There should be a download button in the upper right corner; click that and select "Direct download".

OK, but while I waited for your reply I installed Wine 4.0. I downloaded the game. And then I transferred it to a USB drive because I didn't have enough space on my drive for the download and the installed game. Then I installed from the USB drive. Both of which took really long because its a slow basic USB drive, like over twice as long as the download took.

So I got the game installed. But it's not working right. There might be lots of little issues, like I can't seem to que making buildings and units in my cities. But two of the biggest issues that appear are resources for my titles whether in city or out don't show right so the only way to know how much resources a tile gives is by seeing how my city growth and production changes and research/energy- no way to tell at all.

Perhaps even worse, I can't make any wonders. I made Stonehendge, the video plays but the map goes black, and stays black. If I go to menu and reload the game, the maps still black. If I shut down the game and restart it, loading a save of after having made the wonder, it freezes up mid download.

Also alt tab, and even exiting out of the game, screws up my DE really badly. Issues of the DE can follow back into the game if I then reload or switch back to the game.

So maybe I need your skin? But is there perhaps a way to fix all this without having to uninstall the game or Wine?

Even on a fast drive the game's install takes a very long time due to the very large number of files (my wrapper unpacks the installer using Innoextract instead, which is considerably faster).

Civ4 requires a bunch of dependencies, I can't remember the specific ones needed atm (msxml3 and some directx libraries) but you'll need to install them via winetricks or so.

Did you set the game to use your full display resolution? Some other possible solutions: disable compositing for full-screen windows, try setting a virtual desktop, and/or start the game with LIBGL_DRI3_DISABLE=1

I don't know about the other issues you mention (you put stuff in queue by shift or control clicking, depending on if you want it first or last), but the black screen after Stonehenge is 100% due to missing MSXML3. I tested that a whole heap way back, and wrote about it in some thread, probably one of Adam's. The problem is with Stonehenge and a few other things, because Stonehenge gives some extra map knowledge.

Edit: I found a thread with it, though it's posted elsewhere too, I'm sure. https://www.gog.com/forum/sid_meiers_civilization_series/to_play_on_linux
I see the game is on offer now, and I wonder about buying it, despite having an ancient version of it. I've currently got it set up with POL and Wine 3.6. Very old, I know, but it works and since I play the game competitively I didn't want to mess around right now (just picked it up again, after a year or so off). That means I need a mod called Buffy, which requires a shortcut. Is it easy to set up that after using your script?

Currently I have it in POL with a custom shortcut/argument, as seen in the attachment. I also need to run the mod (an exe) to set it up. Is this easy as well? In POL I use the "Run a .exe..." in Misc tab.

Link to the mod in question: http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ4/mod.php

I thought I mentioned earlier that I solved those issues. Not saying there isn't other issues but mostly it's working.

HOF=hall of fame mod? What does it do?

I don't think there would be any problems... you can run the mod installer using the script's menu, under "Advanced options..." --> "Run...", or you can use the terminal:

./start.sh runwine="<executable to run>"

You should then be able to start the mod by running the script with a command like this:

./start-bts.sh play : /mod= 'Mods\BUFFY-3.19.005'

(everything after the : is passed through to the executable)

You can create a shortcut for it using the script's menu - see the attached screenshot for an example of how to set it up. Or you can use the terminal to do it:

./start-bts.sh -s scn="Civ4 Test" sfn="civ4-buffy" sca="play : /mod= 'Mods\BUFFY-3.19.005'" scl="</path/for/shortcut>"

Thank you so much for the explanation. However, it doesn't appear to be working quite right, and I get a warning about the BUFFY mod not being able to save data, and therefore games won't be legal. See the screenshot.

I had to change the path when installing the mod to get it in the right tree, as otherwise it was put in an empty tree. But it still doesn't work. I don't know why, but it may have something to do with how that mod is made. The intent is to check for cheating and various such things. It works when set up through POL, though, so it should be possible to get it working with your set up too. I'm just not sure how.

The game itself started, and the mod appears to be loading correctly. But as suspected I get a warning in-game as well, about the save not being legal for Hall of Fame play. Usually it explains what the issue is, but this time there is just the warning.


Another small thing, which may be due to how wine has developed, or my version of Mint (I'm still on 18.2). I like to have the game in one workspace and the browser in another. That way I can quickly swap between them. However, for some reason that doesn't work with this game. It used to work before, but that was when using an even older version of wine. Version 2.something. Now, when I switch back to the workspace where the game is (using Ctrl+right arrow) the game is minimised, and typically some windows in the game itself are set up too, like the log window. I hoped this would work properly on the newest version of wine, but sadly it does not. Probably a very long shot, but do you have any idea what is causing this?

Same with the mod issue. Admittedly not how most people play the game, but I almost only play these competitive games, so if the BUFFY mod is out of commission, I'll have to stick with the POL setup instead. I swap in and out of the game quite frequently, to change music, to check some information, to take a break, to take screenshots, so it's actually fairly annoying that the game is minimised and its log window removed every time.

Installing the game worked like a charm, though, and it started up first-time without any issues :)

Have thought about upgrading to the newest Mint, but I don't know if these things will get sorted, and after running 18.2 for such a long time, it's quite possible I've put in solutions that I have no idea how to re-do, so I'm worried about starting over so to speak. Kinda like this classic :P
https://xkcd.com/349/

I tried it myself with Wine 3.0 and Wine 4.0 but both had the same issue :/ There's no reason why it shouldn't also work with my wrapper; chances are that there's some difference in the way it's been set up... maybe you've previously installed some additional components/used other workarounds into its POL Wine prefix to get it running?

That said, my old system still has a Windows 7 install so I also checked on that & the same problem occurs there too, so maybe it's something specific to the GOG version? Unfortunately I don't have any other version of the game to test with & compare.

You could try setting SDL_VIDEO_MINIMIZE_ON_FOCUS_LOSS=0 when running the game. Find its POL shortcut under ~/.PlayOnLinux/shortcuts and add this before the last line:

export SDL_VIDEO_MINIMIZE_ON_FOCUS_LOSS=0

Hi. WHen I run the install script the msxml download times out. Any ideas? Thx

It looks like the server that was providing it is no longer available... anyway, I see that Winetricks uses a different mirror for msxml3 now so I've just updated the script to use that :)

Finally got it working. There is something odd with the registry in the GOG version.

Installed Mint 19.1 Cinnamon first. Some false starts due to UEFI-related crashes when installing, but got there on the third try, heh. Everything seems to be going as intended now, also with the BUFFY mod. I'll try it out and see if that persists. The minimising when changing workspace is still there, though, also in 19.1 Mint, so maybe not so easy to solve. Maybe something they've done to save resources or something when a game is in the inactive workspace, but it's kind of annoying.

How can I try out that export SDL.... trick when using your script? Just in case it works this time (it didn't on POL).

Unfortunately it doesn't work to attach the .reg file, not even when I rename it to .jpg.

It would probably be better to upload it somewhere like dropbox or so & PM me the link

Add SDL_VIDEO_MINIMIZE_ON_FOCUS_LOSS=0 before the command, e.g.:

SDL_VIDEO_MINIMIZE_ON_FOCUS_LOSS=0 ./start-bts.sh play : /mod= 'Mods\BUFFY-3.19.005'

To create a shortcut that sets it, provide this as the arguments for the shortcut:

env SDL_VIDEO_MINIMIZE_ON_FOCUS_LOSS=0 %command% play : /mod= 'Mods\BUFFY-3.19.005'

You are the man! This installer worked flawlessly on Ubuntu, I'm trying on Manjaro (arch-derivative) now. Thank you so much for yr scripts! It's folks like you that make me love the linux community!

Thanks. Sent you a PM about the .reg file.

Couldn't get the shortcut working with this extra entry, and I tried to insert it in various places. Got it running from terminal, however, but the minimising thing still occurs. Found another command and tried that too, but that didn't work either. Weird. There is a message (in terminal) about "Not forcing virtual desktop", but I don't know if that is relevant here.

The other command I found and tried was: SDL_HINT_VIDEO_MINIMIZE_ON_FOCUS_LOSS=0

No big deal obviously, and I have the same issue with some other games, but it would be great to find a
solution for it.