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L3DT in Linux

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L3DT in Linux

Postby Aaron » Tue Nov 13, 2007 10:57 am

Hello Everyone,

Users of Linux may be interested to know that the latest developmental build of L3DT (v2.5.2.18, 12th of Nov) will now run in Linux using Wine (tested on Ubuntu 7.10). Aside from a surprisingly small number of user interface bugs, and one Windows-only plugin, everything seems to be working correctly. However, testing has not been extensive, so L3DT in Linux should not be used for serious production work at this stage. Work will continue on Wine/Linux compatibility for the next release (L3DT v2.6).

For more information, please see the L3DT in Linux user-guide (pics included).

Best regards,
Aaron.
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Postby Madcowthomas » Tue Nov 13, 2007 5:34 pm

Wow that is awesome, might have to switch on these laptop over to that os of Linux here. We run the Fedora for are servers here at the house for are game and websites. This be awesome due too the raw power of the linux os, woot this looks awesome Arron!

P.S. I have Linux setup as an image in Virtual PC. It might be worth trying out sometime. Almost forgot about that ! hehe
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Postby Madcowthomas » Tue Nov 13, 2007 5:48 pm

Could you create an ini or inf file with all your settings, paths to map information and then issue the command to run L3TD at a Linux prompt and it would simply sit there and crunch out the map without a fancy interface to watch. Far more speed and power for those who aren't running an interface and have huge maps to grind out.


if you could issue the command L3DT --config-file /home/user/mylatestmap.l3dt


Here some food for thought, was talking to one my partners and discussing the power of doing all crunching in Linux
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Peace
Madcowthomas

Yo...Reggie vacation mom!

"Without imagination we would cease to exist"
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(1970-)
Warning!
Burping Babies are the Cause of Global Warming!
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Postby Aaron » Tue Nov 13, 2007 9:25 pm

Hi William,

You can run map calculations through L3DT from the command line by using the batch files (.def.xml or .run), or by running script files (python or L3DT's native 'ZeoScript' script language).

So, in Windows it is:

Code: Select all
l3dt.exe "my batch file.run"

or
Code: Select all
l3dt.exe "my map definition.def.xml"

or
Code: Select all
l3dt.exe "my Python script file.py"

or
Code: Select all
l3dt.exe "my ZeoScript script file.zs"


And in Linux it would (should?) be:

Code: Select all
wine l3dt.exe "my batch file.run"

etc...

L3DT's user interface is still shown when using these command-line options. However, it doesn't consume many clock cycles, so I don't think there would be much benefit in turning it off entirely. You can however disable parts of it, such as the progress display. This is done by going to 'Settings->Local settings', then setting the 'UI->Dialogs->Progress->DrawGrid' flag to false. Minimising L3DT also has the effect of disabling the user interface.

As for performance; I haven't yet done a timed comparison of Windows versus Wine/Linux performance, but my general impression was that running L3DT in Linux with Wine was not noticeably faster than L3DT running natively in Windows XP, and could have been slower. I'll do a proper performance comparison today or tomorrow.

Cheerio,
Aaron.
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Postby mip » Wed Nov 14, 2007 1:21 pm

Great news. I dreamed of of a native Linux version, but Wine is a step into the right direction :D
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Postby Aaron » Wed Nov 14, 2007 8:51 pm

Hi All,

I've just uploaded a new dev build of L3DT Pro (v2.5.2.19), which fixes the most serious user-interface bugs of L3DT in Linux. It will probably take me another few weeks to test every little bit.

Edit:

Oops, I nearly forgot to mention the results of the performance test: L3DT in GNU/Linux/Wine was about 20% slower than native performance in Windows XP for general map-making calculations. Pretty good, all things considered.

Cheerio,
Aaron.
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