Path of Exile Guide

RPG's have really come a long way...
Starting with text adventures to isometric Diablo hack-n-slash, then FPS Medieval fantasies to third person sci-fi role playing and now simple facebook games where you build farms, level up and help your friends to tower defense in a massive arena where heroes battle amongst minions.

Path of Exile is another online hack-n-slash that introduces some new elements while utilizing popular skills/loot/leveling to bring you a fresh epic RPG experience.

Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Path of Exile in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the online version of Path of Exile . Other 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: 4.2.12
Wine: 1.7.19-WGL_WINE_surface2

Note: Now tested with newer versions of Wine 2.9-staging with decent performance.

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"

Look for the Wine Version: 1.7.19-WGL_WINE_surface2
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right

Click Next

Downloading Wine

Extracting

Downloading Gecko

Installed

Wine 1.7.19-WGL_WINE_surface2 is installed and you can close this window

Downloading the Client

Go To: http://www.pathofexile.com
Click "Play Free Now!"

Register and then login
Click "Download Now!"

Save the PathOfExileInstaller.msi to your desktop

Setup PlayOnLinux

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: pathofexile
Click Next

Check all three options:

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

Click Next

Select Wine: 1.7.19-WGL_WINE_surface2
Click Next

Select "32 bits windows installation"
click Next

Configuring Wine

Applications 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

Installing Libraries

Check all of the following:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_d3dcompiler_43
• POL_Install_msvc100
• POL_Install_Registeredfonts
• POL_Install_riched20
• POL_Install_Tahoma
• POL_Install_vcrun2010

Note: PlayOnLinux will automatically download each library and install them.
Click Next

Installing Client

Click Browse

Navigate to your desktop
Select PathOfExileInstaller.msi
Click Open

Click Next

Path of Exile Setup Wizard
Click Next

Check "I accept the terms..."
Click Next

Install Path
Click Next

Click Install

Click Finish

PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select: Client.exe
Click Next

Name your shortcut: Path of Exile
Click Next

Click Next

Configure PlayOnLinux

Click Configure

General Tab
Wine version: 1.7.19-WGL_WINE_surface2

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

Display Tab
GLSL Support: disabled
Video memory size: the amount of memory on your video card

Close Configure

Launching Path of Exile

Select "Path of Exile"
Click Run

Note: The client should launch and start updating the full game 7.5 Gigabytes

Be patient as it loads the login screen

Optimization

Click Graphical Options
Open the Options
Click the Graphics tab
Select Fullscreen
Select Resolution
Adjust Shadows, Antialiasing, Textures, Postprocessing & Screen Shake

Note: disable Engine Multi-threading to reduce flicker

Click "Apply display settings"
Click Save

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

Fullscreen bug - Not necessary with newer versions of Wine

If Path of Exile refuses to launch or won't go fullscreen
Note: Path of Exile has to be launched at least once

Navigate to: /home/username/My Games/Path of Exile
Note: Username is where you put your login

Open production_Config.ini with Text Editor

Change:
fullscreen=false
to
fullscreen=true

Click Save

Conclusion:
Path of Exile ran even better with Wine 1.7.19-WGE_WINE_surface2. The graphics are amazing and rival modern-day engines with all the eye-candy your heart desires. Even up close the details are amazing. I've recently tested with newer versions of Wine like 2.9-staging and for the most part, performance is good. There is a bit of stutter here and there, but its definitely playable with settings on high.

Also, if you noticed any flickering problems, disable Engine Multi-threading

I was most impressed with the web of skills. There are so many non-linear option to what path you want to take for increasing your characters abilities.

Video Gameplay:

Screenshots:

 

Welcome to the forum
What happens when you leave GLSL on?
Does it crash either way?

 

when i turn GLSL the game runs but with poor performance and crash when there are many enemies.
sorry for my bad english.

 

that IS strange. I had similar problems but not the crashing. If I tried any other version of wine, the game would stutter really bad when enemies were in the screen.

What distro are you using?
Can you play any other games in Linux?

 

that IS strange. I had similar problems but not the crashing. If I tried any other version of wine, the game would stutter really bad when enemies were in the screen.

What distro are you using?
Can you play any other games in Linux?

i am using gentoo gnu/linux with kernel 3.14.
i can play games like Left 4 Dead 2 or Trine 2 but i don't have tried to play others games with wine.

 

Ok good, that means you have 32-bit libraries and video drivers installed.
The next step is to try using other versions of wine.
Try updating PlayOnLinux as well. The newest version is 4.2.5

It really sounds like a driver issue, but since you can run other games its probably not.
The only time I've seen shader errors is when I am trying to play a game on an old video card/chip. Like a laptop.

 

Ok good, that means you have 32-bit libraries and video drivers installed.
The next step is to try using other versions of wine.
Try updating PlayOnLinux as well. The newest version is 4.2.5

It really sounds like a driver issue, but since you can run other games its probably not.
The only time I've seen shader errors is when I am trying to play a game on an old video card/chip. Like a laptop.

oh D: i am playing on a laptop(toshiba)

 

Do you know what video chip the laptop has?
If its AMD, then that is the source of your problems. You can try updating the drivers, but I've only read bad things about AMD drivers for Linux

 

the laptop have a "3rd Generation Intel® Core™ Processors with Intel® HD Graphics 4000".
Kernel driver: i915.
---------------------------------

Usually poe close with this message: "
intel_do_flush_locked failed: Input/output error
al lib: (EE) alc_cleanup: 1 device not closed
'

 

Ok, I'm not very experienced with Intel drivers. I've read they can be "hit & miss"
As in... you never know if a game will work or not.
I have a Chromebook with Intel HD 2000 video chip and it won't play anything with shader 3.0 or shader 2.0 for that matter.

Intel has a Linux Graphics Installer
I tried it once when I upgraded my Chromebook to Ubuntu 14 but it didn't work for my HD 2000. Maybe it will work for you?

 

Try the newest Wine, there is a log post that says Path of Exile texture fix when GLSL is diabled: Wine 1.7.33

 

Try the newest Wine, there is a log post that says Path of Exile texture fix when GLSL is diabled: Wine 1.7.33

i tried it but have the same problem
i think is the intel driver but i don't know how to compile it from source code.

 

Dang, it was worth a try. did you try that Linux Graphics Installer?

 

the intel graphic installer don't have version for gentoo, only source code.
I want try install poe in ubuntu.

 

Ok, let me know if Ubuntu is happier with your Intel chip.
It "should" be, but you never know...

 

I've been playing Path Of Exile for almost a month now, I'm playing it on a daily basis and the only problem I encountered was happening to me both in windows and linux. The problem caused me to lag badly due to in-game Sound effects, in order to fix this you just need to turn them off or use one of those two arguments on playonlinux main configuration window:

--nosound
--softwareaudio

The only difference from this tutorial is that I use Wine version: 1.7.55, Windows version: Windows 8 and that on the wine graphics tab with only the first 3 options checked.

I have no problems running it on almost max settings on fullscreen and max resolution.

 

I originally experienced major "lag" when attacking a monster or attacks in general. For some reason I thought it was a particle/texture problem and found that 1.7.19-WGL_WINE_surface2 fixed it perfectly. But now that you mention sound effects, there is a chance it is related to the "lag" as well.
Either way, 1.7.19-WGL_WINE_surface2 made the game run perfectly on my GeForce 550 Ti.

 

I originally experienced major "lag" when attacking a monster or attacks in general. For some reason I thought it was a particle/texture problem and found that 1.7.19-WGL_WINE_surface2 fixed it perfectly. But now that you mention sound effects, there is a chance it is related to the "lag" as well.
Either way, 1.7.19-WGL_WINE_surface2 made the game run perfectly on my GeForce 550 Ti.

I experienced lag spikes and fps drops when I fought large numbers of mobs or bosses, I was weirded enough to find out it was the sound effects, at first I couldn't belive it, I've never ever had a problem like that, but it makes sense since you hear TONS of "overlapping" effects when those events happen. I think (and I might be wrong saying this) that is either my cpu or sound card being kind of "meh", specially because my sound card... well... it is integrated into the motherboard...

 

That is strange... all of my PC's have integrated sound cards and I didn't have this issue. There is a chance Pulseaudio or Alsa is causing these problems, but its hard to troubleshoot

 

That is strange... all of my PC's have integrated sound cards and I didn't have this issue. There is a chance Pulseaudio or Alsa is causing these problems, but its hard to troubleshoot

Well, as I mentioned, it happens on Win7 as well, on the same machine, that's why I think its more regarding the hardware itself.

 

Probably, I wouldn't be surprised. You can always update your drivers as new ones are released... granted your video card/chip isn't super old. Another thing you can try is downgrading your drivers