How to run Track-Studio on VirtualBox?

[MrWaterBug]

Comment:

I hope what I’m about to post is understandable. I'm using a translator for this. XD
This post aims to help and provide information based on what I discovered to make the program work. I'm not an expert in these topics, but I think it might be useful.

Tutorial:

- Prepare VirtualBox:
If you're using Linux and don’t know how to run this type of program, and also Wine can’t execute it due to missing Windows files, you can use VirtualBox to run it. I recommend using a Windows LTSC ISO since it doesn’t include unnecessary programs. During the VirtualBox setup, go to Settings > Display > Extended Features, and enable the "Enable 3D Acceleration" option so it works properly.

*If the operating system doesn’t boot in VirtualBox, open your terminal and run one of these commands depending on your processor:
- For AMD: sudo rmmod kvm_amd
- For Intel: sudo rmmod kvm_intel

- Prepare Track-Studio:
Once inside Windows, download and install "Microsoft .NET SDK 8" so that Track-Studio can run. When you try to open it, only the console (CMD) might appear and then close immediately. After looking through several forums on how to open 3D programs, I came across a page called FEDERICO DOSSENA, where they offer a solution called Mesa3D for Windows. This includes a file called "opengl32.dll", which allows some OpenGL-based applications to work.

*I scanned this file with VirusTotal and ClamTK, and they didn’t detect anything malicious. Also, it has its official GitHub repository.

Links:
- Mesa3D for Windows: https://fdossena.com/?p=mesa/index.frag
- Official GitHub: https://github.com/lightningterror/Mesa3D-Windows

Place the opengl32.dll file in:

1. The Track-Studio folder.
2. In C:...\AppData\Local, create a folder named "mapstudio", and put the file there.

With this, the program should launch. At first, the window will appear black, but it will load afterwards. When this happens, adjust the window from a corner to fit your screen, and you’ll be able to see all the program's options.

*I downloaded an old version of Track-Studio that came with a type of launcher. When pressing an option in the launcher, CMD would open and a message would appear saying something like: AppData\Local\mapstudio missing opengl32.dll, then it would close.
That’s how I knew I had to place the file in that folder. Also, the FEDERICO DOSSENA page mentions other instructions, but I don’t know if they work or improve anything.

- Share files between Linux and Windows (in VirtualBox):
To transfer files between Linux and Windows, you need the ISO file "VBoxGuestAdditions_7.0.6".
If it’s not included, you can find it on the official site. I found it in a forum and verified it came from the original site.
Once downloaded, mount the ISO in your Windows virtual machine and install the program it contains. There are YouTube videos explaining how to use this ISO.

Forum: https://www.reddit.com/r/virtualbox/comments/12vkjwk/where_to_download_guest_additions_iso/

Noticed errors:

• SHADING error: When modifying the settings, the program closes. This may be due to using the virtual processor or the opengl32.dll. On the page, they mention it may not work well with modern hardware.
• 3D visual glitches: Sometimes yellow dots appear on the 3D models.
• Error exporting the track UI image: The program freezes and closes.

Final comment:

Despite these errors, they don’t affect map editing too much.
It happened to me that when replacing a .dae inside an .szs, the textures were flipped and there were other issues, but that was probably because I didn’t use Blender correctly or something like that.

[InfinaMii]

Should be able to run this on linux by installing dotnet 8.0 and then running dotnet TrackStudio.dll in the exe directory. No need for VirtualBox or anything - though if you're using an immutable distro this might be a good alternative, I've not personally used VirtualBox on linux before.