Sinistria is a creepy horror game where a town of witches is unveiled through investigating the mysterious disappearance of a girl friend. Solve puzzles with physics, interactive objects and frightening jump scares.



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

Note: This guide applies to the itch.io version of Sinistria. 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: 4.21-staging
DXVK: 1.5

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"



Look for the Wine Version: 4.21-staging
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right



Click Next

Downloading Wine



Extracting

Installed



Click (amd64) Tab
Select 4.21-staging
Click the arrow pointing to the right



Downloading Wine 64-bit



Installed



Wine 4.21-staging 32-bit and 64-bit is installed, you can close this window

PlayOnLinux Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install



Click 'Install a non-listed program'



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



Name the virtual drive: sinistria
Click Next



Check all three options:

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

Click Next



Select Wine: 4.21-staging
Click Next



Select "64 bits windows installation"
Click Next



Wine Configuration

Applications Tab
Windows version: Windows 7



Libraries Tab
Type each of the following

• d3d10
• d3d10_1
• d3d10core
• d3d11
• d3d9
• dxgi

Select one at a time
Click Edit
Change to "Navite (Windows)"
Click Apply



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



PlayOnLinux Packages (DLLs, Libraries, Components)

Check each of the following:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx10
• POL_Install_d3dx11
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_tahoma

Click Next



Note: All packages should automatically download and install

Do not click Browse
Sinistria demo does not have an installer
Click Cancel



Download Sinistria Demo
Go to: https://clawsdev.itch.io/sinistria
Save to you Desktop

Open Sinistria zip with your Archive Manager
Click Extract



Navigate to Program Files in your virtual drive
Full path:

Code:

/home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/sinistria/drive_c/Program Files

Click Extract again



Click "Show the Files"



Download DXVK 1.5

Go to: https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases/tag/v1.5
Save to your Desktop

Extract to your Desktop
Open the x64 folder
Copy all of the DLLs



Go back to the Game Folder
Paste the DLLs



PlayOnLinux Configure & Shortcut

Back to PlayOnLinux
Click Configure



General Tab
Select "sinistria" virtual drive on the left column
Click "Make a new shortcut from this virtual drive"



Select "Project Sinistria.exe"
Click Next



Name the shortcut: Project Sinistria
Click Next



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



General Tab
Select "Project Sinistria" in the left column
Wine version: 4.21-staging



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

Run Sinistria

Select "Project Sinistria"
Click Run



Note: Click debug to see bugs and errors

Optimization

Click Options



General Tab
Adjust:

• Grain
• Bloom
• Motion Blur
• Ambient Occlusion

Click Apply



Graphics Tab
Adjust:

• Resolution
• Fullscreen
• Game Quality
• Antialiasing
• Texture Quality
• Blend Weight
• Vsync
• Shadow Resolution
• Shadow Quality
• Shadow Cascades
• Shadow Projection
• Shadow Distance

Click Apply



Conclusion:
Sinistria ran perfectly with Wine 4.21-staging and DXVK. I didn't have any performance issues with my GeForce GTX 1060. It is a short demo, but hopefully the full release will run just as well. I didn't create a game play video because I didn't want to ruin the puzzles and scares. The assets are beautifuly and very professionally made. The visuals are outstanding!


screenshots: