Far Cry Guide

Every review of Far Cry will tell you that it was under-rated and way before its time. Featuring Super High quality textures, bump mapping, soft shadows, huge maps, advanced A.I. and sandbox game-play. Honestly a lot of modern games have been inspired by Far Cry elements.
Lets see how it runs in the Linux environment...

Follow this step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Far Cry with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the retail version of Far Cry. Other downloaded versions (GOG, Steam) 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: 1.4.1

Copying CD ROM data

The original Retail version has 5 CD ROMs and I've never had much success with multiple-disk installations. So lets copy all of the data from the CD ROM's to your hard drive first.

Create a new folder on your desktop: farcry
Insert Disk 1: FARCRY_1

Copy everything on Disk 1 to the new "farcry" folder

Insert Disk 2: FARCRY_2
Only copy .cab data files: Data1.cab

Insert next DISK and copy .cab files only.

When you are done you should have these .cab files:
Data1.cab
Data2.cab
Data3.cab
Data4.cab
English.cab
FarCry~1.cab
Game.cab

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 1.4.1
Click the right-arrow

Note: Try using stable Wine 1.8 and 1.8-staging

Wine wizard
Click Next

Downloading...

Extracting

Complete

Setting up PlayOnLinux

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install

Manual Installation

Click "Install a non-listed program"

Click Next

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

Name your virtual drive: farcry
Click Next

Check all three:

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

Click Next

Select previously downloaded 1.4.1
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

Application 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 Apply

Note: I alway initially test games with 1024x768 before setting a higher resolution like in the screenshot.

Drives Tab

Click Autodetect
Drive Mappings should be:
C: ../drive_c
D: /media/username/FARCRY_1
H: /home/username
Z: /

Note: "username" is where your Linux login should be

This Drive Mapping step is important because FarCry won't launch if it can't find the DISK 1 (FARCRY_1)

Click OK

Windows Components (Libraries & Packages)

Select the following Package:
POL_Install_dotnet20

Click Next

Installing .NET Framework 2.0

This will automatically install vcrun2005 service pack 1 too

Far Cry Installation

Installing
Select "Select another file"
Click Next

Note: Remember we aren't installing from the Disk but from the folder we created

Select file
Click Browse

Navigate to the farcry folder we created on the desktop
Select "Setup.exe"
Click Open

File to run

Click Next

Preparing...

InstallShield
Click Next

License Agreement
Select "I accept the terms..."
Click Next

Destination Folder
Click Next

Features
Uncheck "Start menu entries" and "Desktop shortcut" because PlayOnLinux will create them for us.
Click Next

Additional Features
Its ok to leave DirectX 9.0b checked because we aren't even going to use it.
I unchecked Acrobat Reader because we won't be using it either
Click Next

Summary of installation
Click Next

DirectX Setup
Click Yes

Installation complete
Uncheck "View Readme" and "Register Far Cry"
Click Next

InstallShield Wizard Complete
Click Finish

Xfire
Click No

Explorer.exe lockup
Every time I installed Far Cry it would freeze or lockup after the installation was complete.
Open your System Monitor and select: mscorosvw.exe
Click "End Process"

End Process

Click "End Process"

Select iDriver.exe

Click "End Process"

End Process

Click "End Process"

Then PlayOnLinux should continue the installation...

Shortcuts

Select: FarCry.exe
Click Next

Shortcut Name

Name your shortcut: FarCry
Click Next

Done with Shortcuts

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

OpenGL and PlayOnLinux Configuration

Navigate to the Far Cry folder: /home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/farcry/drive_c/Program Files/Ubisoft/Crytek/Far Cry

Note: Username is where you put your login

Open: system.cfg

Find the line: r_Driver = "Direct3D9"

Change to: r_Driver = "openGL"
Click Save

PlayOnLinux Configuration

In PlayOnLinux click Configure
Select your FarCry Virtual Drive

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

Wine Tab
Click "Windows reboot"

Note: Its always a good idea to "Windows Reboot" after making changes or installing in the configuration.

Launching Far Cry

Auto Detec
When you launch the first time the Configuration Tool will launch

Far Cry Configuration Tool



Video Options Tab
Renderer: Directx3D9 will be grayed-out because we set it for openGL
Screen Resolution: I recommend 1024x768 for initial testing
Anti-Aliasing: should be set low for initial testing

Note: After Far Cry proves to play with a decent frame rate, we'll increase these settings in-game.

Advanced Tab

Use the presets on the right to set all the advanced features.
Start with low or medium during the testing phase.

Note: I found that shadow quality can kill your frame rates

In Game Graphics Options


I ended up settling with 1440x900 resolution
Texture Quality: Very High
Texture Filter: Trilinear
Anisotrophic: 2
Particle Count: Very High
Speical Effects: Very High
Environment Quality: High
Shadow Quality: Medium
Water Quality: Very High
Lighting Quality: High

Note: These video options gave me a decent frame rate on my GeForce 550 Ti

Conclusion:
Usually the first time I launch Far Cry from PlayOnLinux it will crash. But go ahead and launch again.... then it will work fine. Make sure Drives are setup in Wine Configuration.
Also, you need to have Disk 1 inserted to play the retail version.

Everything seems to work really well. Animation, collusion detection, binoculars, map, health/armor kits and save/load features.

The only Gliches I found was the crash at launch and some flashing black textures when grenades explode.

Screenshots:

 

I love Far Cry! Live on forever!

 

High Res Screenshots:

 

Looks like you did everything right...
Try launching it with Debug and pasting the results.
Make sure to create a new thread instead of pasting it here.

 

You could always try purchasing the GOG.com version because its DRM free and you won't need the CD disk.

 

I no longer have it installed, I'll wait a few days and try again and post Debug as you suggest. Go ahead and delete my posts here and we can start again soon.

 

Hello Booman thanks for this very step-by-step Howto. I followed everything here. But after setting r_Drivr= "openGL" i could not see the in game fonts anymore. Will you please help me solve this problem. This are two game menu images I gotfirst one using Direct3D9 and 2nd one using opengl)

I have submitted a question regarding this in here:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/630116/fonts-not-visible-in-far-cry-1-with-wine.
Thanks in advance.

 

Welcome to the forum!
that is an interesting problem...
This is an old guide, so the first thing you should try is use the Wine Manager in PlayOnLinux and download a newer version of wine. Try Far Cry again and see if it works.
What distro are you using?
Video card?

You can also try leaving it as Direct3D9 and see if the game runs

 

@booman My PC specs are as follows:

Video : Intel G33 express chip set (Integrated)
Processor : Intel Dual Core 3.06Ghz
RAM : 2 GB (Expandable up to 4GB)
Distro : Ubuntu 14.04 64 Bit
Wine version : 1.6.2
OpenGl : 1.4

I have previously played it in Windows 7 32 bit in same PC. The game ran fine without any lags. Then I was dual booting Ubuntu with Windows (both 32 bit). But now I have recently deleted both the OSs and installed Ubuntu 64 bit. Then I wanted to play the game and so followed this tutorial and found this problem. Maybe my low RAM is causing the problem.

I ran the game both on Direct3D9 and openGl and found that openGl caused relatively low CPU usage, intro videos playing was fast and textures were better though it was opposite with Direct3D9 with slight advantage that the game ran more like it did on Windows. So I was considering to play it with openGl. Maybe upgrading RAM to 4GB will sove the problem

 

So it runs with the Direct3D9 setting?
I didn't have any problems with "openGL" setting, but if you have installed the 32-bit libraries for Ubuntu, otherwise most games won't run because they are only 32-bit compatible

 

@booman My PC specs are as follows:

Video : Intel G33 express chip set (Integrated)
Processor : Intel Dual Core 3.06Ghz
RAM : 2 GB (Expandable up to 4GB)
Distro : Ubuntu 14.04 64 Bit
Wine version : 1.6.2
OpenGl : 1.4

I have previously played it in Windows 7 32 bit in same PC. The game ran fine without any lags. Then I was dual booting Ubuntu with Windows (both 32 bit). But now I have recently deleted both the OSs and installed Ubuntu 64 bit. Then I wanted to play the game and so followed this tutorial and found this problem. Maybe my low RAM is causing the problem.

I ran the game both on Direct3D9 and openGl and found that openGl caused relatively low CPU usage, intro videos playing was fast and textures were better though it was opposite with Direct3D9 with slight advantage that the game ran more like it did on Windows. So I was considering to play it with openGl. Maybe upgrading RAM to 4GB will sove the problem

No in your case main problem stay in intel vga chip, if you can buy new vga card depend your budget (nvidia)

Respect ram consume if you use ubuntu mate o xubuntu, this desktop enviroments have low ram use (in my case x64 version use around 400 to 600mb)

 

Far Cry should run on most laptop Intel HD chips
You may have to crank down the resolution a bit, but should still look pretty nice.
Even with Linux drivers.