Play as a simple Mechanic thrown into an alien frenzy as all hell breaks loose! Shadowgrounds is a combat action game with a huge arsenal of weapons, upgrades, destructible environments and top-down action.



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

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

Tips & Specs:

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

Mint 19 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.3.4
Wine: 4.0

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"



Look for the Wine Version: 4.0
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right



Click Next

Downloading Wine



Extracting

Installed



Click (amd64) Tab
Select 4.0
Click the arrow pointing to the right



Downloading Wine 64-bit



Installed



Wine 4.0 32-bit and 64-bit is installed, you can close this window

PlayOnLinux Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux



Click "Install a non-listed program"



Select "Install a program ina a new virtual drive"
Click Next



Name the virtual drive: shadowgrounds
Click Next



Check all three options:

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

Click Next



Select Wine 4.0
Click Next



Select "32 bits windows installation"
Click Next



Wine Configuration

Applications Tab
Windows version: Windows 7



Graphics Tab
Check "Automaticaly capture the mouse in full-screen windows"
Click OK



PlayOnLinux Packages (DLLs, Libraries, Components)

Check the following:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_tahoma
• POL_Install_vcrun2005

Click Next



Note: All packages should automatically download and install

Click Browse

Select "setup_shadowgrounds_1.05_(22186).exe"
Click Open



Click Next again...

Click OK



Click Options
Uncheck "Create desktop icon"
Click "Yes I have read and accept EULA"
Click Install



Click OK on all errors



Click Exit



After the Installer exits, it may hang for a long time without completing
Check Your System Monitor
If you see many icacls processes running



Alt+Tab back to PlayOnLinux
Click Configure



Make sure shadowgrounds is selected on the left side
Click Wine Tab
Click "Kill Processes"



Now PlayOnLinux will continue...
Ctrl+Alt+Tab back to the installer

PlayOnLinux Shortcuts

Select "Shadowgrounds.exe"
Click Next



Name the shortcut: Shadowgrounds
Click Next



Also Select "Shadowgrounds Launcher.exe"



Name the shortcut: Shadowgrounds Launcher
Click Next



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



Back to PlayOnLinux
Click Configure



General Tab
Wine version: 4.0
Debug flags: warn+heap



Note: "warn+heap" should reduce the crashing in the game menu

Display Tab
Video memory size: Enter the amount of memory your video card/chip uses



Close Configure

Run Shadowgrounds Launcher



Optimization

Adjust:

• GFX detail level
• Enable Menu Videos
• Sound Enabled
• Speaker Type
• Resolution
• Vertical Sync
• Hardware 3D
• EAX
• Mixing Rate

Click Advanced
Adjust:

• Ground Shadows Texture
• Lighting Level
• Lighting Texture Quality
• Weather Effects Level
• Shadows Level
• Shadows Texture Quality
• Misc
• Texture Detail Level
• Anisotropic Filtering
• Antialiasing
• Fullscreen
• Weather Effects
• High Quality Lightmap
• Extra Gamma Effects
• Render Glow
• Distortion Effects
• Disappearing Corpses
• High Quality Video
• Reset After Load

Click OK



The resolution options in Shadowgrounds Launcher did not included 1920x180
But you can open the Options.txt and enter the desired resolution.
Make sure to run the game at least once

Open Options.txt
Enter 1080 for screen_height
Enter 1920 for screen_width
Full path:

Code:

/home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/shadowgrounds/drive_c/GOG Games/Shadowgrounds/Config

Conclusion:
The only issue I experienced was the in-game menu crashing when I wanted to upgrade my weapon. After some reading on AppDB someone mentioned the WINEDEBUG argument. This seemed to fix the issue, most of the time. It still crashed randomly, but rarely. Just make sure to upgrade your weapons after you load a new area.

Gameplay Video:



Screenshots: