The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Guide

Skyrim is 5th series of the epic saga known as The Elder Scrolls. Famous for the first person shooter and open-world view, Skyrim continues the Role Playing genre retaining all the favorite aspects of Morrowind and Oblivion while introducing a bunch of new features.

New classes, new guilds, new civilizations, new state-of-the-art graphics and...
wait for it...
Dragons!

Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the Steam version of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

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 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.2.8
Wine: 1.7.49-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: 1.7.49-staging

Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right

Click Next

Downloading Wine

Extracting

Downloading Gecko

Installed

Wine 1.7.49-staging is installed and you can close this window

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: skyrim
Click Next

Check all three options:

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

Click Next

Select Wine 1.7.49-staging
Click Next

Select "32 bits windows installation"
Click Next

Wine Configuration

Applications Tab
Windows Version: Windows 7
Click Apply

Graphics Tab
Click "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:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx10
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_tahoma
• POL_Install_vcrun2008
• POL_Install_xact

Click Next

Note: All packages will automatically download and install

Click Browse

Navigate to your desktop
Select "SteamSetup.exe"
Click Open

Click Next

Click Next

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

Select Language
Click Next

Click Install

Click Finish

Updating...

dwrite isn't enabled yet, so there won't be any fonts
Click The "X" and close Steam

PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select "Steam.exe"

Name your shortcut: Skyrim
Click Next

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

PlayOnLinux Configure

Back to PlayOnLinux
Select Skyrim
Click Configure

General Tab
Wine version: 1.7.49-staging
Arguments: -no-dwrite -no-cef-sandbox
This fixes the missing font and store problem

Note: -no-dwrite will allow the fonts in Steam

Display Tab
Video memory size: Enter the amount of memory your video card/chip uses

Launching Skyrim

Select Skyrim
Click Run

Note: Click Debug to see errors and bugs

Login to Steam

Select Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Click Install

Click Next

Skyrim is about 6 Gigs
When its finish downloading...
Click Finish

Click Play

Detecting Video Hardware
Click OK

Optimization

Click Options

Graphics Adapter and Resolution
Adjust:

• Graphics Adapter
• Aspect Ratio
• Resolution
• Antialiasing
• Anisotropic Filtering
• Detail
• Windowed

Click Ok

Advanced Detail
Adjust:

• Texture Quality
• Radial Blur Quality
• Shadow Detail
• Decal Quantity
• FXAA
• Water Reflections

Click Close

Advanced View Distance
Adjust:

• Object Fade
• Actor Fade
• Grass Fade
• Specularity Fade
• Light Fade
• Item Fade
• Distand Object Detail
• Object Detail Fade

Click Close

Click Play

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

Conclusion:
Skyrim ran beautifully on my GeForce 550 Ti with everything set on High or Ultra. Wine 1.7.49-staging does a great job and I didn't have too many issue:
Tree animation was not smooth and the shadows moved irregularly
Can not see underwater (underwater view can be disabled in the .ini files)

Screenshots:

 

Don't forget to disable the Steam In-Game community overlay.
It can crash Skyrim and DLC's

 

Just a tip to those who want to use the overlay. I'm using WINE 1.7.11 for this game and overlay works great. (Sometimes it gets lonely traveling around Skyrim, gotta chit chat with some steam friends haha)

I also have the debugging stuff disabled for performance.

 

What!!?? Dude if they fixed the overlay in 1.7.11 that would be awesome!
But now I have to test all of my games again

 

What!!?? Dude if they fixed the overlay in 1.7.11 that would be awesome!
But now I have to test all of my games again

Overlay worked for me in 1.7.11, but remember that.... not all programs will react the same way... like Scribblenauts Unlimited. It still crashed with overlay on.

 

Dang! I was hoping you meant it was fixed for all games.

 

I have winsteam and I'm running Skyrim through there right now, but will it run better this way? Also is it easier to install mods running directly from wine? (I can't find any easy ways through winsteam)

 

I have winsteam and I'm running Skyrim through there right now, but will it run better this way? Also is it easier to install mods running directly from wine? (I can't find any easy ways through winsteam)

You can use Steam Workshop to download mods for Skyrim . I use WINE 1.7.10-CSMT for better performance and disable the debug options.

Think of running Skyrim in steam as if you were running it on windows, it just runs great.

What I do is just, go to the workshop, install the mods and run skyrim so it can update the new subscriptions that's all to it.

 

You can use Steam Workshop to download mods for Skyrim . I use WINE 1.7.10-CSMT for better performance and disable the debug options.

Think of running Skyrim in steam as if you were running it on windows, it just runs great.

What I do is just, go to the workshop, install the mods and run skyrim so it can update the new subscriptions that's all to it.

Yea but steam workshop doesn't have Falskaar

 

Okay guys, I'm on Linux Mint 64bit Mate and I'm kinda desparate. Tried like everything - still issues with mouse trap - this is I can make maximum 180 degress rotation. Any ideas?

 

Welcome to the forum. Did you go to Wine Configuration and click on Graphics Tab?
Check "Automatically cpature the mouse in full-screen windows"
Check "Emulate a virtual desktop"
Desktop Size: 1024x768

This is critical for the mouse to work properly.

 

Thanks for replay sir. I have googled the issue - and I have found some blogger complaining about same issue on Linux Mint. Installed Ubuntu and everything works flawlessly now. It was Mint-specyfic problem

 

Wow, very strange. The difference in Distros still amazes me.
Thanks for confirming that the mouse is working again.

 

First: Thank you ! After all the years (i tried my first linux in '96) the first real success ! It works ! And finally a solution to get rid of windows ! Really, thanks a lot !
Two things: i didn't have the option "argument" in playonlinux to add the no-dwrite, and in the console i had to type > cd /media/SKYRIM_DE/Setup.exe -no-dwrite (note: i have Ubuntu installed and a German version of the game).
Sorry I didn't see your post earlier.
So you got it working?
I have a feeling your PlayOnLinux version might be older. Try updating to the current 4.2.2 version

 

When I type

./Setup.exe -no-dwrite

The output says

bash: ./Setup.exe: cannot execute binary file

What should I do?

 

did you navigate to the DVD first? in Mint it is

/media/username/SKYRIM_EN

Once you are in the DVD directory in Terminal, then run the

./Setup.exe -no-dwrite

Also, if it still says "cannot execute Binary file" you may have to copy the entire DVD contents to a folder on your desktop.
Then try the install from there.
Otherwise, just download it in Steam.

 

i need some serious help. i followed this guide and when i tried to start the steam to play it doesnt even open. i dont know what else to do. please help me. thank you.

 

Hi, thanks for posting. Are you saying Steam won't launch or Skyrim won't launch?
Don't forget that the In-Game Community overlay can cause games to crash at launch. Make sure to disable that overlay.
Can you play any other games on your Distro?

 

Hi, thanks for posting. Are you saying Steam won't launch or Skyrim won't launch?
Don't forget that the In-Game Community overlay can cause games to crash at launch. Make sure to disable that overlay.
Can you play any other games on your Distro?

I having a similar issue. I'm using the newest version of Ubuntu. Everything works fine until i try to launch the game. It tells me there are serious issues with the Skyrimlauncher.exe and needs to close and that it can be caused by a problem in the program or a deficiency in wine.

 

Did you disable the overlay? That is pretty critical with a lot of Steam games. It will crash them before launch or during game menu's when you click. I've seen other symptoms as well.

You can also post your debug in our PlayOnLinux forum so we can see if there are any errors to point us in the "right direction"