Combat Flight Simulator 3 Guide

Combat Flight Simulator 3 is the latest installment of the flying combat series. Play a full campaign as USA, RAF or Luftwaffe or select your own quick battle with full customization. Dogfight over huge maps from North England all the way to East Berlin.

Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Combat Flight Simulator 3 in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the Retail version of Combat Flight Simulator 3. Other versions may require additional steps.

Tips & Specs:

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

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"

Look for the Wine Version: 2.0
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right

Note: Always try the newest stable version of Wine as well

Click Next

Downloading Wine

Extracting

Downloading Gecko

Installed

Wine 2.0 is installed and you can close this window

Copying Disk Files

Open the Combat Flight Simulator 3 disk and copy everything into a new folder on your Desktop.
Enter the 2nd disk and copy everything too.

Click Skip for all duplicate files

PlayOnLinux Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install

Click "Install a non-listed program"

Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
Click Next

Name the virtual drive: combatsim3
Click Next

Check all three options:

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

Click Next

Select Wine 2.0
Click Next

Select "32 bits windows installation"
Click Next

Wine Configuration

Applications Tab
Windows version: Windows XP

Graphics Tab
Check "Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows"
Check "Emulate a virtual desktop"
Desktop size: 1024x768
Click OK

PlayOnLinux Packages (DLLs, Libraries, Components)

Check the following:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_msxml3
• POL_Install_tahoma

Click Next

Note: All packages will automatically download and install

Installing Combat Flight Simulator 3

Select "Select another file"
Click Next

Click Browse

Navigate to the folder on your Desktop
Select "setup.exe"
Click Open

Click Next again...

Click "Custom Install"

Click Next

Click "Full Install, uses this option to maximize performance. 1598.5MB"
Uncheck "Create Desktop Icon"
Click Install

Click the X to close the installer

Click the X again to close the installer

PlayOnLinux Shorcut

Select "cfs3.exe"
Click Next

Name the shortcut: Combat Flight Simulator 3
Click Next

Select "cfs3config.exe"
Click Next

Name this shortcut: Combat Sim Config
Click Next

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

PlayOnLinux Configure

Back to PlayOnLinux
Select "Combat Flight Simulator 3"
Click Configure

General Tab
Wine version: 2.0

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

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

Wine Tab
Controller Setup

Click Control panel
Open "Game Controllers"
Disable any option the had the "(event)" suffix, leaving just "(js)" enabled


Close Configure

Select "Combat sim Config"
Click Run

Note: Click debug to see errors and bugs

Click File
Select Custom Settings

Check "Select resolution"
Set the resolution to match your Linux Desktop
Adjust Anti-aliasing
Click OK

If you see a (null) error
Just click OK and try it again

Click "Change Display Options"

Adjust:

• Over all Graphic Detail
• Aircraft Detail
• Terrain Detail
• Scenery Detail
• Effects Quality
• Cloud Quality

Click OK

Click Exit

Launching Combat Flight Simulator 3

Select "Combat Flight Simulator 3"
Click Run

Click Accept

I received the (null) error a few times at first launch
The configuration override file is corrupt or missing
Click OK

Go back to the "Combat sim Config" again and adust your settings again

In Game Options

Click "Display Options"

Make your adjustments just like in the config

Close Options

Conclusion:
After successfully setting the config properly, the game ran perfectly! I was even able to set modern widescreen resolutions. This is an older game, so it should run on just about any laptop desktop. You can probably skip the pre config and just launch the game in 1024x768 and adjust the resolution in-game. Either way I was able to select all of the planes, pilots and missing without any problems. I even used an old Logitech USB flight stick controller.

Gameplay video:

Screenshots:

 

Good guide of non common game

 

Thanks for this guide, as Windows 10 refused to run CFS3 for me (ironic, I know). Couple of things I had to change or do extra:

- Just had to pick the latest version of wine (4.9 at this time), as 2.0 wouldn't install.

- On the PlayOnLinux main panel, I had to:
-Select "Combat Flight Simulator 3"
-Click Configure
-Select Wine tab
-Click Control panel
-Open "Game Controllers"
-Disable any option the had the "(event)" suffix, leaving just "(js)" enabled

The 2nd set of steps had to carried out because otherwise the game would mis-read my game controller inputs (in this case, a logitech joystick and a PS3 joypad), and would override any in-game control configurations. e.g. z-axis movement wold ALWAYS affect throttle, even if not defined in-game.

Now I just have to somehow obtain those massive, user-made overhauls, that have seemingly disappeared from the web....

 

Thank you for replying and adding the controller steps!
I will add those to the guide.

Yes, always make sure to try the newest version of Wine when installing a game.
I wish there was a way to re-test all of our guides with the newest version, but at 380+ guides that would be impossible. Ha ha!