Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

Greetings!

I am a new member to the NWC, but have been playing JTS games for a long time. I became interested in using Linux and have switched over several computers to the Linux Mint OS. I found that there are ways within Linux to run Windows programs, and after some trial and error I have a method (with step by step instructions) where gamers can run JTS games in Linux Mint.

I stress Linux Mint as that is the only version of Linux that I have used, but I suspect other Linux versions will work the same, but I have no experience installing games on Linux other than in Mint.

So, with that hopefully clear, I can offer interested gamers a guide in PDF (which I am currently working on) which will help you install your JTS games in Linux Mint.

Briefly, and this is much expanded in the guide, you can copy your windows JTS game folder to a USB drive, then, on a computer you have Linux Mint installed on, can transfer that game folder to the Linux Mint computer, using a program called Play on Linux. There are a lot of steps, and workarounds and I don't want to bog down in this post on too many details, but it can be done, I have done it multiple times successfully. The advantage of this method is that your patched games will be the same version on the Linux computer.

So, if you are interested in moving your games from windows to Linux Mint, I can help you do this. Just to be clear, this is not a method of hacking, you will have to have the serial number of the game to make it work in Linux.

Also, to be clear, it is also possible to install your JTS msi game file using Play on Linux, that is another way to install, and actually the easier way, and I will explain the procedure for that way to install also. Installing msi files you have the version of the msi file, and any later patches will have to be added.

I will also explain how I have updated games installed on Linux with the patches released by JTS.

Yes, there is a lot to this, but it can be done.

If interested, contact me at panther421@protonmail.com

Todd Hively

Sous-Lieutenant Hively
12ème Compagnie du 5ème Régiment d'Artillerie à Pied,
Artillerie Divisionnaire, 1ère Division, 4ème Corps d'Armée

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Lieutenant Todd Hively
12ème Compagnie du 5ème Régiment d'Artillerie à Pied,
Artillerie Divisionnaire, 1ère Division, 4ème Corps d'Armée
La Grande Armée

This is wonderful thanks Todd! Welcome to the NWC too!

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Generalfeldmarschall Scott Kronprinz "Vorwärts" Ludwig von Preußen
Kommandeur des Königlich-Preußischen Armee-Korps
Chief of Staff (CoS) of the Allied Coalition
Allied Coalition Webmaster & Club Website Support

I hope that we see this posted on the JTS website soon with a caveat that the user will have to understand that support for the product was never intended to cover versions of Linux.

I am hoping to move over to use Linux eventually. This is the second time I have heard of the games working on Linux.

Question: does the sound work? Battle and movement sounds?

From what I had heard about the Mac - you could install the games on a Mac but users could not get sound to work.

Now I do not use the sound but some people really like it.

But thanks for posting and I for one am tired of Windows and its lame newer versions. It was a sad day when I had to retire my Windows XP PC. With Windows 11 coming out who knows what they will screw up next.

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)

Hi Bill,

Fully agree regarding Windows.

Sound: works fine in Linux Mint.

I also installed on my Macbook Pro, and sound is fine on it.
I'm one who rarely turns any sound on, though! I'll sometimes turn the music on in the Civil War series games. Love "Rebels in the Woods"

One issue I had was not all the key commands which work in windows worked for me. Big problem in the column move (alt key) did not work. It was a major problem, but I found that by holding down the window key + Alt would allow column movement. With that problem solved, the games play well on Linux.

Another issue which sometimes happens is fire combat losses will not display, they are still inflicted, but you don't see them sometimes. Seems random.

No, it isn't exactly the same as in Windows, but it is close enough for me.

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Lieutenant Todd Hively
12ème Compagnie du 5ème Régiment d'Artillerie à Pied,
Artillerie Divisionnaire, 1ère Division, 4ème Corps d'Armée
La Grande Armée

The combat results thing: are you using "On Map" results or the Fire Dialog?

That would be a real issue for me. I like to see how much the units lost as its an indicator if perhaps I picked the wrong target to fire at.

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)

Normally, I play with "On Map" results.

I decided to do a test just now. I opened up Eckmuhl. Started off with "On Map" results, and I moved the French toward the Austrians. The Austrians fired, and every time the fire result was displayed. I changed to where "On Map results" not selected, and the window with fire results displayed every time. There was no shot which didn't show the result. I also tried Leipzig, and got the same results, all fire displayed with and without the on map results selected. I played a couple of turns in a solo designed scenario (003 Lowenberg) and both during my turn and the computer turn, all firing was displayed. The only strange thing I noticed is when the computer was doing its turn, there was a window "A/I Action Dialog" which would display when on map results was not selected. That did fine until I pressed the F7 key to get the turn to speed up, then the Dialog box would start to show the map background, rather then the information, which was just the computer moving. When I pressed F6 to slow the game down, the Dialog box went back to normal display.

I noticed the fire result problem in one of the civil war games, don't recall which one. Perhaps it is not a widespread problem between all the games. Doesn't seem to be a problem for the two games I just checked.

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Lieutenant Todd Hively
12ème Compagnie du 5ème Régiment d'Artillerie à Pied,
Artillerie Divisionnaire, 1ère Division, 4ème Corps d'Armée
La Grande Armée

Gentleman,

I have only had the opportunity to play these games in Linux as that is the system I run. I much prefer Linux to Windows and Mac.

I do not run Mint, but rather Endeavor OS (Arch). I use the MATE Desktop Environment. In Mate I do not get sound, but often do not play with it anyway. I used to run XFCE and sound was fine. Im sure its just something I did not install or failed to figure out when installing it. Not to bog anyone down with those details, but I mentioned in case you care.

Most combat results post fine, some do not. I figued this as fog of war and since I have never played on anything but Linux, I actually thought it was the game engine. No matter, like I said, I treat it as fog of war (sometimes that black powder smoke makes it difficult to count wounded!).

I will tell you all, that Linux was in general the best computer move I may have ever made. I use an old HP laptop with very little Hard Drive and Ram and can run these games and other programs easiely. Nothing is wasted, and nothing is added to my system that I dont want. Starts up in a flash, and runs perfectly. I dont even think viruses are programmed for linux (I may be wrong).

Anyway, if you want a little upkeep type computer hobby other that JTS, try out linux sometime, its pretty fun to know that you choose what your system is going to run like, plus, its free, so its worth the price of admission!

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Mayor Joshua Jansen
Chief of Staff
Imperial Russian Corps

Re: Using Linux ... and yes, the virus issues of Windows are nowhere near as numerous as on Linux


I remember this being one of the points that people at work would raise.

I took Unix classes long ago. If people ever need help there is a VERY active Linux community that is more than willing to help guide people through issues they have with their system.

I highly advise people keep a Windows or Mac system handy (if they have that luxury) so that they can communicate with the Linux community in case their Linux box has issues. I plan on keeping my older Windows 10 box available ....

Would like to go over to Linux by 2023.

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)

Just an update to this thread. I originally was moving folders from windows to a linux OS computer, but now that method is not needed. The msi installation files work fine in either Play on Linux or Play on Mac, these programs are part of the Linux OS's I have experience with, and with my Mac system.

So, much less complex to install WDS games to Mac or Linux computers.

Problems? Yes, I still have problems seeing combat results with on map results during my turns. Seeing the results from an opponent during a pbem turn replay seems to work well.

As long as the game does NOT have direct x 11 required, WDS games on Linux work well enough. The only game I have that does not work is the current version of Guadalcanal, which uses the more current direct x.

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Lieutenant Todd Hively
12ème Compagnie du 5ème Régiment d'Artillerie à Pied,
Artillerie Divisionnaire, 1ère Division, 4ème Corps d'Armée
La Grande Armée

Thanks Todd for the update! Glad to know the games work overall and installation has become easier.

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Generalfeldmarschall Scott Kronprinz "Vorwärts" Ludwig von Preußen
Kommandeur des Königlich-Preußischen Armee-Korps
Chief of Staff (CoS) of the Allied Coalition
Allied Coalition Webmaster & Club Website Support

I have been playing Tillerdes Wargames since the Talonsoft days, many times on different Linux distros without any problems.

My surprise is that when I install version 4.06 on Arch/Xfce, the only thing I use now, I can't get the sound to work.

Although I have always used Play On Linux, I have installed botttles and the truth is that the graphics improve sensibly, but the sound problem persists.

This is the message I got. "Failure to createDirect Sound Object"

If anyone knows a way to solve this, I would appreciate your help.

Thanks in advance.

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Mayor Antonio Simón, 1st Barón de Madrid
Regimiento de Coraceros Españoles
2ª Brigada de Caballería (España)
Caballería de Reserva (Spanish Reserve Cavalry)
NWC Anglo-Allied Army III (Peninsular) Corps

Thanks to "Josh Jansen" it works. I reply to myself and write it in the thread for the information of others.

The problem is simple, wine still can't use pipewire the new sound interface which was the one I was using.

I've installed this packages and work:

alsa-firmware
alsa-lib
alsa-plugins
alsa-utils
lib32-alsa-lib
lib32-alsa-plugins
pulseaudio-alsa
lib32-libpulse
libcanberra-pulse
libpulse
pulseaudio
lib32-openal

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Mayor Antonio Simón, 1st Barón de Madrid
Regimiento de Coraceros Españoles
2ª Brigada de Caballería (España)
Caballería de Reserva (Spanish Reserve Cavalry)
NWC Anglo-Allied Army III (Peninsular) Corps

I've run into a problem with the WDS Squad Battles 4.01 games, I'll use Winter War as my example. The game looks and works fine on Windows 10, but when I install it on my Macbook Pro, using Play on Mac, and my Linux Mint 21.1 computer, I find the colors on the graphics are messed up. I have tried to change settings in the game, no help.

Also including a Linux system info for my computer.

If anyone has an idea of a solution, please let me know. WDS support only designs for Windows, and no help on Mac or Linux problems. I have tried to use bottles on my linux computer, but I wasn't able to get it to work. I've found not other solution for my Macbook to run windows programs with free software.

Thanks,
Todd

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Lieutenant Todd Hively
12ème Compagnie du 5ème Régiment d'Artillerie à Pied,
Artillerie Divisionnaire, 1ère Division, 4ème Corps d'Armée
La Grande Armée

I have the same problem with the new Squad Battle games Todd. When I emailed WDS about it, it was mentioned that they changed the graphics from .BMP to .PNG

I tried converting all of the map files back to .BMP using Magick, but it just made it worse. I then tried adding dx9 and/or 10. No luck. So! Im not sure on the fix for this one yet...

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Mayor Joshua Jansen
Chief of Staff
Imperial Russian Corps

Thanks for the reply Josh. That helps in identifying what the problem is.

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Lieutenant Todd Hively
12ème Compagnie du 5ème Régiment d'Artillerie à Pied,
Artillerie Divisionnaire, 1ère Division, 4ème Corps d'Armée
La Grande Armée