I've been summoned to this thread to write up what I do to get Victoria 2 to work with Playonlinux / WINE. So I will do so!
First off, the instructions I will write are using Steam to download the game. Some people out there in internet land may have a physical copy, but the process should be similar.
I currently am using Playonlinux. If your familar with WINE you will be able to transfer these instructions easily.
In playonlinux goto Tools and Manage WINE versions. Select the Wine Versions (x86) tab. I use 2.4-staging. You can probably use others, but I can confirm this works for me at least.
In Playonlinux select the Configure button. Bottom left select "New" You want to create a new Virtual Drive (without playonlinux this is known as a Prefix). It will prompt you 32-bit or 64-bit. Select 32-bit. Then it will ask which WINE version to use. System or the version you downloaded eariler. Here is where I selected 2.4-staging. I name the virtual drive victoria2.
You will get prompted by WINE Mono Installer at this point. Select Install. Then the WINE Gecko Installer. Select Install. This should end the process of creating a virtual drive. This VD will keep your specific WINE tweaks, downloads and settings completely seperate from other WINE programs. This is very important if you use WINE for multiple programs.
In playonlinux main screen, select "Configure". Select your Virtual Drive on the left and some tabs will appear! Without PlayonLinux (Hereforth refered to as PoL) You will use WINETricks from here on out.
Lets start on the WINE tab. Select the button that says Configure Wine. A Wine Configureation screen will pop up. On my PC I goto the Audio tab and select Pulseaudio. Then since I am using a Wine Staging build, There is a Staging tab. Select the enable CSMT for better graphics preformance button. Press Apply at the bottom of the window and then OK.
Change tabs at the top to "Install Components" (Again this can be done using WINEtricks). I will list the components to select. Please do not vary from this unless it is not working. A few distos need specific installs here and selecting say DXfullsetup over d3dx36 may not work correctly.
Install these components in this order (I put Steam last since it takes longer, other than that order does not matter):
d3dx9
d3dx36
devenum
directmusic
dotnet30sp1
- (you MAY get a ptrace error here on Ubuntu or Arch based distros such as Manjaro here. Debian will not give this error which is interesting) to fix this error, follow these instructions:
- Open a terminal and paste this: echo 0 | sudo tee /proc/sys/kernel/yama/ptrace_scope
- This will fix the error temporaily. To fix it permanently open a Terminal and paste this: sudo nano /etc/sysctl.d/10-ptrace.conf
- This will open the nano terminal text editor. Paste this in the file: kernel.yama.ptrace_scope = 0
- Save the file by pressing Control + X.
- It will also offer to install Microsoft Core Fonts at this time as part of the dotnet30sp1 install. Say yes to this.
- You will probably get an Error! Files mismatch error Do you want to Retry? I always select No here and the install will continue. Do not cancel the install. Just hit Next and everything will continue
(Continue installing components)
Gecko (just to be sure=p)
Quartz
vcrun2005
vcrun2008
vcrun2010
vcrun2012
wmp9 (windows media player 9)
Steam (It asks me twice to install Microsoft Core Fonts here, I just select yes) Go through all the Steam install prompts.
This is the end of the compnents that need installed. Log into Steam and begin the download of Victoria 2.
Close Steam after download is complete. You may get an error when closing Steam. Just close the error message.
DO NOT PRESS PLAY. I repeat DO NOT PRESS PLAY. If you play this game from Steam, it will overwrite your Direct X and C++ files and overwrite some things we have done and you will have to start over. Never start this game via Steam in WINE. Ever ever? Yes, forever ever. This guide will walk you through creating a new direct shortcut at the end to launch without Steam.
Once downloaded, the fun begins...
On the Window with the tabs select "Display" Select your Video Memory size with the amount of dedicated graphics card memory you have.
Select the "Miscellaneous" tab. Open virtual drive's directory. We need to accomplish two things while here.
#1 We need to delete a file. drive_c/Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common/Victoria 2/map/cache/ Delete the file named TIME. Your actually fine deleting everything in the cache folder as long as your don't delete the cache folder itself, but only the TIME file is nessesary.
#2 We need to delete or rename drive_c/windows/system32/msvcr80.dll I usually just rename it msvcr80OLD.dll
One last step to begin playing. We need to create a new shortcut to launch the game.
On our Configuration window with the tabs, select the General tab and press the "Make a new shortcut from this virtual drive" A new window will pop up with lots of crazy names. We are looking for v2game.exe.
Select v2game.exe and then a few windows will open and close and it will ask you to name the shortcut. I name it Victoria 2. Wait for it to create the shortcut on the PoL screen and then scroll up on the shortcut window and select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
The first time you launch the game it may take a bit longer than usual as it is recreating the TIME file and cache files that we deleted eariler. Subsequent launchings will not take as long.
Music may also stutter a bit while the game loads to the main menu however gameplay music should not stutter.
Have fun!
