced?

Still, Wine and WineD3D are separate things, there never was a claim that every game works in VB.

I understand that there is no claim that every game works in VB. I just thought that, if it works in Wine, it may as well work in VB since VB uses the same approach to emulate DirectX (namely using wrapper DLL's from the Wine project). Obviously the answer to my question is: No. For whatever reason.