While we cannot guarantee full support for Windower 4 on Linux systems, it does generally work through the magic of Wine and/or Proton, depending on your system.

Basic Requirements

In general, the following requirements apply for compatibility with minimal workarounds:

  • Wine Staging 8.5 or newer (or equivalent)
  • dotnet462, gdiplus, corefonts installed via winetricks
  • DirectX 8 compatibilty layer or shim such as D8VK or dgVoodoo2

Note: The suggested Lutris installation method meets these requirements, but you can certainly install without Lutris as well.

Lutris

Preferred method, Last Updated 2024-01-20

The easiest way to use Windower 4 on Linux is through Lutris. The scripts available in the Lutris database enable a fully functional launcher UI and do not require the use of the linuxfix addon.

Prerequisites

  • Install Lutris on your system.
    Refer to the Lutris documentation for the best way to do this for your system.
  • Configure Lutris to use the most recent version of Wine.
    (Currently Checking…)

Note: Wine versions may be labeled slightly differently within Lutris. For example, Wine-GE-Proton8-25 is equivalent to wine-ge-8-25 in Lutris.

Installing FINAL FANTASY XI

Install Final Fantasy XI with the script that is configured to use D8VK. This installer uses a modern version of Wine and D8VK for better compatibility and performance.

  1. In Lutris, click + and choose Search the Lutris website for installers.
  2. Enter FINAL FANTASY XI Online and press Enter.
  3. Click FINAL FANTASY XI Online in the search results.
  4. Select Full (US) Version with D8VK and click Install.

At this point, you can start Final Fantasy XI from Lutris and update it.

Backup Recommended
We strongly recommend that you back up your game directory after updating to save time if something goes wrong and you need to reinstall. If you plan to configure the gamepad, back up the game directory after doing so.

(Optional) Configuring the Gamepad

By default, gamepad support is not enabled in Final Fantasy XI.

  1. Select the FINAL FANTASY XI Online entry in your Lutris games library.
  2. Click the ^ button and choose Run EXE inside Wine prefix.
  3. Navigate to drive_c/Program Files (x86)/PlayOnline/SquareEnix/FINAL FANTASY XI/ToolsUS/.
  4. Double-click FINAL FANTASY XI Config.exe.
  5. Configure your gamepad as you would on Windows.

You can also enable the gamepad in PlayOnline by repeating the same steps with polcfg.exe under drive_c/Program Files (x86)/PlayOnline/SquareEnix/PlayOnlineViewer/polcfg/.

Installing Windower 4

Install Windower with the script that is compatible with the D8VK installation of Final Fantasy XI.

  1. In Lutris, click + and choose Search the Lutris website for installers.
  2. Enter FINAL FANTASY XI Online and press Enter.
  3. Click FINAL FANTASY XI Online in the search results.
  4. Select Windower 4 Live and click Install.

Post-Installation Tips

Renaming the Lutris Entry

By default, the Lutris entry for Windower 4 keeps the same name as FINAL FANTASY XI itself. To easily distinguish which one is Windower, you can identify its entry and rename it.

  1. Right-click one of the FINAL FANTASY XI Online entries and choose Configure.
  2. In the Game options tab, check whether the path for Executable ends with windower.exe.
    • If the path is for Windower, specify a new Name (e.g. Windower 4) in the Game info tab, and click Save.
    • If the path is for polboot.exe, click Cancel and try a different FINAL FANTASY XI Online entry.

Hiding the FPS Display

By default, the Lutris scripts display FPS using the DXVK HUD. If you don’t want this display, you can disable it in the Lutris system options for Windower.

  1. In Lutris, right-click your Windower 4 entry and choose Configure.
  2. In the System options tab, locate the Environment variables under Game execution.
  3. Highlight the DXVK_HUD key, and click Delete.
  4. Click Save and the FPS display should no longer appear.