My experiences getting this working in Steam/Linux & Intel Graphics

[DoxaLogos]

Just thought I would share some information on how I figured out my problems running my copy of Shadow Empire in a Steam/Linux environment.

The two problems I had were the following:

1. Fonts oversized and clipped (some almost unreadable)
2. Horizontal line glitching on a lot of screens and menus

A note about my system:

• Linux Mint 20.3
• Intel i915 graphics
• Proton 7.0-2

Solving the first problem turned out to not be too hard. Following the information on https://www.protondb.com/app/1154840 helped me. I only had to remove "gdiplus" from the system32 and syswow64 folders of the proton installation (under ~/.steam/debian-installation/steamapps/compatdata/1154840/pfx/dosdevices/c:/windows)

Then install protontricks if you don't have it already (instructions: https://simpler-website.pages.dev/html/ ... tontricks/).

Then run from a new terminal:
protontricks 1154840 gdiplus
protontricks 1154840 corefonts.

Then wait about an hour.

This fixed my font issue. However, trying to run "protontricks 1154840 dotnet472" killed my install, so you may not need to do this. I had to reinstall it all over to fix it.

The second problem was harder to figure out. What got it to work was related to my graphics chipset which is an Intel graphics chip on my laptop.

I had used information located on this site: https://learnubuntumate.weebly.com/scre ... phics.html to fix it.

This configuration file for Xorg (/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/intel-20.conf) got the line artifacts to disappear:

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Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Intel Graphics"
        Driver          "i915"
        Option          "TearFree" "true"
        Option          "AccelMethod" "uxa"
EndSection

Note that I used the name of my driver (i915) and not the generic "intel" driver for the "Driver" line. You can find out which one you have with the follow command: "inxi -G"

One caveat, the line for "AccelMethod" may affect any heavy 3D graphic games you play, so you might want to either comment it out or remove it when playing those kinds of games. I did get a warning from my desktop when I added that line that I may have performance issues.

You'll have to reboot if you change the config file.


BTW, I never ran into the problem where one of the files had to be exported to RGB, but I'm also running the DasTactics/MMoyer graphics mod.


I hope this helps anyone who may run into a similar issue.

EDIT: On Fedora 36 with the same system, I only needed to use the protontricks fix above to get it to work. The video drivers are better in Fedora 36.

[nscrutable]

Thank you so much for sharing! I was having the same issue with fonts and this helped a lot.

[DoxaLogos]

You're most welcome!

[deMangler]

Thanks!

I thought I'd add - since this thread was first in a google search, and it's kind of intel specific, that the non-steam version of Shadow Empire can be run on an intel chromebook using the linux container, no real issues. I did it on a chromebook using intels N4000 chipset, so it is a bit of a potato.

I found the wine version needs to be 5.x < 5.18 because .net. This should also work on any debian bullseye or similar with some kind of desktop env.

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sudo apt install wine
wine --version

#wine-5.0.3 (Debian 5.0.3-3)

I just accept defaults with winecfg.

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winecfg
sudo apt install winetricks
winetricks corefonts
winetricks gdiplus  
winetricks dotnet472

The following assumes you are in any directory with the install files...

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wine explorer /desktop=name,1024x768 ShadowEmpire-SetupRelease-v01.05.00.exe

Runs in a 1025x768 wine desktop.
Without the wine desktop I couldn't see the installer and enter serial etc.


Update with latest patch, for example...

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wine explorer /desktop=name,1024x768 ShadowEmpire-UpdateComp-v01.11.00.exe

Then it is installed to something like:

~/.wine/drive_c/Matrix Games/Shadow Empire


and needs to be run from the install dir with command-line (any chromeos icons don't work for me)


Assuming above install dir...

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cd ~/.wine/drive_c/Matrix Games/Shadow Empire 
wine ShadowEmpire.exe

This runs automatically in my native desktop resolution, 1366x768, which is quite playable. Turns can take a while.

I also use Das's terrain set because it used to avoid an image problem that would otherwise require editing/exporting, but don't know if it is needed now. looks nice though.

Anyway - there ya go...