Left 4 Dead 2

What works

Test results from game version 2.0.0.7 with Stryder's patch, Wine version 1.1.36. Single player and multiplayer works (multiplayer only on 'patched' servers). Single player works quite well with NoSRGB-patch (please see main thread discussion for patch).

Frames per second

Tested on c1m1_hotel roof spawn (first map after starting game without doing anything). Console setting "cl_showfps 2" will show calculated average FPS over time. Results will depend what AI bots will do, therefore if you're trying to compare results please stand idle for moment. Flashlight is turned OFF.

• wine-1.1.34 with sRGB-patch: about 29-33 FPS
• wine-1.1.36 without sRGB-patch: 7-12 FPS
• wine-1.1.36 with sRGB-patch: about 30-37 FPS
• wine-1.1.36 without sRGB-patch, all settings low: 11-12 FPS
• wine-1.1.36 with sRGB-patch, all settings low: 35-40 FPS

No idea about performance on Windows system. I imagine it could be significantly higher.

 

Game settings for framerate test

Resolution: 1280x1024 (aspect ratio 4:3)
Film Grain Amount: off
Anti-aliasing Mode: None
Filtering Mode: Trilinear
V-Sync: Disabled
Multicore Rendering: Enabled
Shader Detail: Very High
Effect Detail: Low
Model / Texture Detail: Medium
Paged Pool Memory Available: High

Tested on AMD 4200+ x2, 3GB, NVidia 8800 GT 512MB, NVidia official driver 190.53.

What does not

Problems

• You need to install ie6 with winetricks to get multiplayer server Message of the Day work (please see L4D installing instructions, they mostly apply also to L4D2).
• Multiplayer server MOTD _may_ crash the game (not always).
• You get _really_ low framerates without NoSRGB-patch.
• Transparent water slows down game a lot (game campaign The Parish, first map). Please see notes about NoSRGB-patch.
• Random crashes (rare).
• Microphone. Not tested in-game. Tried with Options > 'Test Microphone', it sounds very choppy, parts of voice are cutted off.

 

Problems related to NoSRGB-patch

Unfortunately there not much point to try playing without NoSRGB-patch as you get abysmal frames per second, it's mostly slideshow. Here is list of problems which seems to be caused by NoSRGB-patch.

• NoSRGB-patch breaks transparent water, making it black opaque surface. However, on positive side this does not slow down your framerate.
• NoSRGB-patch does 'black holes' on floor on low video settings and on higher video settings there are black wall/model textures. Change your game video settings to remove them. Easy way to do this is to change Model/Texture Detail level from advanced game options. Note that Single Player-mode works well and does not need this.
• Using other than Very High Shader Level may cause problems. Mostly black graphics after loading map (usually after level change when playing multiplayer). Also it's possible that you can't see fonts or main menu properly.

 

Workarounds

What was not tested

• Original Steam installer

 

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU:
• Driver:

Additional Comments

I have also tested game version 2.0.0.8 (both Stryder's patch and Revolution Emulator will work with Wine), but there are problems in multiplayer, certain things are causing bad choppiness (e.g. applying medikit on player). Windows-players claim it works smoothly, but I'm not sure if it's Wine related at all. Therefore I do not create test report for 2.0.0.8 yet.