Anything to make gaming easier, especially non-Steam. I’ll list what I know of so far:

Bottles.

Faugus Launcher. UMU-Launcher GUI, which is kinda like Bottles but for proton specifically instead of WINE. It’s early dev and lacks functional GameScope for now, but Bottles I noticed really doesn’t like me using proton so this was an alternative I found.

This is a unified launcher for Windows games on Linux. It is essentially a copy of the Steam Runtime Tools and Steam Linux Runtime that Valve uses for Proton, with some modifications made so that it can be used outside of Steam.

MangoHUD of course.

Heroic Games Launcher.

Lutris.

I have Itch.io’s launcher too.

ProtonUp Qt - grab various versions of WINE or proton for all these applications.

Winboat - Trying some experimental fuckery to use Vortex but I’ve not got that far yet, just got Winboat itself set up so far. edit: It worked surprisingly, modded Skyrim Special Edition, see my other comments here.

  • vividspecter@aussie.zone
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    • LACT for undervolting/overclocking etc

    • lsfg-vk for frame interpolation (requires paid Lossless Scaling) windows app

    • syncthing for “cloud” saving usually by creating symlinks to the actual game save dir

    • Using unix signals to pause processes so you get a suspend/resume like setup without suspending the whole system

    • Sunshine + Moonlight for streaming to my steam deck and also from a Linux VM to host sometimes. I can also use this setup over my headscale/tailscale VPN setup for remote usage, although I haven’t tested it yet.

    • wivrn + xrizer to play VR games with a standalone headset

    • hid-fanatecff is for Fanatec sim racing gear, although I haven’t tested this one yet.

    I sometimes also create nix packages to automate download and installation of mods and prefix setup etc, but that’s getting into advanced territory.

    • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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      Fuck lact with a cactus. It underclocked my GPU without any doing on my part and would only leave it to work properly after i completely wiped and reinstalled my system without lact.

      Unless you are some really obsessive tinkerer i feel fucking around with the clock speeds (especially when underclocking) really isnt worth it.

      • WereCat@lemmy.world
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        Probably a bug with power saving. All you had to do is to select manual tuning power option and then unroll the greyed out submenu which is not immediately apparent. There you would check max speed instead of the base speed.

        I have to do this for VRAM but for core clock I don’t have this issue

    • BurgerBaron@piefed.socialOP
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      Awesome list, lsfg-vk caught my eye. I didn’t consider finding a way to use Lossless on Linux and I already own it.

      Do the VR tools work well with a Meta Quest 3? That’s in my living room while my desktop still has a Valve Index set up which I know works better with Linux.

      • vividspecter@aussie.zone
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        Do the VR tools work well with a Meta Quest 3?

        Yep. It’s arguably the best supported headset on Linux, perhaps even more than the Index due to some bugs with the FOSS stack. Shame it’s Meta though, so hopefully the Deckard actually happens.

        • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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          so hopefully the Deckard actually happens.

          indeed.

          beginning to wonder if the world economies tanking is going to make it infeasible.

          • rustyricotta@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            I do think that the world state has delayed it, I do believe it’s coming.

            Bradley is the best source of news/copium. xcancel. Promising news is coming relatively consistently now. Cope launch date is Q4 this year.

            • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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              I see his youtube videos occasionally. xcancel isn’t working and i really don’t want to see twitter anyway, tis a shithole. but tyvm for the notes!

  • who@feddit.org
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    Mumble is great for group voice chat.

    OBS Studio is handy for recording. I sometimes leave its replay buffer running so I can tap a key to save the last N minutes of whatever just happened, sometimes to demonstrate a bug, but usually just to save funny/surprising/heroic moments from my games.

    for proton specifically instead of WINE

    To be clear, Wine is a large part of Proton. You’re not using it instead of Wine; you’re using both.

  • _hovi_@lemmy.world
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    rofi-games for launching games since I made it!

    Most other things have been suggested already, but I will mention Prism Launcher as my preferred modded Minecraft instance manager. Oh, and vkbasalt was essential for making Kenshi look good but I haven’t used it for any other games.

      • _hovi_@lemmy.world
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        If that’s the vkBasalt.conf file, sure, here it is, though I probably stole this from somewhere else online and most of it seems to be commented out:

        vkBasalt.conf
        #effects is a colon separated list of effect to use
        #e.g.: effects = fxaa:cas
        #effects will be run in order from left to right
        #one effect can be run multiple times e.g. smaa:smaa:cas
        #cas    - Contrast Adaptive Sharpening
        #dls    - Denoised Luma Sharpening
        #fxaa   - Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing
        #smaa   - Enhanced Subpixel Morphological Antialiasing
        #lut    - Color LookUp Table
        effects = cas:clarity:curves:multilut:dls:smaa:fxaa
        
        clarity = "/opt/reshade/shaders/Clarity.fx"
        curves = "/opt/reshade/shaders/Curves.fx"
        multilut = "/opt/reshade/shaders/MultiLUT.fx"
        bloom = "/opt/reshade/shaders/Bloom.fx"
         
        reshadeTexturePath = "/opt/reshade/textures"
        reshadeIncludePath = "/opt/reshade/shaders/"
        depthCapture = off
         
        #toggleKey toggles the effects on/off
        toggleKey = Home
         
        #Clarity.fx
        ClarityBlendIfDark=50
        ClarityBlendIfLight=205
        ClarityBlendMode=2
        ClarityDarkIntensity=0.400000
        ClarityLightIntensity=0.000000
        ClarityOffset=2.000000
        ClarityRadius=3
        ClarityStrength=0.600000
        ClarityViewBlendIfMask=0
        ClarityViewMask=0
         
        #Curves.fx
        Contrast=0.100000
        Formula=4
        Mode=0
         
        #MultiLUT
        fLUT_AmountChroma=0.750000
        fLUT_AmountLuma=0.750000
        fLUT_LutSelector=1
         
        #casSharpness specifies the amount of sharpning in the CAS shader.
        #0.0 less sharp, less artefacts, but not off
        #1.0 maximum sharp more artefacts
        #Everything in between is possible
        #negative values sharpen even less, up to -1.0 make a visible difference
        casSharpness = 0.8
         
        #dlsSharpness specifies the amount of sharpening in the Denoised Luma Sharpening shader.
        #Increase to sharpen details within the image.
        #0.0 less sharp, less artefacts, but not off
        #1.0 maximum sharp more artefacts
        dlsSharpness = 1.0
         
        #dlsDenoise specifies the amount of denoising in the Denoised Luma Sharpening shader.
        #Increase to limit how intensely film grain within the image gets sharpened.
        #0.0 min
        #1.0 max
        dlsDenoise = 0.17
         
        #fxaaQualitySubpix can effect sharpness.
        #1.00 - upper limit (softer)
        #0.75 - default amount of filtering
        #0.50 - lower limit (sharper, less sub-pixel aliasing removal)
        #0.25 - almost off
        #0.00 - completely off
        fxaaQualitySubpix = 0.75
         
        #fxaaQualityEdgeThreshold is the minimum amount of local contrast required to apply algorithm.
        #0.333 - too little (faster)
        #0.250 - low quality
        #0.166 - default
        #0.125 - high quality 
        #0.063 - overkill (slower)
        #fxaaQualityEdgeThreshold = 0.125
         
        #fxaaQualityEdgeThresholdMin trims the algorithm from processing darks.
        #0.0833 - upper limit (default, the start of visible unfiltered edges)
        #0.0625 - high quality (faster)
        #0.0312 - visible limit (slower)
        #Special notes: due to the current implementation you
        #Likely want to set this to zero.
        #As colors that are mostly not-green
        #will appear very dark in the green channel!
        #Tune by looking at mostly non-green content,
        #then start at zero and increase until aliasing is a problem.
        #fxaaQualityEdgeThresholdMin = 0.0312
         
        #smaaEdgeDetection changes the edge detection shader
        #luma  - default
        #color - might catch more edges, but is more expensive
        #smaaEdgeDetection = luma
         
        #smaaThreshold specifies the threshold or sensitivity to edges
        #Lowering this value you will be able to detect more edges at the expense of performance.
        #Range: [0, 0.5]
        #0.1 is a reasonable value, and allows to catch most visible edges.
        #0.05 is a rather overkill value, that allows to catch 'em all.
        #smaaThreshold = 0.1
         
        #smaaMaxSearchSteps specifies the maximum steps performed in the horizontal/vertical pattern searches
        #Range: [0, 112]
        #4  - low
        #8  - medium
        #16 - high
        #32 - ultra
        #smaaMaxSearchSteps = 32
         
        #smaaMaxSearchStepsDiag specifies the maximum steps performed in the diagonal pattern searches
        #Range: [0, 20]
        #0  - low, medium
        #8  - high
        #16 - ultra
        #smaaMaxSearchStepsDiag = 16
         
        #smaaCornerRounding specifies how much sharp corners will be rounded
        #Range: [0, 100]
        #25 is a reasonable value
        #smaaCornerRounding = 25
        
  • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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    Is there a good alternative to CheatEngine? Game Conqueror fails to find the correct addresses most of the time and its speedhack almost never works

  • UndergroundGoblin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    I’m using Ludosavi to make a copy of my savefiles. It’s able to automatically detect installed games and local savefiles. I just discovered it and using it to make a copies of the savefiles on my Main machine to transfer them to my Steamdeck running Lutris. Maybe I try to configure an automation which makes a copy every time a savefiles has been updated and sync it with my Steamdeck. Just for a seamless transfer without manually copy ever folder by hand if I want to sync my savefiles.

  • VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    Steam and Protontricks and that’s it.

    Perhaps I should explore some alternatives, just to make sure my bases are covered, but I can play all I want to play with those tools.

    Sorry if that’s not the response you were seeking. Do you not use Steam?

  • IndigoGolem@lemmy.world
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    AntiMicroX for converting gamepad inputs to keyboard inputs. I pretty much only use it for Super Smash Flash 2.

    • BurgerBaron@piefed.socialOP
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      I made extensive use of reWASD for a few games in the past. I’ll miss that program occasionally haha. AntiMicroX is probably the best sort of alternative yeah?

      • IndigoGolem@lemmy.world
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        Hard to say, i’ve never used reWASD. There’s another program called Input Remapper that i haven’t used for games but which is supposed to be like AntiMicroX but for keyboard, mouse, and gamepad inputs and outputs going both ways. So i can make my keyboard an Xbox controller, my Wii U controller a keyboard, my mouse a pair of DK Bongos probably, and so on. But i don’t know how to make it work without sudo access (apparently some programs need that and some don’t to mess with inputs) so i don’t like using it.

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        Steam Input can do all of that plus a nearly infinite amount of other things, and it’s built right into Steam. Even if it’s a non Steam game, you can still launch it through Steam and use Proton and Steam Input.

        • IndigoGolem@lemmy.world
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          Some people don’t like Steam running in the background. My last computer was so weak it couldn’t run light weight games through Steam because of the extra resource usage.

  • Chaser@lemmy.zip
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    +1 for Lutris! It’s not only good for games, but also for regular Windows software like FL Studio. Another “tool” I use a lot is ssh. I use Gamescope on my PC with Steam Big Picture mode. Gamescope gains a few more fps, than a regular de. Also HDR works just fine with it. See: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Gamescope However. Sometimes I need an desktop environment. So I created a Home Assistant automation, that allows me to switch to desktop. Now I have 2 buttons on my smartwatch. One to boot the PC and turn on the tv, avr, etc. The other for the desktop mode. I also have some nfc cards for my favorite games. Same thing here: When scanned they trigger a ha automation, which starts the games over ssh 😎

    • BurgerBaron@piefed.socialOP
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      The ssh wizardry is impressive lol, I’m still learning the basics for now but I’ll keep this in mind.

      Do you know of any tricks / command line entries for stubborn games that won’t use HDR correctly like Lego Star Wars - The Skywalker Saga? Gets wrong colors with HDR toggled on in Heroic and in-game. I’m stumped as to why.

      • Chaser@lemmy.zip
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        Oh, one more thing regarding the ssh wizardry (lol!): It’s not that complicated. You can pass your command as last parameter. For example if you want to launch Dorfromantik (which you should btw), you could do it like this:

        ssh me@mymachine "steam steam://rungameid/1455840"
        

        That’s the whole magic. Like this it won’t start an interactive shell, but run the command and closes the connection once the command finishes.

      • Chaser@lemmy.zip
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        If I remember correctly I had to give gamescope a flag to enable hdr at all. However there was an env too, to tell the windows games through proton, that the machine supports hdr. I’ll check my scripts later for you

        • BurgerBaron@piefed.socialOP
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          Thanks for the follow-ups, very useful. The only feature of my displays I’ve not looked into yet is getting VRR working now.

          Edit: I wishlist Dorfromantik too :p

        • Chaser@lemmy.zip
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          A man, a word. This is my gamescope-session.sh

          #!/bin/sh
          
          export DXVK_HDR=1
          /usr/bin/gamescope --hdr-enabled -e -- /usr/bin/steam-native -tenfoot
          

          I’ve created a /usr/share/wayland-sessions/gamescope-session.desktop for it, so I can launch it from login screen (or auto start it in my case)

          [Desktop Entry]
          Name=Steam Big Picture Mode
          Comment=Start Steam in Big Picture Mode
          Exec=/home/chaser/bin/gamescope-session.sh
          Type=Application
          

          In theory this should run all games, that support hdr in hdr. At least Cyberpunk does.

    • BurgerBaron@piefed.socialOP
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      Theoretically you could use LIMO:

      https://github.com/limo-app/limo

      I have no idea how to use it yet.

      It can be done with Winboat. I just finished my first experiment and tried Skyrim Special Edition with the Unofficial Patch and SkyUI. It worked, but I had to set up all the file paths manually since the game isn’t installed on the virtual machine. Winboat lets you access your Linux home directory on the Desktop so long as you enable that option while setting up Winboat.

      That and at least with Skyrim, you need to run the game once on Linux first to generate the initial INI config files. Since it’s not installed on Windows you need to copy them out of the Steam prefix folder and then paste them where they’re expected to be on Windows. In Documents/My Games.

      Once done modding, copy those INI files if any mods touched them and overwrite the INI files on Linux.

      In Steam, set Skyrim’s launch arguments to:

      bash -c ‘exec “${@/SkyrimLauncher.exe/skse_loader.exe}”’ – %command%

      Then you’ll have Steam Overlay with Script Extender loaded.

      Messy screenshot gallery: https://postimg.cc/gallery/6WGPD4h

      Sorry bed time here and I’m learning how to do this on the fly. I didn’t organize this very much.

      Given this success I expect Mod Organizer 2 and METweaks Mod Manager for Mass Effect would work too with some annoying babysitting.

      edit: One thing that really annoying is Steam using the Title ID numbers for compatdata instead of the fucking game NAME. It’s not human friendly to navigate. Have to look up the TitleID on steamdb or sort compatdata folder by Modified most recently in Dolphin or whatever.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        LIMO would absolutely work to mod Skyrim from Linux.

        It is universal, it will work with anything, you just may have to do a teensy bit more manualy configuration than some game specific mod tool.

        It’s basically MO2, but linux native.

        I’ve been using it for almost 2 years now, because I got tired of waiting for NexusMods to figure out how to make their own linux compatible modnmanager, and got very tired of having to do a custom MO2 install/container/whatever for every different game.

        I’ve got my own 100+ mod sets working for Fallout New Vegas and CyberPunk 2077, via LIMO… on a Deck, on Bazzite.

        LIMO supports FOMOD bundled mods, as well as more standard archives of files.

        All you really have to do is construct a deployer, which is basically a pathway to the actual game directory, and then also set aside a directory for LIMO managed mods to live in.

        It then does a virtual file structure that can be deployed/undeployed to/from the actual game directory, at whim.

        You can manage load orders, it has mod/file conflict indicators, you can tag and group various kinds of mods by doing regex filters, you can have different mod profiles, one very neat thing it does is an automatic attempt at directory matching, ie, if somebody made a mod that didn’t properly replicate the game’s dir structure, it’ll indicate that and allow you to tweak it a bit… don’t think there is a super simple UI way to export and then share a modlist/profile yet, but presumably they just live in the var/apps/flatpak/whatever dir, somewhere.

        … the only problems you may run into are things that:


        Fully overwrite the actual game exe, like NVSE, but this can be worked around by maybe setting up a new profile for however you are launching the game, to point at that exe, or just manually going in and renaming the old exe to .exe.OLD or something like that, and then naming your mod exe to the same name as the original game exe, and turning off any auto updates.

        You’ve well described a decent solution for handling SKSE, so good work!


        Also problematic are things like… massive archive rectifiers, that are actually just exes or batch files or whatever, that go through and make a ton of edits to core game archive files.

        Because these archive type files are basically compressed in their own way, you can’t just point by point overwrite them with minor loose files, you have to make the corrections and then basically recompress them, thats what these rectifier exes and batch files do.

        Generally speaking, you can just run these rectifiers through the same proton config that you use successfully for the game itself, though you may have to use ProtonTricks to add in extra dependencies like vcrun20xx or whatever, also it can be worth it to throw in some stuff to help render fonts properly with the right antialiasing.

        Just make sure you’ve put them in the equivalently correct dir in the game as you would for following windows based instructions for using them.


        Any mod that ends up, in the course of being run with the game, actually creates/writes new files beyond what is just directly installed by LIMO.

        When you undeploy mods via LIMO… well, LIMO doesn’t know that some advanced scripting mod writes its own config and ini files on the game executing with the mod for the first time, it doesn’t know those exist, so it doesn’t remove them.

        For that, you again just kinda have to manually either just go in and remove them from the game dir, or, you could run those kinds of mods initially, then go into that directory where LIMO stores uncompressed mods, and add those files manually in there.

        That way LIMO knows they exist, and deploys them with the mod, so your mod sees that those files already exist and thus isn’t trying to do what it thinks is an initial setup every time, potentially causing lots of silly shenanigans.


        I’ve not heard of WinBoat… What I do is just use ProtonTricks to manage the Steam compat data/prefix data for the game I am modding, and if any mod needs some kind of Windows dependency to work properly, ProtonTricks can handle installing and managing that, albeit through a somewhat clumsy UI, it is at least less tedious than manually looking up Steam’s compat data/prefix locations that are all done by game id.

        Just add in your dependency for that mod, to that game’s compat/Proton prefix.

        Hah, if you think that’s bad, try fucking figuring out which steam workshop mod is which, they’re also all done by workshop mod ids for the folder names, so its fucking opaque… i think there are some websites that have searchable ways of solving that problem tho.

        • BurgerBaron@piefed.socialOP
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          4 days ago

          Extremely useful comment thank you!

          try fucking figuring out which steam workshop mod is which

          You can’t make me!

          • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            Happy to help!

            But yeah, I think I might actually prefer having a toothpick jammed under my fingernail over trying to manually find which steam workshop mod is which.

  • dgdft@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Since no one else has said it yet, ZFS is underrated for gaming. Compression saves considerable disk space if you have a big library, you can stripe HDDs for better performance, and snapshotting makes backups a breeze.

      • dgdft@lemmy.world
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        Been happy on ZFS since before btrfs stabilized and worked out its kinks, so I can’t personally vouch for it — but nothing against it in theory :).

      • smiletolerantly@awful.systems
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        (not the poster above)

        btrfs is the only fs I’ve ever seen people have issues with, so I didn’t even want to try (though, I do recognize that that is just personal bias). I also don’t need the backup/rollback features.

        Happily running xfs.