Don't forget the font is deformed.

Can confirm the exact same behavior. Need to change engine.ini and install d3dx9 via winetricks
Game playable without issues, just the font is looking weird

From time to time (I could not find a pattern), Anno has problems connecting to the Ubisoft servers (e.g for online profiles). Most of the time, restarting Steam (!) solves the issue, but not all the time.

With Proton 3.7.6 this workaround does not seem to work anymore (it did with version 3.7.3).

My config :
Informations de l'ordinateur :
Fabricant : Unknown
Modèle : Unknown
Type : Ordinateur de bureau
Aucun écran tactile détecté

Processeur :
Fabricant du CPU : GenuineIntel
Marque du processeur : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60GHz
Famille du processeur : 0x6
Modèle du processeur : 0x3c
Révision processeur : 0x3
Type de processeur : 0x0
Fréquence : 4000 Mhz
8 processeurs logiques
4 processeurs physiques
HyperThreading : Pris en charge
FCMOV : Pris en charge
SSE2 : Pris en charge
SSE3 : Pris en charge
SSSE3 : Pris en charge
SSE4a : Non pris en charge
SSE41 : Pris en charge
SSE42 : Pris en charge
AES : Pris en charge
AVX : Pris en charge
CMPXCHG16B : Pris en charge
LAHF/SAHF : Pris en charge
PrefetchW : Non pris en charge

Version du système d'exploitation :
Debian GNU/Linux 9.5 (stretch) (64 bits)
Nom du noyau : Linux
Version du noyau : 4.9.0-8-amd64
Éditeur du serveur X : The X.Org Foundation
Version du serveur X : 11902000
Gestionnaire de fenêtres X : KWin
Version d'exécution Steam : steam-runtime-beta-release_2018-06-14

Carte graphique :
Pilote : NVIDIA Corporation GeForce GTX 1070/PCIe/SSE2
Version du pilote : 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.87
Version OpenGL : 4.6
Profondeur de couleur du bureau : 24 bits par pixel
Taux de rafraîchissement du moniteur : 60 Hz
ID fabricant : 0x10de
ID périphérique : 0x1b81
Révision non détectée
Nombre de moniteurs : 1
Nombre de cartes vidéo logiques : 1
Résolution de l'affichage principal : 1920 x 1080
Résolution du bureau : 1920 x 1080
Taille de l'affichage principal : 20.04" x 11.26" (22.95" diag)
50.9cm x 28.6cm (58.3cm diag)
Bus principal : PCI Express 16x
Mémoire vidéo principale : 8192 Mo
Modes MSAA pris en charge : 2x 4x 8x 16x

Carte son :
Périphérique audio : Realtek ALC892

Mémoire :
RAM : 32122 Mo

Divers :
Langue de l'interface : Français
LANGUE : fr_FR.UTF-8
Espace disque total disponible : 938580 Mo
Plus grand bloc disponible sur le disque dur : 66241 Mo
Casque VR : aucun détecté

Rapports d'échec récent :

Workaround seems to work for me, but I had to modify WINEPREFIX for the winetricks.
$WINEPREFIX=/home/$USER/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/33350/pfx winetricks d3dx9

Using Proton 3.16-2 Beta via Steam Play

The problems with the connection did not appear again, rest still applies but works (tested today)
EDIT: Happened again today, again fixed with restarting steam

Worakround doesn't work on Proton 3.16-6 with d3dx9 installed and Engine.ini modified launching from steam.

I have same issue when launching anno 1404: Venice. Im getting blackscreen also.
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS with NVIDIA GTX 770

If I install the DirectX on the prefix and set it to DirectX 9 in the configuration files, the game runs, however I'm experiencing a glitch in the text font, it looks all weird; it also keeps telling me that I don't have enough memory to play the game, even though I have plenty:

Edit: the game crashes with no errors whatsoever after more or less 2 hours of gameplay.
Edit2: it seems that the memory problem happens on Windows too and that the crash is due to it, so no matter here, but the font problem stills.

The fonts seem to be fixed with the corefonts winetrick:
WINEPREFIX=<your path to steamapps>/compatdata/33340/pfx/ winetricks corefonts

EDIT: Just noticed the number can be 33340 or 33350. Probably the difference between Anno 1404 and Dawn of Discovery.

D9VK brings a new bug: in Quickstart: the intro ingame cinematic does a picture in picture bug from the get go. Otherwise performance increase is amazing.

Nota bene:
In dx9, performance increased a lot with latest Proton 4.11 and the futex patched kernel 5,
(using Feral's gamemode as well)
PROTON_USE_D9VK=1 DXVK_HUD=fps gamemoderun %command%

Corefonts didn't fix the fonts issue for me unfortunately.

In my case the game doesn't start. It shows a black window for some seconds and then disappears.
in the steamuser/Application Data/Ubisoft/Anno 1404 Folder there's no Engine.ini. After copying it from another installation the game starts.

@kaktuspalme good catch about the Engine.ini file.
It seems that Anno is no longer able to create the Engine.ini file automatically at first launch. Perhaps this is related to proton 5 (previously I used proton 4.x). But if you manually create the Engine.ini file, it now works.

I'm reposting my guide how to get the game working with this update:

Full step by step Installation (this will fix black screen and game starting for 3 seconds and then closing again):

1. install "Anno 1404: Venice" through steam (I did not install the base game, just the addon) (with proton 5.x (I used 5.0-7))
2. launch the game through steam
3. the game will just be a black screen. but that's ok. It will create the necessary wine folder in steam/steamapps/compdata
4. kill the game (command to kill it: kill -9 $(ps aux | grep -i '[A]nno\ 1404' | awk '{print $2}'))
5. run WINEPREFIX="/home/$USER/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/33350/pfx" winetricks d3dx9
6. run WINEPREFIX="/home/$USER/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/33350/pfx" winetricks corefonts (this may help with font issues)
7. create the file /home/$USER/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/33350/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Application\ Data/Ubisoft/Anno1404Addon/Config/Engine.ini with the following content:

  <InitFile>
  <ScreenXSize>1920</ScreenXSize>
  <ScreenYSize>1080</ScreenYSize>
  <ScreenDepth>32</ScreenDepth>
  <ScreenFormat>0</ScreenFormat>
  <RefreshRate>60</RefreshRate>
  <AspectRatio>0.000000</AspectRatio>
  <ResizableWindow>0</ResizableWindow>
  <NoWindowFrame>0</NoWindowFrame>
  <Gamma>1</Gamma>
  <RE_Device>0</RE_Device>
  <RE_VSync>0</RE_VSync>
  <RE_Cloud>1</RE_Cloud>
  <RE_Framebuffer_Refraction>1</RE_Framebuffer_Refraction>
  <RE_TerrainRenderMode>0</RE_TerrainRenderMode>
  <UseDDSTextures>1</UseDDSTextures>
  <DirectXVersion>9</DirectXVersion>
  <EnableTextureMemoryManagement>0</EnableTextureMemoryManagement>
  <EnableModelMemoryManagement>0</EnableModelMemoryManagement>
  <PreloadCachedShaders>0</PreloadCachedShaders>
  <EnableRenderEngineScheduler>1</EnableRenderEngineScheduler>
  <QualityLevel>2</QualityLevel>
  <RE_AlphaToCoverage>0;0;0;0;0</RE_AlphaToCoverage>
  <RE_Anisotropic>0;0;1;2;1</RE_Anisotropic>
  <RE_Antialiasing>0;0;0;0;0</RE_Antialiasing>
  <RE_Borderline>1;1;1;2;1</RE_Borderline>
  <RE_Cloth>0;1;1;2;1</RE_Cloth>
  <RE_Effects>0;1;2;2;2</RE_Effects>
  <RE_Force>0;0;1;1;1</RE_Force>
  <RE_Lighting>1;1;1;2;1</RE_Lighting>
  <RE_Influence>0;0;0;0;0</RE_Influence>
  <RE_MaxObjectLOD>0;1;2;2;2</RE_MaxObjectLOD>
  <RE_NormalMapping>0;0;1;1;1</RE_NormalMapping>
  <RE_ParallaxMapping>0;0;0;1;0</RE_ParallaxMapping>
  <RE_PostEffects>0;0;1;2;1</RE_PostEffects>
  <RE_Reflection>0;0;1;1;1</RE_Reflection>
  <RE_Refraction>0;0;1;1;1</RE_Refraction>
  <RE_Scattering>1;1;2;2;2</RE_Scattering>
  <RE_Shadows>0;1;1;2;1</RE_Shadows>
  <RE_Terrain>0;1;2;2;2</RE_Terrain>
  <RE_TextureManager>2;1;0;0;0</RE_TextureManager>
  <RE_Water>1;2;3;4;3</RE_Water>
  <EnableUtilization>0</EnableUtilization>
  <EnableFPS>0</EnableFPS>
  <EnableGUIWarning>0</EnableGUIWarning>
  <EnableUndiscovered>1</EnableUndiscovered>
  <EnableAI>1</EnableAI>
  <LanguageTAG>eng</LanguageTAG>
  <Multithreading>1</Multithreading>
  <PreferLocalFiles>0</PreferLocalFiles>
  <EnableWatchThreads>1</EnableWatchThreads>
  <EnableFPPPreloading>0</EnableFPPPreloading>
  <PreloadAll>0</PreloadAll>
  <RecordCFGCache>0</RecordCFGCache>
  <ScriptFilename>Console.ini</ScriptFilename>
  <RenderTransportRoute>1</RenderTransportRoute>
  <MinimapRotation>1</MinimapRotation>
  <EnableTimeDisplay>1</EnableTimeDisplay>
  <EnableInfoMode>1</EnableInfoMode>
  <AutoSaveCount>3</AutoSaveCount>
  <GameSpeed>14</GameSpeed>
  <SaveReplay>1</SaveReplay>
  <AutoQuestReminder>1</AutoQuestReminder>
  <ProfileName></ProfileName>
  <HardwareCursor>1</HardwareCursor>
  <MouseScroll>10</MouseScroll>
  <KeyboardScroll>10</KeyboardScroll>
  <MouseSpeed>10</MouseSpeed>
  <LockCamera>1</LockCamera>
  <EnableZoom>1</EnableZoom>
  <CheckCameraDistance>1</CheckCameraDistance>
  <EnableConsole>1</EnableConsole>
  <TimePerChar>88</TimePerChar>
  <EnableFourthCamPosition>0</EnableFourthCamPosition>
  <MinimapTexResX>64</MinimapTexResX>
  <MinimapTexResY>64</MinimapTexResY>
  <EnableLargeFOV>0</EnableLargeFOV>
  <m_PickHighlightEnabled>1</m_PickHighlightEnabled>
  <VolumeMain>999</VolumeMain>
  <VolumeAmbiente>500</VolumeAmbiente>
  <VolumeSpeech>500</VolumeSpeech>
  <VolumeMusic>500</VolumeMusic>
  <VolumeSound>500</VolumeSound>
  <VolumeMsg>500</VolumeMsg>
  <VolumeAck>500</VolumeAck>
  <SoundSystem>1</SoundSystem>
  <SoundDriver>0</SoundDriver>
  <SoundEnableBink>0</SoundEnableBink>
  <FilterEventMsg>0</FilterEventMsg>
  <FilterEconomyMsg>0</FilterEconomyMsg>
  <FilterDiplomacyMsg>0</FilterDiplomacyMsg>
  <FilterResidentMsg>0</FilterResidentMsg>
  <FilterExplorationMsg>0</FilterExplorationMsg>
  <FilterResearchMsg>0</FilterResearchMsg>
  <FilterMilitaryMsg>0</FilterMilitaryMsg>
  <CheckSumEnabled>0</CheckSumEnabled>
  <StopOnCheckSumError>0</StopOnCheckSumError>
  <CheckSumErrorCount>2</CheckSumErrorCount>
  <IsLogFileOn>0</IsLogFileOn>
  <KIServerPort>5479</KIServerPort>
  <KIBuildLimitation>0</KIBuildLimitation>
  <RenderDebugBlock>0</RenderDebugBlock>
  <ShowAssertStatus>0</ShowAssertStatus>
  <DisableHPTimer>0</DisableHPTimer>
  <SyncTraceDisabled>0</SyncTraceDisabled>
  <WriteMiniDumps>2</WriteMiniDumps>
  <SyncTraceFolder>\\rds.local\DATA\QAPublic\synctraces\</SyncTraceFolder>
  <EnableNetworkEmulation>0</EnableNetworkEmulation>
  <ScreenshotFormat>0</ScreenshotFormat>
  <ScreenshotWidth>0</ScreenshotWidth>
  <ScreenshotHeight>0</ScreenshotHeight>
  <SaveGameCompressLevel>5</SaveGameCompressLevel>
  <UseBinarySavegames>1</UseBinarySavegames>
  <UbiSurveyTime>36000000</UbiSurveyTime>
  <UbiSurveyTimeStatus>1</UbiSurveyTimeStatus>
  <NetComEngineVersion>3</NetComEngineVersion>
  <EnableThreadLoading>0</EnableThreadLoading>
  <EnableSmoothLoading>1</EnableSmoothLoading>
  <m_waitForPlayerTimeout>5000</m_waitForPlayerTimeout>
  <kickPlayerTimeout>4000</kickPlayerTimeout>
  <IGNNewsDiff>0</IGNNewsDiff>
  <IGNAnchorDiff>0</IGNAnchorDiff>
  <IGNQuestsDiff>0</IGNQuestsDiff>
  <LockTeams>0</LockTeams>
  <MapExplored>0</MapExplored>
  <GameType>0</GameType>
  <Resourcen>0</Resourcen>
  <EnableEasyGui>1</EnableEasyGui>
  <EnableEasyStreet>1</EnableEasyStreet>
  <AlreadyUpdated>1</AlreadyUpdated>
  </InitFile>

As @BaaRamEwe pointed out, the AppID 33350 is Anno 1404: Venice, if your game is Dawn of Discovery: Venice, your AppID is 33340. You have to replace all 33350 with 33340 in the commands above.

@Loacoon1 this will probably also fix your issue

EDIT: It might also be worth trying to set the launch option/launch command to PROTON_FORCE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE=1 %command%. I have not verified it, but I've read it might help with memory issues

Not sure if it's an enhancement in proton 5 or PROTON_FORCE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE=1, but I have not gotten a single low memory warning in several hours of gameplay.

Tried @Zauberfisch 's instructions with Proton 5.13.1 and am still getting black screen with a modified mouse cursor (cursor is shown rest of the screen is black).

First tried by creating the directory as suggested, no dice.

Then searched for Engine.ini and found it in a different location.
The Engine.ini file is also in a different location
.steam/debian-installation/steamapps/common/Anno\ 1404/Engine.ini

modified this Engine.ini as well but again black screen only mouse cursor shown.

When that didn't work; I also tried to reduce the resolution in the .ini to 800x600 windowed. But still nothing.

Any more ideas on how to get this game to play?

@globeone I haven't played anno in a while, but as far as I remember, there were at least 2 different Engine.ini files.

So for me those are:

1. ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Anno 1404/Engine.ini (Your path for it is ~/.steam/debian-installation/steamapps/common/Anno\ 1404/Engine.ini)
2. ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/33350/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Application Data/Ubisoft/Anno1404Addon/Config/Engine.ini

(1.) is the wrong file.
So, you have to find our create (2.) in the right place. When you said you tried my fix, did you create that literally in .steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/33350/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Application\ Data/Ubisoft/Anno1404Addon/Config/Engine.ini or did you change that to your steam path .steam/debian-installation/steamapps/compatdata/33350/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Application\ Data/Ubisoft/Anno1404Addon/Config/Engine.ini?

EDIT: Also, if you ar playing just Anno1404 (base game, not Venice), then the path will be different, probably .steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/33350/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Application\ Data/Ubisoft/Anno1404/Config/Engine.ini and if you have "Dawn of Discovery" then it will be different again.

I have both paths. The debian-installation is a syslink created by the Steam installer for Ubuntu 20.04.1 for some reason.

steam -> /home/$USER/.steam/debian-installation

There was already a folder Microsoft in the Application Data folder. The steamuser was the actual logged-in username.
.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/33350/pfx/drive_c/users/$USER/Application\ Data/

so next to that Microsoft folder I created
../Ubisoft/Anno1404Addon/Config/Engine.ini

And filled it with the XML from your previous post.

Also tried with older versions of Proton but to no avail.

Apologies, I see now that I'm trying to get the Base Game working. Whereas this instruction is for the add-on. :disappointed:
The base game does have the same 33350 prefix.

Giving up on Anno 1404. I removed the game and reinstalled, follwing the instructions a with the "debian-installation" directtory. did a pstack on the proceses and it's complaining about 64-bit only. So, it's probably a game that has to be run in a 32-bit prefix. Which is something that Valve doesn't yet support.

I just gave it another go, and following what has been said before, the game works. Quite well actually, though very CPU limited.

@Loacoon1 how did you achieve it, to run?
I tried all the stuff mentioned above but the game rage-quits after 1 second off black screen.
Could someone point me in the right direction?

Just a quick follow up: I've purchased the Anno 1404 History Edition and also got it working by changing <DirectXVersion>0</DirectXVersion> to <DirectXVersion>9</DirectXVersion>.

Truly don't know how relevant this is after so long, but I got it working too.
I bought Anno 1404 History Edition on steam and got it working by editing the Engine.ini file in both:

.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/1281630/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Application Data/Ubisoft/Anno1404/Config

and:

.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/1281630/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Application Data/Ubisoft/Anno1404Addon/Config

Maybe this helps another soul that bought this on a Christmas sale.

Anno 1404 (the original edition) seems to run in DirectX 10 Mode. Has anyone got this or the history edition to work in DX10 Mode?

I found out how to get Venice running in DX10 mode.
Copy the d3dcompiler_40.dll and d3dx10_40.dll from the Anno 1404 non Venice (33250) to the Venice pfx (33350) then it works in DX10 mode.

In my case:

cp ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/33250/pfx/drive_c/windows/syswow64/d3dcompiler_40.dll ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/33350/pfx/drive_c/windows/syswow64/
cp ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/33250/pfx/drive_c/windows/syswow64/d3dx10_40.dll ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/33350/pfx/drive_c/windows/syswow64/

Tested with Proton 8.0-2.

The history edition works ootb with Proton 8 Experimental, no need for any editing.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109
In the latest version of wine(8.11) seems you can just install this "DirectX End-User Runtime" and run the game, no need other modification, even no need proton or dxvk. And if you are using dxvk, somehow the x16 anti-aliasing will be missing.

Replying to https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/641#issuecomment-1586335967

Awesome! This works flawlessly with Proton 9.0-2 as well. No further tinkering needed and the fonts look fine.

Finally managed to get the game running on my Ubuntu 22.04 after days trying to deal with the black screen startup, wanted to share my experience.

Important: I got the game on GOG sale, labeled as Anno 1404: Gold Edition, and I use the Heroic Games Launcher to deal with wine/proton.

I tried several things, reinstalls, messing with engine.ini, libs, trying to install DX9 in prefix, several wine versions... no luck.
Today it finally ran, and I didn't had to do anything special, no messing with engine ini, nor installing things, winetricks, launch arguments, nothing, out of the box fully working.

Didn't work:

• Proton-GE-10-17
• Proton-GE-9-5
• Wine-GE-Proton7-32
• Wine-6.0.3 (ubuntu-repack-1)

What worked
The specific Wine-GE version that worked out of the box for me was: Wine-GE-Proton8-26

Hope this helps!
With Heroic launcher there's a Wine Manager section which really helps testing out different wine versions, along with winetricks, protontricks, lots of cool tooling around wine.

Thanks
Worked for me with Proton 10, Debian 13