Thanks, but that raises another question. You say the game is packaged with (old) Wine... so does that mean I shouldn't even have to install Wine myself, for the game?

There was some "dep.txt" or "depend.txt" file inside the game directory which suggested you must install Wine yourself for the game (I am now on Windows so I can't check it right now). That is why i installed Wine, and actually uninstalled and re-installed the game, just in case.

If you want to play a game in Wine it is better to install Wine yourself and download and install the WINDOWS version of the game, not the Linux version if it comes prepacked with Wine compatible only with eight years old distros.

That's actually what I tried first (before realizing there is a separate "Linux-version" of the game), but maybe my initial Wine-installation was somehow broken or something because I couldn't get beyond the loading screen in the game. Still, that was further than with the "Linux-version".

I don't even recall when I have installed Wine before on this system so I removed it with the GUI Software Manager, and then re-installed it using the terminal commands suggested in the page I linked earlier. I am a bit confused by Wine because when I search for "Wine" in the Linux Mint Software Manager, I get like a couple dozen entries, many of which claim to be Wine (some are apparently accessories to Wine, like Winetricks and PlayonLinux). So which "Wine" should I be installing from the Software Manager?

That is why I ended up installing Wine using the CLI terminal suggestions.

Anyway, my remaining questions at this point are, if the GOG Linux version comes with its own Wine prepackaged:

- Why does my own Wine installation affect that in any way? Why doesn't the GOG version use its own Wine, regardless of whether or not I have already installed Wine?

- Does that mean the GOG version should work even if I don't install Wine (or uninstall it with "sudo apt remove whatever")?

- If so, why is there that text file with the game suggesting that I should install Wine myself, before trying to run the game? EDIT: This is the file I am talking about:

~/GOG Games/Two Worlds Epic Edition$ cat deps.txt

Requires the following packages to be installed: wine and dependencies.
Your distribution Wine package has to be installed to make sure that the dependencies are satisfied.

I'm still trying to understand what is the real problem here and why.

Just plain "Wine"

It's for exactly the same reason as I suggest it for my Wine wrappers: Wine has a very long list of dependencies and it's easier to simply tell people to install the system's Wine package (which will result in all of its dependencies also being installed) than to list them all out.

As you're running Mint though there is another option: I made a common dependencies meta-package to make this kind of thing a lot easier. You can find the download link for it here alongside my Mint guide: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/adamhms_linux_mint_beginners_guide/post1

That should install nearly everything you're likely to need (obviously excluding stuff that's no longer available from the repositories like libpng12) :)

In theory, it should.

Yes, again, it should work regardless of system WINE. I (and it was not only me back then ;) ) had asked the same question and got the responce from the GOG support team that the system requirements on a game page stating that WINE should be installed is actually meant to force users to install bundled WINE's dependencies. A "ported" game, in theory, should not use system WINE, only its dependencies.

However, maybe it is possible that the current and bundled WINE versions diverged so greatly that they do not have common dependencies anymore (like with libpng 1.2 vs 1.6 in your case).

I believe we already suggested to GOG to state exact dependencies instead of forcing users to install WINE and hope everything matches, but the idea did not appeal to GOG back then.


Case in point. :)

The two posts above me said all I could have said amd some more on top of that and better than I could have said it so nothing to add.

<nods head and tries to look wise while actually just nodding off>

didn't look at the game package, but from the way it is phrased I would think that while wine is packaged with the game, its dependencies are not.
And since wine has a shitload dependencies GOG probably doesn't want to list all of them separately. Instead they take the shortcut of telling the user to install wine itself, which will also install all of the dependencies and hopefully means the wine bundled with the game will work as well.
Which would normally work fine, unless there are problems like the libpng ABI breakage.

Looking at the game page I think you should/could report this to GOG support. The game card says this works on Ubuntu 16.04 or newer AND lists libpng12 as a dependency.
But if I am not mistaken libpng12 doesn't exist anymore as a package on Ubuntu since 16.10(?). So this game won't work out of box on Ubuntu 18.04 as advertised.
Either they bundle libpng12 with the game or they get rid of the bundled wine and rely on the local installed wine package.

//edit: meh, i'm just way too slow ... ;)

I keep running into this error message:
HeapTracker full - Please increase AK_MEMORY_HEAPTRACKINGSIZE to track all allocation and tune your pools to avoid hitting the heap.
and it is pretty much gibberish to me :-( My glogling skills did not turn up anything except how to program in order to avoid getting those (maybe I should sen teh devs a link,,,,).

Is this bad for me?

Hm, as a SW develop, I tried to look to whom the "AK_MEMORY_HEAPTRACKINGSIZE" belongs, and google+bing are both silent... any idea what may be the "AK", can it be related to the game name or 3D engine of that particular game studio (i.e. name of studio)? Hard to tell, who is using such environment variable, and how, so also hard to tell when to precisely set it up. And why even some game does actively use heap tracking in production setting, that's kinda ridiculous.

And it sort of sounds like something the Java virtual machines often support (heap tracker), so maybe it's related to something written in java...

(I don't think you posted in previous messages some info and this is like new problem? Does it happen with particular game, or when?)

<reads back all posts I have written lately>
Oh, I actually did complain about X4 Foundations last I had a problem and this has to do with that as well. It very often throws this message, also starts only like once in four times, sigh! Hoping some updates will fix most of the problems.

OlliOlli is getting a Segfault on the current Linux Mint LTS.
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/linux_32bit_game_olliolli_now_broken_help

Can someone help? (The GOG support can't)

Ok I guess it is clearer now. I presume the Linux version shouldn't work for any Ubuntu 18.04 or Linux Mint 19.x users, unless they've somehow either installed the libpng12 themselves, or retained it by upgrading to the current Linux from some earlier Linux which still had it.

I guess I will report it to GOG, as long as I am able to communicate it to them clearly. Maybe say that this game's Linux version doesn't work on Ubuntu 18.04 nor Linux Mint 19.2 because they don't have libpng12 anymore, and the game requires it. And that maybe they should add that missing thingie in the game itself.

EDIT: I was going to report it but it wants sysrep and I am not on Linux at the moment. I will copy paste what I wrote to the ticket here, if I remember to send it later from Linux:

Two Worlds Epic Edition Linux version does not work on Ubuntu 18.04 nor Linux Mint 19.x. Apparently the game (or Wine included with it) uses libpng12.so.0, but these Linux versions don't have that anymore in their repositories.
One suggestion to fix this was that you would bundle libpng12 with the game.
The issue is discussed more here:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/general_linux_faq_and_troubleshooting/post1498

That sounds like you have some kind of memory issue, but the error is probably engine specific. How much RAM do you have?

System 16GB, which is alright. Video 3GB, which is low. I lowered the resolution for now while waiting for my new GPU to arrive. No missing textures at least.

I have the same problem. I can start games using exe from installed folder, but as soon as i hit play button in GOG client, i see crash report. I'd like to see how much time i spent with the game. Without GOG client, we won't be able. Starting the game in the old way leaves us without this function, time wont be listed.
Coud you explain in more details? LGOGDOWNLOADER or what for linux? I never heard of it.