Ethan Carter has send disturbing news about Red Creek Valley and now he's missing... investigate what really happened through visions, portals and communicating with the dead. Play as Paul Prospero in this horrifying mystery adventure and seek the truth in the most realistic visuals you have ever seen in a game.



Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Vanishing Of Ethan Carter in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the GOG version of Vanishing Of Ethan Carter. Other versions may require additional steps.

Tips & Specs:

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

Mint 18.1 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.2.10
Wine: 2.4-staging 64-bit

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"


Look for the Wine Version: 2.4-staging & 2.4-staging 64-bit
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right


Note: Selecting both 32-bit and 64-bit versions is necessary because the installation steps require selecting the version of Wine before selecting the 64-bit virtual drive

Click Next

Downloading Wine


Extracting

Downloading Gecko


Installed


Wine 2.4-staging 32-bit & 64-bit are installed and you can close this window

PlayOnLinux Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install


Click "Install a non-listed program"


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


Name the virtual drive: ethancarter
Click Next


Check all three options:

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

Click Next


Select 2.4-staging
Click Next


Select "64 bits windows installation"
Click Next


Wine Configuration

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


PlayOnLinux Packages (DLLs, Libraries, Components)

Check the following:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_tahoma

Click Next


Click Browse...

Select "setup_the_vanshing_of_ethan_carter_2.3.0.5.exe"
Click Open


Click Next again...

Click OK


Click Options
Check "Yes, I have read and accept EULA"
Uncheck "Create desktop icons"
Click Install


.NET Framework Error
Click close


Click Exit


PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select "AstronautsGame-Win64-Shipping.exe"
Click Next


Name the shortcut: Vanishing Of Ethan Carter
Click Next


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


PlayOnLinux Configure

Select "Vanishing of Ethan Carter"
Click Configure


General Tab
Wine version: 2.4-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


Installing Ethan Carter Patch

Miscellaneous Tab
Click "Run a .exe file in this virtual drive"


Select "path_the_vanishing_of_ethan_carter_2.4.0.6.exe"
Click Open


Click Update


Click Exit


Close Configure

Launching Vanishing of Ethan Carter

Select "Vanishing of Ethan Carter"
Click Run


Note: Click debug to see errors and bugs

Optimization

Click Options


Click Graphics


Adjust:

• Resolution
• Display Mode
• Quality Preset
• Vertical Sync
• Texture Detail
• Anti-Aliasing
• Texture Filtering
• Field Of View
• Brightness
• Click Apply

Click Advanced

Adjust:

• Alpha To Coverage
• Motion Blur
• Ambient Occlusion
• Bloom
• Light Shafts
• Distortion
• Character Shadows
• Water Reflections
• Lightmaps Quality
• Materials Quality
• Detail Distance

Click Done


Conclusion:
I was able to play The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter on all high settings with my GeForce GTX 950. Besides the white pixels everything ran really well. There are a few stutters because of streaming/loading parts of the level, but that is expected.

Gameplay video:


Screenshots: