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Discovering I needed Wine to run anything Windows-based. I discovered I'd need DirectX to do anything significant, which in turn needed .NET framework. Using this (http://www.dedoimedo.com/games/wine-directx.html) tutorial for DirectX and downloading Wine 3.5 off of WineTricks, I thought I had everything sorted. Unfortunately, I don't. What worked fine on Windows either doesn't work or runs like it was stuck in molasses. Now, I know there are a lot of programs that have compatibility issues with Wine but what I don't understand is the slow-running programs part. Here are my system specs: 

Toshiba Satellite L455D-S5976
CPU: AMD Sempron SI-42 Single-core 2.1 GHz
RAM: 3GB (2.7 technically)
HDD: 500GB
GPU:  ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3100

Here's a partial list of the games I've been trying:

  • Supreme Commander
  • Command and Conquer: Generals (Zero-Hour)
  • Assassin's Creed
  • World in Conflict
  • Star Ruler (Blind Mind Studios)
  • Trackmania (Nadeo)
  • Battlefield 2
  • X3:Terran Conflict (Egosoft)
  • Rubber Ninjas Sim City 4

I would think that it was just my system being slow—I don't have the system requirements to really run AC—but here's the weird part. In the opening intro, it'll run at around 10FPS for about 3 seconds, and then 60 or so, faster than it ever had on my previous laptop which was actually better than this current one. And, for example, games like Rubber Ninjas, C&C, SupCom, and WiC all ran smoothly on my first laptop which was similarly specced to this one.

Oh! And another quick question—when I first installed WINE, unconfigured, I installed Derek Smart's Universal Combat and it worked fine. Now after some other games and some reconfiguring, it won't work at all, even if I reset to default settings.

So, am I doing something wrong? Does Wine need to be configured differently? I'm completely lost, here, and any help would be -greatly- appreciated, thank you. I do sincerely apologize for the wall of text, here, but I didn't want to leave any detail out, as that tends to make things harder for all parties involved.

P.S: I recently discovered ClockGen, found here (http://www.techspot.com/community/topics/overclocking-a-toshiba-satellite-laptop.32667/): and was wondering, is overclocking a viable solution? I don't remember what command I used to find my CPU speed—but it said my current speed was 2100MHz (aka 2.1 gigs), but the kicker was that my “max” speed was 4,000 MHz. Now, I would never DREAM of overclocking a laptop, or even a desktop, to that ridiculous speed, but even if I could get 2.4 or 5 out of it...and I would take full responsibility for the wrath I incur from the laptop gods. I would never run this thing unplugged—I don't anyway already so a battery's pretty much moot for me...and I have a high-speed fan running under any laptop at all times—scorched my pants with my first laptop and have been wary ever since.

eidolies
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user170867
  • 195

5 Answers5

2

TL;DR: This post explains how to run any game using Proton

Proton is a software that allows you to run Windows games on Linux. It is developed by Valve.

It is essentially a "Wine distribution", in the sense that it uses Wine in the background, but it is enhanced.

The Wine version that comes with it has been compiled with parameters that enhances speed. Most importantly, the wined3d stack, which translates DirectX calls to OpenGL, has been substituted. If the game runs on DirectX 9/10/11, DXVK is used to translate DirectX calls to Vulkan. If the game runs on DirectX 12, VKD3D will translate DirectX calls to Vulkan. These implementations are much much faster than the native ones.

Although Proton is "normally" used by Steam to run games downloaded by Steam itself, you can ticker with it to run any game you wish. For example, I am running Overwatch (downloaded through Battle.net) using Proton.

Here is a concept of proof on how you can use Proton to run any game.

We won't be compiling Proton from sources. Instead, we will use the pre-compiled package that comes with Steam. So, first of all, download Steam, run it, and have it download a version of Proton.

  1. Locate Proton folder. This usually will be a sub-folder under $HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common. In this folder you can find different versions of Proton, each in its own subfolder. Choose a version of Proton (most likely you will want the most recent one). In this example we will use Proton 5.13. Copy the "Proton 5.13" subfolder somewhere else, let's say in $HOME/bin/Proton

  2. Open $HOME/bin/Proton/proton (it's a Python 3 script) and comment out the line

    self.env["WINEPREFIX"] = g_compatdata.prefix_dir

    by putting a # before it. We don't want Proton to run the above line. We will provide our own WINEPREFIX.

  3. Locate Steam's COMPATDATA folder. This usually will be a subfolder of $HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata. In that folder you will find different subfolders whose names are made up entirely by numbers. This number-only subfolders are COMPATDATA folder. For example, my COMPATDATA subfolder is $HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/389730. Substitute the last part with your own number. In case multiple numbered folders show up, choose the highest number.

  4. VERY IMPORTANT: if you have more than one graphics card, for instance integrated and dedicated (like most laptops), DXVK require you to specify which one to use (you will want to use the dedicated one). See DXVK README on how to achieve this. Basically run:

    vulkaninfo | grep "GPU id :"

    you will obtain an output like:

    GPU id : 0 (GeForce GTX 1060):

    GPU id : 1 (Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630 (CFL GT2))

    The name in parentheses are the names of your graphic cards. Choose one for DXVK. We will choose the NVIDIA GeForce one in this example. DXVK can match sub-strings! So it is sufficient to use "GeForce". This is non-ambiguous and DXVK as said can match on sub-strings. So it will know which one to use.

  5. Choose a WINEPREFIX (basically a location) in which to install your game. $HOME/.wine is fine for most users.

  6. Here is a concept of proof of the script to run your game using Proton. Save it somewhere and name it launch_proton.sh. Call it like this: ./lunch_proton.sh game.exe. (of course remember to chmod +x launch_proton.sh). SUBSTITUTE THE VARIABLES AT THE START OF THE SCRIPT WITH THE VALUES YOU FOUND IN THE PREVIOUS POINTS.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

Modify these


export DXVK_FILTER_DEVICE_NAME="GeForce"
protonfolder="$HOME/bin/Proton"
export STEAM_COMPAT_DATA_PATH="$HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/389730"


Modify if needed


export WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wine


This should be fine for most users


sudo sysctl dev.i915.perf_stream_paranoid=0
"$protonfolder"/proton run "$1"

The script needs sudo privileges due to the line

sudo sysctl dev.i915.perf_stream_paranoid=0

which improves performances. If you remove this line, the script will run without sudo privileges.

robertspierre
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0

Read up about the vblank=0 setting that can be used before launching wine. Some ATI drivers set vertical sync to the monitor or in catalyst disable tearfree and the vertical syncronization.

Zanna
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user879356
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0

The issue with 3D performance is usually related to the poor/wrong driver, be it Windows or Linux. If you have a generic driver under Windows, you can't do much about 3D performance. If you have the right driver under Linux, 3D performance is at least as good as it would be in Windows with a good/right driver.

What Wine does is provide the execution platform for Windows programs under *nix. It does not emulate Windows OS, but rather translates OS API calls to *nix equivalents.

One detail though, if you run Windows x86 (32 bit) programs on an x64 Linux, you need 32bit video drivers too! Otherwise, a generic driver is used or some sort of software translation to the x64 driver takes place (not sure), which is bad for performance.

From my experience, some old games for Windows (XP) run better under Linux than under Windows 10 (eg. Half-Life), with fewer crashes. Since kernel 4.10 I don't remember any issues with video drivers on nVidia and Intel GPUs.

nVidia tends to have better drivers for Windows than for Linux though (remember why Linus Torvald showed the middle finger to nVidia?). There is an open source version of nVidia drivers called "nouveau", created through reverse engineering. It might be slightly slower than the proprietary one, but it has decent performance and stability.

DUzun
  • 101
-2

Run the game through the terminal using opengl wine /path/to/file/filename.exe --opengl

hyades
  • 119
-6

Wine isn't made for games. You can try playing games with wine but it will be very slow or it will have problems.

You can try PlayOnLinux. See if that helps.

Download PlayOnLinux in the software center.

Donald Shahini
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Android
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