Borderlands 2 continues the story of vault hunters pilgrimagging to Pandora. It is superior in every way over Borderlands with a lot more of everything.



More weapons, more upgrades, more beautiful visuals, more enemies, more locations... on and on and on

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

Note: This guide applies to the Steam version of Borderlands 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 14 32-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.2.1
Wine: 1.7.8

Installing Wine

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"


Look for the Wine Version: 1.7.8
Note: Try using stable Wine 1.8 and 1.8-staging

Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right


Click Next

PlayOnLinux will automatically download it and save it in this directory:
/home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wine/linux-x86


Note: username is where you put your login name

Its a good idea to backup this directory to another computer because you won't have to keep downloading wine versions when you need them.

Extracting


Downloading Gecko


Installed


Wine 1.7.8 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. Since Borderlands 2 isn't made for Linux, we will download the Windows Steam instead.
click "Windows" under the green button


Navigate to your desktop
Click Save


Setup PlayOnLinux

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install


Click "install a non-listed program"


Click Next

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


Name you virtual drive: borderlands2
No spaces
Click Next


Select all three options:

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

Click Next


Select Wine 1.7.8
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 32-bit virtual drive.

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


Install Libraries

Check the following libraries:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx11
• POL_Install_dxfullsetup
• POL_Install_tahoma
• POL_Install_vcrun2008
• POL_Install_vcrun2010
• POL_Install_xact

Click Next




Installing Steam

Click Browse


Navigate to your desktop
Select: SteamInstall.msi
Click Open


Click Next


Click Next

Check: I accept the license...
Click Next

Click Next

Click Next

Click Install

Click Finish

Updating Steam

More updating, extracting and installing

When Steam is done installing the login screen will pop up. You probably won't see any text because there is a font bug.
Click the "X" to close Steam login


PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select Steam.exe
Click Next


Name your shortcut: Borderlands 2 Steam
Click Next


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


More PlayOnLinux Configuration

Back to PlayOnLinux
Click Configure


Select Borderlands 2 Steam virtual drive

General Tab
Arguments: -no-dwrite
This fixes the font problem


Note: -no-dwrite only works if you launch Steam from PlayOnLinux. Steam is automatically set to launch when Windows starts, which means if you do a "Windows Reboot" from the Wine tab -no-dwrite won't execute. Just close Steam and try again.

Display Tab
Direct Draw Renderer: opengl
Video Memory Size: size of memory on your video card
Offscreen rendering mode: fbo


Close Configure

Select Borderlands 2 Steam
Click Run


Click "Login to an existing account"


Login


Steam Overlay

Some games will not work with Steam Overlay
Click Steam Menu
Click Settings

Select "In-Game" on the left
Uncheck "Enable Steam Community In-Game"
Click OK


Install Borderlands 2

Find Borderlands 2 in the Library list
Click Install


Note: With expansion packs Borderlands 2 is about 12 and a half Gigabyte download

Click Next


Uncheck "Create start menu shortcut to Borderlands 2"
Uncheck "Create desktop shortcut to Borderlands 2"
Click Next


Click Finish


Shortcut to Borderlands

When Borderlands is done downloading, we need to create a shortcut to the game because the Launcher doesn't work.

Switch Back to PlayOnLinux while Steam is still open
Click Configure


General Tab
Click "Make a new shortcut from this virtual drive"


Select Borderlands2.exe
Click Next


Name the Shortcut Borderlands 2
Click Next


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


General Tab again
Select "Borderlands 2" on the left side
Arguments: -NoLauncher
This allows Borderlands 2 to start without the launcher


Close Configure

Launching Borderlands 2

Select Borderlands 2
Click Run

Note: Clicking Debug instead will allow you to see errors and bugs in order to troubleshoot any problems.

Video Options

Click Options


Click Video


Click Resolution to go full screen
Select the Resolution of your Linux desktop and the virtual desktop will automatically resize


Other settings can help or hurt your frame rate

If you find the game is very slow try this
Ambient Occlution = Off
Depth of Field = Off
Foliage distance = Low
View distance = med or low


General Rule-of-thumb:
Higher settings = More detail, lower frame rate
Lower settings = Less detail, higher frame rate

Conclusion:
Borderlands 2 ran exceptionally well on my GeForce 550 Ti in PlayOnLinux.
I was able to complete quests, level up, use the menus and mouse just fine. So far I have made it to Level 9 going solo. I did not have a chance to play cooperative with Windows clients.
The only bug I noticed was zooming created some tiny pixel artifacts.
Unfortunately all of the fancy DirectX 11 special effects won't work because we are limited to DirecX 9 in Linux.

Screenshots: