This is a fix for distorted sound/audio in Diablo 2 Lord Of Destruction running with PlayOnLinux (WIne).
This fix was implemented with the steps at the bottom of this article. It might also work for other games that use Openal but I have not tested it.
This fix was tested on the following system but may work on other systems.
Diablo 2 LOD Version: 1.14D
Operating System: Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon 32-Bit
Kernel: Linux Kernel 4.4.0-111-generic
Audio device: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller
PlayOnLinux Version: 4.2.2-1
Wine Version: 1.6 (32-Bit)
Required Files/Libraries:
libopenal1 Version: 1.14-4ubuntu1
libopenal-data Version: 1.14-4ubuntu1
The above files can be found in the Synaptic Package Manager or here: http://kcat.strangesoft.net/openal.html
(Step 1) Open PlayOnLinux
(Step 2) Open the 'PlayOnLinux configuration' for your Diablo 2 installation.
(Step 3) Click the 'Miscellaneous' tab.]
(Step 4) In the box below 'Command to exec before running the program' add one of the following lines of text:
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libopenal.so.1
(OR)
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libopenal.so.1.14.0
(OR For 64-Bit OS)
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib32/libopenal.so.1
(Step 5) Close all PlayOnLinux windows and launch the game as usual.
Note: It is possible to use LD_PRELOAD with just Wine via Enviroment Variables but this article does not cover that. You can read here: https://wiki.winehq.org/Wine_User%27s_Guide#Setting_Windows.2FDOS_environment_variables for more information on doing it via Wine.
Thanks For Reading!