Ephinea PSO BB natively on Android via Winlator

Makusensu

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Yo,

So I wanted to sum up my experience on how to run the game on Android via Winlator. I also tried Mobox, but honestly it is much more complicated and kinda waste of time for the same end result.

I found out during my expérimentation some people were running it successfully on Samsung Galaxy phones and some Android handhelds without headache, I don't think they are on Qualcomm SOC.
By the way, someone made an automated script for the ones who would like to install and minimal setup it easily:
In my case, using an Xperia 1V with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, as well as another old crappy Snapdragon 695 I use for random tests purpose or spare at home.
Impossible to boot psobb process, whatever all combinations of resolution, graphics API, box86/64 settings on both phones.
Which was odd because on the Xperia the same wine container can run Yakuza 0 for instance.

The only error log obtained was:
[05-04-2024, 10:40:28] ERROR : The game has forcefully terminated itself. This can be caused by unauthorized game memory or code modification, debugger attachments, or detected cheat programs running on your machine.
CODE: 00000004
Since nothing was hooking the process, it actually turns out the problem was the versions of box86 and 64 set by default within Winlator settings itself.
Once switched more recent box68 to 0.3.5 et box64 to 0.2.7, PSO magically booted, with any graphics API. :)
Dualsense connected on Bluetooth is also working.

Here is my working settings, I think there is margin to try various ones, as well as PSO ones, to get better performance:
1714825026395.jpeg
In Wine configuration under start menu, you will need to add Ephinea dll into libraries tab as native, or else it won't be loaded into the client.
If you are on an Xperia, I recommand using Game enhencer and enable HS power control to block battery charging while playing on AC.

I would add a side note for login entry, it can be tricky to validate as the virtual enter key on the on screen RTS is sometimes not validating and you are stuck in text edit of your username or password.
At login screen don't do anything and enable RTS as well as "lock cursor" (back button, input controls). Lock cursor will disable mouse pointer control.
Enter your login and pass using native Android keyboard, but don't press the enter key on it, instead close it and use the virtual enter key of the on screen RTS.

Also, I would recommand copying your already updated client from your PC directly on your phone instead of letting it update itself as it not seems to work greatly when psobb process write files and you will end up into the loop of the login that is never saved.
 
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Hey! Glad you got it working, and positive to hear that Samsung mobile users also have it working!

I have an issue logging in, keep getting the 916 error no matter what I try. I'm using a Samsung S23+ with the Areno 740 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC).

Can you confirm if you have the Winlator setting "Stop services on startup" checked or unchecked? For me, if I uncheck it the 'Welcome to Ephinea' screen will freeze after hitting enter. If I keep it checked it will work as normal but throw up the 916 error.

To note, I can see the Ephinea Server version at the start screen, so doesn't appear to be a dll error. I've also added the Ephinea dll to run as 'native'. I managed to install and get online with Schthack PSOBB without any problems.

Unfortunately I haven't got access to another phone or tablet so can't rule out if it's an issue with my phone or not.

Thanks in advance!
 
Hi
Nope I can no longer connect unfortunatly. :(
So maybe everything I wrote is just pill of crap, sorry.

It worked once I don't know why or how but now I am getting 916 too.

This error means the login server rejected the connection request but only admin may be able to tell us why.
There must be a very specific reason as it is still detecting if you are already connected to a server on another device, so at least the communication is working.

I also set ephinea dll as native in Wine and I have the version displayed at title screen.

It is also freezing at the update screen until services is killed.
 
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Haha well I'm kinda glad someone else is getting the same error. I must have been through every combination of settings imaginable. I've trawled through forums and the 916 error appears to be a generic code which could mean a number of issues, like AV blocking the exe, router config problems, was also told that having "stop services on startup" in Winlator checked would also cause it. If I kill services.exe or winedevice.exe (I have 2 winedevice processes running in task manager for some reason) it will unfreeze and try to connect.

But yeah I think we'd need someone from the admin team to confirm if it's an issue our end (which is more than likely).

Just to note, I've tried different versions of Winlator and different versions of Wine (up to 9.5).

Forgot to mention that in the launcher, it shows "??? Hunters Online" instead of the actual number. Would be nice to have this working on the phone but I'll just stick with the laptop for now.
 
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Forgot to mention that in the launcher, it shows "??? Hunters Online" instead of the actual number. Would be nice to have this working on the phone but I'll just stick with the laptop for now.
You're right I had not noticed, but many things are not working in the launcher, like all the labels in options menu are missing.

What I saw is when you keep the services active, killing only winedevice.exe unfreeze the launcher when stuck at opening around 280mb~ of ram, as well as the pso patch screen.
But it is weird online.exe itself takes up to 680mb when it is barely 35 on a PC, or it is the way Wine works by loading all the .net framework into exe memory?

Tbh smells like a bug within Wine or box and nothing we can do.
 
You're right I had not noticed, but many things are not working in the launcher, like all the labels in options menu are missing.

What I saw is when you keep the services active, killing only winedevice.exe unfreeze the launcher when stuck at opening around 280mb~ of ram, as well as the pso patch screen.
But it is weird online.exe itself takes up to 680mb when it is barely 35 on a PC, or it is the way Wine works by loading all the .net framework into exe memory?

Tbh smells like a bug within Wine or box and nothing we can do.
Same happens on mine, online.exe hovers around 280mb in Task Manager, then after some time it balloons to 600mb and opens. I read it was built to run on dotnet 4.6.2. If I look in the dotnet folder in Windows, it only goes up to v4.0 but not sure if it is relevant. The info on the Wine website says:

"If you need to use Microsoft's implementation of the .NET Framework, the Microsoft runtimes can partly run on Wine."

Very limited experience of how Wine/Mono works, but feels like something isn't initialising properly. There is mention of installing Winetricks to get different versions of dotnet installed, but don't know how to do it on Winlator. Still hoping some expert will see this and point us in the right direction, although it's probably better asking these questions on the Wine/Winlator forums :)
 
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Well the launcher is not much the problem in the end.

But I'm actually wondering if this is not a C++ framework missing/incompatibility affecting the ephinea dll which prevent the game login.
I did installed 2015, but also the latest all in one up to 2022 but it is not helping.

I doubt the dll is in C# ?
 
DLL is MSVC, not C#.

Although we only officially support Windows, I'm just wondering have you tried to update the client on a PC and then copy it over to your phone? (You mention this worked previously.)
 
DLL is MSVC, not C#.

Although we only officially support Windows, I'm just wondering have you tried to update the client on a PC and then copy it over to your phone? (You mention this worked previously.)
Yes, it worked once, with same files.

My wonder about an issue with ephinea dll is that eventually it is used by both the launcher to display the online players count and psobb, would have maybe explained why the count is not loaded.

But there are so much weird things happening or not simply following the box86 container that I don't really think it is a setup issue on the Wine side, because in the end it should how it is.

With which compiler version are you compiling the dll ?
 
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