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Riven: Sequel To Myst Guide

Discussion in 'Guides' started by booman, Apr 3, 2015.

  • by booman, Apr 3, 2015 at 1:18 PM
  • booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    Riven is the second installment of the Myst series. It improves on graphics, sound, animation and has a more intriguing story to capture you in the world of Riven. Travel from island to island searching for clues to solve mysterious puzzles, encounter the inhabitants of each island, tinker with strange devices and learn about the history of Riven.

    riven92.png

    riven115.png

    Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Riven in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

    Note: This guide applies to the Retail (CD ROM) version of Riven. Other versions may require additional steps.

    Tips & Specs:

    To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux Explained

    Mint 17 64-bit
    PlayOnLinux: 4.2.6
    Wine: 1.6.2

    Wine Installation

    Click Tools
    Select "Manage Wine Versions"
    wine01.png

    Look for the Wine Version: 1.6.2
    Note: Try using stable Wine 1.8 and 1.8-staging

    Select it
    Click the arrow pointing to the right
    wine02.png

    Click Next

    Downloading Wine
    wine04.png

    Extracting

    Downloading Gecko
    wine05.png

    Installed
    wine06.png

    Wine 1.6.2 is installed and you can close this window

    Copy CD ROM Data

    Create a folder on the desktop
    Name it "Riven"
    Insert each CD ROM starting with Disc 1
    Copy all the files to the new "Riven" folder on the desktop
    riven01.png

    Insert Disc 2
    Copy all the files to the new "Riven" folder on the desktop
    If Linux asks to "Merge" check the "apply this action to all files" option
    Click Merge
    riven02.png

    If Linux asks to "Replace" existing files check "Apply this action to all files"
    Click Replace
    riven03.png

    Remember to eject each disc because Linux is known to have Disc Reading problems
    riven04.png

    Continue the copy process until you have all the data from each Disc

    PlayOnLinux Setup

    Launch PlayOnLinux
    Click Install
    riven05.png

    Click "Install a non-listed program"
    riven06.png

    Click Next

    Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
    Click Next
    riven08.png

    Nave your virtual drive: riven
    Click Next
    riven09.png

    Select all three options:
    • Use another version of Wine
    • Configure Wine
    • Install some libraries
    Click Next
    riven10.png

    Select Wine 1.6.2
    Click Next
    riven11.png

    Select "32 bits windows installation"
    Click Next
    riven12.png

    Wine Configuration

    Applications Tab
    Windows Version: Windows 7
    Click Apply
    riven13.png

    Graphics Tab
    Check "Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows"
    Check "Emulate a virtual desktop"
    Desktop size: 1024x768
    Click OK
    riven14.png

    Installing Packages (Components, Libraries, DLL's)

    Select the following packages:
    • POL_Install_corefonts
    • POL_Install_d3dx9
    • POL_Install_tahoma
    Click Next
    riven15.png

    Note: All packages automatically download and install

    Installing Riven

    Click Browse
    riven16.png

    Navigate to the "Riven" folder on your desktop
    Select Setup.exe
    Click Open
    riven17.png

    Click Next again...

    Click Next

    Click Next

    Click Yes

    Click Next

    Express Setup
    Click Next

    The Journeyman Project 3
    Click No

    Registration
    Click "Cancel"

    Click OK

    Success
    Click OK
    riven27.png

    PlayOnLinux Shortcut

    Select "Riven.exe"
    Click Next
    riven28.png

    Name your shortcut: Riven
    Click Next
    riven29.png

    Click Next Again...

    PlayOnLinux Configure

    Back to PlayOnLinux
    Select Riven
    Click Configure
    riven30.png

    General Tab
    Wine Version: 1.6.2
    riven31.png

    Note: Click the + to download other versions of Wine. Click the down-arrow to select other versions of Wine.

    Display Tab
    Video Memory size: Enter the amount of memory your video card/chip uses
    riven32.png

    Close Configure
    Close PlayOnLinux

    No CD Riven

    In order to run Riven without the CD ROM in the drive
    Copy all the data from the "Riven" folder on your desktop to the game folder here:
    /home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/riven/drive_c/Program Files/Riven

    Note: Username is where you put your Linux login.
    Note: If it asks to "replace" any files, click "skip"

    Launching Riven

    Riven will launch and play from PlayOnLinux, but unfortunately it will crash over and over and over.
    The problem is Riven wasn't made to work with multi-core processors.

    In order to play Riven seamlessly without crashing, PlayOnLinux has to be launched with one core

    Launch Terminal
    Ctrl+Alt+T

    Type: taskset -c 0 playonlinux
    Press Enter
    riven33.png

    Note: When finished with Riven, make sure to close PlayOnLinux, otherwise all of your other games will run in a single CPU and may cause some performance issues.

    Fullscreen Riven

    Riven wasn't designed for high resolution gaming either
    Set your Linux desktop to a lower 3:4 resolution:
    • 800x600
    • 1024x768
    • 1280x1024
    Note: The smaller the resolution, the larger Riven will appear since it was made in 640x480

    Automatically Change Resolution

    Select Riven
    Click Configure
    Click Miscellaneous Tab
    Command to execute before running a program:
    Code:
    xrandr -s 1280x1024
    Close Configure

    Now you can Launch Riven
    Select Riven
    Click Run
    riven34.png

    Conclusion:
    Once Riven is set to a single-core everything ran perfectly. Navigation and all animated movies ran great. Gameplay is much slower than modern-day puzzle gaming, but it quickly sucks-you-in because the world is very interesting and brilliant. Setting your desktop resolution to 1024x768 creates a nice fullscreen experience even though the viewable area is still smaller than the screen.

    Gameplay Video:


    Screenshots:
    riven91.png

    riven93.png

    riven94.png

    riven98.png

    riven99.png

    riven103.png

    riven108.png

    riven112.png
    Last edited: Jan 13, 2016
    mrdeathjr28 likes this.

Comments

Discussion in 'Guides' started by booman, Apr 3, 2015.

  1. dwinner75
    Excellent guide, thank you. Got Riven working on Lubuntu 16.04 with LXDE desktop.
  2. booman
    Thanks! I just posted a guide last Friday on Myst 5: End Of Ages too.
  3. Greatbridge
    Thanks you for the attention to detail. My attempts to install (Mint 18, Cinnamon, 64 bit, Kernel 4.4.0-45, Win 1.8.4) have not been straightforward:
    1. Riven CD1 has folders 'data' and 'setup'; CDs 2 through 5 have folders 'Data' and 'Setup' The copy of CD contents to a folder on the desktop results in the creation of folders 'data', 'Data', 'setup' and 'Setup'. Which should be used?
    2. Have bungled my way past this issue, I find that the option to 'open' a saved game is greyed out. I can save the game at any point, but cannot open that saved game. This means that I have to start from 'zero' every time and can never get beyond the point of about 1 or 2 hours playing. How do I overcome this issue?
  4. booman
    Strange, I didn't realize the disks had duplicate directories with lowercase and uppercase names. I have a feeling you can combine those and the files in them. Give it a try...

    I don't remember having any problems saving or loading the game. You may want to do some tests and save it once, then look for the save file .svn and make sure you have permissions to read/write.

    I did some research and there can be issues with save/load if you install the game on one partition but save the game on another partition.

  5. RubeRad
    Hey thanks for this guide; I ran into a problem at the "Express Setup" step; Qt32inst.exe crashed.
    I clicked Show Details and pasted the first little bit, below; is there anything I can do about this?

    This is my first attempt at a PlayOnLinux installation...



    Unhandled exception: page fault on read access to 0x0064726b in 32-bit code (0x00413d8b).
    Register dump:
    CS:0023 SS:002b DS:002b ES:002b FS:0063 GS:006b
    EIP:00413d8b ESP:0033e114 EBP:0033e570 EFLAGS:00010202( R- -- I - - - )
    EAX:0064726b EBX:0033f9a8 ECX:0033e108 EDX:00000000
    ESI:0033f9a8 EDI:ffffffff
    Stack dump:
    0x0033e114: 0033f9a8 00413d71 0064726f 00411d30
    0x0033e124: 0064726f 0041eff1 0064726f 0041f06a
    0x0033e134: 0064726f 0040ad63 00431560 0043d386
    0x0033e144: 0033f9a8 2e64726f 76726573 2d656369
    0x0033e154: 514d6c55 6f2a446e 732e6472 69767265
    0x0033e164: 552d6563 6e514d6c 735c2a44 65747379
    Backtrace:
    =>0 0x00413d8b in qt32inst (+0x13d8b) (0x0033e570)
    1 0x0040aa8c in qt32inst (+0xaa8b) (0x0033e738)
    2 0x0040abc7 in qt32inst (+0xabc6) (0x0033e900)
    3 0x0040abc7 in qt32inst (+0xabc6) (0x0033eac8)
    4 0x0040a6fe in qt32inst (+0xa6fd) (0x0033ed1c)
    5 0x0040b1a4 in qt32inst (+0xb1a3) (0x7ec88dd0)
    6 0xec83f0e4 (0x83e58955)
    0x00413d8b: movl 0x0(%eax),%esi
    Modules:
    Module Address Debug info Name (66 modules)
    PE 400000- 602000 Export qt32inst
    ELF 7b800000-7ba4b000 Deferred kernel32<elf>
    \-PE 7b810000-7ba4b000 \ kernel32
    ELF 7bc00000-7bcc8000 Deferred ntdll<elf>
    \-PE 7bc10000-7bcc8000 \ ntdll
    ELF 7bf00000-7bf03000 Deferred <wine-loader>
    ELF 7df7f000-7dfa1000 Deferred imm32<elf>
    \-PE 7df90000-7dfa1000 \ imm32
    ELF 7dfa1000-7e019000 Deferred rpcrt4<elf>
    \-PE 7dfb0000-7e019000 \ rpcrt4
    ELF 7e019000-7e12e000 Deferred ole32<elf>
    ...
    ...
    ...
  6. RubeRad
    I tells me I can resume/restart the Qt install, but either way it just keeps crashing. I can't get past this part
  7. RubeRad
    dangit I was so close! I got past the Qt thing by going with custom instead of express, that allowed me to "Skip" the searching for previous verisons part that was causing the crash. It completed, and I got to the "No CD Riven" part, and dragged all the 5-CD data into the virtual drive folder, but chose 'replace' instead of 'don't replace', then when I tried to start it, it said "some riven files missing, reinstall".

    Then reinstalling again, I found that I couldn't Browse... to setup.exe again because I had dragged it into the virtual drive -- and then deleted it!

    Back to the drawing board...
  8. RubeRad
    OK I did everything from the beginning, got it installed, fired it up enough to do the setup, heard the audio, then tried to start the game, it says "Insert Riven Disc 2", even though I copied everything from Desktop/Riven into the Riven dir in the virtual drive.

    I did insert Riven Disc 2, but it won't find it. What am I missing?
  9. RubeRad
    one more comment then bed. I was able to start playing by going into wine config and creating a new D: drive and pointing it at /media/username/Riven2. Then when I got to the cablecar across to the next island I had to use wine config again to remap D: to /media/username/Riven3 -- what a pain! I went and tried it again, and couldn't get the switch to disk 3 to work. Would be much better if I could play without the CD; I tried all kind of things to point D: drive to where all the data is, but it just keeps asking for Disk 2.

    Also, like Greatbridge, I can save a game (it saved in the Riven folder right next to Riven.exe), but not reopen it. The File menu shows New... and Save and Save As..., but Open... is greyed out, can't go restore to my previous save state :-(. That makes a long game like Riven pretty much unplayable.
    booman likes this.
  10. booman
    Welcome to the forum RubeRad! Sorry for my late response. I have not tested Riven in a while and as you noticed, there are a LOT of steps and work-arounds. I do recommend purchasing the DRM free version on GOG because it will probably be a lot less hassle than the CD version.

    Did you already try copying all the CD's into a single folder on the desktop?

    You are still having issues after doing the "No CD" steps? Something must not have worked...

    Also, try a newer version of Wine as well... like 2.0.3 or a "staging" version
  11. RubeRad
    Thanks for checking back booman.

    I did copy all the CDs into a folder on the desktop as the first step, and I did the "No CD" steps (which actually left the desktop folder empty, I should have copied, not moved, the files into the virtual drive)

    For $5.99, maybe I will try GOG, I guess you download from them what, a single .iso or something? I'm not familiar with GOG, but the website looks pretty legit. It's legal/licensed to use their stuff?

    I will try a newer Wine though.

    Your No CD instructions don't say about having to set up a letter drive; should that be necessary? What if I clean out the ...\c_drive\Program Files\Riven folder, copy all the CDs into there, and install from the eventual destination? Or copy all the discs first into ...\c_drive\Riven, and install from the virtual drive?

    Are there specific option that need to be set up for pointing at the distro with a letter drive? full/relative paths? into virtual drive vs path on the host drive? 'on local hard drive' vs 'CDROM'?

    What if, after copying all the CDROM into one folder, I created a DVDROM .iso (or oversize CDROM .iso?), and set up a Wine letter drive to point to that?

    Bottom-line though, if Open... previous save state doesn't work, it won't be usable.
  12. booman
    Ok, thank you for confirming all the steps. If I remember correctly... Riven will automatically see all the data from the CD when moved to the
    directory. You shouldn't have to mount any drives. I can give it a try again and see if it works the same. Let me know...

    GOG is totally legitimate. Is run by Projekt Red who made the Witcher series. Games are priced fairly and no DRM for any game. I haven't tested the Riven from GOG, but you can post here if you have problems.

    We have a lot of GOG guides so you can follow the basic steps if you decide to purchase Riven from GOG.

    I'm not sure if Wine can read ISO files, I've never tried. Honestly I've never needed to... and I've tested hundreds of games.

    I'm pretty sure I was able to save and load games in Riven. Otherwise I would not have posted the guide. No being able to save is a "game breaker"

    Let me know if you want me to test my Riven CD ROM set again.

    Also, make sure you have the newest version of PlayOnLinux installed too: 4.2.12
  13. RubeRad
    I installed sudo apt-get install playonlinux just for this project, so I assume it's fairly up to date, although I did see something about needing to add a repository to get the very newest version.

    The iso stuff turned up when I was googling about how to get wine to play with CDROMs. If I shouldn't have to deal with it, I'll try to avoid it.

    What actually do you get/download from GOG? If not an .iso, is it a .zip that unpacks to an install directory that would play the role of ~/Desktop/Riven in your guide?

    I will give it another try with latest PlayOnLinux, and newer Wine than 1.6.2 and my Riven box set, and report back. Thanks for sticking with me!

    BTW, I'm using Ubuntu 16.04.
  14. booman
    I'm sorry, you asked that same question before and I didn't answer it.
    Most of the time GOG will give you an EXE installer. It bundles the game and their installer. For native Linux games you will get an .SH binary installer.

    Since its DRM free and no CD ROM, you won't have to worry about mounting anything or copying anything. Everything should be bundled up in the installer from GOG.

    As for PlayOnLinux version, I always go to the PlayOnLinux website and download the .DEB file and install it. You don't have to uninstall the old one and it will be updated. Sometimes the Ubuntu/Mint repositories host older versions.

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