Alan Wake Guide

The Alan Wake series has not quite received the attention it deserves. Think of your favorite thriller movie... Alan Wake can absolutely compete with the theatrical settings and interactive elements.
It plays just like a movie, but instead you feel like its yourself stuck in this movie battling light and dark.

I won't give away any spoilers because the game will speak for its-self with the thrills and scares.
I had a chance to try Alan Wake in Linux and it runs decent enough to deserve a guide.

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

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

Tips & Specs

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

Mint 14 32-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.2
Wine: 1.5.25

Installing Wine with PlayOnLinux

Installing different versions of Wine is necessary for running different games because one Wine doesn't work for them all. PlayOnLinux makes it possible to download, install and test your game in all the versions of Wine until you find the right one for your speicific game.

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Tools
Click "Manage Wine Versions"

Wine versions manager
Select 1.5.25
Click the right-arrow

Note: Try using stable Wine 1.8 and 1.8-staging

Wine wizard

Click Next

Downloading...

Extracting

Complete

Thats it! Try downloading other stable versions like 1.41

PlayOnLinux & Wine Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install

I was not able to find a PlayOnLinux script, but its a good idea to always search for one in the future.
Click "Install a non-listed program"

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

Name your virtual drive: alanwake
No spaces
Click Next

Select all three options:

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

Click Next

Select 1.5.25
Click Next

Note: If you are running a 64-bit system, PlayOnLinux will prompt if you want to use a 64-bit or 32-bit virtual drive.
ALWAYS SELECT THE 32-bit VIRTUAL DRIVE

Wine Configuration

Applications Tab
Windows Version: Windows 7
Click Apply

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

Installing Libraries (Windows Components/DLL)

Select the following Libraries:

• POL_Install_xact
• POL_Install_d3dcompiler_43
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_gdiplus
  
• POL_Install_vcrun2005

Click Next

Libraries will download and install automatically

Installing Alan Wake

Click Browse

Navigate to your GOG.com download for Alan Wake
Select "setup_alan_wake_1.0.0.12.exe"
Click Open

Click Next

Checking Integrity

Check "Yes, I have read and accept..."
Click Start Installation

Installing

Complete
Don't click Launch because PlayOnLinux isn't done

Click Exit Installer

Shortcut

Select: alanwake.exe
Click Next

Name the shortcut: Alan Wake
Click Next

No I don't want to make another shortcut
Click Next

PlayOnLinux Configure

Click Configure

Display Tab
GLSL Support: disable (CRITICAL - select disable to avoid lighting issues - CRITICAL)
Direct Draw Renderer: opengl
Video Memory Size: the size of memory on your video card
Offscreen rendering mode: fbo

Wine Tab
Click "Windows Reboot"

Launch Alan Wake

The game will automatically try to adjust the graphics settings for you. It will probably crash, and then just launch it again.

Menu
Click "Options"

Click "Graphics"

Resolution
I was able to change the Resolution here
Alan Wake ran at 16080x1050 with my hardware
Click the resolution to adjust size of screen
Press Enter to apply

Click Advanced Options

Graphics was set to "low" by default
If you click the presets it will switch to custom
Now you can adjust the advanced settings to your own preferences
Here are the settings that worked for my card and still gave me at least 15-20fps
The motion blur kills some of your frame rates, but I found that turning down the mouse sensitivity help reduce blur.

You can kill blur completely by adding the arguments "-noblur" to the virtual drive. It didn't seem to help my frame rates, but its worth a try.

Conclusion:
I was still impressed with visuals even though the settings were on low. The textures, lighting and models still looked rather nice. I read a lot about cut-scenes with no audio at WineHQ, but I never had that problem. I read about some people running Alan Wake on high with blur off, but again I didn't get smooth movement or animation.
If this is a "must have" game... it really is playable, but be patient and keep testing with new versions of Wine in the future.

Screenshots:

 

High Quality Screenshots:

 

I have tested with different graphical settings in Alan Wake and still get the same frame-rate. Not sure why as of yet...
I set everything on HIGH and same 15-20 fps
I lowered the resolution and same 15-20 fps

So it really seems there is a conflict somewhere that prohibiting higher frame rates with this engine.
I'll keep watching WineHQs and see if they have any more tips.

 

Hello
I know this is quite old thread, but generally I'm new to this game and I have problem looking like on this screen:
http://i.imgur.com/SEF8B.jpg
( comes from thread: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/928005-alan-wake/61991702 )
I have read some texts on how to overcome this, but nothing helped me.
If anyone has any suggestions/experiance on how to make grass look properly or disable it completely ( I managed to do this once, but after reload of the game it returned :/ ) please share it.
I'm playing this game thou, now I started 3 episode and like it much.
Thanks.

 

Yes, I experienced this problem as well with older versions of Wine.
Try using Wine 1.8.2 or newer.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, but I already have higher wine version.
I forgot to mention specs of my system. It is generally Mint 17.3 on nVidia GTX 750 Ti ( with proprietary drivers ) and wine 1.9.9. And in drivers control panel Antialiasing is set to application controlled as Remedy suggests for this game:
http://community.remedygames.com/fo...faq-and-known-issues-please-read-first?t=7759

 

Hmm, somehow I remember something about anti-aliasing... try disabling it in-game. Also try setting GLSL (PlayOnLinux configure/Display Tab) to disabled

 

Thanks, tried some more settings, but it didn't help to get the grass properly looking.
But I finally found other good solution, I can turn it completely off and it is good enough solution for me, yeah! dont have to stress no more on that grass

 

What was the solution? disabling anti-aliasing?

 

No, its not possible to disable AA in this game, its strongly used as Remedy says.
Of course you could always turn it off directly in the driver, but then as I have read in some places ( also in Remedy's official faq ) it for sure gives this 'blocky' grass and the only solution is to turn it on, what I have tried ( many different AA settings ) but I never got fixed grass.
Then accidentally I have found out how to turn the grass completely off and have the other settings set to high.
First I set the graphics settings to "Very low" ( this setting makes grass disappear ) and then I can go to "Custom" settings and I can set everything to High. The grass does not come back and I have everything High
To make grass appear again, graphics preset setting other then "Very low" must be chosen.

 

That is very strange. So the grass is gone completely? At least the game works for you and still looks good.

 

Yeap, the grass is completely off
And I'm so satisfied ( those landscapes are quite nice ) that I do not bother to look anymore to find a solution on fixing the grass, its OK for me.

 

I'm the same way...
Some bugs are very minor and tolerable. If the game plays nicely without crashing and I'm having fun... I'm ok with a few bugs.