Consortium is an excellent mix of Role Playing and First Person Shooter in a Sci-fi Mystery experience. You will play as "Six" the new Bishop of starship Consortium investigating a mysterious murder. This is a dialog heavy, interactive murder mystery on a single spaceship.



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

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

Tips & Specs:

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

Mint 17.3 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.2.10
Wine: 1.8.5

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"


Look for the Wine Version: 1.8.5
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right


Click Next

Downloading Wine


Extracting

Downloading Gecko


Installed


Wine 1.8.5 is installed and you can close this window

PlayOnLinux Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install


Click "Install non-listed program"


Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"


Name the virtual drive: consortium
Click Next


Check all three options:

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

Click Next


Select Wine 1.8.5
Click Next


Select "32 bits windows installation"
Click Next


Wine Configuration

Applications Tab
Windows version: Windows 7
Click Apply


Graphics Tab
Check "Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows"
Check "Emulate a virtual drive"
Desktop size: 1920x1080
Click OK


Note: Virtual Desktop will resize to match your Linux Desktop

PlayOnLinux Packages (DLL's, Libraries, Components)

Check the following:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_tahoma

Click Next


Note: All packages will automatically download and install

Installing Consortium

Click Browse

Select "setup_consortium_2.2.0.9.exe"
Click Open


Click Next again...

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


Click OK on all errors


Click Exit


PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select "consortium.exe"
Click Next


Name the shortcut: Consortium
Click Next


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


PlayOnLinux Configure

Select "Consortium"
Click Configure


General Tab
Wine version: 1.8.5


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 Consortium

Select "Consortium"
Click Run


Note: Click debug to see bugs and errors

Optimization

Click Options


Click Video


Adjust:

• Brightness
• Aspect Ratio
• Resolution
• Display Mode
• Laptop Power Savings

Click Advanced


Adjust:

• Post FX Anti-Aliasing Mode
• Filtering Mode
• VSync
• Shader Detail
• Effect Detail
• Model / Texture Detail
• Paged Pool Memory Available

Filter Removal

When Consortium initially launched you won't be able to see anything.

Navigate to:

Code:

/home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/consortium/drive_c/CONSORTIUM - The Master Edition/consortium/cfg/

Create a blank file
Name it autoexec.cfg

Note: Replace username with your Linux login


Copy & paste:

Code:

r_signal_fx "0"
host_writeconfig

Save autoexec.cfg


Go back to PlayOnLinux Configure
Select Consortium shortcut
General Tab
Arguments: +exec autoexec.cfg


Conclusion:
Consortium ran fairly well on my GeForce 550 Ti with some minor bugs. Once you fix the overlay filter you will see everything, but I found random characters floating in the air, dead-space in dialog and other random events which apparently existin in Windows as well. Linux gamers have been waiting on a Linux port of Consortium, but until then, this is the best we can expect.

Gameplay Video:


Screenshots: