Champions Online is a free-to-play MMORPG in a marvel-like universe where you can develop your character into a super hero to save the people in Millennium City, Canadian wastes, Qliphotic and Vibora Bay. Choose your own super powers and level up your hero by elminiating forces of evil and destroy super villains, monsters, gangsters, aliens and secret sinister organizations.



Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Champions Online in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the direct downloaded version of Champions Online. Arc and Steam versions may require additional steps.

Tips & Specs:

To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux Explained

Mint 17 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.2.8
Wine: 1.7.47staging

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"


Look for the Wine Version: 1.7.47staging
Note: Try using stable Wine 1.8 and 1.8-staging

Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right


Click Next

Downloading Wine


Extracting

Downloading Gecko


Installed


Wine 1.7.47staging is installed and you can close this window

Download Champions Online Setup
Go to: http://download.perfectworld.com/co/champions_online_setup.exe
Save the champions_online_setup.exe to a folder on your desktop


PlayOnLinux Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install


Click "Install a non-listed program"


Click Next

Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
Click Next


Name your virtual drive: champions
Click Next


Check all three options:

• Use another version of Wine
• Configure Wine
• Install some libraries

Click Next


Select Wine: 1.7.47staging
Click Next


Select "32 bits windows installation"
Click Next


Wine Configuration

Application Tab
Windows version: Windows 7
Click Apply


Graphics Tab
Check "Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows"
Check "Emulate a virtual desktop"
Desktop size: 1024x768

Click OK


PlayOnLinux Packages

Check the following packages:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_tahoma

Click Next


Note: All packages will automatically download and install

Installing Champions Online

Click Browse

Navigate to the folder on your desktop
Select "champions_online_setup.exe"
Click Open


Click Next

Click Next


Click "I Agree"


Click Next


Uncheck "Create desktop icon"
Click Install


Uncheck "Launch Champions Online"
Click Finish


PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select "Champions Online.exe"
Click Next


Click Next


Select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
Click Next


PlayOnLinux Configure

Select "Champions Online"
Click Configure


General Tab
Wine version: 1.7.47-staging


Note: Click the + to download other versions of Wine, click the down-arrow to select other versions of Wine.

Display Tab
Video memory size: Enter the amount of memory your video card/chip uses


Close Configure

Launching Champions Online

Back to PlayOnLinux
Select Champions Online
Click Run


Note: Click Debug to see errors and bugs

First Time Launch

Cryptic Launcher Update


On-Demand Patching

Click Options in the Launcher
Uncheck "On-demand patching"


Note: On-demand patching has been known to crash the game, but it will force you to download the entire game

Login with your Perfect World account (Same as Neverwinter and Star Trek Online)


Download Champions Online
Wait while the patcher downloads 6 Gigabytes of data


Click Play


If you get a crashed pop-up, just click "Cancel"


Failed System Specs Check
check "Remember my selection for one month, or until installing new drives"
Select "Yes, with lowered settings"


One-Time Code
Check your email account, copy the code
Paste the code here
Click Submit


Click Accept


Optimization

Click Options


Click Video

Adjust:

• Display Mode
• Resolution
• Refresh Rate
• Brightness
• Aspect Ratio
• Vertical Sync

Use the Quality slider or check "Show advanced video settings"


Advanced Settings

Adjust:

• Antialiasing
• Dynamic Lighting
• Shadows
• Max lights per object
• Max shadowed lights
• Texture anisotrophic filtering
• World texture quality
• Character texture quality
• World detail distance
• Post processing
• Visual fx quality
• Soft particles
• Bloom quality
• Blom intensity
• Ambient occlusion
• Comic-Style outlining
• Depth of field
• Underwater view
• Reflection quality
• Lens flare quality

Click Apply




Rule of Thumb:
High settings = More detail, lower frame rates
Low settings = Less detail, higher frame rates

Conclusion:
Champions Online plays just as good as Neverwinter and Star Trek Online. The installation and video settings are almost identical. The controls are a bit different as you have to click or press Tab to select an enemy. There seems to be too many options for controls, but if you experiment with them, you can adjust them to your liking.

Video Gameplay:


Screenshots: