I had problems with the multiplayer mode in AoE on WINE and I finally solved them and want to report my success for those who are intersted.
Generally, take a look at this discussion post:
www.winehq.org/hypermail/wine-users/2004/02/0174.html
If I'm correct, you should follow these steps:
1) You should have DirectX installed. It doesn't need to be the current version. Why? Because of the native DLL's of DirectPlay network playing system.
2) Make sure your WINE registry file (~/.wine/system.reg) includes the registry information that can be found in the link mentioned above. These entries are absolutely necessary for the network play.
3) In order to play via TCP/IP protocol, you should configure WINE to prefer native form of these DLL's:
- dplayx
- dpnhpast
- dpwsock
- dpwsockx
I din't test other types of connection but, if you want, you can go through the registry entries mentioned above and figure out which other libraries do you need to connect other ways (let's say, serial line or modem). These may include:
- dpmodemx
- dpserial
4) Beware of the sound! WINE still has problems playing the sound from AoE. Playing with music & sound can cause WINE to crash. This is just another episode, but just for start, you can turn the sound off in AoE :-)
Tested with the latest WINE version (20050628) from Mandriva LE 2005 RPMs.
As I‘ve written in earlier blog posts, Age of Empires is my most favorite game of all time. So, you can imagine my dismay when Microsoft announced in 2008 that they were shutting down Ensemble Studios, the development studio for all the Age of Empires titles. It would appear that Microsoft has reconsidered the decision to end the Age of Empires line, as they’ve recently released two significant updates—Age of Empires: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.
Wineskin Winery
It is not only Wine, however, for the purposes of Voobly, the rest is practically irrelevant. The reason I brought up this subject is that in my opinion, it is more straightforward to use the native Linux client, since in the future, that is where those who play Age of Empires on Linux will most likely already have an installation ready. Wars of Liberty is a free fan modification for Age of Empires III. WoL brings 24 new civilizations, dozens of new maps, natives, music, and more. The team has worked hard to ensure that each civilization has its own unique gameplay that will turn Age of Empires III into a great new RTS experience.
These updates improved the graphics quality and also moved to DirectX 11 as the graphics library upon which the games are based. I wrote about Age of Empires: Definitive Edition and Parallels Desktop in an earlier blog post, and in this post I will discuss Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.
I won’t keep you in suspense any longer: because Parallels Desktop™ for Mac moved to Apple Metal and now supports DirectX 11, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition plays great in Parallels Desktop on my MacBook Pro. You can see this for yourself in this short video:
Video1: Some short gameplay of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition in Parallels Desktop
Of course, the most important variable in-game performance is the specs for your Mac. The basic specs for the Mac used for Video 1 are shown in Figure 1.
Note: There does appear to be a small bug in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. Its check for video memory in a Parallels Desktop virtual machine is incorrect, and you may see the dialog shown in Figure 2. Just ignore this warning as it does not appear to affect gameplay at all. (I have reported the bug to the Age of Empires team.)
The Age of Empires team has also announced Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires IV. I will test them in Parallels Desktop as soon as they are available.
Let me know in the comments about your experience with any of the Age of Empires titles or other games that you play (or want to play!) in Parallels Desktop on your Mac.
Wineskin Winery Mac Age Of Empires Download
Download a free 14-day free trial to try Age of Empires and Parallels Desktop yourself to see how it works for your Mac set up!