Apex Legends stutter fix
Just wanted to share this in case we have any Apex players. On all distros, there are some GPUs (such as my RX580) that for some reason stutter uncontrollably for the first 5 matches or so while the shaders take forever to compile. If you aren't willing to just put up with it, there's a way to get it smooth right away. The community have contributed a compilation of their compiled shaders into one big file, that you can replace with the slow one Apex comes with. I'm impatient so I've done this multiple times on both Solus and my Steam Deck, it always works great and immediately feels like night & day.

That's it.
The GitHub also includes instructions including a single curl command to download and place it in its proper directory, so you can probably try that if you want, but I prefer to do it manually.

obs-vkcapture (Game Capture) on Solus
This is for those who may be interested in gameplay recordings. A few updates ago we got the great little OBS plugin in our repos obs-vkcapture. It's basically the Game Capture plugin available on Windows brought over to Linux. It is much more performance efficient than the usual Window Capture, and it can capture any fullscreen window as long as the source is selected in OBS and the launch option is in Steam, so no more having to alt-tab from your game to select the game's window in OBS Window Capture. Just press the hotkey to record that's it.
To install and use it:

  • sudo eopkg install obs-vkcapture obs-vkcapture-32bit
  • Open OBS, select and add the "Game Capture" source
  • Put launch option in Steam game: obs-gamecapture gamemoderun %command%
  • Launch game, press your OBS record hotkey.

Here it is in action:

notes
(I put gamemoderun in there because I use gamemode to disable the compositor but this is optional. You could just use obs-gamecapture %command%.)
(As an alternative to the OBS hotkey, you can just click the system tray icon and click "Start Recording", that's what I did when I used GNOME Wayland where hotkeys aren't a thing.)
(Battlefield V is the only game I'm aware of where you may have to go in and select the BFV.exe window under Game Capture, because for some reason it thinks Origin is also a full screen app, so sometimes it records that instead.)
(This also works with non-Steam games you add to steam, for example I can install the open source games Sauerbraten or Urban Terror and record those as well. Just add the same launch option and it'll work as any other Steam game.)

    aaaand just like that. After today's update. Not one steam game will launch. I love this distro but it isn't worth it, I'm not bothering to find the problem.

    I don't think I'll be using Solus for gaming again, until it is back up to speed, this spelling error is fixed, and Linux Steam Integration is no longer part of the Steam eopkg.

      • [deleted]

      • Post #67

      odat4 How does the spelling error on the website affect your gaming experience on Solus? 🤔

        6 days later

        Red Orchestra 2/Rising Storm
        Since Rising Storm 2 is borked on Linux I resorted to the predecessor, Red Orchestra 2 / Rising Storm 1. Works out the box with Proton, but like many of these older UE3 games, it has very annoying things like frame smoothing and a tunnel vision default max FOV. I have to do this on Windows as well. Here's what I do to get it performing smooth and increase the FOV.

        • Install and run the game at least once, and configure your initial video and input settings. When the game closes it applies your settings to the ini files which we will be editing so make sure it's how you want.
        • To increase the FOV edit the PlayerFOV line in /home/user/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/35450/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/My Games/RedOrchestra2/ROGame/ROGame.ini (default is 75, I suggest 85 - 90)
        • To disable framesmoothing, ctrl+f "smooth" and set the bSmoothFrameRate lines to FALSE in /home/user/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/35450/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/My Games/RedOrchestra2/ROGame/ROEngine.ini it appears twice, change them both. It also provides a minimum and maximum framerate underneath the option, I have a 144hz monitor so I change the minimum to 60fps and maximum to 144.
        • Set both ROGame.ini and ROEngine.ini to read only. If not, anytime you change any setting, it will revert the FOV and frame smoothing back.

        The population is low but I've played for 49 hours now and always see players online, although it's just a few servers. It fills empty slots with bots so there's always something to shoot at and achievements to go after.
        Fun game, give it a try if theater / period shooters are your thing.

        I'd like to apologize for my attitude previously. I was both odat4 and tyleringo, I don't have access to the accounts anymore because I changed the email and passwords to something I don't know. I guess I do this in an effort to burn the bridge to solidify my decisions, it's a problem. My only explanation is that I'm BP-II, I'm sorry it's embarrassing.
        But I love Solus and will continue to try to passively contribute even if that means just sharing my "game fixes" and interacting with the community.

          [deleted]

          tylermason guess I do this in an effort to burn the bridge to solidify my decisions, it's a problem

          Yeah I remember and I'm embarrassed but I'd prefer to own up to being an idiot than to cause confusion
          Staudley & co. have done much for me so it would be unfair to let it go without explanation

                • [deleted]

                • Post #73

                tylermason Well, changed behavior is always the best apology.

                  4 months later

                  Here's a guide to running XCOM Enemy Unknown / Enemy Within with Long War mod + Long War Rebalanced mod on Steam Proton.
                  There are 2 versions of XCOM in Steam, the windows version and the linux version.
                  I installed the Windows version.
                  This guide is meant for the Windows version of XCOM on Steam.

                  1. Ensure you are running the latest version of Steam.
                  2. Install XCOM Enemy Unknown (Windows version) with all addons (includes Enemy Within).
                  3. Run XCOM Enemy Within at least once, you can exit the game once you successfully reach the main menu
                  4. Download "Long War v1.0" from Nexusmods
                  5. Download "Long War Rebalanced" from Nexusmods
                  6. Steam ---> Add New Non-Steam Game
                  7. Select Long War.exe as the non-steam game
                  8. Right click on Long War on the Steam entry in your game library
                  9. Set it to use the latest Steam Proton version (v8.0 as of now)
                  10. Run the Long War entry
                  11. you should see the windows-based installer pop up
                  12. The installation link provided to you is most likely NOT the correct path
                  13. Change the path to Z:/...[yourusername]/steam/steamapps/compatdata/.../xcom/XEW
                  14. Proceed with Long War installation
                  15. Run the game again, ensure Long War is installed by checking that there is a button called "Long War"
                  16. Exit the game
                  17. Follow the "Long War Rebalanced" installation instructions provided by the zipfile
                  18. Now run the game again.
                  19. If everything is successfully installed, you will see "Long War Rebalanced" when starting a new game.
                  20. Enjoy one of the best tactical games ever made, made even better with two complementary mods

                  Here's another guide to running Stalker Anomaly mod on Steam Proton
                  Anomaly mod is available on their ModDB page.
                  It is totally free of charge, and not purchasable on Steam or anywhere else.
                  For this guide, you will need to install Protontricks, and ensure you have an unzipping tool already installed (such as 7zip)

                  1. Ensure you are running the latest version of Steam.
                  2. Download Anomaly mod latest version 1.5.1 + 1.5.2 from their official ModDB page
                  3. Install Protontricks
                  4. Unzip Anomaly 1.5.1 and unzip to a location of your choice
                  5. Unzip Anomaly 1.5.2 and let it overwrite v1.5.1 as appropriate
                  6. Steam ---> add a non-steam game, select anomalylauncher.exe
                  7. Steam ---> add a non-steam game, select AnomalyDX11AVX.exe
                  8. Set both entries above to use Steam Proton latest version (v.8.0 as of today)
                  9. Run AnomalyLauncher, it should give a popup with the launcher shown
                  10. Run the launcher after you tweak the settings to taste, the game should fail to run (will show vulkan errors)
                  11. Run AnomalyDX11AVX, it should fail to run with the same errors as above (vulkan errors)
                  12. Now run Protontricks, "select default wineprefix", "install a Windows DLL or component"
                  13. Install the following : d3dcompiler_43, d3dcompiler_47, d3dx11_43, d3dx9_43, d3dx9, d3dx10
                  14. After successfull installation of above components, you can exit Protontricks
                  15. Now run AnomalyDX11AVX again, you should be able to see the Anomaly main menu
                  16. Enjoy one of the best free FPS-RPG games ever made with deep lore
                  3 months later

                  Guide to running Ultima VII Part 2 Serpent Isle
                  This 1993 game is the one that inspired Larian Studios to make Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2.
                  I have the fondest memories of playing this and World of Xeen in my younger days.
                  Nostalgia is a powerful thing.

                  1. Download and install Heroic Games Launcher (available on official Solus repo)
                  2. Purchase "Ultima 7 - The Complete Edition" on GoG
                  3. Install game on Heroic
                  4. Go to /home/user/games/heroic/ultima7serpentisle and open up "dosboxSERPENT.conf" in Gedit
                  5. Search for the line "xms=true", change it to FALSE
                  6. Search for the line "umb=true", change it to FALSE
                  7. Search for the line "joysticktype=auto", change it to FALSE
                  8. Save your 3 changes and exit
                  9. Within Heroic Launcher, specify the game to run on Proton 8.0, don't use WINE
                  10. Before you click "Play Now", specify the dropdown list to "Launch Options"

                  I'll add something I've noticed myself

                  THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM (REGULAR VERSION)
                  Issue: game doesn't recognize dedicated GPU despite it's drivers being installed via doflicky (Hardware Drivers app), launches into black screen then crashes

                  Solution: while installing GPU drivers check the "install 32 bit version". After that reboot and Skyrim's launcher should now recognize both GPU's and launch game normally

                  3 months later

                  Guide to running Cyberpunk 2077 v2.0 (with Phantom Liberty)

                  1. Install game, set runner to Proton v8.x.x or Proton Experimental

                  2. Set Launcher Options : "VKD3D_CONFIG=dxr,dxr11 PROTON_HIDE_NVIDIA_GPU=0 PROTON_ENABLE_NVAPI=1 gamemoderun %command% --intro-skip -skipStartScreen --launcher-skip --nogamepad -dx12"

                  Note that the commands "VKD3D_CONFIG=dxr,dxr11 PROTON_HIDE_NVIDIA_GPU=0 PROTON_ENABLE_NVAPI=1" enables Nvidia 30xx users to use Raytracing in-game, at a somewhat substantial cost to FPS.

                  Game feels well-optimized, i have most settings on high and max (no Raytracing), game runs smoothly at perceived >60fps.

                  CP2077 is absolutely a towering achievement in world building and atmosphere. Very movie-like cyberpunk and intense set-pieces. Basically Deus Ex 1 + Blade Runner on steroids.

                  a month later

                  Halo MCC (Hopefully for the last time)

                  Everything except for campaign coop works out of the box with Proton. I was finally able to play an entire campaign mission with a friend without desynchronization today by replacing the ucrtbase.dll file. Here are the commands to do so:

                  mkdir /tmp/ucrtbase
cd /tmp/ucrtbase
wget https://download.microsoft.com/download/9/3/F/93FCF1E7-E6A4-478B-96E7-D4B285925B00/vc_redist.x64.exe
cabextract vc_redist.x64.exe
cabextract a10
chmod u+w "[/path/to/steamapps]/compatdata/976730/pfx/drive_c/windows/system32/ucrtbase.dll"
yes | cp ucrtbase.dll "[/path/to/steamapps]/compatdata/976730/pfx/drive_c/windows/system32"

                  You will have to replace [/path/to/steamapps] with the path for your system. If you have it installed on a separate drive (like me) it will be in the folder on that drive.

                  Source: https://www.protondb.com/app/976730

                  2 months later

                  Team Fortress 2

                  I recently switched from Arch to Solus. The native Valve games such as TF2/CSS/DoDS etc no longer launch out the box on most distros. On Arch, I was able to resolve this by installing the AUR package and using a launch option.

                  Solution for eopkg steam:
                  Simple launch option on Steam, no extra packages required. Same one I used on Arch just added a .4 at the ending:
                  LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib32/libtcmalloc.so.4 %command%

                  (Alternatively, you could just use Steam flatpak)

                  a year later

                  Metro Exodus

                  It has a native version, but I had to run it with Proton or it crashed. The audio also crackled and was pitch shifted until I enabled Spatial Audio (Dolby ATMOS) in the audio settings. Ran a lot smoother with V sync too. Any other bugs were just because the game is buggy in places.

                  Can't speak to the enhanced edition since I don't have a Ray Tracing card.

                  Since a couple month i can't play Forza Horizon 5 anymore after more than 85 hours gaming.
                  On startup i can't type an "@" to log in.
                  I tried all possible versions shift 2 shift 8 or alt2.