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Original Poster
#1 Old 26th Mar 2015 at 6:59 PM
Default Can Sims 3 run on Linux?
Either under wine or C# via mono? I heard rumors about this. If true, I can ditch Windows since all I use it for is Sims 3 and Windows is always honking itself up. (Looking for my Windows disk right now)

Origin installs under Wine, but fails when I try to run it because it does an update.

What's funny is I can run Sim Ant under Linux Wine but not Windows 7.
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Top Secret Researcher
#2 Old 28th Mar 2015 at 7:56 PM
That is such an interesting question that I think I'd better try it!

It will entail opening some cases & swapping some disks around, though.
Right now I have one, count 'em, one machine fast enough for Sims, and it runs Windows 7.
This is not a coincidence: Windows needs a fast machine.

Linux will run just great on an old cast-off laptop, so that's my Linux machine.
But that laptop never could run Sims very well, even back in its day.

So your question #1 is whether the game can be gotten to come up & run at all, right?

(If we can get "yes" to that question, then the next one will be: how well?
My guess would be that even if it's adequately stable, it will be slow, because a few more layers of system call emulation and translation have been added to the admittedly-already-huge pile of stuff that Windows always brings to the situation.
But I could be wrong -- if the graphics card is where the performance is mainly determined, and if the game can see the capabilities of the graphics card well enough to use them & not resort to software emulation, then we'd be set pretty nicely.)
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Original Poster
#3 Old 30th Mar 2015 at 1:20 AM
Been doing research on this since I posted.

There is a Linux Software package that claims it can run Sims 3 called "PlayOnLinux". It is actually a front end for WINE (WINdows Emulator).

My problem is, I have bought all my Sims Software on ORIGIN, along with considerable downloadable content which requires Origin's Sims 3 launcher to install. The PlayOnLinux people say it won't load Origin and don't support Origin.

My options are:
1) Buy yet ANOTHER Windows 7 disk (dang it!) flatten the windows partition, reinstall windows, and re-install the GRUB bootloader.
2) Get Origin to run under Linux. Some say it can be done, under Ubuntu. HA! I tried, following each and every step, and failed.
3) Buy all the expansion packs and stuff packs I'm using now, and write off the DLC I bought.
Scholar
#4 Old 9th Apr 2015 at 1:32 AM
I personally use Linux Mint, and TS3 and all of its EPs (along with TS4) work perfectly on PlayOnLinux, so I can definitely vouch for that. As for your Origin issue, you could circumvent Origin to install your games on Linux, if you mess with the registry, but I'm not sure how confident with that you are - you could, in theory, install your Origin versions on Windows (pretty sure you could even use the free RC of Windows 10 that Microsoft are offering right now to do this part, so you don't need to buy a Windows disk), extract the relevant registry entries, boot into Linux, copy over the installed files and folders and then import the registry entries into the Wine system. You don't even really need PlayOnLinux if you install this way, since all it does is install the program normally after setting up a separate little Wine system that includes all the needed extras to ensure the game runs smoothly - if you look online you can find the dependencies TS3 needs to run under Wine. It honestly sounds more complicated than it actually is, it's pretty easy in practice. The only thing I'll ask is if your PC has Nvidia Optimus technology on it - if that's the case, running games in Linux is a little more complex, because you'll have both an Intel integrated graphics processor and a dedicated Nvidia GPU that Linux has trouble telling apart without a couple of extra packages. Bon chance!

Quote:
Originally Posted by jje1000
If this succeeds, then we will have driven a stake through the metaphorical heart of pudding.

♥ Receptacle Refugee ♥
Now also on Tumblr !
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Original Poster
#5 Old 9th Apr 2015 at 9:18 AM
That does sound complicated.

I've tried and failed to install Origin using POL. Some folks claim to have it running. I can't seem to identify all the dependencies that are missing.

I use Linux mint too. I heard it works under Obuntu. No, it didn't, not for me.
Scholar
#6 Old 9th Apr 2015 at 1:04 PM Last edited by Qahne : 9th Apr 2015 at 1:15 PM.
Hmm, I can walk you through it a little more in-depth if you want - I assume all Linux users are semi-advanced, since Linux does generally require more tech-savvy than Windows does. Since you don't have Optimus in your PC, it really isn't that hard at all. I will caution you, there is a bit of a legal grey area in that you cannot run the game with your ts3.exe and tslhost.dll unpatched with a disc-based installation, not sure how Origin handles it, but it might be necessary - not sure how bad this is, since you have bought the game legitimately, but MTS doesn't like piratey talk so be careful when discussing this step here.

Download the Windows 10 Technical Preview from the Microsoft website and make the image into a live USB - WinUSB is a nice tool (http://askubuntu.com/questions/4895...on-ubuntu-14-04 [Linux Mint is just Ubuntu with a few different features, any guide that works for Ubuntu will work for Mint too]), and I think Microsoft themselves have a tool for doing this for Windows 10. It's very simple, just have an empty USB drive ready for it. Boot it up on your PC and install it in a ~60 GB partition (complete TS3 game is 35 GB if I recall correctly), then download and install Origin. Install TS3 from your library, and grab a cup of coffee! When it's done go to regedit and navigate yourself to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW64NODE\Sims\, export all the keys in that node.

Now, do this: http://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gamin...ims_3_on_linux/ This is a great guide with a list of dependencies and everything. Do everything here except installing the game. For that part, just copy over your installed game files from your Windows partition, and then open the Wine registry editor and import your keys. Then install patched versions of your ts3.exe and tslhost.dll and everything should work fine!

Edit: You could try installing Origin through PlayOnLinux, some people say it works - "To be honest, I'm not sure. I know that Origin hasn't played nice with wine for a long time; I managed to finally get it installed yesterday. I wish I had an answer for you, but the Origin version is programmed a little differently from the DVD version, which makes it more difficult. I used the x86 1.5.28-Origin wine through PlayOnLinux, so you might want to try that to see how far you get. (Depending how it installs, you might be able to change to a different version of wine once the game is on your computer.)". Go here (https://www.playonlinux.com/wine/binaries/linux-x86/) and download the version I quoted - It's called "PlayOnLinux-wine-1.5.28-Origin-linux-x86.pol", and what it is is a pre-configured Wine install made and tested to work with one specific piece of software - namely, Origin. Install PlayOnLinux, then do everything you normally would to make a new Wine prefix in there. Then just extract the file you downloaded and put the contents where your Wine prefix is, backing up the prefix. It should work, and you should be able to install TS3 using Origin without any of the complicated stuff I spent twenty minutes looking up and typing out

Quote:
Originally Posted by jje1000
If this succeeds, then we will have driven a stake through the metaphorical heart of pudding.

♥ Receptacle Refugee ♥
Now also on Tumblr !
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Original Poster
#7 Old 8th May 2015 at 7:06 AM
I did get Origin to work on Linux Mint via Play on Linux! Sims 3 downloaded very slowly... and it seemed to install, but I couldn't run it.

So, I foolishly deleted it and started over. I think it was because I started with my original Sims 3 disk (I later installed Sims 3 from Origin).

I really appreciate the effort to give me all this wonderful information. You've given me new hope that I can get this to work. I'll give it a try as soon as I get back to where I have some bandwidth....
Instructor
#8 Old 8th Dec 2015 at 10:54 PM Last edited by Digitalchaos : 8th Dec 2015 at 11:15 PM.
FYI: I am running Debian Linux 8 (jessie)
Debian is the upstream distro that Ubuntu is based on, if you did not know

To answer the original question:
Can Sims 3 run on Linux? Yes!!!
Is it easy to setup? .....umm.... technically yes

I can play The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on linux using wine and it has very good performance.
Skryim is a much more demanding game and since it is able to run (sims 2/3/4 should perform even better than Skyrim).

However, I would not recommend using POL (PlayOnLinux) -- it is not supported by the wine developers -- and it often uses outdated/unnecessary workarounds that impacts stability and performance.

What you should do is to install the wine32 (x86/i386)package available through you linux distribution.
You would need to create a wine prefix:
wine wineboot
-or-
wine winecfg

To install a game (or anything) (where setup.exe is the filename and extension to run)
wine setup.exe

PS: make sure to install a 32-bit wine version (or you won't be able to run any 32-bit applications, the wine x86/x64 registries are incompatible and stored in separate wineprefixes)

-- I have way more info on how to technically improve wine under linux (as well as linux, in general), but I don't want to hijack this thread with a bunch of technical jargon.

PPS: I have not tested Origin purchased games (only those that came with DVD media)

Also, Skyrim runs using the Steam client for windows -- no issue running steam under wine.
There is a native steam client for linux (but for Skyrim -- it needed the windows client)

All TS2 Downloads Link
All TS3 Downloads: Link
All Other downloads: Link
Skyrim SKSE 1.6.x gamepad key support: Link
 
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