Diablo

Aside from a slightly glitchy main menu, everything works extremely well. Played for several hours without even a hiccup in performance or graphics. I would rate this as GOLD since only the menu is somewhat problematic. If not for that, I'd consider it Platinum.

OS: Fedora 34, KDE Spin

Diablo DIABDAT.MPQ Version: GOG, also version that can be downloaded from Internet Archive (archive.org/details/Diablo_1996_Blizzard)
TH2 Game Version: TH2_v1.1323
TH2 Music Version: TH2_music_v10.8

WINE & Necessary Software Versions:
+ Wine Staging 6.13
+ Winetricks 20210206-next
+ Protontricks (installed via pipx) 1.6.0

WINEARCH: 64

WINE Bottle Packages:
+ d3dx11_43
+ dotnet35
+ dotnet461
+ quartz
+ vcrun2019
+ xact_64
+ corefonts
+ tahoma

NOTE: For best results, close all unneeded programs and install d3dx11_43, dotnet35, and dotnet461 together, first. Then install quartz, vcrun2019, and xact_64 individually. Fonts can be installed together.

WINECFG Settings:
Application Tab: Windows 8 (NOTE: Works with Windows 7 as well, black load/menu screen with Windows 10)
Graphics Tab: Automatically Capture Mouse (tick); Allow Window Manger...decorate (tick); Allow Window Manager...control (tick)
Drives Tab: Show Dot Files (tick)
Audio Tab: Pulseaudio all four Defaults options
Staging Tab: Enable CSMT (remove tick)

Launch as usual with "...wine TH2.exe" or, Right-Click on TH2.exe and select "Open With Proton Launcher"

Navigate menu for character/load game via arrow keys and use return key for selection. No animation, on menu. This is the only glitch I have found. Still working on finding a workaround for this to determine if there is one or if it is something WINE devs will have to address.

Game resolution controlled via TH2 config.ini file. All aspects of game control and adjustments working via config.ini file.

Creating launcher (*.desktop) is simple enough so no reason to go into detail.

Actually it's more like a replacement.
Someone on this page
appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=3498
suggested trying the "Belzebub / Diablo 1 HD" mod.
Now this mod seems to use openGL for everything instead of direct draw, thus everything displays fine including the main menu.
But i couldn't find a way to make the sound work anywhere else than in the game movies.
If anyone has an idea on how to fix it, i would like to try any possible fix.
i will try to create an app entry for this mod later (i never did post wine test results).

As the bug status is still new despite the bug being created back in year 2004 (yes i'll never be able to make my mind understand the bug statuses), and i lost my patience i today decided to make my own workaround for this bug.
It's a barbarian workaround but it should work for any version of The Hell and any version of wine.

I took screenshots of every menu screen, edited them in gimp to make it printable without using a full ink cartridge per page (then i used scissors and a pen to improve the result).
I also made a menu chart/flow, so that i can navigate the menus completely blind.

I then tested the result, and i'm quite happy with it, despite it is limited to the single player part of the game and there still are some ways to screw up the flow (for example, trying to use unsupported characters for a player name generates an extra error screen that i didn't use for my workaround).

And since all this took me some hours to perform, i wanna share the result with whoever might be interested (and if someone actually is, i set the game on a 1680*1050 (my screen is 22") virtual desktop and print the screeenshots at 80 % scale horizontally so that fits my actual game black rectangle display).

i uploaded my workaround here
www.mediafire.com/?2r852i8f9jo3kfy

i forgot to mention i actually put the printed shots on my screen to click at the right spot.

I have submitted a hacky patch as a workaround for this bug back in July:
bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2082#c113

The idea is basically the same as in Stefan Dösinger's patch, though it works on modern Wine versions. The patch worksforme with translucency for dialog windows turned on (see bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2082#c103). Any feedback would be welcome.

If it is hacky, i doubt it will ever be added into wine.
But i hope it will.
Spending one minute in this menu without actually seeing it is horrible.

Well, I sincerely hope it _won't_ be integrated into Wine, as it probably breaks more things than it fixes. One should use it only for a few games (like Diablo, possibly other older Blizzard titles) and disable for the rest.

Since Ubuntu 10.10, the Stash doesn't work anymore.

This can be fixed by running TheHell from a script like the one below. Copy the text into e.g. bin/thehell in your home dir; make it executable. (If you had to create the bin directory, log out and in again now.) You can now run the game with a working stash by running "thehell".

However, be sure you UNDERSTAND THE SECURITY IMPACT of the "sysctl -w kernel.yama.ptrace_scope=0;" command. I suggest you read the link wiki.ubuntu.com/SecurityTeam/Roadmap/KernelHardening#ptrace and the file /etc/sysctl.d/10-ptrace.conf on your Ubuntu.


Here's the starter script:


#!/bin/sh

# Starter for the Diablo mod "The Hell" using Ulmo's loader.exe code injector.
# Use it if the Stash does not work.
# READ wiki.ubuntu.com/SecurityTeam/Roadmap/KernelHardening#ptrace
# AND /etc/sysctl.d/10-ptrace.conf BEFORE USING IT.

# (edit this:) Directory of TheHell.exe:
HELLDIR=$HOME/.wine/drive_c/Spiele/TheHell
ME=$USER # Remember current user

# Allows arbitrary use of ptrace temporarily, then starts Ulmo's loader.
start_graphical () {
  gksudo "sh -c '\
  sysctl -w kernel.yama.ptrace_scope=0; \
  gksudo -u $ME wine TheHell.exe; \
  sysctl -w kernel.yama.ptrace_scope=1'"; }
start_terminal () {
  sudo sh -c "\
  sysctl -w kernel.yama.ptrace_scope=0; \
  sudo -u $ME wine TheHell.exe; \
  sysctl -w kernel.yama.ptrace_scope=1"; }

cd "$HELLDIR" || exit 1 # Check if path is right

# Determine if called interactively
[ -z "$PS1" ] && { start_graphical; exit 0; }
start_terminal; exit 0

Diablo/Hellfire/The Hell mod all crash after intro sequence. Wine displays
error message saying: "The program Diablo.exe [or Hellfire.exe, or TH.exe -
comment mine] has encountered serious problem and needs to close. We are sorry
for the inconvenience.".

I have not used proposed tweaks for directdraw, because as far as I understand
they are for black screen instead of main menu (and I cannot reach this point).

I am using:
OS: Mandriva 2010.0
Kernel: 2.6.31.5-desktop586-1mnb
wine ver.: 1.1.32
GPU: Ati Radeon HD2600 Pro

What driver are you using for your ATi card? If it's fglrx then try to uninstall/disable it and use ati (default) or radeonhd (need to edit xorg.conf) instead. Actually I can see menu with fglrx driver but game crashes if I chose something. With ati and radeonhd it works more or less fine.

I get this message when trying to load the game

The Hell was unable to properly initialize your video card using DirectX.

What should I test?