Bioshock

What works

Tested in a 32-bit WINEPREFIX, Windows 7 compatibility:

• DVD Installer does not work - as the online autopatcher URI has moved. This can be worked around (see Workarounds section) - without using a crack/no-CD patch.
  Note: this issue also affects all MS Windows versions.

• Update to version 1.1 (via Bioshock Version 1.1 Patch Worldwide Retail patcher)
• Online SecuROM DVD key key activation (with Bioshock DVD mounted) - no crack required!
• Launching the game
• DirectX D3D10 + global lighting (full graphical settings)
• Intro and in-game videos
• Changing graphical options
• Rebind keys - using in-game menu
• Sound for menus, videos and in-game
• Menu - credits
• Load and save games / continue from previous save points
• Good FPS @1920x1080p (native resolution)

What does not

• Some graphical glitching with water effects (at start of game) - but does not lead to a game crash.
• Game always crashes after exiting (not at all critical)

Workarounds

Installer failing - due to inability to download patch archive

Note: this workaround is also required for MS Windows.

See: Solved: BioShock retail cannot connect to download server

Setup a local Linux webserver with the filesystem:

/bioshock/installer

where installer is a file - a renamed copy of bioshock_patch.gz . Direct download URI: bioshock_patch.gz

Redirect the URL: www.2kgames.com ; to this local running webserver.

This will fix the installer failing - due the changed online location of the patch archive!

What was not tested

Extended gameplay

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU: Nvidia
• Driver: proprietary

Additional Comments

System Software

uname -orm
5.19.4-gentoo-x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

equery -C list -F'=$cpv:$slot' sys-devel/gcc media-libs/mesa x11-base/xorg-server x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers app-emulation/wine-staging
=sys-devel/gcc-12.2.0:12 =media-libs/mesa-22.1.7:0 =x11-base/xorg-server-21.1.4:0/21.1.4 =x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-515.65.01:0/515 =app-emulation/wine-staging-9999:9999

System Hardware

                          system         G751JT (ASUS-NotebookSKU)
/0/0                      memory         64KiB BIOS
/0/8                      processor      Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4710HQ CPU @ 2.50GHz
/0/8/9                    memory         1MiB L2 cache
/0/8/a                    memory         256KiB L1 cache
/0/8/b                    memory         6MiB L3 cache
/0/c                      memory         32GiB System Memory
/0/c/0                    memory         SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1600 MHz (0.6 ns) [empty]
/0/c/1                    memory         SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1600 MHz (0.6 ns) [empty]
/0/c/2                    memory         SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1600 MHz (0.6 ns) [empty]
/0/c/3                    memory         SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1600 MHz (0.6 ns) [empty]
/0/100/1/0                display        GM204M [GeForce GTX 970M]
/0/100/1/0.1    card1     multimedia     GM204 High Definition Audio Controller
/0/100/14/0/7   input16   multimedia     USB2.0 HD UVC WebCam: USB2.0 HD
/0/100/1b       card0     multimedia     8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller
/0/100/1c.2/0   wlan0     network        Wireless 7260
/0/100/1c.3/0   p3p1      network        RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
/0/100/1f/0               system         System Board
/0/100/1f/1               system         Motherboard registers
/0/100/1f/2               system         AT Real-Time Clock
/0/100/1f/3               generic        PnP device INT3f0d
/0/100/1f/4               system         Motherboard registers
/0/100/1f/5               system         Motherboard registers
/0/100/1f/6               generic        PnP device ETD010d
/0/100/1f/7               generic        PnP device ATK3001
/0/100/1f/8               system         Motherboard registers
/0/100/1f/9               system         Motherboard registers
/1              /dev/fb0  display        EFI VGA

These notes were last updated: 14 May 2018

Follow these guidelines to avoid embarrassment when your Test Submission is immediately rejected!!

• Put your PC specifications in the Extra Comments section e.g. like your CPU and system memory.¹
• When adding test results please specify video card and driver version you are using.²
• It's also useful to mention what desktop environment you are using (e.g. KDE, Gnome, Xfce, Unity...)
• Specify what version of the Windows compatibility option you use in your Wineprefix (e.g. Windows XP, Windows 7, etc.).
• Add a comment about what is not working for you.
• Specify if you made any other changes to Bioshock e.g. installing a game "Mod", an .exe patch or details of any other modifications you made to the stock configuration files for the game.
• Please indicate if your using Wine Staging and/or any additional patches applied - to the version of Wine you are using.
• Please, don't submit test results like "Everything is working" or "Everything isn't working".

These guidelines ensure your submitted test results are actually relevant to other users of Wine and WineHQ.

¹ The console version of the lshw utility is your friend. This command will dump your System hardware specification in a clean format. Post command and output in the Extra Comments section:

sudo lshw -short | egrep -v '(volume|disk|bus)'

² inxi can be used to display information about your graphics card, and your OpenGL/ graphics driver versions. Post the command and output in the Extra Comments section:

inxi -G -c0

1. Install Wine
2. Configure Wine
3. Setup your environment variables:

   export WINEPREFIX=" ❚❚❚❚❚❚ "
   WINEARCH=win32 wineboot -u
   winetricks sandbox

4. Check your DVD-ROM drive is mounted and mapped using:

   winecfg

5. Launch the setup:

   wine "D:\setup.exe"

   (Replace D: with whatever drive letter you have your DVD mapped to in winecfg)
   Uncheck: ☐ install Nvidia Drivers

The default installation folder is:

C:\Program Files\2K Games\BioShock

1. Download the appropriate patch (for your region) from: Bioshock Updater Download URL

2. Install downloaded retail patch, e.g.:

   export WINEPREFIX=" ❚❚❚❚❚❚ "
   cd "${WINEPREFIX}/drive_c"
   unzip ~/Downloads/Bioshock_Version_11_Patch_Worldwide_Retail.zip
   wine start 'Bioshock Version 1.1 Patch Worldwide Retail.exe'

Mouse axes confined to 360° zones

There is still a bug present with Wine that causes you mouse to lock in a fixed 360° arc whilst playing Bioshock. This issue always manifests when you play Bioshock in a Wine Virtual Desktop arrangement. It will manifest occasionally when playing Bioshock in standard Wine arrangement (i.e. non-Virtual Desktop). The symptom is that you are unable to spin you character round on the spot (it will become locked at a fixed angle) or be unable to view your characters feet.

The only work around for  this issue is to enable the mouse warping override:

wine reg.exe ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\DirectInput" "/v" "MouseWarpOverride" "/t" "REG_SZ" "/d" "force"

DirectX 10.x Support

As of Wine version 1.7.53(+) there are tests enabled to see if your graphics hardware supports DirectX 10.x... Unfortunately a significant amount of the DirectX 10.x support has still to be implemented in Wine. The symptom for this issue is that Wine will crash immediately after you launch Bioshock.

The workaround is to disable support for the DirectX Graphics Infrastructure (DXGI) in Wine:

wine reg.exe ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\DllOverrides" "/v" "dxgi" "/t" "REG_SZ" "/d" ""

Changing Game Resolution

In game changing screen resolution can be a bit erratic. The symptom of this is that you change the screen resolution in the game menus and you end up with a "windowed version" of the game running (i.e. smaller than your full monitor real estate). This problem especially manifests when using Linux proprietary graphics drivers.

Option 1 : set game resolution manually before launching

To set the default Bioshock game resolution manually, from a terminal... Run this terminal command (changing first: Xres & Yres - as required):

export Xres=1920
export Yres=1080
sed -i -e '/^\(Fullscreen\|Menu\|Windowed\)Viewport\(X\|Y\)=/{s/X=.*$/X='"${Xres}"'/;s/Y=.*$/Y='"${Yres}"'/}' \
"$( find "${WINEPREFIX:-${HOME}/.wine}/drive_c" -type f -iname "Default.ini" )"

NB: this command won't work if you're using a separate Steam Library directory (external to your WINEPREFIX) to install Bioshock to!

Option 2 : set game resolution in-game

A rather hacky in-game workaround for this issue is to switch Bioshock to windowed mode and then back to full screen mode:

• Select Windowed Mode ON and your desired Resolution...

• Then set Windowed Mode OFF...

Audio Garbled or No Audio when using PulseAudio

If you find that your in game audio is garbled or non-existent it may be advisable to try Wine with pulseaudio support. Any supported version of Wine will provide the necessary audio driver support - if the pulseaudio flag was enabled at build time.