For those of you who use Linux and haven’t left due to the announcement that Linux support was dropped, I want to share what I’ve tried for running the latest BB on Ubuntu. The main issue with it is that the openGL shaders for the new launcher don’t compile correctly when installed with Wine, but the game still works pretty well once you get there. Here is what I found that works, based partially on the instructions from the instructions posted on reddit for downloading the game separately from the launcher:
- Install PlayOnLinux and run it.
- Use the Wine version manager to install the latest 64-bit version (tested with 3.20)
- Create a new prefix for 64-bit Windows
- Under the configuration menu, install the following components:
Microsoft Core Fonts
d3dx11
- Under configuration > miscellaneous > Run a .exe file in this virtual drive, use the BB3 launcher installer to install the Snapshot Games Launcher to the wine prefix
- Run the launcher when the install is finished
- The tricky part: since the openGL shaders didn't compile correctly under wine for me, the laucher displays as all black but is still fully functional. In the first screen, about 1/4 from the top is a button to log in with steam. Your cursor should change when you're hovering over it. Click it and it should bring up web page for authenticating with steam.
- Once authenticated, the window will change to be wider. At this point you can close it, or try fumbling around with the buttons to try and install directly from here, the install is in the lower right, but it brings up a dialog box to pick the install directory.
- Navigate in a file browser to the location of the prefix you created, by default it should be ~/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/<prefix name>/. Find the location of Snapshot Games Launcher (default in drive_c/Program Files) in this directory.
- Find launcher_settings.ini and change "P2P_CONNECTION=true" to "P2P_CONNECTION=false"
- Start the launcher again, authenticate, and click the install button in the lower right. If done correctly, the launcher directory should show a file called "serverAnswer.xml". Once it does, you can close the launcher again.
- Open up serverAnswer.xml, and copy the torrentlink="<some URL>" into your browser to start downloading the game files directly.
- Once the download finishes, extract the files to a location in your wine prefix (I put it in the location given in the to="<some directory>" on the <action type="extract" ... > line of serverAnswer.xml).
- Run the game .exe through PlayOnLinux and enjoy!