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A couple weeks ago Runescape went back into not-working-on-Linux mode. I tried playing on Windows for a while, but it's *so* annoying having to switch operating systems for it. I hate having to choose, on a scale of *hours*, between "Runescape" and "everything else". I can't pop in for five minutes to check on something, I can't have stuff running in the background while I play, and I can't work on other things here and there on breaks. Probably nobody else pays close enough attention to notice (I haven't been making announcements, just quietly updating my Tumblr user profile with the current status), but my rate of Wordpress-archive formatting has definitely suffered. (admittedly I also worked more hours the past couple weeks, but still, I think the operating-system problem was a significant factor)
(Also, my Windows screen-brightness control is broken, and I have not figured out a way to fix it. I found a third-party screen dimmer that works, but sometimes the brightness Windows is stuck on is too *dim* for my current needs, and third-party screen *brightening* seems to be much harder. And it insists on reverting to UTC whenever I reboot, though if you check its timezone it still claims to be on Eastern time.)
I tried playing a couple more Linux-friendly games, seeing if I could coax my brain into phase with them, but I'm just not in the mood.
---
The problem with the Runescape Linux client is that it was made for use on Ubuntu 14.04, and while they've made a few minor tweaks to it since then they've never gone back and really updated it to work properly on newer versions.
Last night, a thought occurred to me:
"Hmm, I wonder what would happen if I tried the overkill approach?"
So I tried the overkill approach: I made an Ubuntu 14.04 virtual machine and tried installing the client on *that*.
It...kind of actually works? After a couple initial tests to see how high-spec I could make the machine without it lagging my whole computer (conveniently, you can edit the specs of a machine *after* you make it; no need to start from scratch), I seem to have ended up with a machine that can run Runescape at 2 fps. And like, I spent *years* playing Runescape on a machine that got 2 fps, that is empirically a thing that I have been known to do. As I mentioned recently, I already don't do forms of gameplay that require fast reaction times.
(*Way* back in the day, I used to play Runescape on a machine that would freeze up for *several minutes* every time it had to load a new area of the map. I remember keeping a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by my laptop *specifically* for the purpose of having something to do while I waited for the map to load.)
I might try knocking the graphics quality down a bit more, see if that helps.
(Also, my Windows screen-brightness control is broken, and I have not figured out a way to fix it. I found a third-party screen dimmer that works, but sometimes the brightness Windows is stuck on is too *dim* for my current needs, and third-party screen *brightening* seems to be much harder. And it insists on reverting to UTC whenever I reboot, though if you check its timezone it still claims to be on Eastern time.)
I tried playing a couple more Linux-friendly games, seeing if I could coax my brain into phase with them, but I'm just not in the mood.
---
The problem with the Runescape Linux client is that it was made for use on Ubuntu 14.04, and while they've made a few minor tweaks to it since then they've never gone back and really updated it to work properly on newer versions.
Last night, a thought occurred to me:
"Hmm, I wonder what would happen if I tried the overkill approach?"
So I tried the overkill approach: I made an Ubuntu 14.04 virtual machine and tried installing the client on *that*.
It...kind of actually works? After a couple initial tests to see how high-spec I could make the machine without it lagging my whole computer (conveniently, you can edit the specs of a machine *after* you make it; no need to start from scratch), I seem to have ended up with a machine that can run Runescape at 2 fps. And like, I spent *years* playing Runescape on a machine that got 2 fps, that is empirically a thing that I have been known to do. As I mentioned recently, I already don't do forms of gameplay that require fast reaction times.
(*Way* back in the day, I used to play Runescape on a machine that would freeze up for *several minutes* every time it had to load a new area of the map. I remember keeping a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by my laptop *specifically* for the purpose of having something to do while I waited for the map to load.)
I might try knocking the graphics quality down a bit more, see if that helps.
