Borderlands is a First Person Shooter RPG. Play as one of the 4 vault hunter classes in a comical epic story as you seek fortunes on the planet Pandora. Utilizing literraly unlimited variations of weapons as your arsenal, you can cooperatively solve quests and explore the planet while slaying minions and factions.



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

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

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
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right


Click Next

Downloading Wine


Extracting

Downloading Gecko


Installed


Wine 1.8 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
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: borderlands
No spaces
Click Next


Select all three options:

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

Click Next


Select Wine 1.8
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_dotnet40
• POL_Install_Physx
• POL_Install_tahoma
• POL_Install_vcrun2008

Click Next


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

Steam will not have any fonts due to dwrite functionality
Click the "X" to close Steam login


PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select Steam.exe
Click Next


Name your shortcut: Borderlands
Click Next


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


PlayOnLinux Configure

Back to PlayOnLinux
Click Configure


General Tab
Arguments: -no-dwrite -no-cef-sandbox
This fixes the missing font and store problem


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 Borderlands
Click Run


Note: Click debug to see errors and bugs

Click "Login to existing account"


Login


Find borderlands
Click Install


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


Click "I Agree"


Click Finish


When its finished downloading, click Play

Optimization

Press Esc
Click Options


Click "Audio/Video"


Adjust:

• Resolution
• Anisotropic Filtering
• Dynamic Shadows
• Bullet Decals
• Foliage Quality
• Texture Quality
• Game Detail
• Amtien Occlusion
• Bloom

Press Esc when finished configuring


Note: I had some problems setting Borderlands as fullscreen. Sometimes Alt-Enter worked and other times it would be invisible but still playing in the background.

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

Conclusion:
Borderlands runs perfectly on my GeForce GTX 950. I had no issues with frame rates or artifacts. The only problems I had was setting fullscreen, which is probably a Cinnamon problem.

Gameplay Video:


Screenshots: