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Steam Source Games Guide

Discussion in 'Guides' started by booman, Jun 26, 2013.

  • by booman, Jun 26, 2013 at 6:30 PM
  • booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    There are still a lot of favorite Steam games that won't run in Linux. So, I thought it would be nice to have a step-by-step guide on how to install WinSteam with PlayOnLinux

    I found it to be fairly easy to install and restore my backed up games from Windows. I am dual-booting Mint & Windows 7 so I can easily access my Steam games from the Windows 7 partition. This saved me a lot of time because I didn't have to download each game through Steam. Instead I did a quick copy & paste to migrate my games after Steam was installed.


    steam43.png

    Tips & Specs

    Try SteamPlay before using this guide as Valve now uses a fork of Wine called Proton and should run most Windows games.


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

    Mint 16 32-bit
    PlayOnLinux ver: 4.2.2
    Wine version: 1.6.2

    Installing Wine

    Click Tools
    Select "Manage Wine Versions"
    wine01.png

    Look for the Wine Version: 1.6.2
    Select it
    Click the arrow pointing to the right
    wine02.png

    Click Next

    Downloading Wine
    wine04.png

    Extracting

    Downloading Gecko
    wine05.png

    Installed
    wine06.png

    Also look for Wine 1.5.18
    You will need it later to install some libraries

    Wine 1.6.2 and 1.5.18 are installed and you can close this window

    Downloading Steam

    Use your browser and go to: http://www.steampowered.com
    Click the "Install Steam" button at the top right.
    steam01.png

    Do not click "Install Steam Now"
    It will automatically install Linux Steam. We will download the Windows Steam instead.
    click "Windows" under the green button
    steam02.png

    Navigate to your desktop
    Click Save
    steam03.png

    Setup PlayOnLinux

    Launch PlayOnLinux
    Click Install
    steam04.png

    Click "install a non-listed program"
    steam05.png

    Click Next

    Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
    Click Next
    steam07.png

    Name you virtual drive: sourcegames
    No spaces
    Click Next
    steam08.png

    Select all three options:
    • Use another version of Wine
    • Configure Wine
    • Install some libraries

    Click Next
    steam09.png

    Select Wine 1.6.2
    Click Next
    steam10.png

    Configure Wine

    Applications Tab
    Windows Version: Windows 7
    Click Apply
    steam11.png

    Graphics Tab
    Check: Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows
    Check: Emulate a virtual desktop
    Desktop size: 1024x768
    Click Ok
    steam12.png

    Install Libraries

    Check the following libraries:
    • POL_Install_corefonts
    • POL_Install_dxfullsetup
    • POL_Install_Physx
    • POL_Install_RegisterFonts
    • POL_Install_tahoma
    • POL_Install_vcrun2005
    • POL_Install_vcrun2008
    • POL_Install_vcrun2010
    Click Next
    steam14.png

    Initially these libraries are standard for most games. Some games like Magicka require dotnet libraries and XNA libraries, but before you install these, make sure to switch your wine version to 1.5.18 and then switch it back to 1.6.2
    • dotnet11
    • dotnet11sp1
    • dotnet30 (automatically installs dotnet20)
    • dotnet35
    • dotnet4
    • xna31 (some game like Magicka need XNA)
    • xna40
    • Internet Explorer 8 (automatically installs Service Pack 3

    Installing Steam

    Click Browse
    steam15.png

    Navigate to your desktop
    Select: SteamSetup.exe
    Click Open
    steam16.png

    Click Next

    Click Next

    Check: I accept the license...
    Click Next

    Click Next

    Click Next

    Click Install

    Click Finish

    Updating Steam
    steam24.png

    More updating, extracting and installing
    steam25.png

    When Steam is done installing the login screen will pop up. You probably won't see any text because there is a font bug.
    Click the "X" to close Steam login
    steam26.png

    PlayOnLinux Shortcut

    Select Steam.exe
    Click Next
    steam27.png

    Name your shortcut: Source Steam Games
    Click Next
    steam28.png

    Select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
    Click Next
    steam29.png

    More PlayOnLinux Configuration

    Back to PlayOnLinux
    Click Configure
    Select sourcegames virtual drive

    General Tab
    Arguments: -no-dwrite
    This fixes the font problem
    steam30.png

    Note: -no-dwrite only works if you launch Steam from PlayOnLinux. Steam is automatically set to launch when Windows starts, which means if you do a "Windows Reboot" from the Wine tab -no-dwrite won't execute. Just close Steam and try again.

    Display Tab
    Direct Draw Renderer: opengl
    Video Memory Size: size of memory on your video card
    Offscreen rendering mode: fbo
    steam31.png

    Wine Tab
    Click "Windows reboot"
    Its a good idea to reboot after installing libraries like dotnet or Internet Explorer
    Close Steam because it will automatically launch when Windows reboots and won't execute -no-dwrite.
    steam32.png

    Close Configure

    Launching Steam

    Select Source Steam Games
    Click Run
    steam33.png

    Click "Login to existing account"
    steam34.png

    Login
    steam35.png

    Steam Overlay

    Steam overlay has been known to cause problems launching games.
    Click Steam menu
    Click Settings
    steam36.png

    Select "In-game"
    Uncheck "Enable Steam Commuinty In-Game"
    Click OK
    steam37.png

    Now you are ready to install some games.

    Installing a game in Steam

    Lets start with... Alien Swarm because its totally Free!
    Click on the "Store"

    Search for Alien Swarm
    Click Alien Swarm
    steam39.png

    Click Play Game
    steam40.png

    Click next
    steam41.png

    Uncheck both options
    Click next
    steam42.png

    Check View Steam Library
    Click Finish
    steam43.png

    Wait for Alien Swarm to Download.

    When its done, launch Alien Swarm.
    steam81.png

    steam82.png

    More Steam Games
    Here are some other Steam games that I got running in PlayOnLinux

    Not all games are guaranteed to run in this "sourcegames" virtual drive. Steam provides hundreds of games from different publishers and run on different engines. I found that most Source games will run:
    • Half-Life
    • Half-Life 2
    • Counter-Strike: Source
    • Team Fortress 2
    • The Ship
    • Alien Swarm
    • Left4Dead I & II
    • Torchlight I & II
    I know Torchlight isn't a "source" game but it ran just fine.

    The Ship
    steam83.png

    steam84.png

    Torchlight
    steam85.png

    steam86.png

    steam87.png

    Hmm, what game is this?
    steam88.png

    steam89.png
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2019

Comments

Discussion in 'Guides' started by booman, Jun 26, 2013.

  1. booman
    I didn't feature other games like Counter-Strike 1 & 2, Half-Life 1 & 2 or Team Fortress 2 because they are now working native in Linux.
    Download and install the Linux Steam client and if you already have the source game purchased in Windows, it will automatically appear in your list of games.
    Download, play and have fun!
  2. booman
    High Res Screenshots:

    steam38.png steam40.png

    steam42.png steam43.png

    steam44.png steam45.png
  3. rolandttg
    Thank you for the tutorial!
    Maybe this will help me to install Dawn of War II.
  4. booman
    Maybe, but the reports on WineHQ is that its mostly "garbage"
    The last test was Feb 2013 on Fedora 18 with Wine 1.5.22
    Maybe you could do some tests and try some newer versions of wine.

    Looks like Retribution runs ok in Wine

    Is Dawn of War II specifically a Steam game?
  5. rolandttg
    I purchased the game on DVD back when it came out in 2009. I tried to install it from that dvd but it did not work. Steam wanted to download it no matter what I did. Plus the first download did not work. After many many hours I got it installed and working. But after all of that I did not play it. Tired I guess. I found it recently and hope to get it running.
    Graphics are great though.
    I tried an install on linux. No love yet.
  6. rolandttg
    Oh, yup it is a steam game. I got it to run long ago by the download.
  7. booman
    Interesting... I'm glad you got it working in Linux. You should post your test results on WineHQ... just follow their instructions carefully and don't mention PlayOnLinux because they will reject it.
  8. rolandttg
    Sorry, I wasn't clear.
    I didn't get Dawn of War II running on linux.
  9. booman
    What were you referring to when you wrote "got it installed and working"?
    Was that in Windows?
  10. rolandttg
    The game would not install from the dvd in windows. But the account was activated on Steam. So, the only way it would install was from a Steam Download. That is what I meant by "got it installed and working".
  11. booman
    Ah, yeah Steam has always been a love/hate relationship with me.
    Mostly because I have 6 computers and do a lot of offline LAN gaming. So some of the games and mods have problems with offline. Not to mention each computer had to have each game in Steam updated or you couldn't join the server.

    Did you know Valve is still updating Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source?
    Yes, 8 years later and they are still updating the stinking game. Its an absolute pain!
    And anytime you launch Steam online it just automatically starts updating a game.

    Lets say you wanted to do a quick 30 min deathmatch... nope, gotta wait for it to update first.... really? Its been 8 years and I can't even play deathmatch for a few minutes? I have to wait first? Lame

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