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+# Running the client on Linux with Wine
+
+This is an interim path for playing and testing on Linux while a native Linux port is a longer-term goal. Wine runs the unmodified Windows build of `Metin2.exe` / `Metin2_Debug.exe` directly. Verified to reach the character selection screen on Fedora 41 with Wine 10 Staging; other modern distros should work the same.
+
+Use this when you want to:
+
+- Smoke-test the Windows binary without rebooting into Windows
+- Develop server-side with a live client connected from the same machine
+- Run a dev loop without owning a Windows install
+
+## Requirements
+
+- A recent Wine (10.x Staging tested, 9.x stable should work). Older than 8 may be rough on D3D9.
+- `winetricks` for installing MSVC runtime, D3DX9 helper DLLs, core fonts, and Tahoma
+- A copy of the client deploy folder (the one containing `Metin2.exe`, `Metin2_Debug.exe`, `assets/`, `pack/`, `bgm/`, `config/`, `log/`). The whole folder is ~4.3 GB.
+- ~7 GB free disk for the writable client copy plus the Wine prefix
+
+On Fedora:
+
+```bash
+sudo dnf install -y wine winetricks
+```
+
+On Debian/Ubuntu (use the WineHQ repo for a modern version):
+
+```bash
+sudo apt install -y wine winetricks
+```
+
+## One-shot setup
+
+The easiest way is the helper script in this repo:
+
+```bash
+./scripts/setup-wine-prefix.sh /path/to/windows/client ~/metin-wine
+```
+
+This will:
+
+1. Copy the client folder to `~/metin-wine/client` (needs to be on a writable filesystem, so an NTFS read-only mount won't do).
+2. Create a fresh Wine prefix at `~/metin-wine/prefix`.
+3. Install `vcrun2022`, `d3dx9`, `corefonts`, and `tahoma` via winetricks.
+4. Print the launch command.
+
+See the script itself for exact steps if you prefer to run them manually.
+
+## Why Tahoma is required
+
+The client hard-codes Tahoma as its UI font. On Windows this is invisible because Tahoma ships with the OS; on a fresh Wine prefix it's missing, and the result is that the login screen renders layouts and backgrounds correctly but **all text is invisible**. You can reach the server picker and character selection, you just can't read anything. Installing Tahoma via `winetricks tahoma` fixes it in one shot.
+
+If the login screen looks right but has no readable text, this is what you're seeing.
+
+## Launching
+
+After setup, the launch command is just:
+
+```bash
+cd ~/metin-wine/client
+WINEPREFIX=~/metin-wine/prefix wine Metin2.exe
+```
+
+Use `Metin2_Debug.exe` instead of `Metin2.exe` if you want more verbose client-side logging via `OutputDebugString`. Wine will echo those to stderr when `WINEDEBUG` includes `+seh` or you pass `+outputdebugstring`. For normal play use `-all,+err`.
+
+## Logs and debug output
+
+Useful `WINEDEBUG` settings:
+
+- `WINEDEBUG=-all,+err` — quiet, only real errors. Use this for normal play.
+- `WINEDEBUG=-all,+loaddll,+module,+err` — shows which DLLs Wine loads, handy when the client crashes early with a missing DLL.
+- `WINEDEBUG=-all,+err,+seh` — captures the client's own `OutputDebugString` calls via SEH, which is how metin2's internal logging surfaces. Very noisy but useful when diagnosing client-side issues ("CResource::Load file not exist X", "CPythonNonPlayer::LoadNonPlayerData", etc.).
+
+Redirect to a file and grep the signal out of the noise:
+
+```bash
+WINEDEBUG=-all,+err,+seh wine Metin2_Debug.exe >wine-run.log 2>&1
+grep -E 'OutputDebugString[AW] "' wine-run.log | sed 's/.*OutputDebugString[AW] //' | sort -u
+```
+
+The client also writes its own logs to `log/` inside the client folder. Those are plain text and more readable than the Wine SEH traces.
+
+## Known quirks
+
+- **Wayland:** works via XWayland, no special config. If the window opens minimized or off-screen, `Alt+Tab` to find it.
+- **Read-only NTFS mount:** don't try to launch from a read-only mount of your Windows partition. The client creates and writes `log/`, `config/`, and cache files; on a read-only FS the launch will be confusing. Always copy to a writable location first. `setup-wine-prefix.sh` does this for you.
+- **DXVK render state warnings:** lines like `D3D9DeviceEx::SetRenderState: Unhandled render state 163` in the log are harmless. DXVK doesn't implement every legacy D3D9 render state, but the ones metin2 cares about all work.
+- **SEH dispatch spam:** `dispatch_exception code=4001000a` / `4001000c` are how Windows signals `OutputDebugStringW` / `OutputDebugStringA`. They're soft exceptions, not errors. They only show up if you enable `+seh` in `WINEDEBUG`.
+- **First launch is slower:** DXVK compiles its shader pipelines on first run and writes a state cache. Subsequent launches are noticeably faster.
+
+## When to stop using Wine
+
+This guide is for the interim. The longer-term plan is a native Linux build of the client with a free-software replacement for Granny2 animation runtime. Until that lands, Wine is the way.