I’ve got a game that’s built using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), but I’m struggling to launch it on my Arch Linux setup. I’ve attempted running it through both regular Wine and every available Proton version from Steam, yet the game doesn’t display anything and no error messages pop up either. I’ve done some searching online, but most of what I found pertains to compiling WPF games for Linux, not executing an already compiled game. Any suggestions on how to get this game running?
3 Answers
I have a hunch that the game you’re trying to run might have been programmed using the XNA Framework. Some users have managed to get it working with Wine and Mono, but you have to ask yourself if it’s worth the hassle to get it functional.
First off, what game are you trying to run? It might help to check out ProtonDB or WineDB for info specific to that title. WPF apps don’t run as smoothly in Wine compared to games using DirectX or Vulkan. They often need .NET redistributables, which might not be installed by default when you set up your Wine environment. I’d recommend using the Bottles app, particularly creating an ‘Office’ bottle, since it comes pre-equipped with .NET and simplifies dependency management. You might need to do some digging to see which specific dependencies your game requires; running the installer can help you spot what gets installed, and then you can mimic that setup through Bottles’ dependency manager. If it launches but looks off, you may have to tweak some fonts and desktop settings to get proper rendering. Keep in mind that WPF GUIs can have several quirks on Wine, and you might end up needing to report bugs if something doesn’t work right.
I tried loading as many of the .NET and VC Redistributable dependencies as I could, but I still hit an error saying “System.Private.CoreLib.dll” failed to load. Any tips?
Honestly, it seems like you can’t run it on Linux at all. If you’re dead set on playing it, maybe dual-booting into Windows is an option?
How do you create an ‘Office’ bottle? Are you talking about installing Office 2016, or something else? I can’t find anything related to that in the dependencies settings.