Going to perform some house work here the next few days as a lot of this information is outdated and could easily be condensed and/or eliminated altogether. If anything, having everything neat and trim will make me happy and no doubt fellow viewers interested in getting Final Fantasy XI up and running via Wine will appreciate as well.

Jeremy Riley

Download the program. The program can be found at http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/download/media/benchmark01.html?pageID=media.

Install and run the program. To get optimal performance for the benchmark tests, disable all debug messages. To do this, type in "WINEDEBUG="-all" wine "/path/to/FFXiBench3.exe"".

The Final Fantasy XI Official Benchmark utility is not a required application to install and run Final Fantasy XI.

However, what the utility does offer is insight into the potential performance your system may have during game-play.

Although not a requirement, having this application run flawlessly would be beneficial to not only players of Finally Fantasy XI via Wine, but Wine itself would bennefit in obtaining the ability to smoothly run this utility. No doubt there are other applications that will benefit from the lessens learned getting this application to work.

There are a few results from older versions of Wine on older versions of operating systems that place this application as gold and performing the task the application was built to do. Tests using more recent versions of Wine upon newer versions of operating systems however appear to fail. This may be indicating that some kind of regression may have taken place within Wine. Then again, the operating system version used for testing may have played role into whether or not this application works. Something to keep in mind given the recent overhall the Xorg team has performed to the X11 window manager, which in turn effects all Linux/Unix operating system distributions that use the latest X11 window manager.

Jeremy Riley

HOWTO - Final Fantasy XI: The Ultimate Collection 2011

Introduction

This HOWTO will help you get Final Fantasy XI setup on your machine using "The Ultimate Collection 2011" retail package, or equivalent media. Here you will also find a guide to get the PlayOnline Viewer running. This HOWTO is complete to the best knowledge of its creators, however, there may be some errors that have not been resolved.

Please note that in order to run this game, you will most likely NEED the proprietary drivers for your graphics card(s). Open-source drivers are known to have problems with 3D rendering, and may render many things incorrectly or slowly. Please bear this in mind when submitting test results, as well.

Installation

• Insert "The Ultimate Collection 2011" dvd into your dvd drive.
• In a terminal session, type in "wine /path/to/dvdrom/PlayOnline/setup.exe".
• From here, you will be guided by a setup wizard. Choosing all defaults is acceptable.
• After the PlayOnline Viewer is finished installing, click finish on the wizard if you haven't done so already.
• Type in "cd/path/to/dvdrom/INST1" to go into the install directory for Final Fantasy XI.
• Type in "wine setup.exe".
• A wizard will appear that will guide you through setting up Final Fantasy XI. Again, choosing all defaults is acceptable.
• After installation is complete for Final Fantasy XI, you may be given a choice to restart your machine. Choose "No, I will restart my machine later" and click finish.
• From here, type in "cd/path/to/dvdrom/INST2".
• Type in "wine setup.exe".
• Follow the wizard for setting up Rise of the Zilart, choosing all defaults, and selecting to restart your computer later, if prompted.
• Type in "cd/path/to/dvdrom/INST3".
• Type in "wine setup.exe".
• Follow the wizard for setting up Chains of Promathia, choosing all defaults, and selecting to restart your computer later, if prompted.
• Type in "cd/path/to/dvdrom/INST4".
• Type in "wine setup.exe".
• Follow the wizard for setting up Treasures of AhtUrhgan, choosing all defaults, and selecting to restart your computer later if prompted.
• Type in "cd/path/to/dvdrom/INST5".
• Type in "wine setup.exe".
• Follow the wizard for setting up Wings of the Goddess, choosing all defaults, and selecting to restart your computer later if prompted.
• You may now umount your installation media. Be sure to store it in a safe place.

Overriding DXDIAGN.DLL

• Obtain a copy of the file "Dxdiagn.dll" from a Windows XP install (It'll be in the System32 Directory)
  
• Copy said file into your WINE installation (.wine), place it either in the Windows folder or the System32 folder, either is fine.
• Open a terminal and navigate to the directory you placed Dxdiagn.dll into.
• Run the following command: "wine regsvr32 dxdiagn.dll". Additionally try running "wine regsvr dxdiagn.dll".
  
• Open winecfg and navigate to the overrides.
• Set a new override for Dxdiagn.
• You should be set to go.
  

Configuring/Updating/Running

• Here the PlayOnline Viewer will be updated. Follow the instructions to update the viewer.
• After PlayOnline Viewer is updated, the viewer will ask you to click next to restart it. Do so, and PlayOnline Viewer Should restart.
• Once logged in, you may run Final Fantasy XI. It will be updated upon running them for the first time, this is the perfect opportunity to eat some cheesecake, because the initial update could take hours. Do note that if you have registered the registration codes for any of the Abyssea expansions it will be automatically downloaded and installed in the update.
  
• Once the update has completed, Final Fantasy XI should launch with your desired settings.
• Go to a heavily populated area, and type "/yell Final Fantasy XI Runs In Linux!!" into Final Fantasy, and press Enter

Running more than one instance of FFXI:

• In a shell do:
  

  WINEPREFIX="/home/$USER/.wine-second" wine /path/to/first/full/FFXI/Install/pol.exe

• This will create a new instance directory for wine in your home folder. It will be named .wine-second
• You will get a few errors. You can dismiss all of them.
• Use your favourite file handling utility and copy the complete PlayOnline folder from your previous (/home/yourname/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/) wine instance to your new instance. (Yes you will need two installs of FFXI for this to work)
• Make sure you copy your original install from it's root folder in the Program Files directory to the Program Files directory of your new wine instance. The folder named PlayOnline is all you need to copy.
• Now you should have one original install in:
  

  /home/yourname/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/PlayOnline/
  and one copy of that install in:
  /home/yourname/.wine-second/drive_c/Program Files/PlayOnline/
  

• In a shell do:
  

  regedit
  

• Now make sure that the root of the registry is selected in the tree structure on the left hand side. In English the root is called 'My Computer'
• Now click the following sequence in the Regedit menu bar:
  'Registry -> Export registry file'
  
• Select a location to save your registry export. (Suggest saving to desktop for easy removal after you are done)
• Close the registry editor.
  
• In a shell do:
  

  WINEPREFIX="/home/$USER/.wine-second" regedit
  

• You are now editing the registry information for your new instance of wine.
  
• Once again; select the root of the registry (My Computer). Then click the following sequence in the registry editor:
  'Registry -> Import registry file'
• Select the file you saved in the previous regedit instance. (The one I suggested you save to your desktop)
• Once the file has been imported... (might take a while depending on size of registry) you are ready to start using two instances of FFXI at the same time on the same computer.
• You may now delete the .reg file that you saved to your desktop.
• To start the first instance of FFXI use:
  

  wine /path/to/first/full/FFXI/Install/pol.exe
  

• To start the second instance of FFXI use:
  

  WINEPREFIX="/home/$USER/.wine-second" wine /path/to/copy/of/full/FFXI/Install/pol.exe

• The default path to an install is: /home/username/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/PlayOnline/
  
• This guide is crude and in an initial stage. In time it will be optimised.
  

Other Recommendations/Info:

• Disabling shadows altogether causes a speedup.
• Desktop Effects (Compiz) should be disabled if flickering of the screen occurs.
  
• Please use the latest version of wine if possible, if not, there is a list of known working versions at the bottom of this guide.