Battlefield Bad Company 2 Guide

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Battlefield Bad Company 2 is a first person shooter that will immerse you in destructible firefights with realistic weapon physics, land vehicles, air vehicles in singleplayer and multi-player environments. In other words... Bad Company 2 is amazing!

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Multi-player has not yet been tested for this guide.

Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Battlefield Bad Company 2 in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the Steam version of Battlefield Bad Company 2. Other versions may require additional steps.

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 17.3 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.2.10
Wine: 2.0

Wine Installation

Note: Wine versions older than 2.0.2 and 2.12-staging no longer work with Steam.


Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"
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Look for the Wine Version: 2.0
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right
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Click Next

Downloading Wine
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Extracting

Downloading Gecko
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Installed
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Wine 2.0 is installed and you can close this window

Downloading Steam

Go To: http://www.steampowered.com
Click Install Steam
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Do not click "Install Steam Now"
It will automatically install Linux Steam
Select Windows Steam instead
click "Windows" under the green button
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Navigate to your desktop
Click Save
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PlayOnLinux Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install
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Click "install a non-listed program"
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Click Next

Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
Click Next
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Name your virtual drive: badcompany2
No spaces
Click Next
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Select all three options:
  • Use another version of Wine
  • Configure Wine
  • Install some libraries
Click Next
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Select Wine 2.0
Click Next
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Select "32 bits windows installation"
Click Next
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Configure Wine

Applications Tab
Windows Version: Windows 7
Click Apply
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Graphics Tab
Check: Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows
Check: Emulate a virtual desktop
Desktop size: 1024x768
Click Ok
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PlayOnLinux Packages (Libraries, Components, DLL's)

Check the following libraries:
  • POL_Install_corefonts
  • POL_Install_dxfullsetup
  • POL_Install_Physx
  • POL_Install_tahoma
  • POL_Install_vcrun2010
  • POL_Install_vcrun2012
Click Next
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Note: All packages will automatically download and install

Installing Steam

Click Browse

Navigate to your desktop
Select: SteamSetup.exe
Click Open
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Follow all the typical Steam installation Steps

Sometimes Steam will not have any fonts due to dwrite functionality
Click the "X" to close Steam login regardless if the fonts work or not
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PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select Steam.exe
Click Next
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Name your shortcut: Bad Company 2
Click Next
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Select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
Click Next
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PlayOnLinux Configure

Back to PlayOnLinux
Click Configure
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General Tab
Fix the no fonts and no store symptoms...
Arguments: -no-dwrite -no-cef-sandbox
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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
Strict Draw Ordering: enabled
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Note: Enabling Strict Draw Ordering fixes the graphical artifacts.

Close Configure

Launching Steam Downloading Bad Company 2

Select Bad Company 2
Click Run
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Note: Click debug to see errors and bugs

Find Battlefield Bad Company 2
Click Install
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Uncheck "Created desktop shortcut"
Uncheck "Create start menu shortcut"
Click Next
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Click "I agree"
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Wait for Battlefield Bad Company 2 to download...
Click Finish
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Launching Battlefield Bad Company 2

Click Play
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Click "Play Battlefield Bad Company 2"
Click Play
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Punkbuster Install

Click "I Agree"
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Click Next
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Click OK
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Click Finish
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Optimization

Click Options
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Adjust:
  • Resolution
  • Overall Quality
  • Advanced (custom)
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Click Advanced

Adjust:
  • Level of Detail
  • Texture Quality
  • Shadow Quality
  • Effects Quality
  • Anti-Aliasing
  • Anisotrophic Filter
  • Vsync
  • HBAO
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Force DirectX 9

Before you can play Bad Company 2, it will need to run with DirectX 9

Go to:
Code:
/home/username/Documents/BFBC2/
Open settings.ini
Change line: DxVersion=auto
to: DxVersion=9

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Note: You can also manually adjust the graphics quality

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

Conclusion:
One you force Bad Company 2 to play in directx 9 you will be able to play the singleplayer campain without serious issues. Sometimes the initial loading of a level can be slow and stutter, but after it loads should play smoothly on decent hardware like my GeForce GTX 950. I initially tested Bad Company 2 on my Geforce 550 Ti, but there were too many frame rate issues and stutters. My Geforce GTX 950 was able to handle the game on high settings and still played smoothly.

Gameplay Video:

Screenshot:
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Last edited:
Thank you for this guide, booman!
If multiplayer works in POL it would be awesome! A very good game especially the multiplayer. The singleplayer campaign was ok, though.
Imho better than BF4.
 
I was able to sign up on EA and launch the server browser, but (of course) no servers were online. I read some Vietnam servers are still active, but I would have to purchase the expansion.
I have also read that there is a Linux dedicated server available with some tweaking.
I'll try a few more times to see if anyone is hosting a public server.
 
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