Path of Exile Guide

RPG's have really come a long way...
Starting with text adventures to isometric Diablo hack-n-slash, then FPS Medieval fantasies to third person sci-fi role playing and now simple facebook games where you build farms, level up and help your friends to tower defense in a massive arena where heroes battle amongst minions.

Path of Exile is another online hack-n-slash that introduces some new elements while utilizing popular skills/loot/leveling to bring you a fresh epic RPG experience.

Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Path of Exile in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the online version of Path of Exile . 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: 4.2.12
Wine: 1.7.19-WGL_WINE_surface2

Note: Now tested with newer versions of Wine 2.9-staging with decent performance.

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"

Look for the Wine Version: 1.7.19-WGL_WINE_surface2
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right

Click Next

Downloading Wine

Extracting

Downloading Gecko

Installed

Wine 1.7.19-WGL_WINE_surface2 is installed and you can close this window

Downloading the Client

Go To: http://www.pathofexile.com
Click "Play Free Now!"

Register and then login
Click "Download Now!"

Save the PathOfExileInstaller.msi to your desktop

Setup PlayOnLinux

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: pathofexile
Click Next

Check all three options:

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

Click Next

Select Wine: 1.7.19-WGL_WINE_surface2
Click Next

Select "32 bits windows installation"
click Next

Configuring Wine

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

Installing Libraries

Check all of the following:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_d3dcompiler_43
• POL_Install_msvc100
• POL_Install_Registeredfonts
• POL_Install_riched20
• POL_Install_Tahoma
• POL_Install_vcrun2010

Note: PlayOnLinux will automatically download each library and install them.
Click Next

Installing Client

Click Browse

Navigate to your desktop
Select PathOfExileInstaller.msi
Click Open

Click Next

Path of Exile Setup Wizard
Click Next

Check "I accept the terms..."
Click Next

Install Path
Click Next

Click Install

Click Finish

PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select: Client.exe
Click Next

Name your shortcut: Path of Exile
Click Next

Click Next

Configure PlayOnLinux

Click Configure

General Tab
Wine version: 1.7.19-WGL_WINE_surface2

Note: Click the + to download other versions of Wine. Click the down-arrow to select other versions of Wine.

Display Tab
GLSL Support: disabled
Video memory size: the amount of memory on your video card

Close Configure

Launching Path of Exile

Select "Path of Exile"
Click Run

Note: The client should launch and start updating the full game 7.5 Gigabytes

Be patient as it loads the login screen

Optimization

Click Graphical Options
Open the Options
Click the Graphics tab
Select Fullscreen
Select Resolution
Adjust Shadows, Antialiasing, Textures, Postprocessing & Screen Shake

Note: disable Engine Multi-threading to reduce flicker

Click "Apply display settings"
Click Save

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

Fullscreen bug - Not necessary with newer versions of Wine

If Path of Exile refuses to launch or won't go fullscreen
Note: Path of Exile has to be launched at least once

Navigate to: /home/username/My Games/Path of Exile
Note: Username is where you put your login

Open production_Config.ini with Text Editor

Change:
fullscreen=false
to
fullscreen=true

Click Save

Conclusion:
Path of Exile ran even better with Wine 1.7.19-WGE_WINE_surface2. The graphics are amazing and rival modern-day engines with all the eye-candy your heart desires. Even up close the details are amazing. I've recently tested with newer versions of Wine like 2.9-staging and for the most part, performance is good. There is a bit of stutter here and there, but its definitely playable with settings on high.

Also, if you noticed any flickering problems, disable Engine Multi-threading

I was most impressed with the web of skills. There are so many non-linear option to what path you want to take for increasing your characters abilities.

Video Gameplay:

Screenshots:

 

Anyone having the same font issues I have ? I never achieved to install the game with correct fonts.

 

Sorry, no font issues here. I followed this guide to the letter and then only had to deal with the one issue I posted above.

 

Thanks Graywolf for posting that fix. Out of curiosity... did you use "virtual desktop" in Wine?
Normally resolution isn't a problem with virtual desktop, but I've had a lot of problems not using it.

 

Yep. I had it set exactly like the guide above. Mine just didn't like it for some reason. I had to match the virtual desktop to my real desktop. And match the settings in that config file.

 

Very strange. I have played it for hours and never had that problem.
What resolutions are you running?
What video card do you have?
Chances are... its a driver problem...

 

I think it was just the initial start of the game where it was doing that. It runs great now. I am doing all this on integrated graphics. Intel i5 with HD 3000 graphics. I have the newest Intel drivers installed from here: https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads/2013/intelr-linux-graphics-installer-version-1.0.2

 

Awesome! I was just having a conversation with someone over in the PlayOnLinux forum about Intel HD drivers.

 

Might be some different info in here that could help someone....

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/8980

 

What the heck is usp10?
Nothing in Packages calls usp10...
I'll check google...
I see now... Uniscribe! What is it? Probably something we'll never need to use again, but...

If you are using IE6 to run Path of Exile, then there is a chance this might fix the font problem. Uniscribe renders unicode and encoded text in IE5.
Uniscribe

The problem is finding the usp10.dll
You will probably have to download it from one of those dll sites.

 

Today I've seen that the game has been released on steam (windows version only, of course).

 

Look at their reply to me on their Facebook page...

 

That would be awesome!
And its still free-to-play!

 

I got curious, so I tried something...

I wanted to play PoE through Steam, because I'm weird and like the Steam interface and it handles the updates and my achievements are there and so on. So I opened POL and clicked install, used the provided Steam script and got Steam running. Then I renamed the shortcut to Path of Exile Steam so I wouldn't confuse it with my regular Linux Steam. Then I made sure the same libraries were installed that we did in this guide and made the same changes on the display tab. Clicked restart windows for good measure. Started Steam, found Path of Exile in the store and clicked install. 15-20 minutes later I was playing PoE off my steam account. Worked great, it was playing just the same as the direct install that we did in this guide.

( FYI , You can link your PoE account to your Steam account in your profile settings on the PoE website. Then when you launch the game from Steam it logs you in with your Steam account, everything worked great. All my characters were there. )

 

Awesome News!
I didn't realize Path of Exile was even on Steam.
Funny how that works...

 

Great news, since I broke my last POE install...I'll be able to install it thru windows steam.

thanks for the tip

 

Yeah, let us know if it works through Steam Dem

 

Hey there,

Followed your guide and got the game working on 10.04, but framerates drop (including 1-2 second freezes) on spell effects. I have 1GB GeForce GTX465.

Here's the dump from playonlinux.log

The charset and unhandled usage flags lines are spammed during the periods of lag (mostly the usage flags) and lots of the text in game is messy (which I assume is related to the charset error). I made sure that I installed the libraries you'd listed
(POL_Install_corefonts, POL_Install_d3dx9, POL_Install_d3dcompiler_43, POL_Install_Registeredfonts, POL_Install_riched20, POL_Install_Tahoma, POL_Install_vcrun2005)

Any suggestions?


-----------
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\DllOverrides]
"*riched20"="native,builtin"
-----------
[11/01/13 16:29:43] - ----- Ending function POL_Install_riched20 -----
[11/01/13 16:29:44] - ----- Starting function POL_Install_tahoma -----
[11/01/13 16:29:44] - ----- Starting function POL_SP2_Extract -----
[11/01/13 16:29:46] - ----- Ending function POL_SP2_Extract -----
[11/01/13 16:29:46] - ----- Starting function POL_SP2_Extract -----
[11/01/13 16:29:47] - ----- Ending function POL_SP2_Extract -----
[11/01/13 16:29:47] - ----- Ending function POL_Install_tahoma -----
[11/01/13 16:30:02] - Running wine-1.6-rc4 PathOfExile.exe (Working directory : /home/mslone/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/pathofexile/drive_c/Program Files/Grinding Gear Games/Path of Exile)
fixme:heap:HeapSetInformation (nil) 1 (nil) 0
fixme:heap:HeapSetInformation 0x110000 0 0x32fdb8 4
ALSA lib pcm_pulse.c:1008_snd_pcm_pulse_open) Unknown field handle_underrun
err:winediag:AUDDRV_GetAudioEndpoint PulseAudio "default" -22 without handle_underrun. Audio may hang. Please upgrade to alsa_plugins >= 1.0.24
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x32e708,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:d3d:swapchain_init The application requested more than one back buffer, this is not properly supported.
Please configure the application to use double buffering (1 back buffer) if possible.
fixme:d3d9irect3DShaderValidatorCreate9 stub
fixme:d3d:resource_check_usage Unhandled usage flags 0x8.
fixme:system:SystemParametersInfoW Unimplemented action: 59 (SPI_SETSTICKYKEYS)
fixme:system:SystemParametersInfoW Unimplemented action: 53 (SPI_SETTOGGLEKEYS)
fixme:system:SystemParametersInfoW Unimplemented action: 51 (SPI_SETFILTERKEYS)
fixme:font:get_nearest_charset TCI failing on 20000000
fixme:font:get_nearest_charset returning DEFAULT_CHARSET face->fs.fsCsb[0] = 20000000 file = (null)
fixme:font:get_nearest_charset TCI failing on 20000000
fixme:font:get_nearest_charset returning DEFAULT_CHARSET face->fs.fsCsb[0] = 20000000 file = (null)
fixme:d3d:resource_check_usage Unhandled usage flags 0x8.

 

Welcome to the gameonlinux forums slone.
Thats pretty sad if text errors would slow down frame rates, so I hope thats not the problem.
I did notice some alsa errors.
You might have to update alsa, check your Ubuntu updates and see if Alsa is listed.
Try installing package gdiplus (just a guess because others have mentioned it in WineHQs)

Does it run ok when you don't cast spells?

Someone on WineHQ's mentioned frame rate drops when a boss appears and when you see special effects. Sucks because I didn't have to do that with my 550 Ti. Its still ran pretty good. Some frame stuttering when loading the level, but thats all.

Try disabling GLSL might improve your frame rates.

1. PlayOnLinux Configure
2. Select virtual drive
3. Display Tab
4. GLSL Support: disabled

Do you have updated Nvidia drivers installed?

 

Thanks for the reply!
I checked and my Asla, gdiplus and nvidia drivers are all up to date, I've disabled GLSL and it might have improved a bit? I get ~45 fps in town, 55-60 outside running around or in simple combat, and drop to 10-15 with intermittent skips on big spell effects (like freezing shrine for example)

The packages I have are the most up to date they can be, but those still aren't great as I'm running 10.04 (alsa is at the 'latest version' 1.0.22-0ubuntu5, that error was saying to update to >= 1.0.24, so I suspect it's my old system version that's the root cause here.) I should be updating to 12.04 soon'ish, so hopefully that helps.

 

Yeah, that might help. I'm not totally sure.
It might just be a side effect of Wine and POE engine. But I don't remember the frame drops being low enough to hurt game-play.
Are you playing on a laptop or desktop?
What CPU do you have?
How much System Memory are you using?

You could always open System Monitor in a different desktop and then run POE. Then switch back-n-forth to see how much processing it requires. Also check for other unecessary processes that you could kill to improve perfromance.

One thing I have done in the past to boost a couple of frame rates is use Openbox Windows Manager. It run Linux in completely bare-bones (like safe-mode) and games will run a bit faster.