Allegiance under Mac/Linux

Clay_Pigeon
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Post by Clay_Pigeon »

I've written a brief article detailing the current state of running Allegiance on a Mac OS or Linux machine. Feel free to add it to the Wiki and update it as the situation develops.

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Introduction

To the disappointment of the Macintosh and Linux fans in the Allegiance community, it is unlikely that a Mac OS or Linux native version of Allegiance will ever be available. Allegiance was initially developed by Microsoft Research to experiment with Microsoft's (then new) DirectX technologies. Today's version of Allegiance is heavily dependent on DirectX for 3D graphics and network communication. For Allegiance to be ported to Mac/Linux, its graphical and networking components would first have to be successfully ported to a non-Microsoft library (like OpenGL). Given that our volunteer developers sometimes struggle to maintain our existing code base, this is unlikely. For the foreseeable future, Allegiance will remain tied to the Windows platform.

To add an additional hurdle, our anti-cheat software, ASGS, is heavily dependent on .Net. While the author of ASGS has expressed a willingness to develop a non-Windows version, no one has been able to get Allegiance working on a non-Windows platform. So, the matter is moot until someone gets Allegiance working on a non-Windows platform.

Nevertheless, there are a few glimmers of hope for people running non-Windows machines (especially on the Mac side). This article will run down the current options, and the status of each.

Allegiance under Wine

The current Allegiance client currently malfunctions at various places. The furthest anyone has gotten is the cockpit view with a crash immmediately following.

The most detailed discussion involving Allegiance under Wine can be found here ( http://www.freeallegiance.org/forums/index...howtopic=41235).

Allegiance under Virtualization

Allegiance does execute successfully in Windows environments running on virtual machines. However, its DirectX dependency means that Allegiance gameplay is very choppy to the point of being unplayable. Several virtualization venders have released products that provide near-native DirectX emulation, such as Parallels (link) and VMWare Fusion (link). Unfortunately, none of these appear to operate successfully with Allegiance.

Dual-booting

This is, by far, the best solution for people who prefer a Macintosh or Linux environment: Do your work under Mac OS or Linux, and reboot into Windows when you want to play Allegiance. There are many guides online for dual booting under Linux (just do a Google search for "linux dual boot xp").

Owners of Intel Macs can use the Bootcamp utility to repartition their drive and install/dual-boot Windows XP or Windows Vista. The Boot Camp Assistant can be found in your Utilities folder (which is in the Applications folder), and will walk you through the steps of installing Windows.

Owners of G4 and G5 Macs unfortunately have no recourse (other than to pay a couple hundred dollars for a cheap intel system and install Windows).
Last edited by Clay_Pigeon on Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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badpazzword
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Post by badpazzword »

Clay_Pigeon wrote:
QUOTE (Clay_Pigeon @ Aug 13 2008, 05:52 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
especially on the Mac side


This has me baffled. Why?

Clay_Pigeon wrote:
QUOTE (Clay_Pigeon @ Aug 13 2008, 05:52 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Allegiance under Virtualization


You forget mentioning that ASGS will refuse working in a virtualised system.

Other than this, it sounds good. (Sigh.)
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TheBored
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Post by TheBored »

Clay_Pigeon wrote:
QUOTE (Clay_Pigeon @ Aug 13 2008, 08:52 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
While the author of ASGS has expressed a willingness to develop a non-Windows version

Orly.

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Clay_Pigeon
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Post by Clay_Pigeon »

Badp wrote:
QUOTE (Badp @ Aug 13 2008, 05:33 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
This has me baffled. Why?


Because Mac OS has a handy tool in BootCamp assistant that will handle each and every single little detail of dual-booting your Mac (into Windows) for you. Does an equivalent exist on the Linux side?

QUOTE
You forget mentioning that ASGS will refuse working in a virtualised system.[/quote]

I consider this point moot until we get acceptable framerates under virtualization. smile.gif
Last edited by Clay_Pigeon on Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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FreeBeer
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Post by FreeBeer »

While I've never used Bootcamp, Ubuntu Linux has, in it's installer, a pretty simple means to dual boot. I've always gone the manual route because it's pretty easy anyway.
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echoism
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Post by echoism »

While I don't have a mac to test vmware fusion, I was able to run alleg (and authenticate with ASGS) with the new vmware workstation beta under linux. The mac version has had directx support longer than the workstatin. I suspect it will run, abit with less performance than a native client or something like wine.

Has anyone tried to use vmware fusion?
Clay_Pigeon
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Post by Clay_Pigeon »

Last time I used vmware fusion, it sprayed crap all over my boot camp partition. If another mac user wants a go, however....
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SaiSoma
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Post by SaiSoma »

Tashim wrote:
QUOTE (Tashim @ Sep 4 2008, 11:33 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
While I don't have a mac to test vmware fusion, I was able to run alleg (and authenticate with ASGS) with the new vmware workstation beta under linux. The mac version has had directx support longer than the workstatin. I suspect it will run, abit with less performance than a native client or something like wine.

Has anyone tried to use vmware fusion?


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echoism
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Post by echoism »




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Post by Cadillac »

Shame on everybody mrgreen.gif
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