Medal of Honor franchise has had a long history of World War II titles in the last 10 years. Starting with Allied Assault and finishing off with Airborne.

Visuals and special effects are beautiful and each of the maps are non-linear. You can choose your own route as the battle moves forward.



Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Medal of Honor: Airborne in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the Retail version of Medal of Honor: Airborne. Other versions 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: 4.2.2
Wine: 1.7.8

Installing Wine

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"


Look for the Wine Version: 1.7.8
Note: Try using stable Wine 1.8 and 1.8-staging

Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right


Click Next

PlayOnLinux will automatically download it and save it in this directory:
/home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wine/linux-x86


Note: username is where you put your login name

Its a good idea to backup this directory to another computer because you won't have to keep downloading wine versions when you need them.

Extracting


Downloading Gecko


Installed


Wine 1.7.8 is installed and you can close this window

PlayOnLinux Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install


Click "Install a non-listed program"


Click Next

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


Name your virtual drive: mohairborne
Click Next


Select all three options:

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

Click Next


Select Wine 1.7.8
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 32-bit virtual drive.

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 desktop"
Desktop Size: 1024x768
Click OK


Installing Windows Packages (Components/Libraries)

Check the following packages:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_dxfullsetup
• POL_Install_vcrun2005
• POL_Install_vcrun2008
• POL_Install_tahoma

Do not install Physx because the game can not over-ride the POL Physx.

Click Next


Note: All packages will automatically download and install. If there are any errors or crashing, just download them later in PlayOnLinux Configure. Some libraries are required to install a game, so you may have to start over due to a crash.

Installing Medal of Honor: Airborne

Select "CD-ROM: Airborne"
Click Next


Click Install

Enter key
Click Next

Check "I accept the license agreement"
Click Next

Installing Physx

Click Finish

Check "I accept the terms..."
Click Next

Check "I accept the terms..."
Click Next again

Click Next

Click Install

Installing...

Click Finish

Select "Quit"
Click Finish

PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select MOHA.exe
Click Next


Name your virtual drive: MOH: Airborne
Click Next


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


PlayOnLinux Configure

Back to PlayOnLinux
Click Configure


General Tab
Wine version: 1.7.8

Note: Click the + to download newer versions of Wine. Click the arrow to select newer versions of Wine


Display Tab
Direct Draw Renderer: opengl
Video memory size: Amount of memory on your video card (see Systems Tab below)
Offscreen rendering mode: fbo


Wine Tab
Its always a good idea to do a Windows reboot


Close Configure

Launching Medal of Honor: Airborne

Select MOH: Airborne
Click Run


Medal of Honor: Airborne Setup

Video Tab

Resolution: Set the resolution to match your Linux desktop. The virtual desktop will automatically allow fullscreen windows.

Vertical Monitor Sync: Leave unchecked unless you are using a modern dedicated video card

Texture Detail: Start with low and work up to high (Depends on the speed of your hardware)
Model Detail: Start with low and work up to high (Depends on the speed of your hardware)
Decals: Start with low and work up to high (Depends on the speed of your hardware)
Post-Processing Effects: Start with off and work up to full (Depends on the speed of your hardware)

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





Note: You may get a performance warning.

Click ok


System Tab
Displays your processor video capabilities.


Play Medal of Honor: Airborne

Conclusion:
Airborne ran very smoothly on my GeForce 550 Ti without any problems. Since all of the Medal of Honor games are made with Unreal engines, opengl has been developed extensively. So all of them should run really well. Of course the older games will run better on older computers or laptops.
The visuals are stunning and the action is very typical of MOH games and the Call of Duty games.

Screenshots: