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How to install World of Tanks on Linux
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wot_linux.md

Install World of Tanks on Ubuntu Linux

CURRENTLY NOT WORKING (2017-12-16 9.21)

Introduction

This guide will show you how to install World Of Tanks on Ubuntu Linux (or any flavour such as Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Kubuntu, etc) using Wine+PlayOnLinux.

By the end of the guide you should have a fully working, stable client with HD textures and even functional Alt+Tabbing.

I have tested this on Xubuntu 16.04 LTS 64-bit, but the steps listed here will work for any Ubuntu flavour and should work for most distros with only slight adaptations.

System Requirements

Hardware

  • At least 50 GB free on your hard drive;
  • CPU/GPU/RAM: Make sure you meet the requirements for the game.

Software

  • A native installation (virtual machines won't work) of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 64-bit (or an Ubuntu flavour like Xubuntu, Kubuntu, etc.). More recent versions should work as well with no problem. Time allowing, I will keep updating this for new LTS versions.

  • The best possible graphics drivers for your GPU (for example, NVIDIA users are advised to use the proprietary drivers).

  • NOTE: use a 32-bit installation at your own risk. Remember 32-bit is basically deprecated, especially for gaming.

Installation

  1. Install PlayOnLinux:
sudo apt install playonlinux

  1. Open PlayOnLinux and go to Tools -> Manage Wine versions on the top menu bar. This will open the PlayOnLinux Wine version manager.

  2. On the PlayOnLinux Wine version manager:

    1. Go to the Wine versions (amd64) tab.
    2. On the left column, select the most recent stable Wine version (meaning no -rc suffix) that has the -staging suffix. For example, 2.21-staging. You can later upgrade to more recent versions as they come out. This is generally safe and beneficial, but you can always roll back to the last known good version if things break.
    3. Click the arrow pointing right to install the selected Wine version. The Wine installer should open up. Click next until it finishes.
    4. Close the PlayOnLinux Wine version manager.

  3. On the main PlayOnLinux window click on the Configure button. This will open the PlayOnLinux configuration window.

  4. Now we will create an isolated virtual Windows/Wine drive to instal World of Tanks on. If the installation gets borked, we can just delete the virtual drive, make a new one and start again, all without messing with your system's main Wine configuration.

    1. Click on the New button on the bottom left corner of the window. This will open the Virtual Drive Creation Wizard.
    2. Click Next.
    3. Choose 64 bits windows installation and click Next.
    4. Choose the -staging Wine version you got from step 3.2 and click Next.
    5. Follow the rest of the steps and install anything the Wizard prompts you to. You can name your virtual drive something like "WOT"
    6. Close the Virtual Drive Creation Wizard.

  5. Back on the configuration window, select your newly created drive and go the Display tab.

    1. Change the "Direct Draw Renderer" option to opengl.
    2. Change the "Video memory size" option to the amount of video memory (VRAM) your graphics card has in MiB. If your card has more than 4 GiB/4096 MiB of video memory, just choose 4096. Users with integrated graphics should choose 1 GiB or 2 GiB. I haven't tested which is better.

  6. Still with your drive selected in the configuration window, go to the Wine tab and click the Configure Wine button. The Wine configuration window will appear.

    1. Go to the Staging tab and enable both the Enable CSMT for better graphics performance and Enable Environmental Audio Extensions (EAX) options.

    2. Go to the Libraries tab and add the following library overrides (NOTE: some of these might not be needed, maybe someone could do further testing in order to find out which of these are truly essential. But for now, this works.):

      • atl110
      • atl120
      • browseui
      • crypt32
      • d3dcompiler_43
      • d3dx9_24
      • d3dx9_25
      • d3dx9_26
      • d3dx9_27
      • d3dx9_28
      • d3dx9_29
      • d3dx9_30
      • d3dx9_31
      • d3dx9_32
      • d3dx9_33
      • d3dx9_34
      • d3dx9_35
      • d3dx9_36
      • d3dx9_37
      • d3dx9_38
      • d3dx9_39
      • d3dx9_40
      • d3dx9_41
      • d3dx9_42
      • d3dx9_43
      • d3dx10_33
      • d3dx10_34
      • d3dx10_35
      • d3dx10_36
      • d3dx10_37
      • d3dx10_38
      • d3dx10_39
      • d3dx10_40
      • d3dx10_41
      • d3dx10_42
      • d3dx10_43
      • d3dx11_42
      • d3dx11_43
      • gdiplus
      • hhctrl.ocx
      • hlink
      • itirctrl
      • itss
      • jscript
      • mlang
      • mshtml
      • msimtf
      • msvcp110
      • msvcp120
      • msvcr100
      • msvcr110
      • msvcr120
      • msvcr80
      • msvcr90
      • msxml3
      • riched20
      • secur32
      • shdoclc
      • shdocvw
      • shlwapi
      • url
      • urlmon
      • usp10
      • uxtheme
      • vcomp110
      • vcomp120
      • wininet
      • wintrust
      • xmllite

    3. Close the Wine configuration window.

  7. Download the World of Tanks setup file from the official website.

  8. Back on the configuration window, select your "WOT" virtual drive and go to the Miscellaneous tab.

  9. Click on the Run a .exe file in this virtual drive button and select the downloaded installer file.

  10. Choose the following installation options:

    • Don't change the installation directory
    • Don't install DirectX, check Grant access through Windows Firewall (although I think this is irrelevant)
    • Choose the HD client if you want it and can run it. If you are unsure, I think you can install it later.
    • Don't change the start menu location.
    • VERY IMPORTANT: Uncheck both the Create a desktop shortcut and the Enable automatic updates for the game options (the game will still update when needed).

  11. The World of Tanks Launcher should appear right after the installation completes and the game will start updating itself and then downloading the game.

  12. It is possible that the Launcher will crash several times during the download stages of the installation; if this happens:

    1. Close ALL PlayOnLinux/WorldOfTanks windows
    2. Reopen PlayOnLinux and go the configuration windows
    3. On your "WOT" drive go to the General tab.
    4. Click on the Make a new shortcut for this virtual drive
    5. Select WOTLauncher.exe
    6. Follow the rest of the Wizard.
    7. Close the configuration window.
    8. Restart the Launcher with the newly created shortcut on your Desktop or by selecting the shortcut in the main PlayOnLinux window and clicking Run

  13. Once the installation finishes, close the Launcher and if you haven't done so already, follow steps 13.2 - 13.6

  14. Repeat steps 13.2 - 13.6 but this time select WorldOfTanks.exe

  15. From my experience, starting the game from the World of Tanks Launcher's orange Play button like on Windows causes instability, so that's why we created two different shortcuts in steps 14 and 15.

    • If you need to update the game when a new patch comes out, run the Launcher, let it update and the close it.
    • When you just want to play, use the main game shortcut in order to bypass the launcher.

  16. You can now delete all content inside the Updates folder to save some space. The folder's location should be something along the lines of:

~/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/YOUR_WOT_DRIVE/drive_c/Games/World_of_Tanks/Updates/
  1. When you close the game, PlayOnLinux may complain about crashes but this is nothing to worry about.

TODO

  • Check if replay functionality works
  • Check list of library overrides and test what is essential and what is not
  • See if it is possible to install HD textures after normal installation or alternatively, use the SD client even if HD textures were installed
  • Check if Grant access through Windows Firewall is relevant

Conclusion

Congratulations! You now have a working World of Tanks installation on Linux!

If your graphics drivers are working correctly you should be able to achive 95%+ of the performance you get on Windows.

Update 01-2018

Create a utility script wot-wine-util.sh:

#!/bin/bash

CMD=$1

WINEVERPATH=${HOME}/.local/wine-2.21-staging
PATH=${WINEVERPATH}/bin:$PATH 
WINESERVER=${WINEVERPATH}/bin/wineserver
WINELOADER=${WINEVERPATH}/bin/wine
WINEDLLPATH=${WINEVERPATH}/lib/wine/fakedlls
LD_LIBRARY_PATH="${WINEVERPATH}/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH" 

WINEPREFIX=${HOME}/.wotwine WINEARCH=win64 ${WINEVERPATH}/bin/${CMD}
  1. Install wine-2.21-staging-amd64 from PlayOnLinux (http://wine.playonlinux.com/binaries/linux-amd64/PlayOnLinux-wine-2.21-staging-linux-amd64.pol) in e.g. ${HOME}/.local/wine-2.21-staging
  2. remove all libz.*.so with find ${HOME}/.local/wine-2.21-staging -name 'libz.*' | xargs rm
  3. create new wine prefix in ${HOME}/.wotwine using the script above: wot-wine-util.sh winecfg
  4. Check all options under tab Staging
  5. Install vcrun2015 using winetricks WINEPREFIX=${HOME}/.wotwine winetricks vcrun2015
  6. Install WorldOfTanks: wot-wine-util.sh "wine WoT_internet_install_eu.exe"
  7. When the launcher starts deselect torrent options in setting & wait until installation finishes
  8. Play using the launcher wot-wine-util.sh "wine ${HOME}/.wotwine/drive_c/Games/World_of_Tanks/WoTLauncher.exe"
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