Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance with Steam on Linux with PlayOnLinux

SCFAonLinux.md

This guide is out of date. Use https://github.com/FAForever/faf-linux instead.

Install PlayOnLinux with your package manager (i.e. sudo apt-get install playonlinux). Then, type playonlinux and wait for it to refresh its list.

Install Steam under PlayOnLinux. Once Steam is running, exit it, select its entry in PlayOnLinux, and select Configure.

I suggest using Wine 1.7.8-d3d doublebuffer

Now go to the "Install Components" section and install, in any order: d3dx9, directx9, dotnet40

Under Display, set Video Memory Size to the amount of RAM your graphics card has. If you don't know this, choose 256. Then, under Offscreen Rendering Mode, pick fbo. This is absolutely critical because, without it, you get no graphics.

Now we need to fix the audio. In the same Configure window, select Miscellaneous and find the text box marked "Command to exec before running the program". In that text box, enter export PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=60 and press the enter key. This fixes the audio.

Now, run Steam again, download SC:FA, and play! Don't be put off by error messages about being unable to find libraries: everything should work.

I recommend using FAForever to play multiplayer. Download it at http://www.faforever.com/ and make an account.

Then, take FAForever-whatever.msi and place it somewhere convenient (Downloads, home directory, whatever).

Rename it, adding a single - to the end - i.e. FAForever-0.10.125.msi becomes FAForever-0.10.125-.msi. This is not always needed but fixes a registry issue on some setups.

Now, open up the PoL drive's Configure -> Miscellaneous window again, and select Run an .exe in this drive. Find the MSI file and select it.

Follow the installation instructions - things should work fine, despite a few error messages. You're now ready to play FAF, but if you want, you can use General -> Make a new shortcut from this drive to create a shortcut straight to FAF (FAForever.exe). Steam doesn't need to be running.

Currently, the map browser in FAF is BROKEN under POL. If anyone can figure out how to fix it, PLEASE submit a pull request on this gist.

If you have problems, please contact me at nora@nora.codes

Works great. Thanks.

Got an error while installing directx9, but it still works great.

Any updates for the FAF instructions?

@Frozenlock Added them! If you have problems, please tell me - I've only tested it on two computers.

@SilverWingedSeraph the FAF.msi crashes and refuses to start for me. Did anything change?
Also, I can't get sound to work in FA, do you happen to know a solution? I'm using pulseaudio, on 64bit Arch Linux with lib32-libpulse and lib32-alsa-plugins installed.

Hi!

Just followed this guide on Ubuntu 15.10, 64-bit.
I've got two issues (the game seems to launch fine, but is not very forgiving with alt-tabbing).

• I get the following error when opening FAF, and only get the option to "X" the windows out, or click okay, with the process crashing right afterwards:

  You are missing the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Runtime.
  Get it from here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5555

• Crackling sound, I'm suspecting it's got to do with PulseAudio, but I have yet to find out how to debug/confirm this.
  (I see that there's a lot of people posting about this on the web about similar Wine-related issues: https://www.playonlinux.com/en/topic-11545-Pulseaudio_qbuffer_underrunq_tutorial.html)

Got any idea/suggestion on how to fix this?

21st of May 2016 EDIT:
The crackling sound is fixed, and the game experience is now playable! The problem was me not understanding how PoL worked, so the export PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=60 was given to the Steam process from which I installed SC:FA, and not SC:FA itself!
That's all good now! =)

Hello,
I followed this guide today. I stumbled across a very similar issue to x10an14, it complains on lacking icrosoft Visual C++ 2010 Runtime, though it does let me hit "Ok", the FAF UI is displayed but not properly loaded, and seems to freeze up.

The other issue I have directly related to SupCom FA is that I am unable to change the default resolution to my native one (2560x1440), as soon as I do this from the in-game menu the screen goes black (though sound still plays).

@NodCommander: Wrt. to your resolution issues, I just wanted to give my two cents and suspicion that this is something that the game struggles with even on Windows. I remember having struggled greatly at times when switching out monitor resolutions without re-installing the game in-between. As such, I suspect the game engine is just not quite that robust to tackle all the different resolutions we might've wanted it to... =/

@x10an14 Actually, having played FAF on this hardware/monitor for a few years under Windows I never had any issues switching resolutions. I wonder if it would be possible to simply switch the resolution in a config file somewhere? I've forgotten where it resides though...

The issue I suspect is how PoL dislikes resolution changes and/or alt-tabbing.

@NodCommander: SC:FA under PoL certainly doesn't handle alt-tabbing well =) (In my (somewhat limited) experience).

As for the settings file you mentioned, googling "SC:FA resolutio nsettings" (literally that string) gave me these two top hits, looks like it's game.prefs you want:

1. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=175274474
2. https://steamcommunity.com/app/9420/discussions/0/792923683953995957/
3. Oh hell, have the third too (I saw the path explicitly put in that one, didn't notice that in the skimming of the two others:
   http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1988148

@x10an14 Ah! That fixed it. The game is now running at the correct resolution. :)

Now to fix the C++ Runtime issue..

Update! The solution was simple, just add the C++ Runtime package through PoL, after this the FAF Lobby launches correctly and I can join all kinds of games.

Alt-Tabbing the game is absolutely fine, nothing unexpected happens. Great!

However, there is a big gameplay issue. A lot of "effects" does not appear, such as the ACU's primary weapon fire (the gun flash is visible but the projectile is not). By far worst of these is that the ACU upgrade animation does not show at all, so I have no way of telling if my opponent is upgrading his commander, or if he is just standing idle with it. Is there any fix to this that anyone know of?

Lately i have a few crash/hang issues with Supcom FA in wine. It always seems to happen when zooming out completly on a large map with lots of units on screen. The last few games we played with 5-6 people + some KIx there is a 50% chance the game crashes for me.

Wine version: 1.9.24
Video Memory Size set to 1024 (Its a 2GB Nvidia GTX 660)
Nvidia Driver 375.26

Does somebody else experienced this? Would it help to use an older wine version?