Alien Swarm is one of the first Free-To-Play Source games in Steam. Play as several solider classes in a co-op campaign and obliterate the alien swarms by completing objectives and using brutal weapons. Reactive Drop adds new campaigns, aliens, weapons, game modes and improved single player. Now you can slay aliens with 8 players in online or offline co-op. Oh, and did I mention that its still FREE?
Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop in Linux with PlayOnLinux.
Note: This guide applies to the Steam version of Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop.
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 18.1 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.2.10
Wine: 2.0-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: 2.0-staging
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right
Click Next
Downloading Wine
Extracting
Downloading Gecko
Installed
Wine 2.0-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: alienswarm
No spaces
Click Next
Select all three options:
- Use another version of Wine
- Configure Wine
- Install some libraries
Select Wine 2.0-staging
Click Next
Select "32 bits windows installation"
Click Next
Configure 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
PlayOnLinux Packages (Libraries, Components, DLL's)
Check the following libraries:
- POL_Install_corefonts
- POL_Install_d3dx9
- POL_Install_tahoma
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: Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop
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
This fixes the missing font problem and Store problem
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 Steam
Select Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop
Click Run
Note: Click debug to see errors and bugs
Click "Login to existing account"
Login
Search the Steam Store for "Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop"
Click "Play Game"
Uncheck "Create desktop shortcut"
Uncheck "Create start menu shortcut"
Click Next
Click Finish
When Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop is done downloading
Click Play
Optimization
Click Options
Click Video
Adjust:
- Aspect Ratio
- Resolution
- Display Mode
- Anti-aliasing Mode
- Filtering Mode
- Wait For Vertical Sync
- Multicore Rendering
- Shader Detail
- Effect Detail
- Model / Texture Detail
- Bloom
- Depth Blur
- Paged Pool memory Available
Rule of thumb
High settings = More detail, lower frame rates
Low settings = Less detail, higher frame rates
Conclusion:
Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop ran flawlessly in PlayOnLinux and I was really impressed with the new upgrades and changes. 8-player should be a LOT of fun in a LAN (I sucessfully tested 4-player offline) and the new campaigns, weapons and improved single player makes it a no-brainer. I didn't have any issues running on Mint 18 with GeForce 660, 750 Ti, GTX 1060 or GTX 950.
Gameplay Video:
Screenshots:
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