Recently I cam acroos interesting article Serious Sam 4 Linux DXVK Wine

I found out that this article is outdated + additionally I wanted to setup Serious Sam on PlayOnLinux (not Lutris).

Here is my steps.

1 (Optional) Change default PlayOnLinux location

First of all Serious Sam 4 requires 42 GB of storage. This is too much for my system folder. However I have additional mounted disk/folder. The problem is that PlayOnLinux by default store its "bottles" in the home path (different virtual wine folders), e.g. ~/.PlayOnLinux. I changed default location by this guide How to move PlayOnLinux virtual drives to another disk.

close PlayOnLinux
create .PlayOnLinux folder on mounted disk. E.g. mkdir /mnt/mystorage/Install/.PlayOnLinux/
copy default .PlayOnLinux folder into new created. E.g. cp -av ~/.PlayOnLinux/ /mnt/mystorage/Install/.PlayOnLinux/
clean default .PlayOnLinux folder rm -rf ~/.PlayOnLinux
make a symlink from default .PlayOnLinux folder into new one. E.g. ln -s /mnt/mystorage/Install/.PlayOnLinux ~/.PlayOnLinux

2 Obtain Serious Sam 4

As a result you should have following:

├── Bonus
│   ├── serious_sam_4_artbook.zip
│   ├── serious_sam_4_ost_aac.zip
│   ├── serious_sam_4_ost_flac.zip
│   ├── serious_sam_4_ost_ogg.zip
│   └── serious_sam_4_ost_wav.zip
├── DLC
│   └── setup_serious_sam_4_deluxe_edition_dlc_1.08_(64bit)_(45801).exe
├── setup_serious_sam_4_1.08_(64bit)_(45801)-10.bin
├── setup_serious_sam_4_1.08_(64bit)_(45801)-11.bin
├── setup_serious_sam_4_1.08_(64bit)_(45801)-1.bin
├── setup_serious_sam_4_1.08_(64bit)_(45801)-2.bin
├── setup_serious_sam_4_1.08_(64bit)_(45801)-3.bin
├── setup_serious_sam_4_1.08_(64bit)_(45801)-4.bin
├── setup_serious_sam_4_1.08_(64bit)_(45801)-5.bin
├── setup_serious_sam_4_1.08_(64bit)_(45801)-6.bin
├── setup_serious_sam_4_1.08_(64bit)_(45801)-7.bin
├── setup_serious_sam_4_1.08_(64bit)_(45801)-8.bin
├── setup_serious_sam_4_1.08_(64bit)_(45801)-9.bin
└── setup_serious_sam_4_1.08_(64bit)_(45801).exe

3 Prepare PlayOnLinux "bottle"

Run PlayOnLinux
Go to Tools -> Manage Wine versions
Select Wine versions (amd64) tab
Install at leat one x64 wine version, e.g. 6.17-staging
Close Manage Wine versions window
Go to Configure -> New for adding bottle (virtual drive)
Next -> 64 bits windows installation -> Select some Winex64 version e.g. 6.17-staging
Enter name of the bottle, e.g. x64v6.17staging
After bottle was created -> select this bottle on the left and Install components tab on the right
Install d3dcompiler_47 and DXVK
Select Miscellaneous tab on the right and click Run a .exe file in this virtual drive and install Serios Sam 4 by selecting setup_serious_sam_4_1.08_(64bit)_(45801).exe
Close PlayOnLinux for now

4 Adjust Serious Sam configs

Game by default tries to use Vulkan API, which is buggy and even can not start the game.

In order to start the game go to game folder, e.g. cd /mnt/mystorage/Install/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/x64v6.17staging/drive_c/GOG Games/Serious Sam 4/
Open UserCfg.lua with any text editor and add following lines at the end of the file:

gfx_strAPI = "Direct3D11";
sfx_strAPI = "OpenAL";

Save and close UserCfg.lua
Go to Content/SeriousSam4/Config/
Open CheckDriver.lua with text editor and replace with the following:

local aSettings = {
  { cvar="sys_iGPUVendorID" },
  { cvar="sys_strPlatform" },
  { cvar="gfx_iReqDriverVersion" },
  { cvar="gfx_iAPI" },
}

-- vendor IDs

local VID_NVIDIA = 0x10DE;
local VID_ATI = 0x1002;
local VID_INTEL = 0x8086;

-- assume no driver version detection
gfx_strAPI = "Direct3D11";

-- if vendor is nVidia
if sys_iGPUVendorID==VID_NVIDIA then

  -- set needed driver version (September 2020)
gfx_strAPI = "Direct3D11";
  
-- if vendor is ATI
elseif sys_iGPUVendorID==VID_ATI then

  -- set needed driver version (September 2020)
gfx_strAPI = "Direct3D11";

-- if vendor is ATI
elseif sys_iGPUVendorID==VID_INTEL then

  -- set needed driver version (September 2020)
gfx_strAPI = "Direct3D11";
  
-- for any other vendor
else

  -- just report a warning
  print( "Unable to check for correct version of display driver!");
 
end

Save and close CheckDriver.lua

5 Download lates Proton GE archive

e.g. Proton-7.2-GE-2 Released

Extract Proton-7.2-GE-2.tar.gz archive
Create folder in .PlayOnLinux/wine/linux-amd64/ e.g. Proton7.1GE2
Copy bin, lib, lib64, share folders from Proton-7.2-GE-2.tar.gz archive (files subfolder) into newly created folder, e.g. cp -av /home/lex/Downloads/Proton-7.1-GE-2/files/ /mnt/mystorage/Install/.PlayOnLinux/wine/linux-amd64/Proton7.1GE2/

6 Start the game

Run PlayOnLinux
Go to Configure -> select your bottle e.g. x64v6.17staging
Open General tab on the right and on the line Wine version you should seelct Proton7.1GE2 (the folder that you created earlier and PlayOnLinux should detect wine inside this folder)
Click Make a new shortcut from this virtual drive and select Sam4.exe and Next
Close PlayOnLinux configuration window and run Sam4!

volodalexey/README.md