Rocket League Guide

This is a fast paced game where two opposing teams control racing cars to hit a ball into each others goals. The cars can make jumps and even dodge in order to hit the ball. And with the use of the rocket engines, the cars can even fly for a very brief amount of time. All this together makes for very interesting gameplay.

NOTE: This game now has a Linux version on Steam. The Linux version runs perfectly to my experience, so you will probably not need this guide.

The guide will explain how to setup Steam in PlayOnLinux so that you can install and play the game in steam.

Tips & Specs

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

Arch Linux 64-bit
PlayOnLinux 4.2.8
Wine 1.7.49

Setup PlayOnLinux

Launch PlayOnLinux and select 'Tools' and 'Manage Wine versions'

In the new window that appears, scroll through the 'Available Wine versions' box to find '1.7.49' and click on the right pointing arrow to install it, afterwards it will appear on the right side under 'Installed Wine versions'
If you have a 64-bits system, make sure you have selected the 'Wine versions (x86)' tab above, although it works well on 64-bit as well to my experience, I will just not cover it in this guide

Just close the window. Back at the main PlayOnLinux window, select 'Install'

Click on 'Install a non-listed program'

Select 'Install a program in a new virtual drive'

Name the virtual drive "rocketleague"

On the next window, select 'Use another version of Wine', 'Configure wine' and 'Install some libraries'

On the wine selection window, select the 1.7.49 version and click 'Next'. Make sure you select '32-bits window installation' if you are on a 64-bit system, although as mentioned earlier, it should also work using a 64-bit virtual drive if so desired.

When the wine configuration window appear, select the 'Graphics' tab, and click the checkbox for all four options. Make sure that you set the resolution to your desktop resolution. My desktop is at 1920 x 1080, so I set that for the wine virtual desktop resolution. Click OK to continue.

Note: Even though the language is Norwegian in my screenshot, the layout will look the same for you

When you come to the selection of libraries, select POL_Install_steam

Then click Next

You have to go through the Steam install process manually. I always prefer to install Steam by using this library in PlayOnLinux since it takes care of the missing font issue in Steam, while also installing the corefonts library so it looks better than just a manual Steam install.

Just click Next

This install process is pretty straightforward. Click to agree to the EULA, then just click Next through the next few screen, until you can click Install.

When the Steam installation is finished, make sure you uncheck the box for starting Steam, we do not want to start Steam at this point.

After you have unchecked the box for starting Steam, you can click on Finished

When it asks you for the install file to run, click on 'Cancel'

The virtual drive has already been set up by this point and there is no need to run any install file. Now back at the main PlayOnLinux window, click on 'Configure', it does not matter what game shortcut is selected when you click 'Configure' so don't worry about that.

On the left side, find the virtual drive you just set up, it will be listed with the same name you typed in during set-up. Look for 'rocketleague', when you find it make sure to select it. After you have selected it, click on 'Make a new shortcut from this virtual drive'

Check the screenshot above for reference. It is very important that you select the virtual drive you just set up before making further changes.

Select Steam.exe and click next. You can name the shortcut "Steam - Rocket League" then click 'I don't want to make another shortcut' and click next.

Now click on the 'Display' tab on the top. Change 'Video memory size' to reflect your GPU memory.

At this point you can close the PlayOnLinix configuration window and start Steam from the Shortcut in the main PlayOnLinux window. First Steam will update.

Once this update is finished, you may encounter this error message

This can be safely ignored, just click Next and then continue by logging in to Steam

Now just find the game in your game library, and click Install

The game runs perfectly smoothly on my laptop with settings on maximum with 1920x1080 resolution. I have experienced no crashes or other problems, so this seems game seems to work perfectly in Wine. Multiplayer also works great, you can join games and also create your own private games with password just for friends.

Screenshots

 

I am going to need some information about your system. What distro are you using, are you using 32-bit or 64-bit. What is your GPU.

Run the game with "Debug" and post the entire output here.

I'm using Debian 8.2, 64 bit, Gigabyte HD 7870. Sorry.. but how can I run the game with debug? Oh, now the game is working, I forgot the "Emulate a virtual desktop" option, but remains the problem of audio.

 

To run the game with Debugging, select your game shortcut in PlayOnLinux. Then on the side menu, click on "Debug". The game will start up like normal, but an additional window will open that will display a lot of debugging information. Just leave that additional window in the background while you run your game. You should just start the game so that you get the choppy audio, then exit and close the game. You debug window should still be open, with lots of text in it. Just copy all of the text there and paste it here.

Do you use PulseAudio, or just ALSA? If you are using PulseAudio, then I might have an idea what is causing the sound issues.

 

To run the game with Debugging, select your game shortcut in PlayOnLinux. Then on the side menu, click on "Debug". The game will start up like normal, but an additional window will open that will display a lot of debugging information. Just leave that additional window in the background while you run your game. You should just start the game so that you get the choppy audio, then exit and close the game. You debug window should still be open, with lots of text in it. Just copy all of the text there and paste it here.

Do you use PulseAudio, or just ALSA? If you are using PulseAudio, then I might have an idea what is causing the sound issues.

Here it is: http://pastebin.com/U2v6UVPA
PulseAudio

 

There does not seem to be any specific issues except from your sound problem, which seems to be what I suspected. I experienced this problem myself with PulseAudio prior to version 7.0.

There is one file you should edit as root, so open a terminal and type:

sudo nano /etc/pulse/daemon.conf

Just scroll to the end of the file. Don't change anything in this file, just add one line at the end:

default-fragment-size-msec = 5

Save the file and exit. Then just type the following command to restart PulseAudio:

pulseaudio -k && pulseaudio --start

Hopefully this will solve your sound issue. Please comment here again to let me know if it worked or not.

 

Thanks man! it works like a charm!!

 

I got low fps, I followed the guide but if I set the graphics to high I got 30-40 fps, if I set it to low I always got 30-40 fps instead of my 90 fps on high with windows. If I click on play, always appears a popup that says "Installing Microsoft VC Redist package" and "Installing msiexec". Here is the log:
http://pastebin.com/WvqTsyEC
The 60 fps are when I don't watch at the cars and ball.
Sorry for my bad english.

 

What distro and video card/chip are you using?
There is a way to disable those packages from installing but requires some registry changes.

 

What distro and video card/chip are you using?
There is a way to disable those packages from installing but requires some registry changes.

Debian 8.2, AMD HD 7870 Gigabyte edition.

 

I have a feeling your problems are with the AMD drivers for your HD 7870
Its very common to have performance issues with AMD cards in Linux. Its not a problem with the card or Linux, its a Driver problem.
We loose many potential gamers to AMD drivers all the time. Its very frustrating.

 

Oh nice..

 

I don't have a lot of AMD experience since I'm using GeForce video cards.
You may have to update or downgrade the drivers.
If you use open source, the game may not run at all

 

Thank you very much for the guide! The game works for me, but I have 2 problems.
1. I'm using DS4 controller, it's supported by my OS, it's detected by POL and works in Wine control panel. But it doesn't work in the game. Do you know any way to make the game recognize this input?

2. I can't get the wine window to go full screen. I'm using gnome, and the window panel on top of wine is always visible, and makes bottom slice of game hidden below the screen. Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/llklFQW.png
I'm running Antergos.

 

When it comes to controllers, I unfortunately don't have any experience using them with games in Wine. You may want to try a newer Wine version, such as 1.8 and see if it works better.

In most of my experience, once I set the Wine Virtual desktop to be the same resolution as my desktop resolution, it will start up in fullscreen mode. However, I have not use Gnome so it may behave differently. I would suspect that there is some keyboard shortcut to make the window manager render a window in fullscreen, most window managers have this feature.

I know Alt+F11 is common for several other Window managers, so you may want to try that. If that does not work, then you may want to install gnome-tweak-tool (if it is not installed already) and check the window manager settings there to see if there is a fullscreen option.

 

Does Rocket League have any controller options in the game? Setting buttons and so forth?
I have a Logitech dual-shock controller and it works fine with older games, but newer games will not support it because of xinput. Like Gauntlet

 

Updated the guide with a note at the top stating that Rocket League now have a Linux beta available on Steam.

 

Awesome! Good for Linux gamers, bad for our page views.... oh well, it happens

 

The Linux version is a bit buggy. A few maps can't be started, the game just crashes. But except from that I have not experienced any other problems. The Linux version runs perfectly.

 

Great to hear. I have a few guides that now have native versions:

• Tomb Raider 2013
• Morrowind - OpenMW
• Flatout (wrapper)
• MIND: PATH TO THALAMUS ENHANCED EDITION
• Borderlands 2
• Torchlight I & II
• Tower Of Guns

 

Very useful guide, if not him, I probably would not play in his Rocket League, btw RL is a great game.

 

Very useful guide, if not him, I probably would not play in his Rocket League, btw RL is a great game.

Keep in mind that this game has got a native Linux version now, and the native Linux version plays perfectly to my experience. So there really is no need to run this game through Wine any longer.