Platform specific info
At the moment, the game is only built for 64-bit systems (it's possible to target 32-bit when building from source).
I'm regularly testing on Windows 7 and Windows 10. Windows Vista and 8 should work, too, but I haven't tested it. It most likely doesn't run on Windows XP (not tested either).
No installation is required, just extract the zip file and place the exe and dll files into a location of your choice. You can put them next to your Duke Nukem II game files, but this is not required. If placed elsewhere, the game will let you select the location on the first run.
The exe & dlls can be freely moved around to another place on your system at any time, the location of your Duke 2 game files will be remembered so you don't need to select it again (unless you move the game files themselves).
Saved games, options etc. are stored in the AppData dir (more info).
If Windows pops up a "Windows protected your system" dialog like this:
You can still run the game by clicking on "more info" and then on "Run anyway".
The reason Windows pops up this dialog is because RigelEngine is not code signed. Unfortunately, a code signing certificate costs a non-trivial amount of money (yearly). RigelEngine will always be a free open source project, so it doesn't make financial sense for me to buy a certificate.
If you encounter missing DLL errors, install the Visual Studio 2019 Redistributable.
If the game crashes at startup or fails with an error, this could mean that either your graphics drivers aren't up to date, or that your graphics card doesn't support OpenGL 3.0. See Supported Graphics cards for more info.
Note: For distros other than Ubuntu/Mint/Debian or similar, consider using the Flatpak instead of the .deb package.
You need a 64-bit system.
I've tested the package on the following distros:
- Ubuntu 18.04
- Ubuntu 20.04
- Ubuntu 22.04
- Linux Mint 19 (Mate)
- Linux Mint 20.2 (Cinnamon)
Older versions of these distros won't work, because their libc is too old.
Other Debian or Ubuntu based distros should work as long as they have at least libc version 2.27, but I haven't tested it.
Either double-click the deb package and use the graphical installer, or run sudo apt install ./<path-to-package> (it's important to specify either an absolute path or use the ./ prefix, to make sure apt treats it as a file and not a package name).
Once installed, the package can be uninstalled again using sudo apt remove rigelengine.
If the game fails to start with an error, your graphics card might not support OpenGL 3.0 yet. In that case, you can try the GL ES version (rigelengine_linux_gles_x64.deb).
At the moment, you need at least Mac OS 10.15 (Catalina). If you build from source, you can also run on 10.14. Making the pre-built version support 10.14 is planned for the future.
I've tested the build on 10.15 and 11.2.1 (Big Sur), and on both Intel and M1 (aka Apple Silicon) Macs. At the moment, the game runs via Rosetta on M1 machines, but performance is very good. A native M1 build is planned for the future.
Double-click the dmg, then drag the RigelEngine symbol into the Applications folder or copy it to some other location of your choice.
If trying to open the game pops up a dialog like the following:
You can still open the game by right-clicking the application and selecting "Open". This will pop up a slightly different dialog, where you do get the option to run the application:
This only needs to be done the first time, the application can be started without problems afterwards.
The reason Mac OS pops up this dialog is because RigelEngine is not code signed. Unfortunately, a code signing certificate costs a non-trivial amount of money (yearly). RigelEngine will always be a free open source project, so it doesn't make financial sense for me to buy a certificate.