Playing World of Warships (and World of Tanks) in Linux OS [Legacy Launcher Version - No Longer Working]

[S0und_Theif]

I have been interested in Linux for a while and after watching an episode of Linus Tech Tips that you can game on Linux, I took some time and tested if I can play WG games on Linux (Without Steam).

I got to try Ubuntu in 2005. Back then, Windows XP was way better than any Linux Distro (Distribution) I have tried. Overtime Linux seems to be getting better and better and the GUI is more friendlier than before.

Some functionality still has some issues and sometimes stability of the OS. However, comparing that to Windows 10's forced update, in linux, you can opt not to update right away if you feel uncomfortable, and let others try it first, look for bugs, then once they have been ironed out, you can update with peace of mind. Just like Windows 7.

Playing WOWS in Windows is still mostly stable by a long shot, as WOWS is built in Windows.

Playing WOWS in Linux, Linux requires some "emulation" to be able to play most Windows game. It is not perfect, but if the Linux community, the WOWS community, and WG dev staff will help and get the game to work on Linux, it can and will make the game work flawlessly.

Here are some screenshots of the Game played on Linux:

Where's waldo?

In space, no one can hear you fart.

Do not touch my model. Damoi!

La bataielle commence

What the...., who dares?!

In just 4 minutes -_-

 

I have been trying to re-introduce myself to Linux again since 2017 (12 years of being dormant). After watching Linus Tech Tips, Gaming on Linux episode, I find time to try and test the game. 1 weeks to play around Linux OS. 1 week to try to play and install the game in Linux, 1 week to play the game in Linux, and 1 week grind fest to get T6.

I will post on how to install and play WOWS in Linux in the nest thread. So that I won't make this one long.

Also some few solutions to make the game experience playable to Windows level, and some issues I have encountered and yet to replicate or find solutions. If the community can help to make the game smoother in Linux, let us post the solutions or create a forum dedicated to Linux.

[S0und_Theif]

How to be able to play WOWS (and WOT) on Linux.

Note: The game uses legacy launcher. There is currently no WGC support in Linux. WGC found.
Note: WGC can work in Wine and Lutris. Just need community's help to document and guide us into the process.

 

After setting up Linux you need to do 4 or 5 things:
1. Setup and / or enable firewall on Linux. Some are not enable by default.
2. nVidia proprietary driver. (I am currently using 430.xx driver as of Oct 2019)
     In Ubuntu, Mint, KDE Neon, Manjaro, openSUSE, the drivers are available in their repository. For Fedora, you may need some reading to install nVidia driver.
3. DXVK (Direct X Vulcan). In order to be able to play Direct X games in Linux, DXVK needs to be installed. It is kind of a translator for Direct X to work on Linux, since Direct X is a M$ product.
4. Lutris (You can download via Lutris website or in the Linux repository package manager if available)
5. Wine (Although not required, it is highly recommended to install wine). Wine website is winehq when searching the web.

or

 

 

A. After downloading the requirements, go to Lutris website and in the search tab, search for the game "World of Warships".

B. It will direct you to the game.

C. Once you have into the game, you will be prompted which server you want to install. (Note: WOWS and WOT game use legacy launcher.)

D. You will be prompted to which application would you want it to be installed. Select Lutris.

E. Let the game install in both Lutris and WINE "kind of a Windows Virtual Machine in Linux" .

F. After the game has been installed, you can finally play the game. (some in-game screen shots above)

G. Congratulations you have been able to play WOWS (and WOT) in Linux OS.

 

 

After playing the game and have logged out, you can not or do not have any way or meanse to close WINE. To remedy this, press "Alt + Tab" to get out of WINE window, and in Lutris, select the "STOP" botton.
If this does not work, select "Kill all WINE process" to terminate any or all WINE process.

 

There are also other games that Lutris and WINE supports, but I will only focus on WOW in this forum.
Likewise there are also a lot of possibilities using WINE in Linux, but again I will only focus on WOWS in this forum.

Steam in Linux is another way to play WOWS. You will need to create a Steam account though. To some, that is another account to maintain and no guarantee if all WG games has been white listed by Steam and able to play in Linux. Compared to Lutris it will run better, since it is already optimized by Steam.

 

If I have missed some steps please let me know. I will try to add in this thread.

 

I will post issues that I have encountered in the next thread.

[S0und_Theif]

Issues I have encountered: (So far)

Game update (Tested. Game updates and plays just fine.)

Limited mouse movement. (Fixed)

 

Game Micro Stuttering and Occationally dropping FPS (Significant Improvement but Issue Some What Persists)

1.) Update your Vulkan library. (Update according to your which distro you are using. [i.e. Ubuntu, Manjaro, Fedora, openSUSE])

2.) Go to "Manage Runner" option. The gear botton on the top left.

Go to the bottom. Look for "WINE" and select "Manage Runners"

Select "Lutris - 4.15". (As of writing, Lutris - 4.15 is more stable compared to Lutris - 4.16. Oct. 18 2019)

After downloading the runners, select you game, and go to configure. Screw driver and wrench icon below the play botton.

Select "Runner Options" and in the Wine Version drop box, select your downloaded runner. (As of writing, Lutris - 4.15)

 

An error occured. Terminate Program or Discon. (Happened once. Can not replicate on how or what caused it.) (Apparently it is a Windows issue. Will continue to investigate.)

 

ESYNC - While fixing the game stuttering and dropping FPS, some recommend enableing ESYNC. However doing so made the game unstable and most of the time, unplayable. Have to reinstall again to make it work. For now, do not touch this setting until solutions can be fund and / or get a better understanding on this function.

 

 

Possible issues I can think of:

Launching website inside WINE (In theory, WINE is a Windows emulation, and Windows is a virus magnet, so opening a website inside WINE "might" brick / destroy the system? This is in theory, but it is best to open websites outside of WINE to be safe.) (I need help and confirmation on this one.)

 

 

Also, for some users who uses Aslain's mods, I am sorry that I am not able to try and test it in Linux. Although I have read that some users have success in installing and running Aslain's mods in Linux. If the community has success in this please feel free to post or update the thread.

 

The game is playable. Tested in Co-op, Random, and Scenario. However, since WOWS is not primarily and natively supported in Linux, there will rise some issues.

That said, I would like to ask WG dev team to try to make WOWS work on Linux (via WINE or Lutris) or make the game work on Linux natively.

I know that Direct X is a M$ product, but with the introduction of DXVK (Direct X Vulkan), and M$ trying to make a Linux kernel run in Windows, it is clear that M$ is trying to get back lost market share to Linux or Mac.  People are moving to Linux due to M$'s deaf ears on user issues. Mainly on privacy, system stability, and forced update (especially rebooting while you are still working).

Many developers are now porting their works in Linux (and some in Mac). It would be nice if WG can also get in to the Linux market share.

WG could also ask LTT (Linus Tech Tips) for consultation and help on their games played in Linux. (LTT did advertise WOWS game in their channels and WG also made an LTT camo for HMCS Haida, WG could ask their help, yes.)

 

Final Words: I would like to ask for the community for help in this. Please post issues you may have encountered and fixes you have done or made to make the game work properly.

This is to help anyone who wants to try Linux and also wants to play on Linux.

 

Thank you. 🙂

 

@GOMBEE8626@Kodari_Gangjeong would like to ask for your help and add this to your weekly report to management. Thank you.

[S0und_Theif]

Oh BTW, I forgot to give a short intro about linux.

You can try Linux without installing them in your HDD. It will be slower but it will give you an idea which Linux distro you want to try and / or which desktop environment you want to try.

 

For those who want to give it a try, here are what I would recommend:

Distributions (DIstro):
Ubuntu = based on Debian = Recommended for beginners. Good distro to be introduced to Linux. Has both RR and LTS. (Tested and played WOWS. Working)
     Mint = based on Ubuntu LTS (Long Term Support) = Highly recommended for beginners. Windows like GUI for Linux. (Not tested)

Solus = based on Debian = New kid on the block and a rising star. Due to being the new kid, some software or packages are still not available in their repository. (Installed but did not got it to work properly)

Manjaro = Based on Linux Arch = Good for beginners. KISS (Keep It Simple S****d) principle for user friendliness. (Tested and played WOWS. Working)

Fedora = Based on Red Hat Enterprise (BTW bought by IBM in 2018) = For intermediate Linux users. Hardest distro to tame but the challenges are rewarding. (Tested and played WOWS. Working)

openSUSE = Based on Slackware = For intermediate Linux users. If you have an understand of Ubuntu RR or Ubuntu LTS and Fedora, Then this distro will be easy for you. (Tested and played WOWS. Working)

 

Rolling Release (RR) = Up to date. Sometimes unstable compared to LTS.
     Ubuntu, Fedora, Manjaro, openSUSE Tumbleweed, Solus

Long Term Support (LTS) = Stable. Somewhat left behind compared to RR.
     Ubuntu (LTS), Mint, openSUSE Leap

 

Linux Desktop Environment (GUI):
GNOME 3 = Basic Linux Desktop Environment and most used in most Linux distro. Very clean and very simple looking. Feels like android phone.

KDE Plasma 5 = 2nd most sought Linux GUI or shell. Highly customizable desktop environment. To a certain extent, can feel almost like Windows XP, but customizable to you hearts content.

Xfce = Lightweight and low system resource consumpion. Based on UNIX or Solaris. For computers with limited processing power (Pentium).

Cinnamon = Homey feel. For those who want Windows XP or Windows 7 feel in Linux. Extremely recommended if you want to play around or get to know Linux.

MATE = Classic Linux based on GNOME 2. For classic Linux users that love the original GNOME desktop environment.
 

There are other desktop environment out there. Depends on the Distro if they support them.

 

If I have made a mistake please correct me. Thanks.

 

My system specs:
CPU: Intel Core i5 6600K. Clocked at 3.5 GHz (Locked the clock speed to simulate 4th gen Intel.) (Recommend to have Core i5 from 4th to 7th gen as minimum requirement)
GPU: nVidia 1070 (Graphics is set to Very High settings. Heats up to 60 degrees C. The same settings was also applied to my Windows machine) (Recommend to have 800 series as minimum requirement)
RAM: 16GB

I wish I could test AMD CPU. Linux seems able support AMD CPU.
AMD GPU is not as developed as nVidia in the Linux world. Hold back on AMD GPU for now until support becomes better.

 

There is no right or wrong distro, only where you are comfortable.
There is always pros and cons (nothing is perfect anyways), only what the user is willing to compromise.

[S0und_Theif]

Since WGC is going to be standard (WoT legacy launcher ended on Oct. 2019), I would like to inform players / community that this method is no longer applicable.

 

I will write a new method in the future, using WGC. I will also try if the the copy paste method will still work in Linux. In the Legacy version, this method works, and takes 1 minute to install. (Takes 1 hour to paste the files though.)

 

I will try to write on how to run WoWs with WGC on Linux PC in the future. It may take some time though.

But if anyone in the community have tried and tested it, please feel free to put your tutorial here.

 

While this method allows players to play Windows game on Linux PC, it is not perfect and have some issues / bugs. But never than less, you can play the game flawlessly in Linux PC.

 

I do ask WG to please make the game playable in Linux. Natively. In the settings, the game currently runs in DX11 API.

I would like WG to please work on DX12 API and Vulkan API. DX12 works best on MS while Vulcan works on both MS and Linux.

Allowing Vulcan API would also mean that WoWs can be played on Linux natively. (probably). I prefer a native play rather than a compatibility layer play. It does eat a bit more resource than the windows version.

 

WG for your consideration.

 

 

Now, I also have necro'ed a thread.