Grim Dawn Guide

Grim Dawn is an action hack-n-slash created by the makers of Titan Quest. Slaughter minions and bosses in a dark fantasy world of exploration, loot, hacking, slashing and a lot of skills! Do not miss this game! You will love the AAA experience from a small indie team who are very talented and passionate about Action RPG's!

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

Note: This guide applies to the Steam version of Grim Dawn. Other versions may require additional steps.

Tips & Specs:

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

Mint 17 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.2.6
Wine: 1.7.39staging

Wine Installation

Note: Versions of Wine older than 2.0.2 and Wine 2.12-staging no longer work with Steam


Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"
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Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right
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Click Next

Downloading Wine
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Extracting

Downloading Gecko
wine05.png


Installed
wine06.png


Wine 1.7.39staging is installed and you can close this window

Downloading Steam

Go To: http://www.steampowered.com
Click Install Steam
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Do not click "Install Steam Now"
It will automatically install Linux Steam. Since Grim Dawn isn't made for Linux, we will download the Windows Steam instead.
click "Windows" under the green button
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Navigate to your desktop
Click Save
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Setup PlayOnLinux

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install
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Click "install a non-listed program"
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Click Next

Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
Click Next
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Name you virtual drive: grimdawn
Click Next
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Select all three options:
  • Use another version of Wine
  • Configure Wine
  • Install some libraries
Click Next
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Select Wine 1.7.39staging
Click Next

Select "32 bits windows installation"
Click Next
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Configure Wine

Applications Tab
Windows Version: Windows 7
Click Apply
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Graphics Tab
Check: Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows
Check: Emulate a virtual desktop
Desktop size: 1024x768
Click Ok
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Install Libraries

Check the following libraries:
  • POL_Install_corefonts
  • POL_Install_d3dx9
  • POL_Install_tahoma
  • POL_Install_vcrun2010
  • POL_Install_vcrun2012
Click Next
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Note: vcrun2015 will be installed later in PlayOnLinux configure

Installing Steam

Click Browse
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Navigate to your desktop
Select: SteamSetup.exe
Click Open
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Click Next

Click Next

Check: I accept the license...
Click Next

Click Next

Click Next

Click Install

Click Finish

More downloading, updating, extracting and installing
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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
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PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select Steam.exe
Click Next
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Name your shortcut: Grim Dawn
Click Next
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Click Next

PlayOnLinux Configure

Back to PlayOnLinux
Click Configure
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General Tab
Wine version: 1.7.39staging
Arguments: -no-dwrite -no-cef-sandbox
This fixes the missing font and store problem
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Display Tab
Video Memory Size: Select the size of Memory your video card/chip uses
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Installing vcrun2015

Note: vcrun2015 has to be installed before first launch of Grim Dawn. Otherwise the game installs vcrun2015 for you and breaks Wine. If you accidentally launch Grim Dawn one time, you will have to delete the virtual drive and start over from the beginning.

Miscellaneous Tab
Click "Open a Shell"
Copy/Paste:
Code:
wget  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Winetricks/winetricks/master/src/winetricks
Press Enter

Copy/Paste
Code:
chmod +x winetricks
Press Enter

Copy/Paste
Code:
WINEPREFIX=/home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/grimdawn ./winetricks -q vcrun2015
Press Enter

Note: Replace "username" with your login

Close Shell

Close Configure

Launching Steam

Select Grim Dawn
Click Run
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Click "Login to existing account"
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Login
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Steam Overlay

Steam overlay has been known to cause problems launching games.
Click Steam menu
Click Settings
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Select "In-game"
Uncheck "Enable Steam Community In-Game"
Click OK
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Installing Grim Dawn

Click Library
Select Grim Dawn
Click Install
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Click Next
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Click Next
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Click Finish
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Wait while Grim Dawn downloads

Click Play
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Optimization

Click Options
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Click Video
Change Window Mode to Fullscreen
Select Resolution to match your Linux Desktop

Adjust:
Anti-aliasing
Anisotropic Filtering
Texture
Shadows
Detail Level
Reflections
fX
Lighting
Weather

Enable/Disable:
Vertical Sync
Triple Buffering
Detail Objects
Post Processing
Depth of Field
Soft Particles

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

Conclusion:
Grim Dawn didn't have too many problems with my GeForce 550 Ti. Tested with Wine 1.7.39 staging and now everything runs beautifully with hardly any lag. There were a few times when the game slowed down because of all the minions in the screen. Lowering the anti-Alias and Anisotropic filtering helped. I also tried adjusting fX and Lighting to produce better performance while it didn't affect the visuals. There were a few occurrences where my character had invisible texture upon loading. Quitting the game and launching again would fix this problem.

Texture/Font Bugs:
There is some texture reload issues in Grim Dawn that can be resolved by adding launch option in Steam:
Code:
/d3d9

To fix any missing textures:
  1. Configure
  2. Wine Tab
  3. Registry
  4. Navigate to
    Code:
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\Direct3D]
  5. right-click Direct3D
  6. Select New
  7. String Value
  8. Name:
    Code:
    CheckFloatConstants
  9. Value: enable

Gameplay Video:

Screenshots:
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Last edited:
Hi,

I got some problems getting Grim Dawn to work on my system.
I run Mint 18. I can do all steps including downloading the game via steam in WINE 1.7.39staging and 1.8.5. In followed the guide step by step but I can't run the Game at all.
In 1.7.39staging I get an Error when I click play in steam and the Game shuts down. The error message can not be generated.
In 1.8.5 I get an Error with the steamwebhelper already during the download and also after failed atempts to start the game in steam. here's my pastebin: http://pastebin.com/duCRr7Yu

Does Grim Dawn even run in it's current state on Linux?
And if so could you please help me resolve this problem. Your help is much apreciated.
 
Welcome to the forum. I'm glad you are trying Grim Dawn because I am currently playing with my wife in Mint 18.
It is running fairly nice for both of us. I get that missing texture problem here and there, but otherwise it runs.

As for your log, I need all of the log before the crash. Are you able to install Steam and successfully download Grim Dawn?

That is the first step, then before you launch it make sure to install vcrun2015
Otherwise Steam will install it for you and it won't work.

Unfortunately you will need to start over, but if you do it in that order, it should run
 
I can install Steam and download Grim Dawn without any problems. I don't even have the "no text" bug when first opening Steam after installation. What log exactly do you need? I'm still a Linux Newbie.
I think I have some issues with the installation of vcrun2015. I follow the guide. It says "already installed" if I --force it I can uninstall it through the Wizard and then reinstall it via -g. Still didn't work.
When running Grim Dawn for the first time it will still install vcrun2015 for some reason even though i installed it previously.

Do I install Steam and Grim Dawn first and then install vcrun2015? I installed Steam then vcrun2015 then grim dawn.

And also the arguments for the configuration of the virtual drive "-no-dwrite -no-cef-sandbox" look different from what you have in you screenshot. wich ones do I use?

Thanks for your quick reply.
 
Now for some reason I can't even install vcrun2015 anymore.
Either it will say "already installed" in wich case i'll --force and uninstall vcrun2015 and it also says missing mfc140.dll wich I downloaded and C&P into the directory, wich solved at least that message.
Or it will give me the following Error and will not complete the installation. Pastebin: http://pastebin.com/R1BPZ7uM
I tried googling about it but couldn't find anything helpful.
This problem persists even after I dele the virtual drive and create a new one, even if I name it completely different from any previous virtual drive.

Any help is very much apreciated.
 
I wonder if Steam is installing vcrun2015 first? I've never experienced this, and I don't think Steam requires it.

Try starting over with a brand new 32-bit virtual drive like this:
  • Launch PlayOnLinux
  • Click Configure
  • Click New (Bottom Left)
  • Name the virtual drive
  • Select 32-bit
  • Next, Next, etc
Now you have a bare-bones virtual drive.
  1. Select it on the left-side and click the Miscellaneous Tab
  2. Click open a shell/command line button and follow the steps for vcrun2015
  3. When its complete, stay on the Miscellaneous Tab
  4. Click "Run a .exe file in this virtual drive"
  5. Find your Steam Installer .exe
  6. Follow all the steps for installing Steam
  7. You can create a new shortcut from the General Tab
  8. Name it Grim Dawn
  9. Don't forget -no-dwrite -no-cef-sandbox in arguments
  10. Click the "Install Components" Tab
  11. Install the recommended packages in the guide
  12. Click Wine Tab
  13. Click "Wine Configuration"
  14. Set Windows 7 and Mouse Checkbox
  15. Close Configure
  16. Now launch Steam with "Debug" not RUN
  17. Login and Download Grim Dawn
  18. You can actually copy the Grim Dawn folder from the SteamApps/Common directory to your new virtual drive. This speeds up the download process
  19. Launch Grim Dawn
  20. It should try to install dependencies like visual C and Direct X
  21. If it still crashes, copy the debug again and post it.
 
Hello booman,

thanks again for your quick and detailed help. I had few little issues while following your instructions but could resolve most of them till I got to the point again where I hit "Play" on my Grim Dawn in Steam.
The dialog popped up again doing some "microsoft VC redist package" and "DirectX3d" stuff (Steps 1 through 5). After that I feel I got 0,001 bit closer to getting the game running. This time it didn't close, but steam showed me "Executing" on the game and my cursor disapeared when I moved it into the POL window. My system monitor also showed me my grimdawn.exe. But then nothing more happened even when I let it sit for a few minutes.
Here's my playonlinux.log I hope this will help. http://pastebin.com/wL21VRuS
Thanks again a lot for your help and support.
 
Of course...
That is a long log. A lot of steamwebhelper.exe errors, but those do not matter. Shouldn't affect Grim Dawn. It "should" have run, so I'm starting to wonder what kind of hardware you have.
What video card do you have?
Did you install proprietary drivers?
Can you run any other games in PlayOnLinux?
 
I think I can pretty much get the game up and running although the title screen won't look like it does in the screenshots and the game appears to freeze when I get into the inventory.
 
When it freezes, please post the debug and I'll take a look.

The only bad symptoms I have been experiencing is missing graphics. Sometimes I go into a dungeon/cave and the floor textures are messed up. I found if you go to the options and change anti-aliasing to x2 or x4, then it fixes the texture.
 
Hi everyone. I install grim down with steam in wine. Everything was great until last update (11.10.2017) game start freezeing and is unable to play. Is there similar problems with playonlinux installation?
 
Welcome to the forum!
This has happened several times in the past. Grim Dawn does an update and now the game won't run. I've been playing it recently but I'll normally download the entire game and then play offline co-op with my Wife.

I'll try running the update and see if it gives me any issues as well...

What distro, Wine version and specs do you have?
We Grim Dawn working previously?
It never hurts to try a fresh new install... just don't forge the vcrun2015 manual installation.
 
@booman Thanks for reply, I use Manjaro Deepin and wine-staging 2.18. I have installed last nvidia drivers and bumblebee. Few minutes I write on this forum I can play for lond time and game don't freeze :) but every new start of game is lottery. Before yesterday update everything was great, no freezeing, no graphics glitches.
 
I wonder what the developers updated?
I'll have to give it a try as well and see if my system is affected too. I'm playing on an older version of wine and have GeForce dedicated video cards:
  • 750 Ti
  • GTX 1060
 
Anyone gotten the GOG (/or steam) version to run since the release of the expansion /update? . . . .
 
Last edited:
Got steam installed (normal WINE Steam that uses 2.12), and Grim Dawn (post expansion) runs fine, a little more bright then I think it'd be otherwise but that runs. On the other hand trying to get VC2015 run (so I can install either Steam or GOG v) gives when copy+pasting in the last command:






PlayOnLinux Console
-------------------

You are in 's virtual drive environment
PlayOnLinux: /home/dlf/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/GrimDawnGOG/drive_c > wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Winetricks/winetricks/master/src/winetricks
--2017-10-15 13:53:03-- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Winetricks/winetricks/master/src/winetricks
Resolving raw.githubusercontent.com (raw.githubusercontent.com)... 151.101.0.133, 151.101.128.133, 151.101.64.133, ...
Connecting to raw.githubusercontent.com (raw.githubusercontent.com)|151.101.0.133|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 700054 (684K) [text/plain]
Saving to: ‘winetricks’

winetricks 100%[=====================================>] 683.65K 663KB/s in 1.0s

2017-10-15 13:53:04 (663 KB/s) - ‘winetricks’ saved [700054/700054]

PlayOnLinux: /home/dlf/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/GrimDawnGOG/drive_c >
PlayOnLinux: /home/dlf/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/GrimDawnGOG/drive_c >
PlayOnLinux: /home/dlf/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/GrimDawnGOG/drive_c > chmod +x winetricks
PlayOnLinux: /home/dlf/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/GrimDawnGOG/drive_c > WINEPREFIX=/home/dlf/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/grimdawn ./winetricks -q vcrun2015
Using winetricks 20170823-next - sha256sum: 0848eb94dee9ff4393e0fe2d2fcb60796b0bc15a3185a7888716edfa385dcdf9 with wine-2.19 and WINEARCH=win32
Executing w_do_call vcrun2015
Executing load_vcrun2015
------------------------------------------------------
Working around wine bug 37781
------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------
This may fail in non-XP mode, see https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=37781
------------------------------------------------------
Using native,builtin override for following DLLs: api-ms-win-crt-conio-l1-1-0 api-ms-win-crt-heap-l1-1-0 api-ms-win-crt-locale-l1-1-0 api-ms-win-crt-math-l1-1-0 api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0 api-ms-win-crt-stdio-l1-1-0 api-ms-win-crt-time-l1-1-0 atl140 concrt140 msvcp140 msvcr140 ucrtbase vcomp140 vcruntime140
Executing wine regedit /S C:\windows\Temp\_vcrun2015\override-dll.reg
Setting Windows version to winxp
Executing wine regedit /S C:\windows\Temp\_vcrun2015\set-winver.reg
------------------------------------------------------
Running /home/dlf/.PlayOnLinux//wine/linux-x86/2.19/bin//wineserver -w. This will hang until all wine processes in prefix=/home/dlf/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/grimdawn terminate
------------------------------------------------------
Executing cd /home/dlf/.cache/winetricks/vcrun2015
Executing wine vc_redist.x86.exe /q
wine: cannot find L"C:\\windows\\system32\\winemenubuilder.exe"
err:wineboot:processRunKeys Error running cmd L"C:\\windows\\system32\\winemenubuilder.exe -a -r" (2)
err:module:load_builtin_dll failed to load .so lib for builtin L"winebus.sys": libudev.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
err:winedevice:async_create_driver failed to create driver L"WineBus": c0000142
fixme:heap:RtlSetHeapInformation (nil) 1 (nil) 0 stub
fixme:heap:RtlSetHeapInformation (nil) 1 (nil) 0 stub
fixme:ntdll:NtQueryInformationToken QueryInformationToken( ..., TokenElevation, ...) semi-stub
err:eek:le:CoInitializeEx Attempt to change threading model of this apartment from multi-threaded to apartment threaded
fixme:heap:RtlSetHeapInformation (nil) 1 (nil) 0 stub
fixme:heap:RtlSetHeapInformation (nil) 1 (nil) 0 stub
fixme:ntdll:NtQueryInformationToken QueryInformationToken( ..., TokenElevation, ...) semi-stub
err:eek:le:CoInitializeEx Attempt to change threading model of this apartment from multi-threaded to apartment threaded
fixme:advapi:DecryptFileW (L"C:\\users\\dlf\\Temp\\{74d0e5db-b326-4dae-a6b2-445b9de1836e}\\", 00000000): stub
fixme:shell:SHAutoComplete stub
fixme:advapi:DecryptFileW (L"C:\\users\\dlf\\Temp\\{74d0e5db-b326-4dae-a6b2-445b9de1836e}\\", 00000000): stub
fixme:wuapi:automatic_updates_Pause
fixme:ntdll:NtLockFile I/O completion on lock not implemented yet
p11-kit: couldn't load module: /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/pkcs11/p11-kit-trust.so: /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/pkcs11/p11-kit-trust.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
p11-kit: couldn't load module: /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/pkcs11/gnome-keyring-pkcs11.so: /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/pkcs11/gnome-keyring-pkcs11.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
fixme:wuapi:automatic_updates_Resume
PlayOnLinux: /home/dlf/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/GrimDawnGOG/drive_c >




I've tried 1.7.3.9 (/staging), 2.1.8 (/staging)/2.1.9 and I think I get the same result everytime, I don't think used to (much earlier this year).
 
If you can play Grim Dawn then you installed vcrun2015 just fine. I know its confusing and I hope PlayOnLinux developers can add it to the packages list some day.

I'm not sure what the "winemenubuilder" errors are all about. I don't remember seeing those when I installed vcrun2015. Make sure to kill all processes in that virtual drive before installing vcrun2015

I don't have the expansion yet so I can't test it either.
 
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