Mass Effect 3 Guide

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Take the role as Commander Shepard again in the third installment of Mass Effect. Defend planet Earth of annihiliation from the evil Reapers once again. Play an over-the-shoulder team-based action RPG where you develop your character, level up, interactive dialog and even import your Mass Effect 1 or 2 saved character.

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Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Mass Effect 3 in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the Origin version of Mass Effect 3. Other versions may require additional steps.

Tips & Specs:

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

Mint 17.2 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.2.9
Wine: 1.7.51-staging

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"
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Look for the Wine Version: 1.7.55-staging
Note: Try using stable Wine 1.8 and 1.8-staging

Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right
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Click Next

Downloading Wine
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Extracting

Downloading Gecko
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Installed
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Wine 1.7.55-staging is installed and you can close this window

Download OriginSetup.exe

Go to: download.dm.origin.com/origin/live/OriginSetup.exe
Navigate to your desktop
Click Save
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PlayOnLinux Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install
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Click "Install a non-listed program"
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Click Next

Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
Click Next
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Name your virtual drive: masseffect3
Click Next
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Check all three options:
  • Use another version of Wine
  • Configure Wine
  • Install some libraries
Click Next
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Select "Wine 1.7.55-staging"
Click Next
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Select "32 bits windows installation"
Click Next
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Wine Configuration

Applications Tab
Windows version: Windows 7
Click Apply
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Graphics Tab
Check "Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows"
Check "Emulate a virtual desktop"
Click OK
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Installing Packages (Libraries, Components, DLL's)

Check the following packages:
  • POL_Install_corefonts
  • POL_Install_d3dx9
  • POL_Install_tahoma
  • POL_Install_vcrun2008
  • POL_Install_vcrun2010
  • POL_Install_vcrun2012
Click Next
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Note: All packages will automatically download and install

Installing Origin Client

Click Browse

Navigate to your Desktop
Select OriginSetup.exe
Click Open
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Click Next Again

Preparing...

Uncheck all options:
Click Install
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Installing...
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Check "I have read and accept..."
Click OK
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At this point the client will try to launch, but will crash...

Killing Origin Process

Alt+Tab to PlayOnLinux
Click Configure
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Wine Tab
Click "Kill Processes"
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PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select Origin.exe
Click Next
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Name the shortcut: Mass Effect 3
Click Next
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Select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
Click Next
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Back to Configure

General Tab
Wine version: 1.7.55-staging
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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
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Close Configure

Origin Directory Permissions

If you launch Origin it will crash every time
This is because of the In Game Overlay
We have to do this manually by renaming some files
But, the Origin folder is locked

Go to the Origin Directory
Path: /home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/Origin/Drive_C/Program Files/
Right click
Select Properties
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Click Dropdown next to "Owner"
Select "Create and delete files"
Click "Apply Permissions to Enclosed Files"
Click Close
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Rename:
igoproxy.exe
igoproxy64.exe

To:
igoproxy-old.exe
igoproxy64-old.exe
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Launching Origin

Back to PlayOnLinux
Select Origin
Click Run
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Note: Click Debug to see errors and bugs

Login to Origin
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Select Mass Effect 3
Click Download
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When Mass Effect 3 is finished downloading, Origin may crash
Click Exit Origin
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Mass Effect 3 Shortcuts

Select Origin
Click Configure
Click "Make a new shortcut from this virtual drive"
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Select "MassEffect3.exe"
Click Next
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Name shortcut: Mass Effect 3
Click Next
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Select "MassEffect3Config.exe"
Click Next
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Name shortcut: Mass Effect 3 Config
Click Next
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Select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
Click Next
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Launching Mass Effect 3

Select Origin
Click Run
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Login Again
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Back to PlayOnLinux
Select Mass Effect 3 or Config
Click Run
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Optimization:

Launch Mass Effect 3 Config
Click Video
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Adjust:
  • Windowed
  • Windows Mode
  • Aspect Ration
  • Resolution
  • Anti-Aliasing
  • Motion Blur
  • Dynamic Shadows
  • Number Of Cinematic Lights
  • Use Spherical Harmonic Lighting
  • Anisotropic Filtering
Save Changes
Click Mass Effect 3
Click "Save Settings"
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Conclusion:
Mass Effect 3 runs pretty well on my GeForce 550 Ti. Some of the cutscenes stutter and the characters lips do not always animate, but in game looks beautiful and frame rates are decent.
Make sure to check "Remember password" in Origin, then you can launch Mass Effect alone and it will automatically log into Origin and launch the game.

I did experience Origin crashing randomly and it will kick you out of the game. But I would easily kill the game, launch Origin and continue playing. The crashing is because of Origin not Mass Effect 3. Sadly any problems you experience is probably going to be related to the Origin client. Mass Effect 3 runs just fine regardless.

Note: Don't bother with the Demo, it refuses to completed the "connecting to EA servers"

Screenshots:
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Last edited:
Click to expand...
booman
Did you have any problems in cutscenes? Like lip sync that was off or lips not moving at all?
 
vashin
I noticed that on your guide that when you right click on the origin folder and go to properties on the permissions tab you select owner and you have options. I don't have options, it shows my name as owner and is grey. I can not select anything. It must have to do with permissions file access. I'm not sure how to fix that. Also you have 2 tabs I do not. Emblems and Share. I am testing on Arch Linux
 
vashin
I am using PlayOnLinux version 4.2.9 This may have to do with file and folder permissions for PCManFM. I'm using Arch Linux testing.
 
booman
Oh, I don't know much about Arch, but you can always use Terminal to change permissions of directories.
Mint even has a "open as root" option so you can manually change permissions
 
vashin
booman said:
Oh, I don't know much about Arch, but you can always use Terminal to change permissions of directories.
Mint even has a "open as root" option so you can manually change permissions
Click to expand...

Ha! Yes, I have to go back to Arch School and study up I'm still a novice in some areas :D
 
M
booman said:
Did you have any problems in cutscenes? Like lip sync that was off or lips not moving at all?
Click to expand...

In my last test with mas effect 3 i dont notice that


However maybe could try in wine 1.8rc3 (out in today in morning) but stay very busy in bunch testing* because stay waiting 1.8rc3

*Some of them are tom clancy rainbow six vegas 1, tom clancy hawx, tom clancy advanced warfighter 2, tom clancy splinter cell double agent, last remnant, tom clancy ghost recon disney epic mickey 2, pure, split second, toy story 3, collin mac rally, lego pirates of caribbean, lego batman, pirates of caribbean at the world end, lego batman, hyperdimension neptunia rebirth 1, tron 2.0, killer is dead and maybe others

Various of this titles courtesy of exploration steam sale

:)
 
vashin
vashin said:
Ha! Yes, I have to go back to Arch School and study up I'm still a novice in some areas :D
Click to expand...

Edit:I figured it out :)

I still get the online login is currently unavailable but there is a workaround for that, the problem appears to be in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\Root\Certificates\

by opening the registry and importing the gte_global.reg file through regedit in PlayOnLinux to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\Root\Certificates\ resolved the issue for me.

On Wine this fixes the issue:

Symptom: The login prompt shows an error message "Online login is currently unavailable."

Origin uses the "GTE CyberTrust Global Root" (1024-bit) certificate. This certificate was removed by Mozilla and many Linux distributions because it is insecure. The only real solution for this is EA to use a new and secure certificate (the current insecure one will expire in 2018).

This issue is tracked in bug #35828, but can't be solved in Wine.

Workaround:

  1. Download the certificate from the bug report.
    wget https://bugs.winehq.org/attachment.cgi?id=52785 -O gte_global.reg
  2. Install it in your wineprefix. (Only there, but not systemwide on your Linux/Mac system.)
    wine regedit gte_global.reg
Now restart Origin and you should be able to login.

Confirmed, Mass Effect 3 through PlayOnLinux is working on Arch Linux :)
 
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