Diablo 2 Resurrected on Linux (Easy)

Hello all. Here is some info about one way of running Diablo 2: Resurrected on Linux, with links to further info. In short: if you are already comfortable in Linux, D2R can run via Lutris, and installing everything from start to finish (including Lutris) is basically a relatively straightforward and quick set of steps, one of which has to be done carefully but ultimately it just works. If you're not familiar with Linux, well the Linux frontend has gotten a lot more polished in recent years -- highly recommend that you try it out, especially if you have an older computer laying around that you want to

Revive -- some Linux distros are hyper efficient and the OS and main apps run well on hardware that is completely bogged down by the monopoly bloatware that is Windows.


WARNING: Blizzard does not officially support running Diablo 2: Resurrected on Linux. It’s possible that they could start disallowing this somehow, or even banning people that are doing it. However, the entire software world has become much more friendly with Linux in recent years. And, Windows 10 is now freeware, so MS has less incentive to care about people running Windows applications on other OS. There is no “hacking” required for this to work.



Earlier this year I ditched my Windows laptop, marking the end of my lifelong habit of running OSX and/or Windows. I'd dabbled in Linux on and off since college, starting with Mint which is great. Then I started using Linux for work, and it just started to feel more natural than the alternatives. So I got a pure Linux machine. I'm running a popular distro that is based on Ubuntu.

Wine is a set of libraries written in C and compiled for Linux, but with the same names as core Windows OS libraries (.dll files). But these are special .dll files in that they actually intercept Windows OS calls and redirect them to analogous Linux Kernel calls. In this way, Wine can run many Windows applications, in a way that is very close to native. There's no emulator, no virtualization, no containerization, so it's about as close to the metal that I could imagine for what it does. Wine is an amazing project with a long history.

But Wine is VERY hard to configure until you have spent a lot of time running into its idiosyncrasies -- its GUI is not intuitive. So, Lutris is a modern GUI that just configures and runs Wine for you in targeted ways -- for the sole purpose of running Windows games. It has a community of volunteers that write "Lutris scripts" that allow everyone to run a particular game. When a new game comes out, it sometimes takes a few days or weeks for someone to write and distribute the new script.

In the case of D2R, there is no wait because Lutris already runs Battle.Net, and runs it well. So Lutris runs bnet, and bnet installs the game into Wine. I played the open beta just fine.

Install Lutris (sudo apt install lutris if your distro uses dpkg), then search battlenet in Lutris, and the bnet installer will come up. Install bnet this way and launch it to ensure it runs, then close it.


NOTE: check the date of this post, the following steps will become stale/obsolete at some point, as this workflow inevitably improves and becomes more automated and plug-and-play later on.

Follow the steps in this GitHub comment which covers installing D2R from within bnet, then replacing two files (manually apply a patch). NOTE: The part at the end about RADV_DEBUG=nohiz only applies if your GPU is AMD. If you have Nvidia, you don't need to do that step. In very recent years, Nvidia started playing very nicely with Linux

You will need a GitHub account to download the .zip file referenced in the comment linked below.

Wine patch for D2R (as of Aug 2021)


Good luck!


p.s. See @klh 's post below from 9/24, about newest version running fine out of the box in Arch.

I think you should add a disclaimer that it's not officially supported. While I don't think Blizzard ever banned anyone for playing on Linux, other companies did.

Also, on Arch and derivatives it's:
$ sudo pacman -S lutris

and on Fedora:
$ sudo dnf install lutris

Debian needs repositories, explained here.

Thanks for making this moonlit, I think this will be really useful for Diablo 2 Resurrected linux players everywhere!

@moonlit btw how was performance on Linux during the beta?

@klh thanks for that additional info. I have middle of the road general specs (10th gen i5 CPU, 16 GB RAM, NVMe drive). The weird thing about my setup is I’m using an external GPU that connects to my box via Thunderbolt 3. I have a Nvidia 1660 Super in the eGPU enclosure. This is not a top tier GPU by any means, but it has decent specs including Memory, and I suspect D2R is a bit of a GPU Memory hog due to the sheer number of textures and shaders that can be seen at one time during normal play. Plus, the thunderbolt connection is inherently not as good as direct connection like a typical desktop GPU. Still, I was able to keep above about 40fps on high settings with this rig. I’m confident the GPU is the bottleneck (not Wine). If Blizzard can optimize their graphics a bit (as they have been known to do) that would be even better.

Ok, I was sure 1660 super is better than my 1080, but looks like it's the other way around

Makes sense then, on Windows I was able to run a steady 60FPS on high @ 1080p and with some tweaks 4k ran and looked smooth too. Looks like there should be no issues on Linux, perfect!

Unfortunately, the Black screen still persists for me even after applying the patched files.

I have also tried to use this guide, but same results:
https://medium.com/@frankbaier/linux-ho ... 830523f378

Not sure what the problem is, but if anyone has any ideas please let me know.
I am using an Nvidia GTX 770, drivers 470.63.01 on Manjaro.

I am hoping there is actually a real issue, and other people will run into it, and another fix/patch will be made.

Newest versions of lutris (on Arch 0.5.8.4-1) work out of the box, didn't need to change anything.

klh wrote: 3 years ago

Newest versions of lutris (on Arch 0.5.8.4-1) work out of the box, didn't need to change anything.

Thank you for reporting that!

klh wrote: 3 years ago

Newest versions of lutris (on Arch 0.5.8.4-1) work out of the box, didn't need to change anything.

I'm no expert, but I'm not sure if the version of Lutris is relevant. I think it would more be the version of vk3d/wine/something else, unless those are somehow packaged with Lutris. Not sure how all that is setup.

But since you are on Arch, you could have other packages that are fairly new, so perhaps those will come to Manjaro soon.
Maybe I will try again after the next major Manjaro update.

Edit:
People online are saying DXVK v1.9.2L just works in Lutris like you said, so I will try that.

Edit2:
I still get the Black screen when using DXVK 1.9.2 in Lutris. So again, I am hoping that there is some additional problem that must be resolved.

@HeftyStyle try this solution, it helped me get rid of the Black screen issue

https://github.com/HansKristian-Work/vk ... -927190182

Hi, thanks a lot for this post, it helped me getting the game running on my Pop os installation with lutris.

I have a further question tho: in the lobby my character and all other avatars at the bottom are invisible.. it looks a graphical glitch (also on my wife's windows laptop they show up just fine), does anyone knows how to fix it?

Thanks a lot

Try forcing it to run in window if you get Black screen. I have it working flawlessly in full teen. Using Garuda Linux, with all latest updates. However during beta I had to run it in windowed to not get just Black screen with sound.

I am sad I did not find this topic earlier. I ended up with dual boot insted

I did this today, with Ubuntu 21.04 and an Nvidia graphics set up. Worked without issues, and without disturbing my D2 LOD install on the same machine. Thank you.

rafauke wrote: 3 years ago

@HeftyStyle try this solution, it helped me get rid of the Black screen issue

https://github.com/HansKristian-Work/vk ... -927190182

So you are saying you just ran this?
sudo nvidia-modprobe -u -c=0

When did you run that? Before opening the Battle.Net client? Or after opening that, and before opening D2R?

I tried running that command and no change. I still get a Black screen.

I have tried running in windowed mode by adding the "-w" to command line game params, and still get Black screen.

I seem to be in the same state as this guy:
https://github.com/HansKristian-Work/vk ... -932950416

I have a GTX 770, and have tried the patch, various wine versions, newest DXVK 1.9.2L, and always Black screen, but no crashes.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

@HeftyStyle did you find a solution? I am exactly where you are in this. -w didnt work either. I can hear the game and see the mouse (gauntlet) icon and hear and even click some things but I see nothing!

Bought the game on my mac .battlenet and only after buying did it let me know it isnt supported and now trying to run it on ubuntu via my Samsung laptop Nvidia with an i7

TIA!

Zekler wrote: 3 years ago

@HeftyStyle did you find a solution? I am exactly where you are in this. -w didnt work either. I can hear the game and see the mouse (gauntlet) icon and hear and even click some things but I see nothing!

Bought the game on my mac .battlenet and only after buying did it let me know it isnt supported and now trying to run it on ubuntu via my Samsung laptop Nvidia with an i7

TIA!

I know this isn't a solution to running it in Linux, but you can install Windows 10 on a Mac assuming you have one of the Intel Macs and can use Windows 10 for free without activating it (just can't customize it much without activating but it can still run D2R .)

@Creamed Thank you. I knew about this but was hoping not to have to partition the mac. Also, that computer stays at work so i was hoping to have it on my laptop.

@Legoman-STK I've been having the same invisible character models issue since I first installed the game.

I'm currently running the game on lutris-ge-6.16-1 with Manjaro 21.1.6, and haven't encountered any other problems apart from that (except UI glitches in the Bnet app itself)

Did you ever find a way to fix it?