Serious Sam II is the second release to another horde-slaying FPS and boasts a bunch of new features. Beautiful HD textures, shadows, interactive objects, new enemies and more. There is a surreal story-line, but your goal is to blast all kinds of odd monsters and bosses into oblivion.



Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Serious Sam 2 in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the Steam version of Serious Sam 2. 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"


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

Downloading Steam

Go To: http://www.steampowered.com
Click Install Steam


Do not click "Install Steam Now"
It will automatically install Linux Steam
Select Windows Steam instead
click "Windows" under the green button


Navigate to your desktop
Click Save


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: serioussam
No spaces
Click Next


Select all three options:

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

Click Next


Select Wine 1.8.3
Click Next


Select "32 bits windows installation"
Click Next


Configure Wine

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


PlayOnLinux Packages (Libraries, Components, DLL's)

Check the following libraries:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_tahoma

Click Next


Note: All packages will automatically download and install

Installing Steam

Click Browse


Navigate to your desktop
Select: SteamSetup.exe
Click Open


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


PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select Steam.exe
Click Next


Name your shortcut: Serious Sam 2
Click Next


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


PlayOnLinux Configure

Back to PlayOnLinux
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: Select the size of Memory your video card/chip uses


Close Configure

Launching Steam

Select Serious Sam 2
Click Run


Note: Click debug to see errors and bugs

Click "Login to existing account"


Login


Go to your Library
Find Serious Sam 2
Click Install


Uncheck "Created desktop shortcut"
Uncheck "Create start menu shortcut"
Click Next


Click Finish


Wait while it downloads in Steam
Click Play


Optimization

Click Options


Click Video Options


Adjust:

• Quality
• Resolution
• Texture size
• Antialiasing
• Gamma Correction
• Full Screen

Click Apply
Click Advanced


In Advanced, adjust:

• Dynamic Shadows
• Particle Amount
• Crumbs
• Geometry LOD
• Brightness
• Contrast
• Gamma
• Texture Quality
• Texture Size
• Lightmap Quality
• Lightmap Size
• Bloom
• Anisotropy
• Filtering
• LOD Bias
• Lens Flare Quality
• Parallax Mapping
• Reflection Quality
• Refractions
• Wait v Syncs
• Only Shaders

Conclusion:
Serious Sam II installed and ran perfectly. I had no problems adjusting the graphical settings and was getting really good frame rates with my GeForce GTX 950. My GeForce 9800 was even able to play with some of the graphical settings toned down. Its actually quite a beautiful game considering its age.

Gameplay Video:


Screenshots: