Gray Dawn Guide

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Its 1920 in a remote English village. You play as a Priest who is demonized by lies and fear... Enjoy high resolution and explore detailed environments. Solve surreal puzzles to prove your own innocence in this epic horror adventure.

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

Note: This guide applies to the itch.io demo version of Gray Dawn. Other versions may require additional steps.

Tips & Specs:

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

Mint 19 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.3.4
Wine: 4.0
DXVK 1.0.1

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"

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Look for the Wine Version: 4.0
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right

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Click Next

Downloading Wine

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Extracting

Installed

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Click (amd64) Tab
Select 4.0
Click the arrow pointing to the right

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Downloading Wine 64-bit

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Installed

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Wine 4.0 32-bit and 64-bit is installed, you can close this window

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install

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Click "Install a non-listed program"

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

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Name the virtual drive: graydawn
Click Next

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Click all three options:
  • Use another version of Wine
  • Configure Wine
  • Install some libraries
Click Next

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Select Wine 4.0
Click Next

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Select "64 bits windows installation"
Click Next

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Wine Configuration

Applications Tab
Windows version: Windows 7

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Libraries Tab
Enter the following libraries:
  • d3d10
  • d3d10_1
  • d3d10core
  • d3d11
  • dxgi
Select each one and click Edit
Select "Windows (Native)" for each library
Click OK on each one
Click Apply

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Graphics Tab
Check "Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows"
Click OK

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PlayOnLinux Packages (DLLs, Libraries, Components)

Check the following:
  • POL_Install_corefonts
  • POL_Install_d3dx10
  • POL_Install_d3dx11
  • POL_Install_d3dx9
  • POL_Install_physx
  • POL_Install_tahoma
  • POL_Install_xact
Click Next

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Note: All packages should automatically download and install

Do not click "Browse"
Click Cancel because Gray Dawn does not have an installer

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Download Gray Dawn demo from itch.io
https://interactivestone.itch.io/gray-dawn
Save it to your Desktop
Open with your Archive Manager
Click Extract

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Navigate to Program Files
Full path: /home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/graydawn/drive_c/Program Files
Click New Folder
Name it Gray Dawn
Open it
Click Extract

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Click "Show the Files"

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Installing DXVK

More information: Setting up DXVK

Download DXVK 1.0.1
https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases/tag/v1.0.1
Open the 64-bit directory
Copy all DLLs

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Paste them in the GrayDawn-Win64-Shipping.exe Folder
Full Path:
Code:
/home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/graydawn/drive_c/Program Files/GrayDawn/GrayDawn/Binaries/Win64/

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Also paste them in the CrashReportClient.exe Folder as well
Full Path:
Code:
/home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/graydawn/drive_c/Program Files/GrayDawn/Engine/Binaries/Win64/

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PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Back to PlayOnLinux
Click Configure

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

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Select "GrayDawn.exe"
Click Next

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Name the shortcut: Gray Dawn
Click Next

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

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Back to Configure

General Tab
Wine version: 4.0

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Note: Click the + to download other versions of Wine. Click the down-arrow to select other versions of Wine

Display Tab
Video memory size: Enter the amount of memory your video card/chip uses

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Close Configure

Select "Gray Dawn"
Click Run

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Note: Click debug to see bugs and errors

Warning, Gray Dawn may crash the first time. Try launching it again and it should work.

Optimization
Click Options

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Click Video

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Adjust:
  • Resolution
  • Fullscreen
  • Quality
  • Vsync
Click Apply

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Conclusion:
At first launch the game crashed with out any serious errors... so after running it again the game launched perfectly. It also ran a bit slow on my GeForce GTX 1060, so I turned off Vsync in the video options. Then it ran much smoother.

Turns out, as I kept playing the demo, there are some outside areas that do not run very smoothly. Adjusting video settings in-game doesn't help much as it doesn't adjust properly.
Working on a solution...

Gameplay Video:

Screenshots:
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Last edited:
I'm experiencing some problems with the outdoor area and performance.
The frame rate goes way down in the second outdoor area with the water and pipes.
Working on a solution by manually adjusting video settings with config files.
 
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