Holy cow, Linux works - Steam Proton

Steam recently released their Proton tool, which is a much-tweaked WINE implementation... It's integrated to Steam pretty tightly. Right out the gate I was able to play, on Debian Buster, Doom 3, Dead Space, and a handful of other games that I haven't seen since I left Windows.

DCS:A10 didn't work though... initially....

I just launched it however... and...

I'm on my laptop so I don't have a num-pad or mouse... and I had it set to minimum settings... but instant action puts me in the air and I can fly and click (on what I can see).

I maxed out the settings just for kicks, went full screen... and it kept working. I don't remember any of the controls but was able to do brrtt brrrtt and switch my view:

This is amazing. This was the game I missed the most... I built a head tracking setup from a coat hanger and some LEDs and have a pile of joysticks just for DCS: A-10. I'm terrible at it... but I sure do miss it.

My specs:

- I have an NVidia chipset Dell laptop, running Debian Buster / Testing with XFCE as my DE.

- I am subscribed to the Steam Beta.

- Under Steam Play in the Steam Settings, I have "Enable Steam Play for all titles" enabled.

- I am not using any specific compatibility tool.

- My options (because I'm on an Optimus compatible laptop) for launching it are simply: "primusrun %command%"

- I launched steam from the command line, but did not use primusrun to do so.

Can't wait to get home and try it on my actual PC with my dedicated hardware.

Sharing in case this is useful for someone else! I'll have to try DCS: World and DCS: Black Shark as well.

Overkill;3752016']Can't wait to get home and try it on my actual PC with my dedicated hardware.

Wow, this is really cool! :thumbup:

Let us know how it runs on the PC.

For me, DCS is the prime reason I'm sticking with Windows.

Nice, at least ED now can start working on a headless multiplayer server running on Linux as well then. ;)

Wow will try that asap! Thanks for the heads up :thumbup:

Did you run it on Windows before? Can you compare the performance?

Steam is doing something right...

Nice, at least ED now can start working on a headless multiplayer server running on Linux as well then. ;)

Haven't they been working on a dedicated server for a while? :huh:

Haven't they been working on a dedicated server for a while? :huh:

Pretty sure they have, but if Linux was ever mentioned at all, it was kind of a very long term goal. For now, I think it's specifically a Windows dedicated server.

That just leaves the question how to pilot the plane without a proper joystick. Is the HTC Vive on Linux, too?

Overkill;3752016']

- I am not using any specific compatibility tool.

How is it possible to use none? :)

I tried with Proton 3.16.4. 3.16-6 Beta and 3.7-8.

No joy, DCS keeps crashing (page fault on read access) on startup.

When you say "DCS:A10" I assume you mean "DCS World Steam Edition" as it is available on Steam?

I will give it another try on the weekend when I have time.

Woah, I really didn't expect DCS to work under steamplay.

All my modules are on the standalone client, but if I can really ditch the win10 I might consider moving my stuff over to the steam version.

How is it possible to use none? :)

I tried with Proton 3.16.4. 3.16-6 Beta and 3.7-8.

No joy, DCS keeps crashing (page fault on read access) on startup.

 

 

When you say "DCS:A10" I assume you mean "DCS World Steam Edition" as it is available on Steam?

 

 

I will give it another try on the weekend when I have time.

I just mean I haven't hit the check box to specifically choose one. Re: DCS World Hm... No, I have "Digital Combat Simulator: A-10C Warthog" in my library which is what I'm using. The store page doesn't seem to exist or something... Uh-oh... I'll try DCS World maybe this weekend.

tintifaxl: From what I've seen of the other Steam Play supported games, the joystick will map right through. I am pretty sure that won't be a problem. Send me an HTC Vive and I'll let you know how it works. :-)

_e10: It has been like 4 years since I saw A10 running on anything. I think my laptop is faster than what I previously ran it on... I would get 20 fps because my CPU couldn't keep up on prior machine... I can't say there was a noticeable frame rate problem on my laptop for the few minutes I ran it (can't do much without a numpad though)

Edit: DCS Black-Shark doesn't work. Bummer. Can get to the menu, but Options presents some LUA errors, and the game crashes right when I'd expect rendering to kick in.

Overkill;3752016']Steam recently released their Proton tool, which is a much-tweaked WINE implementation... It's integrated to Steam pretty tightly. Right out the gate I was able to play, on Debian Buster, Doom 3, Dead Space, and a handful of other games that I haven't seen since I left Windows.

 

 

DCS:A10 didn't work though... initially....

 

 

I just launched it however... and...

 

 

 

I'm on my laptop so I don't have a num-pad or mouse... and I had it set to minimum settings... but instant action puts me in the air and I can fly and click (on what I can see).

 

 

I maxed out the settings just for kicks, went full screen... and it kept working. I don't remember any of the controls but was able to do brrtt brrrtt and switch my view:

 

 

This is amazing. This was the game I missed the most... I built a head tracking setup from a coat hanger and some LEDs and have a pile of joysticks just for DCS: A-10. I'm terrible at it... but I sure do miss it.

 

 

My specs:

- I have an NVidia chipset Dell laptop, running Debian Buster / Testing with XFCE as my DE.

- I am subscribed to the Steam Beta.

- Under Steam Play in the Steam Settings, I have "Enable Steam Play for all titles" enabled.

- I am not using any specific compatibility tool.

- My options (because I'm on an Optimus compatible laptop) for launching it are simply: "primusrun %command%"

- I launched steam from the command line, but did not use primusrun to do so.

 

 

Can't wait to get home and try it on my actual PC with my dedicated hardware.

 

 

Sharing in case this is useful for someone else! I'll have to try DCS: World and DCS: Black Shark as well.

Interesting.... It may be time to start some WINE projects :)

Well perhaps I was just getting lucky... Now that I'm home and have a keyboard/mouse hooked up I'm getting:

wine: Unhandled page fault on read access to 0xf6b71780 at address 0xca355f7 (thread 005b), starting debugger...

>>> Adding process 30193 for game ID 61010

Unhandled exception: page fault on read access to 0xf6b71780 in 64-bit code (0x000000000ca355f7).

006f:fixme:dbghelp:interpret_function_table_entry PUSH_MACHFRAME 6

006f:fixme:dbghelp:interpret_function_table_entry PUSH_MACHFRAME 6

Register dump:

rip:000000000ca355f7 rsp:000000000023e5a0 rbp:0000000000000000 eflags:00210202 ( R- -- I - - - )

rax:00000000f6b71780 rbx:0000000000000000 rcx:00007f0c57dc5e80 rdx:00007f0c57dc5e88

rsi:00007f0bf4644f60 rdi:0000000000000000 r8:0000000000058108 r9:0000000000058108 r10:d7bf8aee00000001

r11:00007f0bd8c64e50 r12:000000000023e658 r13:000000000023e660 r14:0000000000000001 r15:0000000000000000

Stack dump:

0x000000000023e5a0: 00007f0bf4644f60 0000000002888d20

0x000000000023e5b0: 0000000000000000 000000000023e658

0x000000000023e5c0: 0000000000002000 3f80000000000000

0x000000000023e5d0: 00000000000186a0 00007f0bd97541b0

0x000000000023e5e0: 00007f0bac088380 0000000000000000

0x000000000023e5f0: 0000000000000000 000000003f800000

0x000000000023e600: 0000000000000000 000000000023e928

0x000000000023e610: 0000000002b89cd0 000000000ca35866

0x000000000023e620: 0000000000001f40 0000000001b81ce8

0x000000000023e630: 0000000000000000 00007f0bf4644f60

0x000000000023e640: 00007f0b7b38e9f0 000000000ca36302

0x000000000023e650: 0000000001b81ce8 00007f0bd8c64c60

Backtrace:

=>0 0x000000000ca355f7 in effects (+0x255f7) (0x0000000000000000)

1 0x000000000ca35866 in effects (+0x25865) (0x0000000000000000)

2 0x000000000ca36302 in effects (+0x26301) (0x0000000000000000)

0x000000000ca355f7: movq (%rdi,%rax,1),%rcx

Modules:

Which at a glance seems same as Black Shark... and not useful to me. Damn it. I might try it with the laptop unplugged and whatnot, see if it's related to something silly like hardware. Or if it was just two lucky moments. :-(

The problem i always feel wheighs in quite heavy; the mod and program ecosystem around a game. What about SRS, Kneebord Builder and OvGME and the like? Kinda annoying that even if DCS would run reasonably well, the hussle would continue with the quality of life things around it. But great for a step towards linux time...

Post your findings to WineHQ https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?bShowAll=true&bIsQueue=false&bIsRejected=false&sClass=version&sTitle=&sReturnTo=&iId=29309

Got the basic DCS world 2 working on wine with tkg-protonified-3.21 from lutris. Game worked after I installed xact, corefonts and d3dcompiler (I don't know which one fixed the crash), but sound is missing.

Don't forget to install dxvk too.

Free su-25 seems working perfectly (without sound).

After that I installed F18 module but it crashed on mission loading. I fixed it by installing vcrun2015.

For me this is sadly not usable (for daily usage) yet so I will stay with my current setup (Linux + Windows VM with dedicated GPU for DCS :))

Got the basic DCS world 2 working on wine with tkg-protonified-3.21 from lutris. Game worked after I installed xact, corefonts and d3dcompiler (I don't know which one fixed the crash), but sound is missing.

Don't forget to install dxvk too.

 

Free su-25 seems working perfectly (without sound).

 

After that I installed F18 module but it crashed on mission loading. I fixed it by installing vcrun2015.

 

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The interesting thing would be to have DCS run as a dedicated server in WINE. Did you try to host a MP mission from that setup?

Did you try to host a MP mission from that setup?

No yet, I'm still investigating on sound issue.

I have just tested DCS World 2.5.4 with Wine-staging 4.0 rc7 and dxvk 0.94.

It works quite well for me (5 to 15 frames less than under Windows), only the mirrors have to be left out (otherwise the game crashes).

It is important to install the corefonts, otherwise the game crashes.

I use a Ubuntu 18.04 with Mesa 18.3.1 and an AMD Radeon VEGA graphics card.

Unfortunately I can't test a public multiplayer server because I can only be reached externally via IPv6.

@McMicha no sound issues ?

I have just tested DCS World 2.5.4 with Wine-staging 4.0 rc7 and dxvk 0.94.

It works quite well for me (5 to 15 frames less than under Windows), only the mirrors have to be left out (otherwise the game crashes).

It is important to install the corefonts, otherwise the game crashes.

I use a Ubuntu 18.04 with Mesa 18.3.1 and an AMD Radeon VEGA graphics card.

Unfortunately I can't test a public multiplayer server because I can only be reached externally via IPv6.

What CPU do you have?

How much memory do Linux have?

see my signature, is the same pc (dual boot)

Good news! Probably a side-effect of the new protection scheme...

I have now a fully working DCS on linux with this prefix setup (my system is archlinux with nv drivers 415.27) :

- tkg-protonified-3.21 (from lutris), with corefonts and vcrun2015

(wine-staging 4.0 will work too, but linuxtrack doesn't work yet on this version)

- dxvk 0.95

- trackir with linuxtrack 0.99.18

- addons seems to work, either keyless or with starforce (I could run the F18 and the A10C)

Framerate is fine, always 50 to 70 fps on high settings (my setup is i5 4590k + gf 1070, 16GB ram)

Issues :

- Opening F10 map always crash the game.

- I don't manage to use some keys like RAlt (could be specific to my locale)

- If terrain doesn't render (you only see static buildings and trees above water), try setting MSAA option to 4x (when I lower this setting, I lose terrain rendering)

- If you have no sound, your may be missing libavcodec.so.57 and libavutil.so.55 (on archlinux install ffmpeg-compat-57)

edit:

I'm still having terrain rendering issues, seems to not always be linked to MSAA setting, so I'm not sure how to fix that then.. a wine/dxvk professional should help me :)

I have now a fully working DCS on linux with this prefix setup (my system is archlinux with nv drivers 415.27) :

- tkg-protonified-3.21 (from lutris), with corefonts and vcrun2015

(wine-staging 4.0 will work too, but linuxtrack doesn't work yet on this version)

- dxvk 0.95

- trackir with linuxtrack 0.99.18

- addons seems to work, either keyless or with starforce (I could run the F18 and the A10C)

 

Framerate is fine, always 50 to 70 fps on high settings (my setup is i5 4590k + gf 1070, 16GB ram)

 

Issues :

- Opening F10 map always crash the game.

- I don't manage to use some keys like RAlt (could be specific to my locale)

- If terrain doesn't render (you only see static buildings and trees above water), try setting MSAA option to 4x (when I lower this setting, I lose terrain rendering)

- If you have no sound, your may be missing libavcodec.so.57 and libavutil.so.55 (on archlinux install ffmpeg-compat-57)

You should test WINE 4.0 as that is now released!

I'm not going to play on DCS running in Linux but try to use it as a server so graphics does not matter to me. Sound should be no problem. Thanks for testing it out!