Getting Help Setting-up with Final Fantasy XIV ARR (Steam Edition)

BurgerJerk

BurgerJerk

New Member
I am making this thread because Gaming on Linux community member allenskd has asked me to make a new thread so that allenskd could help me get FFXIVARR working through steam (I have purchased the game through steam and not the SQENIX site.

P.S. I am sorry it took me so long to do this allenskd as I was waiting on my new 3 TB HDD to come. The only thin I am waiting on now are some new SATA cables. The SATA cables should be here tomorrow and I will be able to get Linux installed and running finally. Again sorry it took me so long allenskd, I hope you will still be able to help me out. Thanks for your help and I hope to hear from you soon.
 
Hey,

I don't know if the game installs in Linux, worry not I have another plan if it doesn't. If you have already downloaded FFXIV please let me know so I get an idea on what am working with here.

I need to know these things

1) Which distribution are you using?
2) Do you have Steam installed through WINE?
3) How's your terminal knowledge? Do you know how to export environment variables or know what it is? Note, we aren't going to do anything complex, I just need to know so when I write the instructions I word them the best I can.

At least, read through these instructions first then we get the ball rolling.

Okay, so in my guide you are going to follow all the instructions before "3. Let's launch it!" that means you will download the binaries, set up the bottle, install winetricks (Ubuntu, debian, and other distributions include it in their repositories, you can apt-get it). And use winetricks to install all the libraries you need for FFXIV to run.

Once you do all that. I'm going to assume you already have Steam installed in your linux box.

Code: 
cd /path/to/your/steam/folder
wine Steam.exe -no-dwrite

Let Steam launch, download FFXIV and then launch it.
 
When you say I already have steam installed do I need the windows installer or can I use the native Linux client?

To answer your questions:
1) Linux Mint 17.1-Cinnamon addition
2) I tired that and I am getting the font issue and I can't seem to find a way to use the -no-dwrite command. (It is installed though)
3) I understand what the terminal is used for but I have never exported environment variables (I did a bit of googling and I think I will be able to follow any directions you have for it though)
 
Since you are using Wine, you have to use the Windows Steam to play games.
You have to use -no-dwrite when you launch the game. Or if you make a shortcut, you can add it.

Allen can definitely help you with the specific commands to get Final Fantasy running
 
Hey Burger,

Look at this screenshot should give you a clear idea on how to put -no-dwrite

2015-02-23-19%3A50%3A38-screenshot.jpg


Before this: Please ensure that you have exported the WINEPREFIX environment variable and WINEARCH. I'm going to assume that you have followed the guide BEFORE STEP 3.

Which means that by now you should have installed the libraries needed to run FFXIV with winetricks.

A quick overview of how WINE works and its structure.

Okay, so. The thing about running applications with WINE and all this mumbo jumbo regarding WINEPREFIXES and WINEARCH and WINE blah blah blah is that you need to look at it this way.

Every WINEPREFIX is an independent win32 system. Meaning, what you do in each bottle does not affect others. When you set a WINEPREFIX you are telling WINE (command line). "Hey, I want you to launch this and use this bottle as your win32 system." So WINE launches, reads the bottle and all the custom configurations of directives (DLL Overrides, registry, etc) and then interprets the win32 executable and its dependencies.

Keeping it short, remember to set the WINEPREFIX and the WINEARCH to keep your headaches to a minimum.

Now let's go back to setting FFXIV:

Load up the environment variable WINEPREFIX so we can tell WINE.

Code: 
export WINEPREFIX=/home/$USER/WINE/bottles/FFXIV

Type in the following command.
Go to your Steam folder and write

Code: 
/home/$USER/WINE/binaries/x86/wine-1.7.24-FFXIV-CSMT/bin/wine Steam.exe -no-dwrite

The fonts will now appear. Proceed to download FFXIV, then launch it so FFXIV launcher downloads the base game.

Let me know how it goes. Provide screenshots if necessary.
 
Allen, you might want to use some of this to do a short explanation of how Wine works... you know, the basics
Then created the guide and I'll sticky it.

By the way, where does "bottle" come from?
I know crossover uses the word "bottle" and PlayOnLinux uses "virtual drive"
I would rather something more generic like:
  • container
  • windirectory
  • win86 & win64
 
I consider the word container the closest thing to describe it. I just adopted bottle because it's widely known. PoL introduction of the term "virtual drive" is more confusing as new users might think of it as just a typical "storage" folder for windows applications.

But well, it's all semantics. I'm not really going to argue which term is correct either. WINEPREFIX doesn't make much sense either in context. So whether it's bottle, prefix, container, virtual drive just think of it as a folder that has a libre implementation of win32 DLLs/ system libraries for your applications to use as a base.

Also... I wasn't really planning to do an introduction thread to WINE, haha.
 
Agreed... Sorry to be off topic
Might as well do an introduction, half of it is here already.
Then you can link to it later instead of posting Wine basics again.
 
I'll see if I can make something up. Currently been busy with life and now's not the best time to be writing content for me.
 
ALright, just a note that if FFXIV doesn't download with WINE (small patches do, but when it comes to HUGE patches WINE gets stuck)

2015-02-27-13%3A06%3A22-screenshot.jpg


You will have to use virtual box to keep your game updated. Note that for small patches (<300MB) you don't have to use it. Since you are downloading it though...

Let me know if you need help with virtual box, it's relatively straightforward. And no, you don't have to install FFXIV in your virtual box. Notice the network drives (Usagi/Downloads folders) they are from my linux HDD being mounted.
 
I got a little bit of bad news and good news.

Bad news
You need to download/update FFXIV from a virtualbox.

good news:

It can be remedied with virtual box. And the steps are a tiny little bit longer.

I know, I know. It's a bit of a hassle all to get it working. Sadly, not even the latest WINE Staging can fix the update issue for unknown reasons.
 
There is a lot of good information here: AppDB
Do you know if the launcher uses QT5?

I've experienced many problems with Graphical Interfaces updating to QT5 and using Wine.
There is a patch for qnetwork.dll if it is using QT5
This might improve downloading large patches
 
I also read this:
Report 3-9-14 on Wine 1.7.26
by J Partanen on Friday October 3rd 2014, 12:37
System: Manjaro 0.8.10, using the Wine build from the default repositories.

The game installs and patches fine when using a 32-bit prefix. No need to override any of the libraries. Note that your Windows version must be set to XP when installing IE8 from winetricks and if it fails to install the first time, you may have to --force the reinstall. IE8 is required.

The problem is performance. Changing the ingame gamma setting gets rid of the UI flicker, but setting "__GL_THREADED_OPTIMIZATIONS=1", while increasing performance, reintroduces the flicker bug, making the game unplayable. Even on a killer computer with fairly medium settings the FPS hovers at 15-30.

Occlusion Culling (Disable rendering of objects when not visible) also still makes most of the textures, even visible ones not load. It would have to greatly improve performance if it worked without this drawback.

Overall the game is playable but just about. I'd give it a bronze.
Click to expand...
Looks like you might have some success with PlayOnLinux using Wine 1.7.26 (or the newest Wine) and setting Windows version to XP
Then installing IE8
 
FF14 doesn't use QT5, it would be nice though.

My guide installs IE8, I even tied with WINE Staging. Flickering is introduced even if you use GL_THREADED_OPtimizations. You gotta use the patches NVIDIA people offered to stop the flickering.

Like I said before, small patches works great. Huge content patches like the Gold Saucer it gets stuck.

Which by the way I have the latest screenshots!

2015-02-27-17%3A41%3A45-screenshot.jpg


2015-02-27-17%3A41%3A21-screenshot.jpg
 
Wow, what a beautiful game!
So much nicer without all the HUD items.
 
Hey BurgerJerk checking in... had a bit of an issue a while back and all my drives were wiped. Needless to say I have to start completely over. I think I'm going to try Ubuntu with KDE or GNOME (gonna try them both out). Anyway, I have work this week so again I'm not going to have a huge amount of time to work on this but I will try throughout the week. Thanks again for your help.
 
I can't seem to edit my previous post but I do have another question. I have heard some pretty harsh things about running full AMD on linux for gaming. My question is, are things really that bleak on the red side?
 
AMD drivers aren't exactly the best in linux. Their "legacy" support (lets say supporting old series) sucks; a month ago someone came here asking for help to run Team Fortress 2 natively and he/she couldn't because god knows what AMD did with the openGL implementation of their drivers.

Most linux users will tell you to stick with NVIDIA because it will keep you sane. If you really want to use AMD, then seek help from AMD Linux users because I don't have a faint idea on how they get their drivers and get things to work.

Personally, I'm not an AMD user; and probably never will be. This isn't fanaticism talking although many people would consider so. I like intel processors and NVIDIA video cards have worked as expected. It just works(tm). This is my preference.

Of course, I'm just one person.
 
Sounds like I just need to hold off for the moment. I always hear mixed things about running AMD but then again I hear great things (with the release of the new omega drivers). Not to mention their full support of an open source driver. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try and run some native games first to test the water and see how it goes first.
 
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