S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl Guide

S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl is a long anticipated First Person Shooter with Role Playing elements in a Sci-Fi Post Nuclear zone in Russia.

With Graphical capabilities beyond its time S.T.A.L.K.E.R had lasted the test-of-time. Even today its still graphically beautiful with plenty of eye-candy even for mediocre hardware.

Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow Of Chernobyl in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the GOG version of S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow Of Chernobyl. Other versions may require additional steps.

Tips & Specs:

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

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"

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

Click Next

Downloading Wine

Extracting

Downloading Gecko

Installed

Wine 1.8.3 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 the virtual drive: stalkersoc
Click Next

Check all three options:

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

Click Next

Select Wine 1.8.3
Click Next

Select "32 bits windows installation"
Click Next

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 OK

PlayOnLinux Packages (Components, DLL's, Libraries)

Check all the following:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_tahoma
• POL_Install_vcrun2005
• POL_Install_vcrun2008

Click Next

Installing STALKER Shadows of Chernobyl

Click Browse

Select "setup_stalker_shoc_2.1.0.7.exe"
Click Open

Click Next again

Select Language
Click OK

Check "Yes, I have read and accept EULA"
Click Options
Uncheck "Create desktop icons"
Click Install

Runtime Error
Click OK

Note: The Runtime Error doesn't affect the installation

Click Exit

PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select "XR_3DA.exe"
Click Next

Name your shortcut: STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl
Click Next

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

PlayOnLinux Configure

Select "STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl"
Click Configure

General Tab
Wine version: 1.8.3

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

Close Configure

Fixing PlayOnLinux Shortcut

When launching STALKER it will error every single time.
The reason is because there are two XR_3DA.exe files in different directories.
We can quickly fix the path in the shortcut

Navigate to shortcuts
path: /home/username/.PlayOnLinux/shortcuts
Open STLKER SoC shortcut in Text Editor

Delete the "dedicated" path and slashes before/after

Should look like this
Click Save
Close the shortcut

Launching STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl

Select "STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl"
Click Run

Note: Click debug to see errors and bugs

Optimization

Click Options

Video Tab

Adjust:

• Render
• Quality Settings
• Resolution
• Fullscreen

Click Use

Click Advanced Tab

Adjust:

• Vision Distance
• Objects Detail
• Grass Density
• Textures Detail
• Anisotorphic Filtering
• Antialiasing
• Sun Shadow
• Grass Shadow
• Lighting Distance
• NPC Flashlights
• Shadows Quality

Click Use

Rule of Thumb:
Higher Settings = More detail, lower frame rates
Lower Settings = Less detail, higher frame rates

Conclusion:
The GOG version played exactly like the Retail version but was much easier to install. The only problem I experienced was the shortcut bug. Everything else ran fine on my GeForce 9800 and GeForce 550 Ti.

Screenshots:

 

High Res Screenshots:

 

Hey I've been trying to get it to work with the DVD version, and I've followed it to the T, but whenever it gets to the part where it asks me where my disk is mounted the only options are an asterisk (* <-That doodad) other and refresh, I tried the asterisk, as well as every directory I could think of with the other option, but it keeps on saying "Error: Unable to find CD-ROM!". Any ideas on how to fix this problem?

 

Oh, forgot to mention I'm running the XFCE version of Arch.

 

Welcome to the forum Brit.
I'm not all that familiar with Arch Linux, but in Mint and most distros an icon appears when you insert a DVD in the drive.
Do you have an icon on your desktop or at least a shortcut to the drive in your Windows manager?

You could also check in Wine Configuration. There is a Drives tab.
If Wine doesn't show a "D" drive for your optical drive, then you can create one.

Drives Tab:
Wine can map a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or even a folder as a drive letter. Great for copying files from multiple CDs or DVDs and installing from a folder on a desktop.

Add:
Adding a new drive with a new drive letter
B:
D:
E:
F:

Advanced:
Path - Linux path to CD-ROM, DVD or folder
Note: To find the patch of a mounted CD-ROM or DVD just right click the icon on the desktop.
Type - Selects a more specific type of drive

• Autodetect
• local hard disk
• Network Share
• Floppy disk
• CD-ROM

Device- Normally not used
Label - Applies a name to the drive
Serial - Normally not used
Show dot files - Normally not used

 

Updated the STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl guide with the GOG versions

 

The game works great on openSUSE Leap 42.1. I did some things differently as my copy of SoC is on Steam. I would also recommend this mod to go with it - http://www.metacognix.com/files/stlkrsoc/index.html. It keeps the vanilla feel of the game but fixes many bugs and performance issues. Thanks for the guide .

 

Thanks for confirming. Great to know another game works in other distros!

 

Hi there
I successfully installed SoC from my old CD. Went fairly fine but i had to use System version of Wine instead of 1.8.3. The game opens and i can start a game just fine... But when I try to change my key bindings whatever key i press it detects as NUM_LOCK... Not a too big issue but still not very convinient, any idea ? I run ubuntu 18.04

 

Great! Glad this old guide still works for old CD ROMs.
Yeah, I bet your "system" version is a newer version of Wine.

You can also download newer version by follow the Wine Manager steps at the beginning. Try downloading Wine 3.0 or 2.21-staging. Even Wine 3.8 might work better

 

Hell yeah ! works with 3.8, thanks mate i love your tutorials (and im amazed you still reply this quick on such old posts ! <3 )

 

Thank you!
Wine 3.0 and newer have been amazing!
Almost anything runs in it!!!

Too bad it would take hundreds of hours to retest all of our games in newer versions of Wine. I would love to update them.

 

Hi guys,
Such an old post but I'm trying my luck.

I'm looking desesperatly to run SoC on Linux.

Well, first of all I should used another version of wine, the 1.8.3 isn't working for me, so with another such as 2.21-staging or 3.8 its well-working.

Second I couldn't find the shorcuts reportory for run another path of XR_3DA.exe so I just create it with using Browse in make a new shorcut.

But finally I just can't run it and I get this on debug log:

Running wine-3.8 XR_3DA.exe (Working directory : /home/notsure/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/stalkersoc/drive_c/GOG Games/S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl/bin)
0024: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
0024:err:winedevice:async_create_driver failed to create driver L"WineBus": c0000142
000f:fixme:service:scmdatabase_autostart_services Auto-start service L"WineBus" failed to start: 31
0009:err:module:load_builtin_dll failed to load .so lib for builtin L"OpenAL32.dll": libopenal.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
0009:err:module:import_dll Loading library OpenAL32.dll (which is needed by L"C:\\GOG Games\\S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl\\bin\\xrSound.dll") failed (error c000007a).
0009:err:module:import_dll Library xrSound.dll (which is needed by L"C:\\GOG Games\\S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl\\bin\\XR_3DA.exe") not found
0009:err:module:attach_dlls Importing dlls for L"C:\\GOG Games\\S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl\\bin\\XR_3DA.exe" failed, status c0000135

Hope somebody will see that ^^

Linux: Mint 19.1 Cinnamon 4.0.10
Playonlinux: 4.2.12

 

Welcome to the forum!
Yes this guide is a bit old, but the steps should still work with a few minor changes.
First, make sure to update PlayOnLinux to 4.3.4
Any older version of PlayOnLinux doesn't get the newer versions of Wine.
Next, definitely try Wine 4.0 and even staging versions.... in fact you might want to give DXVK a try as well.
I haven't tested any of the STALKER games with DXVK, but they are Direct X 10/11 compatible, so you might get better frame rates and more detailed features.
Here is a basic guide for setting it up with Nvidia and Mint:
DXVK System Setup

If you need specific steps on how to add it with a game, check out our Darksiders Warmastered and Bioshock Remastered or Metro guides! They all include DXVK and GOG installers.

What video card/chip are you using?
Also, what version of proprietary drivers are you using?

 

Hi Booman,
Thanks for the reply

Well, I up to date POL to 4.3.4.

I've try to configure DXVK without success. I cannot get the Nvidia 415.25 option, even atfer used the command, in driver manager. Insteed of I got a nvidia 304.137 option.

But the fact is, now any version of POL feels work, I mean the configuration of wine get stuck, just appear in bellow task bar but the window doesnt open, I cannot configure it. The another alternative I tried, was to launch in 64 bits, but after that I cannont launch the gog installer, it gets stuck aswell for whatever reason.

I just don't understand, something seems be wrong with my POL app.

I'm new on Linux, this OS is quite amazing except for games I feel xD.

NotSure.

Video card: GeForce GT 540M 2GB
Driver: Nvidia 390.116

 

Hmm, I'm not sure if Nvidia 390 supports Vulkan. Unfortunately your video card might be tool old to play direct X 10/11 compatible games.

Since you are having issues with PlayOnLinux, I would remove it completely. Look up your Distro and how to remove applications and purge them.

Then make sure stable Wine is installed first, then install PlayOnLinux 4.3.4 again.
It should be more stable after that.

Normally when I do a fresh install of Linux I will setup PlayOnLinux as follows:

1. Install 32-bit Libraries
2. Use Package Manager to install Wine
3. Download PlayOnLinux newest version
4. Install PlayOnLinux (may request xterm)
5. Use PlayOnLinux Wine Manager to Install Wine 32-bit & 64-bit

Now you are ready to start manually installing games

 

Finally!

Ok, I've followed your steps.

After purged POL from my distro, the thing that I felt really fixed my issue was to install a stable wine version with the terminal (thing I've not done before). So my question is: before install POL do we need to install wine? if yes, I missed that step.

And after that everything was alright, even installing a mod (the complete mod).

Thank you very much, I'm really grateful!