Once again you play as Alan Wake the Champion of Light and your dark arena is the dry desert of Arizona. Expose the darkness with weapons of light, kill minions with a variety of weapons and search for answers in dark desert landscapes.





Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Alan Wake American Nightmare in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the GOG version of Alan Wake American Nightmare. Other versions may require additional steps.

Tips & Specs:

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

Mint 17 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.2.5
Wine: 1.6.2

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"


Look for the Wine Version: 1.6.2
Note: Try using stable Wine 1.8 and 1.8-staging

Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right


Click Next

Downloading Wine


Extracting

Downloading Gecko


Installed


Wine 1.6.2 is installed and you can close this window

PlayOnLinux Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux
click Install


Click "Install a non-listed program"


Click Next

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


Name your virtual drive: awnightmare
Click Next


Check all three options:

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

Click Next


Select Wine 1.6.2
Click Next


Select "32 bits windows installation"
Click Next


Wine Configuration

Application 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, DLL, Components)

Check the following packages:

• POL_Install_corefonts
  
• POL_Install_d3dx9
  
• POL_Install_gdiplus
  
• POL_Install_tahoma

Click Next

Note: All packages will automatically download and install

Installing Alan Wake American Nightmare

Click Browse


Select "setup_alan_wake_american_nightmare_2.1.0.24.exe"
Click Open


Click Next again

Check "Yes, I have read and accept EULA"
Uncheck "Create desktop icons"
Click Install


When the game is finished installing...
Click Exit


PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select "alan_wakes_american_nightmare.exe"
Click Next


Name your shortcut "American Nightmare"
Click Next


Click Next again

PlayOnLinux Configure

Back to PlayOnLinux
Select American Nightmare
Click Configure


General Tab
Wine version: 1.6.2


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 amount of memory your video card/chip uses


Close Configure

Launching Alan Wake American Nightmare

Select American Nightmare
Click Run


Note: Click debug to see errors and bugs

Optimization

Click "Help & Options"


Click Graphics


Select resolution, fullscreen, vsync, blur, or Advanced Options


Select a preset Graphics Quality or custom and set it yourself.
Adjust:

• Antialiasing
• FXAA Quality
• Anisotropic Filtering
• SSAO quality
• Backdrop Quality
• Godray Quality
• Volumetric Light Quality
• Draw Distance

IMPORTANT
SSAO Quality needs to be OFF
Otherwise you will see a bunch artifacts on the grass.

Note: I couldn't find an "apply" button, so it should automatically apply for you or just restart the game. I was also unable to set the resolution, so I left it as 1024x768 and yet it was 1680x1050 fullscreen anyways.

Conclusion:
American Nightmare ran exceptionally well with minimal crashes. If it did crash randomly, I would just start up the game again and most of the time I continued from where I left off. After I figured out the grass problem with Ambient Occlusion, the game looked beautiful. I love all the light visuals like the flares and flashlight.

Gameplay Video:




Screenshots: