Battlefield Bad Company 2 is a first person shooter that will immerse you in destructible firefights with realistic weapon physics, land vehicles, air vehicles in singleplayer and multi-player environments. In other words... Bad Company 2 is amazing!



Multi-player has not yet been tested for this guide.

Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Battlefield Bad Company 2 in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the Steam version of Battlefield Bad Company 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: 2.0

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: 2.0
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right


Click Next

Downloading Wine


Extracting

Downloading Gecko


Installed


Wine 2.0 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: badcompany2
No spaces
Click Next


Select all three options:

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

Click Next


Select Wine 2.0
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_dxfullsetup
• POL_Install_Physx
• POL_Install_tahoma
• POL_Install_vcrun2010
• POL_Install_vcrun2012

Click Next


Note: All packages will automatically download and install

Installing Steam

Click Browse

Navigate to your desktop
Select: SteamSetup.exe
Click Open


Follow all the typical Steam installation Steps

Sometimes Steam will not have any fonts due to dwrite functionality
Click the "X" to close Steam login regardless if the fonts work or not


PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select Steam.exe
Click Next


Name your shortcut: Bad Company 2
Click Next


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


PlayOnLinux Configure

Back to PlayOnLinux
Click Configure


General Tab
Fix the no fonts and no store symptoms...
Arguments: -no-dwrite -no-cef-sandbox


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
Strict Draw Ordering: enabled


Note: Enabling Strict Draw Ordering fixes the graphical artifacts.

Close Configure

Launching Steam Downloading Bad Company 2

Select Bad Company 2
Click Run


Note: Click debug to see errors and bugs

Find Battlefield Bad Company 2
Click Install


Uncheck "Created desktop shortcut"
Uncheck "Create start menu shortcut"
Click Next


Click "I agree"


Wait for Battlefield Bad Company 2 to download...
Click Finish


Launching Battlefield Bad Company 2

Click Play


Click "Play Battlefield Bad Company 2"
Click Play


Punkbuster Install

Click "I Agree"


Click Next


Click OK


Click Finish


Optimization

Click Options


Adjust:

• Resolution
• Overall Quality
• Advanced (custom)

Click Advanced

Adjust:

• Level of Detail
• Texture Quality
• Shadow Quality
• Effects Quality
• Anti-Aliasing
• Anisotrophic Filter
• Vsync
• HBAO

Force DirectX 9

Before you can play Bad Company 2, it will need to run with DirectX 9

Go to:

Code:

/home/username/Documents/BFBC2/

Open settings.ini
Change line: DxVersion=auto
to: DxVersion=9



Note: You can also manually adjust the graphics quality

Rule of Thumb:
High settings = More detail, lower frame rates
Low settings = Less detail, higher frame rates

Conclusion:
One you force Bad Company 2 to play in directx 9 you will be able to play the singleplayer campain without serious issues. Sometimes the initial loading of a level can be slow and stutter, but after it loads should play smoothly on decent hardware like my GeForce GTX 950. I initially tested Bad Company 2 on my Geforce 550 Ti, but there were too many frame rate issues and stutters. My Geforce GTX 950 was able to handle the game on high settings and still played smoothly.

Gameplay Video:


Screenshot: