wine users - Feb 2010 - Does Wine support the NVIDIA 7186 drivers?

A query regarding WINE support for older hardware: Does Wine support the NVIDIA
7186 drivers, or are they too old and unsupported now?

Following on from this post - http://forum.winehq.org/viewtopic.php?t=7509 and
http://forum.winehq.org/viewtopic.php?t=6574&highlight=rome+total+war

I've been playing around a bit. I've tried without installing DX9 as
well as using Winetricks to install DX9 (d3dx9).

With both Legion Arena and Rome Total War Demo, the games get further and did
not crash if I use the open source 'nv' drivers. In the case of
RTW-demo, I can even see the game starting up, with sound and see the landscape
appear. But in both cases the games run so slow as to be unplayable. This may be
expected I guess as 'nv' does not support 3D effects (i think).

However, if I load the NVIDIA 7186 drivers, both games just crash to the desktop
in error once the game starts to run.

So they actually get further, in RTW case much further, with 'nv' than
'7186' which does support 3D effects.

Is this to be expected?
Should WINE support the 7186 drivers?

My old machine:

Linux - PCLinuxOS 2009.2 (updated). 
Wine - 1.1.35 
Driver - 7186.06-5 on Nvidia GF2(64M) - GTS
Kernel - 2.6.26.8 
KDE - 4.3.4

It looks like the PC hardware and software will run the games but only far too
slowly to be usable with the open source drivers, but not at all with the NVIDIA
drivers. The same PC dual boots and runs both OK in Windows.


Thanks

Sorry, should have added, in the RTW case I had to install winetricks D3dx9,
then remove the 7186 drivers. Logoff, logon, run RTW, set video and audio
options to minimum, and then the game would run. Albeit far too slowly to be
playable.

Reinstalling the 7186 just causes it to crash again.

It is not clear what Geforce2 he is using but I would guess he uses a Geforc2
GTS/Ti/Pro/Ultra which are not supported past 7186. The Geforce2MX is supported
upto 96xx but the version doesn't really matter for the supported OpenGL
functionality.

You won't be able to run most d3d8/d3d9 games on Wine using such an old
card. On Windows you are able to run more games because DirectX has software
emulation for pixel shaders 1.x and other functionality.

James Huk & Thunderbird,

Its a GF2-GTS card

Thanks for the info. I guess I'll have to accept the 'old girl' (PC
that is) is passed her sell by date  :(

The PC is not worth spending a fortune on, but I may try to get an old GF3 or
similar card if I can pick one up for a small cost.


Thanks anyway.

James Huk, 

Thanks for the info. Thats clarified it for me (I think  :) )

I only intend to get a newer card if I can find a real cheap bargain. I've
no intention of spending a lot of money on this old PC.

Thanks