http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=29080
Bug #: 29080 Summary: Serious Sam HD TSE Explosion Lag + Workaround Product: Wine Version: 1.3.32 Platform: x86-64 OS/Version: Linux Status: UNCONFIRMED Severity: normal Priority: P2 Component: -unknown AssignedTo: wine-bugs@winehq.org ReportedBy: FinalCrisisSX@Hotmail.com Classification: Unclassified
Arch Linux x86_64, up to date except for Xorg (using 1.10.4) and Nvidia (using 280.13) packages due to a transparency bug in TF2 I've reported to nvidia caused by nvidia drivers 285.05. I'm on a GTS 250.
In Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter, there is a 1.5 second or so complete freeze of the whole game whenever you blow up something explosive (like killing any suicide bomb guy always works), consistently. A very good map to reproduce this on if you have the fusion dlc (serious sam hd tfe content in serious sam hd tse) is Campaign -> Egypt -> Sand Canyon, since bomb guys come at you continuously right when you walk out the first door.
Now, I have found a workaround for this which makes no logical sense to me whatsoever, but I have reproduced it over 10 times (excluding many other times I reproduced it a long time ago) just to be sure I'm not crazy or mistaken. If you run a new wineprefix (let's call it winesam), and use a symbolic link to Steam in your main wine folder under winesam, it works fine. You may think "Well, that means it's just the clean wine prefix. The main one must have a problem", not so. If you MOVE the steam folder from the ~/.wine prefix to the ~/.winesam prefix, it starts to lag again. Move it back to the ~/.wine one, and then link to it with ln -s instead in ~/.winesam, no more lag upon killing bomb guys. Switching it back and forth in otherwise unchanged ~/.wine and ~/.winesam reproduces/fixes the issue respectively.
Specific commands:
# Assuming Steam program files folder is currently in ~/.wine prefix cd ~/.winesam/drive_c/Program\ Files ln -s ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Steam ./ WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.winesam wine "C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe" # no lag when blowing up bomb guys
cd ~/.winesam/drive_c/Program\ Files rm ./Steam mv ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Steam ./ WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.winesam wine "C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe" # lag when blowing up bomb guys
I have no idea why this is even possible, since it is just linking to the exact same thing. Note that doing this the opposite way also works: running regular wine prefix ~/.wine that has a symlink to Steam somewhere else produces no further explosion lag.
Other than this short hang when blowing up a bomb guy, the game runs perfectly fine in wine 1.3.18 or with a patched 1.3.32 (see http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=29079 ). Same issue in both wine versions.