Battle in 3-story high Mechs in epic landscapes of Battletech Universe. Select from hundreds of mechs and customize their skill trees. Join factions or fight in teams with your friends in skirmish modes or capture point modes.



Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Mechwarrior Online in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the Steam version of Mechwarrior Online. 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: 2.11-staging

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"


Look for the Wine Version: 2.11-staging
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right


Click Next

Downloading Wine


Extracting

Downloading Gecko


Installed


Wine 2.11-staging is installed and you can close this window

Downloading Steam

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


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


Navigate to your desktop
Click Save


PlayOnLinux Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install


Click "install a non-listed program"


Click Next

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


Name your virtual drive: mechwarrioronline
No spaces
Click Next


Select all three options:

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

Click Next


Select Wine 2.11-staging
Click Next


Select "32 bits windows installation"
Click Next


Configure Wine

Applications Tab
Windows Version: Windows XP
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 (Libraries, Components, DLL's)

Check the following libraries:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_d3dx9_43
• POL_Install_dotnet40
• POL_Install_msxml3
• POL_Install_tahoma
• POL_Install_vcrun2010

Click Next


Note: All packages will automatically download and install

Installing Steam

Click Browse

Navigate to your desktop
Select: SteamSetup.exe
Click Open


Click Next

Click Next

Check: I accept the license...
Click Next

Click Next

Click Next

Click Install

Click Finish

Updating Steam


Steam "might not" have any fonts due to dwrite functionality
Click the "X" to close Steam login


PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select Steam.exe
Click Next


Name your shortcut: Mechwarrior Online
Click Next


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


PlayOnLinux Configure

Back to PlayOnLinux
Click Configure


General Tab
Arguments: -no-dwrite -no-cef-sandbox


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


Close Configure

Launching Mechwarrior Online

Select Mechwarrior Online
Click Run


Note: Click debug to see errors and bugs

Click "Login to existing account"


Login


Search Steam Store for Mechwarrior Online
Click Play


Uncheck "Created desktop shortcut"
Uncheck "Create start menu shortcut"
Click Next


Click Finish
Wait for Mechwarrior Online to download


Click Play


Video Card error
Click OK


Login with your Mechwarrior Online account
Click Login


Optimization

Click Settings


Click Video

Adjust presets or:

• Screen Resolution
• Windowed Mode
• Direct X Version
• Motion Blur
• 3D Vision Mode
• V-Sync
• Brightness
• Gamma

Click Advanced
Adjust:

• Effects
• Object Detail
• Post Processing
• Shading
• Shadows
• Texturing
• Environment
• Anti-Aliasing

Press ESC to apply


Conclusion:
Mechwarrior Online ran well enough to play online in PVP team skirmishes. Sometimes it would lag a bit even on medium settings with my GeForce 1060. It may be due to the video card error when launching the game, or driver related. I read that some Windows gamers had to update their drivers to remove the video card warning, but I'm not sure how that is configured for Wine in Linux...

Otherwise, there are additional steps that can be taken to gain a few frame per second. Like using Openbox windows manager or DEBUG flags in PlayOnLinux Configure.

Gameplay Video:



Screenshots: