Hydrophobia Guide

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Are you afraid of drowning? Play as Kate and help her to survive in a submerging city when Extremists try to rule with terror. Make use of water, fire, electricity and interactive objects to protect yourself. Experience water physics and use it to your advantage in this puzzle, platform action game.

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

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

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: 1.8.3

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"
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Look for the Wine Version: 1.8.3
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right
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Click Next

Downloading Wine
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Extracting

Downloading Gecko
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Installed
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Wine 1.8.3 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
Select Windows Steam instead
click "Windows" under the green button
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Navigate to your desktop
Click Save
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PlayOnLinux Setup

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 your virtual drive: hydrophobia
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 1.8.3
Click Next
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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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PlayOnLinux Packages (Libraries, Components, DLL's)

Check the following libraries:
  • POL_Install_corefonts
  • POL_Install_d3dx9
  • POL_Install_tahoma
  • POL_Install_vcrun2005
  • POL_Install_vcrun2008
  • POL_Install_vcrun2010
Click Next
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Note: All packages will automatically download and install

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

Updating Steam

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: Hydrophobia
Click Next
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Select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
Click Next
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PlayOnLinux Configure

Back to PlayOnLinux
Click Configure
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General Tab
Arguments: -no-dwrite -no-cef-sandbox
This fixes the missing font problem and the store problem
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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: Select the size of Memory your video card/chip uses
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Close Configure

Launching Steam

Select Hydrophobia
Click Run
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Note: Click debug to see errors and bugs

Click "Login to existing account"
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Login
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Find Hydrophobia in your library
Click Install
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Uncheck "Create desktop shortcut"
Uncheck "Create start menu shortcut"
Click Next
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Click Finish
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After it is done downloading
Click Play
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Optimization

Adjust:
  • Particle System Quality
  • Shadow Quality
  • Character Shadow Quality
  • Water Detail
  • Display Mode
  • Anti-Aliasing
  • V-Sync
  • Depth of Field
  • High Detail Textures
Click Start
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Rule of Thumb:
High settings = More detail, lower frame rates
Low settings = Less detail, higher frame rates

Conclusion:
Hydrophobia installed and launched properly after adjusting the display settings. The only graphical artifacts I experienced was some missing textures on Kate and in the environments. They would turn completely white and eventually come back. Otherwise, the game, physics and graphics worked great on my GeForce GTX 950 with everything on high.

Gameplay Video:

Screenshots:
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