Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition Guide

Darksiders 2 continues the story after War was imprisoned. Now you play as his brother Death who attempts to free the human race and undo the damage done by the Apocalypse. Explore huge maps and traverse complex jumping/platform puzzles. Gain loot from hacking and slashing all kinds of demons and bosses on earth. Level up Death and interact with demi-god-ish NCPs who will point you in the direction of the enemy or angels who will try an stop you.

Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition in Linux with PlayOnLinux and DXVK.

Note: This guide applies to the GOG version of Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition. Other versions may require additional steps.

Tips & Specs:
To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux Explained

Mint 18.3 64-bit

PlayOnLinux: 4.2.12
Wine: 3.14 Staging (64-bit)
DXVK: 0.72

Wine Installation
Click Tools

Select “Manage Wine Versions”

Look for the Wine Version: 3.15

Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right

Click Next

Downloading Wine

Extracting

Downloading Gecko

Installed

Install the 64-bit version as well

Click “Wine versions (amd64) Tab
Select 3.15
Repeat steps

Wine 3.15 32-bit and 64-bit are installed and you can close this window

PlayOnLinux Setup
Launch PlayOnLinux

Click Install

Click “Install a non-listed program”

Select “Install a program in a new virtual drive”

Click Next

Name the virtual drive: darksiders2

Click Next

Check all three options:

• Use another version of Wine
• Configure Wine
• Install some libraries

Click Next

Select Wine 3.15

Click Next

Note: We will download Wine 3.14 staging in a later step
Select “64 bits windows installation”

Click Next

Wine ConfigurationApplications Tab
windows version: Windows 7

Click Apply

Libraries Tab
Enter the following libraries:

• d3d10
• d3d10_1
• d3d10core
• d3d11
• dxgi
• xaudio2_7

Click Edit on each one and select “native (Windows)
Click Apply

Graphics Tab
Check “Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows”

Click OK

PlayOnLinux Packages (DLLs, Libraries, components)

Check the following:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dcompiler_43
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_d3dx10
• POL_Install_d3dx11
• POL_Install_vcrun2008
• POL_Install_vcrun2010
• POL_Install_vcrun2012

Click Next

Note: All packages should automatically download and install
Click Browse

Select “setup_darksiders2_deathinitive_2.0.1.3.exe”

Click Open

Click Next again…

Click OK

Click Options

Uncheck “Create desktop icon”
Check “Yes, I have read and accept EULA”
Click Install

Click OK on all errors

Click Exit

PlayOnLinux Shortcut
Select “Darksiders2.exe”

Click Next

Name the shortcut: Darksiders II

Click Next

Select “I don’t want to make another shortcut”

Click Next

Go to: https://lutris.net/files/runners/

Download wine-staging-3.14-x86_64.tar.gz
Save to your Desktop

Extract to the PlayOnLinux linux-amd64 folder

full path:

Code:

/home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wine/linux-amd64
Click Extract

DXVK Libraries
Go to: https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases

Download version 0.72
Save to your Desktop

Open the dxbk-0.72/x64 folder

Copy all the files

Paste into the Darksiders II Dethainitive Edition Folder

Full Path:

Code:

/home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/darksiders2/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/GOG Games/Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition/

Here is the Full DXVK Guide in PlayOnLinux

PlayOnLinux Configure
Select “Darksiders II”

Click Configure

General Tab
Click the down-arrow to select Wine 3.14 staging

Display Tab
Video memory size: Enter the amount of memory your video card/chip uses

Close Configure

Launch Darksiders II
Select Darksiders II

Click Run

Note: Click debug to see errors and bugsOptimization
Click Options

Click Video icon

Adjust:

• Vertical Sync
• Gamma
• Video Resolution
• Fullscreen
• Ambient Occlusion
• Shadow Quality
• Anti-Aliasing = Off

Note: Turn off Anti-Aliasing to reduce graphical artifactsConclusion:
Darksiders II runs much better with DXVK implemented. There are still some graphical flickering in the sky, but its not a “game breaker”. I was able to play on my GeForce GTX 1060 with great frame rates and no other noticable issues. Previously when I played Darksiders a few years ago, I played through the entire game with a few annoying graphical bugs. But those are now gone and it runs beautifully.

Gameplay Video:

Screenshots:

Source