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Flash and Unity Browser Games Guide

Discussion in 'Guides' started by booman, Nov 16, 2013.

  • by booman, Nov 16, 2013 at 1:42 PM
  • booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    Due to Updates in Firefox, Flash and Unity plugins no longer work in PlayOnLinux.
    Some games can still run via Pipelight (Uses Wine Staging)

    Here is a step-by-step guide on installing Unity via Pipelight: GamersOnLinux

    Since Adobe has decided not to support Linux with flash player and there is still a demand for Flash gaming, there is still a way to play your favorite online games with PlayOnLinux.
    Facebook game are available again and enjoy any flash game until Flash Player is obsolete when HTML5 is the standard.

    unity15.png

    Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Flash Player and Unity Player in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

    Note: This guide applies to Firefox Adobe Flash Player and Unity Player. I did not test Chrome or Internet Explorer, so they may require additional steps.

    Tips & Specs

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

    Mint 14 32-bit
    PlayOnLinux: 4.2.1
    Wine: 1.7.4

    Wine Installation

    Click Tools
    Select "Manage Wine Versions"

    Look for the Wine Version: 1.7.4
    Select it
    Click the arrow pointing to the right
    wine01.png

    Click Next
    wine02.png

    PlayOnLinux will automatically download it and save it in this directory:
    /home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wine/linux-x86

    Note: username is where you put your login name

    Its a good idea to backup this directory to another computer because you won't have to keep downloading wine versions when you need them.
    wine03.png

    Extracting
    wine04.png

    Downloading Gecko
    wine05.png

    Installed
    wine06.png

    Wine 1.7.4 is installed and you can close this window

    Download Firefox for Windows

    Go to: www.mozilla.com
    firefox01.png

    Download Firefox and save it to your desktop
    !Make sure you click System and Languages!
    Otherwise you will download the Linux version
    firefox02.png

    Save Firefox to you desktop
    firefox03.png

    Update:
    Or try Portable Nightly versions:
    https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/

    Extract to your desktop
    After creating your virtual drive copy/paste the Firefox folder to your /home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/firefox/drive_c/Program Files/

    Setup PlayOnLinux

    Launch PlayOnLinux
    Click Install
    firefox04.png

    Click "Install a non-listed program"
    firefox05.png

    Click Next

    Note: If you are running a 64-bit system, PlayOnLinux will prompt if you want to use a 64-bit or 32-bit virtual drive. Always select 32-bit virtual drive.

    Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
    Click Next
    firefox07.png

    Name your virtual drive: firefox
    Click Next
    firefox08.png

    Check all three options:
    • Use another version of Wine
    • Configure Wine
    • Install some libraries
    Click Next
    firefox09.png

    Select Wine 1.7.4
    Click Next
    firefox10.png

    Note: If you are running a 64-bit system, PlayOnLinux will prompt if you want to use a 64-bit or 32-bit virtual drive.
    Always select 32-bit virtual drive.

    Wine Configuration

    Applications Tab
    Windows Version: Windows 7
    Click Apply
    firefox11.png

    Graphics Tab
    Check "Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows"
    Check "Emulate a virtual desktop
    Desktop size: Set to match your Linux desktop resolution
    Click Ok
    firefox12.png

    Installing Windows Libraries

    Select these packages:
    • POL_Install_corefonts
    • POL_Install_d3dx9
    • POL_Install_tahoma
    • POL_Install_registered fonts
    Note: Check only the basic font libraries, don't check Flash Player. All libraries will automatically download and install.
    Click Next

    Installing Firefox

    Click Browse
    firefox13.png

    Navigate to your desktop
    Select Firefox Setup XX.0.exe
    Click Open
    firefox14.png

    Click Next
    firefox15.png

    Firefox extracting
    firefox16.png

    Firefox installer

    Click Next

    Check Standard
    Click Next

    Check "Use Firefox as my default web browser"
    Click Install

    Uncheck "Launch Firefox now"
    Click Finish

    PlayOnLinux shortcut

    Select Firefox.exe
    Click Next
    firefox21.png

    Name your shortcut: Firefox
    Click Next
    firefox22.png

    Select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
    Click Next
    firefox23.png

    Downloading Flash Player

    Unfortunately Firefox has a problem downloading files, so use your Linux web browser.

    Download the current Flash Player from this direct link:
    http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player...ms-flash-player-windows.html#main-pars_header

    Scroll down to...
    Still having problems?
    If you are still having trouble installing Adobe Flash Player, try downloading the installer directly from the following sites:


    Click Flash Player for Firefox - NPAPI
    Save Flash Player to your desktop

    Note: Downloading Flash Player from Adobe results in an error every time you try to install it.

    Installing Flash Player

    Back to PlayOnLinux
    Click Configure
    firefox28.png

    Select your firefox shortcut
    Click Miscellaneous Tab
    Click "Run a .exe in this virtual drive"
    firefox29.png

    Navigate to your desktop
    Select Install_flash_player.exe
    firefox30.png

    Check terms
    Click Install
    firefox31.png

    Flash Player is installed
    Click Done
    firefox32.png

    Installing Unity

    Download Unity Web Player Full: http://webplayer.unity3d.com/download_webplayer-3.x/UnityWebPlayerFull.exe
    Save to your desktop

    Back to PlayOnLinux
    Click Configure
    Select the firefox shortcut
    Click Miscellaneous Tab
    Click "Run a .exe in this virtual drive"
    firefox29.png

    Navigate to your desktop
    Select UnityWebPlayerFull.exe
    Click Open
    firefox33.png

    Click "I Agree"
    firefox34.png

    Installing
    firefox35.png

    Finished
    firefox36.png

    Updating Unity

    When you launch a Unity game in Firefox there may be an error
    "Failed to update Unity Web Player"
    firefox37.png

    Click "Error details"
    Take note of the update address
    http://webplayer.unity3d.com//Channels/795a449bc926/UnityPlayer3.x.x-win32.zip
    Depending on the version of Unity the game was made with, the zip file will show the version to update with.
    Ex: 2.x.x-win32.zip or 3.x.x-win32.zip
    firefox38.png

    Note: I recommend doing this update before launching Firefox the first time because most games are running Unity 3.x.x or higher

    Use your Linux browser to download this update
    Save it to your desktop
    Open with Archive manager
    firefox39.png

    Extract to this long directory:
    /home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/firefox/drive_c/users/username/AppData/LowcalLow/Unity/WebPlayer/player/Stable3.x.x

    Note: username is where you put your Linux login name

    Click Extract
    firefox40.png

    Click Replace for existing files
    firefox41.png

    The last step is fooling the updater to think we have the current Unity Upates installed.
    Even though we alreay installed the updates, the player will still check a plist file and if it doesn't show the correct update, then the error starts all over again.

    Navigate to the Unity folder again
    /home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/firefox/drive_c/users/username/AppData/LowcalLow/Unity/WebPlayer/

    There are 3 directories:
    • loader
    • mono
    • player
    Open the player directory
    Open the Stable3.x.x direcotry
    Open info.plist
    Right-click and open with a text editor like gedit
    firefox45.png

    Also open the info.plist from the loader directory
    Right-Click and open with a text editor like gedit
    firefox42.png

    firefox43.png

    The XML should be different in both files.
    The updated version should appear like this

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    Code:
    <plist>
    <dict>
    <key>CFBundleVersion</key>
    <string>3.5.7f6</string>
    <key>UnityBuildNumber</key>
    <string>795a449bc926</string>
    <key>monoVersion</key>
    <string>3.x.x</string>
    <key>monoMinimumRevision</key>
    <string>3.5.7f6</string>
    </dict>
    </plist>
    
    firefox44.png

    Copy and paste the stable version into the loader version
    Do the same for the info.plist in the mono/Stable3.x.x directory too
    firefox46.png

    All three info.plist files should both be identical
    Save all three files and close your text editor.

    Note: You may need to do this with each update you try to apply to Unity.
    For now, most games run with 3.x.x



    Launching Firefox

    Back to PlayOnLinux
    Select Firefox
    Click Run
    firefox50.png

    Check "Don't import anything"
    Click Next

    Click yes for the default browser pop-up

    To verify that Flash and Unity Plugins are installed
    Click Firefox
    Click Add-ons
    firefox51.png

    or

    Click Tools
    Click Add-ons
    firefox52.png

    Click Plugins
    Shockwave Flash current version should appear on the list
    Mine was Version 11.9.900.117
    Unity Version 4.2 should also be on the list
    firefox53.png


    Now login to Facebook.com and launch your favorite game.

    Conclusion:
    Most games seemed to run just fine as they do in Windows. A few ran slow like Jurassic Park and others didn't run at all. But the current Flash Player is installed and should give you more success than not playing at all.

    Unity player was able to play most games with the 3.x.x update, but some older Unity games required 2.x.x and I needed to download that version and extract to play them. Applying the 2.x.x update breaks newer Unity games, so make note of which games you want to play and update accordingly.

    Some Unity games still would not play because of communication with video drivers.
    Most Unity games played just fine, but I did have some trouble with fullscreen settings and mouse-look. I found that unchecking the "Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows" in Wine Configuration fixed this problem.

    Screenshots:
    flash01.png

    flash02.png
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2015

Comments

Discussion in 'Guides' started by booman, Nov 16, 2013.

  1. booman
    High Res Screenshots

    Flash Games
    flash01.png flash02.png

    flash03.png flash05.png

    flash06.png flash07.png

    flash08.png flash09.png

    flash10.png


    Unity Games
    unity01.png unity02.png

    unity04.png unity05.png

    unity06.png unity07.png

    unity08.png unity09.png

    unity10.png unity11.png

    unity13.png unity14.png

    unity15.png unity17.png

    unity18.png unity19.png

    unity20.png unity21.png
  2. Julien
    Good post, but Unity don't up :(

    Attached Files:

  3. booman
    Yeah, Unity was an absolute pain to get running in PlayOnLinux. Took me a lot of trial-n-error.
    Remember you have to get the newest version of Unity web player.

    Are you able to play any other games?
    What distro are you using?
    What video card does your computer have?
  4. booman
    There are always updates to the Unity 3D browser plugin and Flash player plugin.
    If developers properly update their games with the newest plugin, it may break this guides.

    If a game doesn't run, try updating Flash player and Unity 3D, but remember it might break older games that have not applied the update yet.
  5. MajorLunaC
    An update on the Unity3D plug-in. I don't know about others but I get the "Failed to update Unity Web Player". These current instructions no longer bypass it, and the directory structure and location has changed. The plugin downloads all have version mismatches and the installers don't even install anymore.

    (PLEASE READ ALL OF THE FOLLOWING! IT WORKS AND UPDATES!) Your best bet now is to use an older version:
    http://web.archive.org/web/20080729225255/unity3d.com/unity-web-player-2.x

    Then play a game that requires 3.x.x version of the plugin. Click "Activate Plugin" and tell Firefox to "Allow" the plugin. After the game finishes loading, the Unity3D web plugin will have secretly updated itself to version 3.x.x, although it'll always say it's old.

    A little more info on Wine if you're interested: https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=31179
  6. booman
    Thank you for the update MajorLunaC! I knew this would eventually happen because Unity and Flash are constantly changing machines.
    I don't mind using an older version, but I'll also mess around with the newer version and see if there is any way to get it working.

    Thanks again!
  7. booman
    What version of Firefox did you use?
    I'm using version 36 and it seems to be crashing when javascripts are running in the background. I can't even get a Unity game started because the page won't finish loading
  8. MajorLunaC
  9. booman
    Ah, ok, I'll try it as well.
    Did you ever try Firefox 36?
    I'm concerned the the newer versions will have problems in Wine.
  10. MajorLunaC
    I don't try the newer Firefox versions because they're completely different in layout and it's hard to change them to a classic or even comfortable layout. They're stupidly trying to clone Chrome. The normal versions are also unstable. The ESR series is much more stable and secure. I just hope they don't just copy everything from the main line.
  11. booman
    Thanks for this confirmation. I always suspected Mozilla was copying Chrome and changing stuff behind the scenes.
    I'll definitely try out Firefox 35.
  12. MajorLunaC
    Just as a side note, I can try out those games to see if they still work. (Translation: Now that I take a good look at those screenshots, they are amazing! Where are those games!? I want them!)
  13. booman
    some of those games were features on the Unity 3D website. They had a gallery of web-based games and demos. I'm having a hard time playing the demos: http://unity3d.com/showcase
    Scroll down and check them out...

    By the way, I tried Firefox 31 and still had problems loading pages.
  14. MajorLunaC
  15. booman
    Ah, I didn't know about AdBlockPlus, that should fix my problem. Thanks!
  16. booman
    MajorLunaC - I'm trying to play DeadFrontier.com and I followed my own guide here on downgrading to Unity web player 4, but Firefox is still showing Unity 5 in the Plugins area.
  17. booman

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