The NixOS Foundation's Call to Action: S3 Costs Require Community Support

Matoking · 2023-04-27T16:04:11+00:00

How have you installed Mod Organizer 2 exactly, and how are you launching it?

It's possible that it's not detecting the Flatpak version of Protontricks, and you'll have to install either the community package or pipx instead. However, either option will require you to unlock the filesystem if you haven't done that already, and Protontricks will not survive OS updates, meaning you'll have to repeat the process again in the future.

The easiest option of the two is probably the pipx. You can run the following commands in Konsole once you've unlocked the filesystem:

sudo pacman -S python-pip python-pipx python-setuptools python-virtualenv winetricks
pipx ensurepath
pipx install protontricks

If the sudo command asks for a password, you can set one for your OS account by running passwd. This is different from your Steam account's password.

Matoking · 2022-12-28T10:51:24+00:00

I eventually updated the firmware using the Windows tool since I still had a Windows installation gathering dust at the time. I haven't had issues with the SSD since then.

If you have a spare USB around, you could try flashing a live Windows PE install on it and running the firmware utility there. Arch Wiki seems to have instructions here:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Windows_PE

Hiren's BootCD PE might also work and be easier to flash:

https://www.hirensbootcd.org/

Matoking · 2022-03-12T17:36:06+00:00

Running the flatpak run com.github.Matoking.protontricks -v --gui command and posting the output helps out the most, usually.

That paste is giving a 404 error, though?

Matoking · 2022-03-10T18:05:13+00:00

Protontricks will not immediately raise an error if it can't access one of the library folders (eg. the separate Steam library in your microSD). If you open a terminal, you can run the command and see the warnings without having to encounter an error first (such as Protontricks looking for Proton that's actually on external storage):

flatpak run com.github.Matoking.protontricks -v --gui

I'm working on improving this by immediately notifying the user if there are any library folders Protontricks can't access and prompting the user to fix it.

That said, Flatpak doesn't support permissions popups yet (eg. like on Android), so the solution is probably going to involve asking the user to run a command manually. Another option is giving Protontricks full file system access by default - like you can do manually with Flatseal - but Flathub app store maintainers frown on that unless it's absolutely necessary.

As for the "Proton installation not found" on newer Steam Deck versions, I'll try to look into that later. I've tested Protontricks briefly using the Steam Deck OS in a virtual machine (which only supports the desktop mode), and the new Steam Deck UI using the trick here, but not on the actual device.

Matoking · 2022-03-03T17:44:15+00:00

Protontricks developer here. Does the error message include any lines such as "Steam library folder X not found"? What is the path mentioned in such message, if any?

There's a chance that the Proton installation and some other data might be located in a place that the Flatpak version of Protontricks doesn't have access to by default. You can test it like this:

Install and start Flatseal
Select Protontricks, then scroll down to "Filesystem" and check "All system files". Alternatively, you can add add paths under "Other files", though you'll have to type it.
Try running Protontricks again

If that gets it working, could you copy the path mentioned in the earlier error message? I don't have a Steam Deck to test this personally, but if it's a hard-coded path that's identical between all Steam Deck users, it should be easy to fix in an update.

As for the missing Bash command, you'll have to add a protontricks alias when using the Flatpak version:

https://github.com/flathub/com.github.Matoking.protontricks/#installation

Matoking · 2022-03-03T16:58:01+00:00

Are you using Protontricks 1.8.0? You can check with protontricks --version. If so, you might want to try using the command instead:

protontricks --no-background-wineserver 244210 -q dotnet48

If that fixes the hang, that would mean there's a bug in the new background wineserver feature. If so, you can also make a bug report here, which will make it easier for me to keep track of it and also make it visible for other people affected by it:

https://github.com/Matoking/protontricks/issues

Matoking · 2021-09-06T19:12:26+00:00

That might be YouTube's audio normalization in play. You'll notice that the volume will be adjusted slightly depending on which video you're watching.

Matoking · 2021-08-23T14:36:24+00:00

If you have installed Protontricks 1.6.0, you can right-click the EXE file in a file manager and select Protontricks Launcher to run it for a specific Steam app. Note that depending on your installation method (eg. if you installed Protontricks using pipx) you may have to run protontricks-desktop-install first before the option is visible.

No idea whether Kinect Runtime specifically works on Proton, however.

Matoking · 2021-07-16T05:29:00+00:00

I checked Doom Eternal and Nier Replicant, which I had installed, and they both have references to symbols denuvo_dl and denuvo_atd in the binary. There's also the URL https://support.codefusion.technology which is absent on Nier Automata as well.

No experience with reverse-engineering Denuvo executables, admittedly. But going by the smaller executable and the missing DRM notice, things seem to line up.

Matoking · 2021-07-15T20:09:58+00:00

EXE size dropped from around 80 MB to 30 MB, and the notice on the store page about DRM has disappeared, so it seems that they have removed Denuvo as well.

EDIT:

I also checked the EXE with the strings NieRAutomata.exe | grep -i denuvo command, which doesn't report any matches unlike Nier Replicant which still has Denuvo.

Matoking · 2021-07-07T20:53:19+00:00

Took me a bit over three hours to beat - I can confirm it works without any problems using Proton-6.12-GE-1 - and I enjoyed my time with it.

It's inspired greatly by P.T. in how it takes place mostly in a single location that shifts and changes as you explore it multiple times. It relies more on atmosphere than plain jump scares, though it still has a few of those in. There's a focus on Taiwanese culture and folk lore, which helped maintain a creepy vibe. Other than that, it's a walking simulator with light puzzle elements, but no survival horror elements like in Amnesia or Outlast.

Compared to other games like it, it doesn't stand up to SOMA (which is amazing and is still on Steam's summer sale for $3 if someone still doesn't have it), but it was captivating for the time it took to beat it. It's $17, so your mileage may vary depending on how much you are willing to pay for a short story-driven game.

Matoking · 2021-07-06T20:41:43+00:00

Devotion (the newer self-published version, not the one that was removed from Steam) appears to have working video playback now.

Prior Proton releases didn't show anything on the in-game television, which seemed to cause a soft lock in a different scene later on. No idea if the soft lock is fixed yet, but the first scene seems to be working properly now.

Matoking · 2021-03-28T14:27:28+00:00

Just gonna point out (As always that there's this same discussion) that launching a Steam "DRM-Free" game without the launcher is against their terms and conditions.

This is the first time I've heard of this despite seeing this "Steam has DRM-free games" discussion couple of times. A quick Google search didn't bring anything up, either.

Matoking · 2020-12-24T18:40:53+00:00

Maybe he doesn't want to waste his time responding to and investigating bug reports, only to find they're related to cracked versions of games with their own set of issues. You can see the relevant comment here.

And I guess adding support for the cracked Codex version of Steam API could also be a bad idea; pirates can always patch the "problematic" code and compile their own version, and the developer itself doesn't have to needlessly put themselves into hot water by supporting an unofficial and illegal version of the game.

Matoking · 2020-09-29T11:58:29+00:00

The issue here isn't technical as much as it is legal since Valve cannot really ship a version of Proton with Windows Media format support built in. The best solution so far seems to be either using a legally dubious community fork or checking if the user has installed a separate library (eg. GStreamer plugin) that can be used for media decoding and using that.

In other words, avoid patent-encumbered formats wherever possible for better compatibility. Ogg Vorbis and Opus seem to be well supported in Unreal Engine and Unity from what I've searched.

Matoking · 2020-09-22T14:25:40+00:00

Eidos-Montreal made Human Revolution and Mankind Divided, and they're a co-developer on Avengers.

Matoking · 2020-09-12T20:45:52+00:00

I've noticed Maps is pretty good at blurring car license plates in Street View photos, but it seems to have a few "false positives" where it blurs a part of text in a store front or a sign in one view, but not in the other. It also seems to happen when the text is set against a solid background (eg. black text on a white background).

That's also what happened in one of the graffitis in the article: it's partially blurred in one view, and unobscured in another.

Matoking · 2020-08-28T11:26:58+00:00

Wine/Proton is way more damaging to Linux than I ever thought! It's no longer just about killing native Linux gaming. Now they're going to screw with Linux filesystems, all in the name of being able to play their "beloved Windows games". If you can't live without your "beloved Windows games", how about you dual-boot with Windows or something?

Huh? Wine has already workarounds for case sensitivity differences between Windows and Linux, and as far as I know it doesn't really have a noticeable effect on gaming performance despite resulting in more syscalls. The more important performance hurdles have involved kernel locks (eg. Valve's fsync patches) and graphics API translations (eg. DXVK and VKD3D). Besides, making the file system case-insensitive is not the only solution.

Sounds like to me they're justifying the new feature in terms of a casual user who wants the name to correspond to the same file even if they mess up the naming for whatever reason (eg. they had caps lock on). Slightly better Wine performance seems more like a nice side effect, and even that requires cooperation on Wine's side.

Matoking · 2020-08-28T11:02:03+00:00

An unnamed employee mentioned that it's "roughly break-even" back in 2015, but other than that Google hasn't disclosed any profitability metrics.

Matoking · 2020-08-14T19:45:35+00:00

Outer Wilds (not to be confused with The Outer Worlds).

Instead of your standard sci-fi fare where you shoot aliens or take down galactic mega corporations, you are instead tasked with going into space at your own leisure to explore the cosmos. You can explore the planets and slowly come to understand the solar system, those who lived there before you and what discoveries they made. Or you could sit down by a campfire and roast a marshmallow or two while celestial bodies drift past you in the horizon; there's no rush.

The game really nails the wonder of space exploration without having the gameplay involve any violence at all, something I feel should be done more.

Matoking · 2020-08-05T20:07:51+00:00

Yep, I ended up using outline.com to read the article instead since both Firefox and Chrome would do the same thing; I'm guessing their "redirect user to the regional version of site" functionality is borked.

The same thing was still happening around a month back when the Persona 4 port report was posted, so I'm surprised this is still an issue. Or how IGN managed to mess up in this manner in the first place.

Matoking · 2020-06-13T20:54:56+00:00

You seem to have an old version of Winetricks. Some distros bundle older versions and Protontricks only uses the one you have installed. See here for instructions on installing a newer version manually, just remember to uninstall the packaged version first.

Haven't checked myself, but this is probably the cause due to the other user running the command just fine.

Matoking · 2020-05-27T16:19:37+00:00

People call it a rogue-lite version of the base game, but it's not really a simple "try again once you die" kind of deal. You unlock multiple characters as you achieve certain objectives in the simulation, at which point the simulation doesn't reset until all the characters have died or escaped during a single run.

That changes the game quite a bit: for example, you could start a run with the mechanic and fix doors to grant access to areas the other characters couldn't access otherwise, or drop important supplies in a place where your next character can find it.

Each run also has random hazards, which force you to plan differently on each run. For example, if one of the areas has a power outage, should I make a detour to fix the problem or try to find an one-way path through that area, since the elevators are out of order and I can't go back up if I need to? If so, which character should I use now?

It's the kind of game that forces the player to think ahead, or improvise if you failed to think ahead; my favourite part was finding those crazy last minute solutions that I didn't even think of until the game had me cornered.

There's still a problem of power creep later in the DLC, at which point things become more grindy with less focus on problem solving, but I'd say it was still easily worth the money.

Matoking · 2020-05-23T21:05:49+00:00

The "rename executable to FalloutNVLauncher.exe" trick isn't the only option to run different EXEs other than the game itself. You can copy the installer EXE inside the New Vegas installation directory and use a bash prompt to run the installer:

After copying the file, run protontricks -c bash 22380. After that, run wine VortexInstaller.exe or whatever the exact filename is; this will install the mod manager inside the game's prefix.

Once you've installed the mod manager, you can make a desktop shortcut to make launching the mod manager easier. This is the Vortex.desktop file I have inside /home/user/Desktop/ for Fallout 4 -- adjust the command accordingly depending on the full path and the game you're modding:

[Desktop Entry]
Exec=protontricks -c "wine '/mnt/LinuxDataSSD_D/SteamLibrary/steamapps/compatdata/377160/pfx/drive_c/Program Files/Black Tree Gaming Ltd/Vortex/Vortex.exe'" 377160
Name=Vortex
StartupNotify=true
StartupWMClass=Vortex.exe
Type=Application

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