How to start most games under Optimus

[CyberXZT]

These steps are no longer needed as Steam now supports Optimus. Click here for information on Steam's implementation.

Most games can be started under Optimus easily. This does not include Source games. If you are looking for instructions for Source games, check here.

First, enter the directory where the game's binaries are located.

cd ~/Steam/SteamApps/path/to/binary/

Next, many games (especially ones with DLC) require you to define an app ID. For more information on this, click here. Finally, start the game with the following command:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=~/Steam/ubuntu12_32:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH optirun ./game-binary

(Replace 'game-binary' with the name of the actual binary.)

List of known games that support this method:
(Leave a reply if you know of a game that is not on this list.)

• Killing Floor
  
• World of Goo
  
• Psychonauts
  
• Amnesia
  
• Serious Sam 3
  
• Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
  
• Crusader Kings 2

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[Black Eco]

It works fine with Amnesia ;)
Thanks for the tip, now it works fluently and the textures aren't blinking anymore :)

[CyberXZT]

Thanks for the heads up! Added to the list! :D

[Bubba]

This method doesn't seem to be working for me :/ It manages to start the Nvidia card but doesn't start the game at all. I have tried it with and without a "steam_appid.txt" in the folder with the game binary (the value is 41070). Here is some short output from my terminal after running the command:

bubba@Sammy:~/Steam/SteamApps/common/Serious Sam 3/Bin$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=~/Steam/ubuntu12_32:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH optirun ./Sam3
WRN: CPU Power saving is enabled and performance governor is not used.
INF: GameEnv API: Steam

The "WRN" shouldn't be an issue, its just that i have my cpu throttled in my BIOS. But I have tried it both ways just in case. Once it gets to this point it doesn't move or do anything. I've ran "top" to see if i can find any sign of a process ID and I don't see anything out of the usual.

Other notes: I have also used primusrun to see if that does anything, it doesn't even trip the graphics card to come on. Also I'm using the updated version of bumblebee that allows use of the 310 drivers (which i have installed and work great with TF2).

Any help would be appreciated as the game doesn't even launch with the built-in intel graphics.

[CyberXZT]

Hello, what kind of GPU do you have? Also, have you tried running SS3 on the Intel card? It will obviously lag but I want to make sure it is not the game itself.

[Bubba]

Originally posted by CyberXZT:

Hello, what kind of GPU do you have? Also, have you tried running SS3 on the Intel card? It will obviously lag but I want to make sure it is not the game itself.

Hi CyberXZT, Thanks for the response!! Yes the game does run when I use my integrated HD4000 graphics card. The discrete card that I have in my laptop is a "NVIDIA Corporation GK107 [GeForce GT 650M] (rev ff)" when I run "lspci". This is the laptop that I own (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0083S3PEE/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00). Should be more than enough power to push this game with medium-medium/high settings. Like I said the game just doesn't start at all when I run the command.

[Bubba]

Update: Well here now that's interesting.......of after multiple reboots all of a sudden it works! I didn't change any settings, didn't move any files, didn't do anything other than shut it down and come back a few hours later, and now it works (insert ITCrowd joke here). I'm not going to complain, but i do wish that I knew why it did that. Thanks CyberXZT for your response.

[CyberXZT]

I am going to lock this thread. If anyone has any problems please post it in the new forum.

[Justin Bieber]

Bubbla

 postWRN: CPU Power saving is enabled and performance governor is not used. 

That might have been the reason why it works after multiple reboots.

[Bubba]

Well it works now so it's all good ;)

[Columpio Asesino ︻芫===]

I can confirm this works with Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP

I first modified the file "~/.local/share/Steam/SteamApps/common/Superbrothers\ Sword\ \&\ Sworcery\ EP/run.sh" and I included this line:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH"

Then I created the file steam_appid.txt in the subfolder "bin" with the ID 204060:

echo "204060" > bin/steam_appid.txt

Then I started the game:

optirun ./run.sh

Regards!

[CyberXZT]

Thanks! Added!

[diogo.abdalla]

I just tried this method to run Cruzader Kings 2 and it works!!

The games its runs with EXCELENT FPS (I had tried before without optirun and it was unplayable).

The only thing is: now sound is not working, I have no idea why

[CyberXZT]

Do you have the "$LD_LIBRARY_PATH" part in the full command? Leaving out that specific part will cause the sound to stop functioning in some games.

[diogo.abdalla]

Ive copied the line above:
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=~/Steam/ubuntu12_32:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH optirun ./ck2
although Im not really using ubuntu, but mint

Im not really sure this path is correct, but at the same time, Ive been having quite a bit of sound issues lately, so this is probably not related to optirun.

Anyway, you can add Crusader Kings 2 to the list above

[diogo.abdalla]

By the way, I just fixed sound and it really wanst related to optimus run at all.

Now I got CK 2 running prefectlly, excelent FPS and all