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Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Guide

Discussion in 'Guides' started by booman, Feb 6, 2015.

  • by booman, Feb 6, 2015 at 12:31 PM
  • booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    Star Wars: Kights of the Old Republic is the first installment of the series developed by Bioware released in 2003. Lead your party in skirmishes against the Sith, Travel to planets across the Galaxy, follow an epic story as you encounter many characters and alien races.

    kotor80.jpg

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    Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

    Note: This guide applies to the Steam version of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. 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: 4.2.5
    Wine: 1.6.2

    Wine Installation

    Note: Versions of Wine older than 2.0.2 and Wine 2.12-staging no longer work with Steam


    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

    Wine 1.6.2 is installed and you can close this window

    Downloading Steam

    Go To: http://www.steampowered.com
    Click Install Steam
    kotor01.png

    Do not click "Install Steam Now"
    It will automatically install Linux Steam
    Select Windows Steam instead
    click "Windows" under the green button
    kotor02.png

    Navigate to your desktop
    Click Save
    kotor03.png

    Setup PlayOnLinux

    Launch PlayOnLinux
    Click Install
    kotor04.png

    Click "install a non-listed program"
    kotor05.png

    Click Next

    Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
    Click Next
    kotor07.png

    Name you virtual drive: swkotor

    Click Next
    kotor08.png

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

    Click Next
    kotor09.png

    Select Wine 1.6.2
    Click Next
    kotor10.png

    Select "32 bits windows installation"
    Click Next
    kotor11.png

    Configure Wine

    Applications Tab
    Windows Version: Windows 7
    Click Apply
    kotor12.png

    Graphics Tab
    Check: Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows
    Check: Emulate a virtual desktop
    Desktop size: 1024x768
    Click Ok
    kotor13.png

    Install Libraries

    Check the following libraries:
    • POL_Install_corefonts
    • POL_Install_d3dx9
    • POL_Install_tahoma
    Click Next

    Installing Steam

    Click Browse
    kotor15.png

    Navigate to your desktop
    Select: SteamSetup.exe
    Click Open
    kotor16.png

    Click Next

    Click Next

    Check: I accept the license...
    Click Next

    Click Next

    Click Next

    Click Install

    Click Finish

    Updating Steam

    More updating, extracting and installing
    kotor25.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
    kotor26.png

    PlayOnLinux Shortcut

    Select Steam.exe
    Click Next
    kotor27.png

    Name your shortcut: SW: Knights of the Old Republic
    Click Next
    kotor28.png

    Click Next

    PlayOnLinux Configure

    Back to PlayOnLinux
    Click Configure
    kotor29.png

    General Tab
    Arguments: -no-dwrite -no-cef-sandbox
    This fixes the missing font and store problem
    kotor32.png

    Note: Click the + to download other versions of Wine. Click the Down-Arrow to select other versions of wine.

    Display Tab
    Video Memory Size: Select the size of Memory your video card/chip uses
    kotor33.png

    Close Configure

    Launching Steam

    Select "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic"
    Click Run
    kotor34.png

    Note: Click Debug to see errors and bugs.

    Click "Login to existing account"
    kotor36.png

    Login
    kotor37.png

    Steam Overlay

    Steam overlay has been known to cause problems launching games.
    Click Steam menu
    Click Settings
    kotor38.png

    Select "In-game"
    Uncheck "Enable Steam Commuinty In-Game"
    Click OK
    kotor39.png

    Installing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

    Select Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
    Click Install
    kotor40.png

    Click Next
    kotor41.png

    Click Next
    kotor42.png

    Click Finish
    kotor43.png

    Wait as the game downloads
    When its finished
    Click Play
    kotor44.png

    Optmization

    Click Options
    kotor45.png

    Click Graphics
    kotor46.png

    Select Resolution
    • 800x600
    • 1024x768
    • 2048x1024
    Enable/Disable:
    • Shadows
    • Grass
    kotor47.png

    Click Advanced Options

    Adjust:
    • Overall Quality
    • AntiAlias
    • Anistropy
    • Frame buffer effects
    • Soft shadows
    • V-Sync
    kotor48.png

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

    Custom Resolution

    Unfortunately the game does not support high resolutions or widescreen resolutions.
    You can force it to run as high as 1600x1200

    Navigate to the swotor directory:
    Code:
    /home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/swkotor/drive_c/Program Files/Steam/SteamApps/Common/swotor
    kotor49.png
    Note: Username is where you put your Linux login

    Open swkotor.ini with a text editor
    Enter:
    High=1200
    Width=1600

    Click Save
    kotor50.png

    Set your Linux desktop for 1600x1200 and then launch Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
    Now it should appear fullscreen in a high resolution

    Conclusion:
    Knights of the Old Republic should run well on just about any computer with Linux. Since its a 2003 game, the spec are really low and even laptops should be able to run it.
    It ran very nicely on my GeForce 550 Ti and was able to crank all the video settings to High and run on a fairly high resolution.
    I tested Flawless Widescreen in PlayOnLinux, but it would crash the game when loading. So I had to resort to 3:4 ratio resollution.

    Gameplay video:


    Screenshots:
    kotor81.jpg

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    kotor91.jpg

    kotor89.jpg

    kotor87.jpg
    Last edited: Aug 22, 2017

Comments

Discussion in 'Guides' started by booman, Feb 6, 2015.

  1. mrdeathjr28
    Good game and very good guide as always

    :)
  2. booman
    Thanks MrDeathJr!
    I hope some day you might do some guides for us as well.
    You have plenty of experience and knowlege. It would be easy for you
  3. graywolf.theheathen
    Wanted to add this in here.
    I installed just as stated here, except I went ahead and used Wine 2.8
    Made sure the game was working fine at 1024x768 and then used the below linked suggestion to do widescreen. I did this one because I also couldn't get flawless widescreen to work.
    This one is working great so far for me.

    http://www.wsgf.org/article/star-wars-knights-old-republic
  4. booman
    Thanks Graywolf.theheathen!

    What was the problem with widescreen before you tried wsgf.org?
  5. graywolf.theheathen
    I didn't have any crashes like some people have reported. Flawless Widescreen ran fine actually. It just wouldn't "grab" the game when launched.
    If you have used Flawless Widescreen then you know that with it running when you launch the game it says "injecting" and then detcets the running game and does the modify. Well it never went past "Injecting", it wouldn't ever "grab" the game if that makes sense.
  6. booman
    Oh, I didn't realize you were using Flawless Widescreen. I played it in 3:4 ratio because that was the only option I had too. If you mean "grab" as in the mouse wasn't working in the fullscreen game, then I think I understand.
    Could you at least see the game?
  7. graywolf.theheathen
    No the game ran fine. Mouse was fine. By "grab" I meant the process of Flawless Widescreen doing its DLL injection. It would just sit there. It would never do the injection letting the display get changed to widescreen.
  8. booman
    That kinda makes sense since we are not really using Windows. Widescreen application probably has some dependencies to initiate.

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