The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

What works

Everything works for Vanilla Skyrim. I'm running the Legendary Edition with the DLCs, version 1.9.32.0.8 from a 2-disc DVD set (which I made into .ISOs and keep on an external USB device with some "essentials" like DirectX, some VCREDISTs and a custom installer script).

I have installed many MODs both manually, and by using third party mod managers such as the original Nexus Mod Manager, MO: Mod Organizer, and NMM's successor, Vortex, though I have had the best results under WINE with MO as Vortex is heavily dependent upon the .NET framework.

Without mods, Skyrim: LE works great right out of the gate after my installer script completes.

Through much trial and error, I created the following BASH script to automate the creation of a WINE bottle, and install the "essentials," Skyrim and the DLCs from the .ISOs I made. It creates the prefix and makes use of certain WINETRICKS verbs and pre-saved tools/utilities before finally running the the Skyrim Installer.

#!/bin/bash
#
# This script assumes you've extracted the .ISOs and are running the installer from the
# same foder you've extracted the .ISOs into, or have merged both .ISOs into one, that
# the "Essentials" folder contains the referenced software, and that you've installed the
# newest version of WINETRICKS - or at least one that utilizes the "vcrun6sp6" verb.
echo ""
echo "Skyrim Legendary Edition Multi-DVD Installer / Reinstaller Script by LinuxSupahFly"
echo "Free to use and modify to suit your requirements"
echo ""
if [ -z $1 ]; then
  PREFIX="$HOME/skyrim_wine64"
  echo "No location specified. Location set to $PREFIX by default."
elif [ ! -z $1 ]; then
  PREFIX=$1
  echo "Location specified on start-up. Using $PREFIX"
fi
if [ -d "$PREFIX" ]; then
  echo "$PREFIX already exists. Using existing prefix."
else
  echo "$PREFIX does not exist. Creating 64-bit prefix."
  WINEPREFIX=$PREFIX WINEARCH="win64" winecfg
fi
echo "Installing to: $PREFIX, starting with the Essentials..."
echo ""
WINEPREFIX=$PREFIX winetricks winver=win7
WINEPREFIX=$PREFIX winetricks vcrun6sp6
WINEPREFIX=$PREFIX wine64 msiexec /i ./wine-mono-4.9.4.msi
WINEPREFIX=$PREFIX wine64 msiexec /i ./msxml6_x64.msi
WINEPREFIX=$PREFIX wine64 VC2019redist_x64.exe
WINEPREFIX=$PREFIX wine64 DXSETUP.exe
cd ..
echo ""
echo "Installing Disc 1..."
echo ""
WINEPREFIX=$PREFIX wine64 Skyrim_setup.exe
echo ""
echo "Installing Disc 2..."
echo ""
WINEPREFIX=$PREFIX wine64 DLC_setup.exe
echo ""

What does not

Workarounds

What was not tested

Since the February 2012 launch of the Creation Kit tool set and the Steam Workshop hub, over 10,000 mods have been made and shared by players, so ... No mods got tested because - let's face it - that would just be FAR too time consuming.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU: Nvidia
• Driver: proprietary

Additional Comments

Install notes:

• 64 bit WINE Prefix created because most current mod managers (looking at you, Vortex), won't run in a 32 bit prefix, even though Skyrim itself will
• I prefer to use wine-mono-4.9.4 rather than Dot Net, and though the Skyrim Installer will work with either, some mod managers may fail on Mono
• You will need msxml6 or the installer fails
• DX9, MSXML6, and VCREDIST can be installed from Winetricks if you don't already have the stand-alone installers. Winetricks installs the 32 bit versions while my script runs the stand-alone installers for 64 bit to reduce potential compatibility issues.

Test System:

CPU: Intel QuadCore i5-2320 CPU @ 3.00GHz
RAM: Patriot Signature 32 GB DDR3
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 8GB

OS: Linux Mint 19.3 x64
Desktop: Cinnamon 4.4.8
Kernel: 5.3.0-62-generic x86_64

• Go to your home folder and open "Documents"->"My Games"->"Skyrim"

• Open the "SkyrimPrefs.ini" file.

• Find the lines where you see "bFull Screen", "iSize H" and "iSize W"
  and change their values to your desired resolution.

This method is experimental presently(see associated bugs), so try at your own behest.

1. Install enb same way as in windows to game directory
2. Open `winecfg` and under libraries add "d3d9" and set it to "Native then builtin".
3. To set basic enb environment, run `winetricks --showbroken d3dcompiler_43`
4. Additional dll requirements change depending on the preset used, `winetricks d3dx9_43 d3dx9_36` should work fine for most presets.
   
5. Experiment with more dlls to get your preset working but avoid installing directx9, d3dx9_42 and d3d9 as they would do more harm then good.

Game getting stuck at load screen (Vivid Weathers ENB)

• This is caused by enbeffect.fx and enbeffect.fx.ini files, I replaced these with the one from Tetrachromatic ENB Ghost Preset to make it work.

Game getting stuck after/during load screen, ingame music keeps running(Multiple ENB Presets)

• Set `FixParallaxTerrain=false` in enblocal.ini

There is a black overlay over characters and objects(Tetrachromatic ENB Ghost Preset)

• This is a issue in subsurface scattering, set`EnableSubSurfaceScattering=false` in enbseries.ini to solve this. 
• Surprisingly, enabling ambient occlusion also corrects this, only set `EnableAmbientOcclusion=true` in enbseries.ini to have both ambient occlusion ans subsurface scattering working without issues.

Everything is black with only hud visible

• Set `FixTintGamma=false` in enblocal.ini

Audio

To fix crackling and choppy sound with Pulseaudio:

Possible fix 0:
run in some terminal:
while true; do pasuspender sleep 0.02; sleep 60; done
This finally prevents buffer underruns and the sound is perfect then.

Possible fix 1:
Make sure your realtime kit (rt-kit) is installed and functional so it can assign pulseaudio realtime priority. The kernel config CONFIG_RT_GROUP_SCHED needs to be off for this (see here).

Possible fix 2:
Setting SndQueueMax to 15 (default is 10), see here:
wiki.winehq.org/UsefulRegistryKeys

Possible fix 3:
Launch wine with an environment variable set:
PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=50 wine steam.exe

Underwater view

If you cannot see underwater (water is solid green):
Edit SkyrimPrefs.ini in your 'My Games\Skyrim' directory and in the [Imagespace] section set bDoDepthOfField=0 and iRadialBlurLevel=0

This is a game bug, not a Wine issue!

Stuck at main screen

Some mods change the fonts in Skyrim and sometimes that ends in wine not showing up the menu of Skyrim. Simple fix is to remove fontconfig.txt in Data/Interface.

Remember, this is a Bethesda game, a few bugs happen for Windows users too, so blaming wine might not be justified. Please leave comments and bug reports, especially if things that used to work suddenly break.