bug with the linux version -- very slow, unplayable, mouse tracking

[lac]

I have downloaded Machinarium to my laptop, which is an ibm thinkpad x40.  But I cannot play the game.  The mouse does not track properly ... it lags very, very, very much behind the mouse movement.  What could be causing this is if the mouse is being sampled far too frequently, and then the updates are never flushed.  Thus I cannot use the first item you collect for your inventory after I have removed it from there.  From playing the flash demo -- which didn't have this problem -- I know what to do with it.  But when I mouse over the relevant spot, though the item highlights, I cannot then click for 'drop it here'.  The game is still processing my descent down to the toolbar on the bottom.  Also clicking esc, even as the very first thing to do, does not get me out of full screen mode.

Anybody seen this?  Got a fix?  Is there something I should be doing with my linux window manager (kde)?

Thanks very much,
Laura

[nicolas]

Hi

Two things to do in order to - perharps - resolve your issue (I think I've encountered something like that when I played the first time).
1) Deactivate hardware acceleration in the Flash settings panel (accessible through a right click on the game).
2) Maybe play in windowed mode. Quit the full screen with the bottom menu, the Esc at the beginning doesn't work.

I hope it would help you. 

[lac]

Thank you very much!  This worked perfectly!

Laura

[philos]

Hello folks - I'm trying to run Machinarium on my Inspiron 910 running Gnome 2.22.3 (based on Ubuntu 8.04).  I'm running into the same problem - terrible mouse lag, etc.  I've turned off hardware acceleration, but I cannot exit full screen.

I have no bottom menu and no keyboard control of the program.  This means I cannot quit or save as well.  When I force quit the program and switch to the terminal I find that I have two seperate Machinarium processes running even though I've "quit" the program.  Only killing those two processes will stop the audio from playing.

Unfortunately this makes the game completely unusable.  Having played on a Mac, I know the game is wonderful and would very much like to be able to play on this machine.

Any suggestions?  (I'm sorry but my Linux knowledge is very limited - I'm willing to try just about anything, but would need direction...)

Thanks-

Erik

[nicolas]

Exiting fullscreen is a common issue to all netbooks, because of the hidden bottom menu. The minimum resolution for the game is 1024*768, according to the website. For saving, the automatic save can be enough (with the "Resume game" feature), but to go in windowed mode, I don't find any other solutions. There doesn't seems to be a option like '-w' to launch the player in windowed mode, nor a functional shortcut to exit fullscreen (CTRL+F works only to activate fullscreen when you're in windowed mode).  

So the only way I see is to launch the game on an other computer with a larger screen, to disable fulscreen here, and to transfer Flash preferences, maybe just the Machinarium.sol file (see a FAQ to find it), into the netbook, so the game will be launched in windowed on it.

(yes, this answer was posted identically on two topics)

[philos]

Thanks, Nicosmos - I had seen the issue in several other threads, but hadn't seen a fix.  Do you know if there is a way to edit the pref file directly (or what the changed line would be for windowed mode)?  I don't have another Linux box to do this with and would assume that copying the file from a mac version wouldn't work - or would it...

Thanks again-

Erik

[nicolas]

I haven't any idea of how this file is constructed. However, I think it is the same whatever the system, so a Mac OS one should work.
But here is a blank Machinarium.sol file (not any game begun on it) which is only set to start in windowed mode. So you can put it in the right place, and your game should not be in fullscreen.

[philos]

Again, many thanks!  I'll pop this one in and see if it works.

Peace-

Erik

[philos]

Okay, so not as easy as I thought.  Since I haven't been able to save a game yet, I don't think that a copy of Machinarium.sol exists on this machine yet (at least I couldn't find one to replace).  Where should the file go?  I tried placing it in the Machinarium folder at the same level as the app, but that just gave me a black screen and was totally unresponsive.

As an aside, I looked on my mac and didn't find a copy of the file anywhere...

Thanks again, and I'm sorry I have so many questions.

Erik

[nicolas]

Just play a bit (only the first screen for instance) and quit the game. Your Machinarium.sol file will be created in :

Code:

/home/-username-/.macromedia/Flash_Player/#SharedObjects/-strangething-/-localsomething-/-way-to-the-machinarium-folder/-name-of-the-machinarium-folder/Machinarium/Machinarium.sol

Where "strangething" is a series of characters like ABCDE123 and "localsomething" can be #localWithNet, localhost or localwithnet (or perhaps others).
If you use a launcher, look at :

Code:

/home/-username-/.macromedia/Flash_Player/#SharedObjects/-strangething-/-localsomething-/Machinarium/Machinarium.sol

Then, replace it by the windowed one, and launch the game again.

[philos]

Sorry to be such a nuisance here, but I've hit one more snag.  I cannot quit the game once I've started it.  The only way I've figured out to get out of the game once it's started, is to force minimize the game (ctl-alt-esc) and then closing the program.  I do still have to go into the terminal and kill the process after that, though. 

Any ideas?  And again, thanks for the help.  I cannot recall ever having an experience on a board where so many questions have been answered so quickly and helpfully - even on a Sunday.

Peace-

Erik

[ABoretz]

I shouldn't be butting in here, Nicosmos is pretty sharp and will probably have the solution for you in a jiffy...
but if you search the Linux forum for the keyword "quitting" I noticed a thread that mentions that issue.

Hope this (or Nicosmos) helps you out.  :-)

[nicolas]

I cannot quit the game once I've started it.

Even with Alt+F4 ? Or perhaps Ctrl+Q. And in fact, even with your method, the Machinarium.sol file should be created. I think whatever the way of quitting, the file appears if you have done at least a little thing in the game (the first level for instance). 

[terrasect]

I disabled hardware acceleration and exited full screen mode, but I am still having lag issues. Sometimes it would be really laggy for a few minutes, then it would be normal for a minute, then laggy again.

Very nice game, though.