Serious Sam II is the second release to another horde-slaying FPS and boasts a bunch of new features. Beautiful HD textures, shadows, interactive objects, new enemies and more. There is a surreal story-line, but your goal is to blast all kinds of odd monsters and bosses into oblivion.
Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Serious Sam 2 in Linux with PlayOnLinux.
Note: This guide applies to the Steam version of Serious Sam 2. Other versions may require additional steps.
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 17.3 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.2.10
Wine: 1.8.3
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: 1.8.3
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right
Click Next
Downloading Wine
Extracting
Downloading Gecko
Installed
Wine 1.8.3 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: serioussam
No spaces
Click Next
Select all three options:
- Use another version of Wine
- Configure Wine
- Install some libraries
Select Wine 1.8.3
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
Click the "X" to close Steam login
PlayOnLinux Shortcut
Select Steam.exe
Click Next
Name your shortcut: Serious Sam 2
Click Next
Select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
Click Next
PlayOnLinux Configure
Back to PlayOnLinux
Click Configure
General Tab
Wine version: 1.8.3
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 Serious Sam 2
Click Run
Note: Click debug to see errors and bugs
Click "Login to existing account"
Login
Go to your Library
Find Serious Sam 2
Click Install
Uncheck "Created desktop shortcut"
Uncheck "Create start menu shortcut"
Click Next
Click Finish
Wait while it downloads in Steam
Click Play
Optimization
Click Options
Click Video Options
Adjust:
- Quality
- Resolution
- Texture size
- Antialiasing
- Gamma Correction
- Full Screen
Click Advanced
In Advanced, adjust:
- Dynamic Shadows
- Particle Amount
- Crumbs
- Geometry LOD
- Brightness
- Contrast
- Gamma
- Texture Quality
- Texture Size
- Lightmap Quality
- Lightmap Size
- Bloom
- Anisotropy
- Filtering
- LOD Bias
- Lens Flare Quality
- Parallax Mapping
- Reflection Quality
- Refractions
- Wait v Syncs
- Only Shaders
Conclusion:
Serious Sam II installed and ran perfectly. I had no problems adjusting the graphical settings and was getting really good frame rates with my GeForce GTX 950. My GeForce 9800 was even able to play with some of the graphical settings toned down. Its actually quite a beautiful game considering its age.
Gameplay Video:
Screenshots:
Last edited:
