Working on Linux

[ne11af]

Anyone got this to run on latest proton?
I'm getting Invalid target location error..

[Solokow]

Same Issue here - Using the Steam Version 01.02.11 and Proton 6.3-8 it's not possible to start the game. After opening the Launcher and clicking on "Play" I get the following error message:

"Invalid Target location
Error: Could not find indicated location." (and also whowing the file path of WarInTheEast2.exe)

[codechopper]

I tried checking integrity and uninstall/reinstall, also adjusting permissions on the file and folder with no luck. Since WITE and WITW work so well with Proton, I'm sure someone will find a solution.

I'll tool around a bit again today but I'm no expert :)

[ne11af]

Yeah, same here.. I also tried with all the available proton versions. None of them work.
I really hope the DEV team will have a look at this when they get the time. 'Till then I'll stick with bombing Axis in Italy ;)

[ERutins]

I'm frankly not sure why it wouldn't work if WITE/WITW did. Linux is not officially supported, but I'll ask the main programmer if he knows of anything that changed which might affect this type of emulation.

[codechopper]

I actually bought it from Matrix and it plays well (just a bit slow, and you have to get creative with the map movement) on a Windows KVM so I'm getting my fix. I messed around a bit with the settings but decided to let the Proton pros handle it. I'll keep an eye on ProtonDB and here to see if anyone comes up with a solution.

Thanks Erik, great game!

[rzrx]

I somehow made it running... see here - https://steamcommunity.com/app/1775550/discussions/0/4841930637291941824/

[Solokow]

But it sounds as it's still not playable beacause of the flickering issue. Beside of that it would be great to get a solution for the Launcher problem.

[codechopper]

Running ArchLinux and Kernel 5.15.7-Zen.

With rzrx's "fix" above, it runs perfectly on proton 5.0-10. No screen flicker and runs smoothly so far. Since the game is not officially supported on Linux, this workaround seems to be the magic key...for now :)

[ne11af]

Confirmed, rzrx's workaround works beautifully.. Running it on Ubuntu 20.04 (5.11 kernel), with proton 5.0-10.

Cheers rzrx!

p.s. I've tried to run the game a few days ago with said workaround, got it to start, but with black screen (i could hear the sound). I guess recent update/fix solved that issue for me.
Nvidia card (GeForce GTX 1650 / 460.91.03 driver / 11.2 cuda)

[Frank Exchange Of Views]

How do you do, fellow unix kids; just pitching in my two cents:

rzrx's jankatastic symlinking solution works. 👏👏👏
I (very briefly) fiddled with the launcher config xml, to no avail.

One issue I noticed was that my game would launch in a non-fullscreened window, play some introductory movies, and (seemingly) get stuck at a black screen (window) after the videos. The game was running correctly under the black screen; music was playing and moving the mouse over the window caused invisible menu items to make their focus/highlight noise, etc.

This was found on proton experimental, and all versions of proton after 5.0-10. My solution was to run the game with 5.0-10 proton, disable video playback in the options menu, then revert to using the latest proton. Without the video playback on game init, everything launches fine and seems to be working so far. Seems to be similar to what ne11af mentioned above.

Excited to play this game! Appreciate any work the devs put in on non-Windows platforms - I get it, the Linux market isn't exactly a big cash prize the games studios are excited to compete over, so it's nice to see somebody responding! If nothing else, we're good at tinkering to get things working! Cheers!

[codechopper]

I'm curious what difference would there be running experimental versus an old version (5.0, etc?). I do get some flickering when using the CR and switching back, load screens, etc but it's nothing that interferes with the gameplay. I'm afraid to tinker too much with something that "works." :)

So far, the only REAL issue I've had is loading a saved game after exiting a scenario. It works fine on initial load of the game, but if I want to load a save after playing a bit the game crashes. Again, not a major issue since it loads fairly quickly from scratch.

[Frank Exchange Of Views]

Originally posted by codechopper:

I'm curious what difference would there be running experimental versus an old version (5.0, etc?). I do get some flickering when using the CR and switching back, load screens, etc but it's nothing that interferes with the gameplay. I'm afraid to tinker too much with something that "works." :)

So far, the only REAL issue I've had is loading a saved game after exiting a scenario. It works fine on initial load of the game, but if I want to load a save after playing a bit the game crashes. Again, not a major issue since it loads fairly quickly from scratch.

I experienced something similar to the crash you described, and experienced some flickering on more recent versions of proton that seems tamer on 5.0-10, but even on 5.0-10 I noticed that exiting to menu leaves the map on screen with the menu overlaid on top of it, and attempting to load the game again in this state results in a crash.

My thinking on the subject was that it's a consequence of the way the game handles (or fails to handle) some of its assets, but I haven't dug into any of the changes in proton between versions to see what might be the culprit in these varying levels of stability. It is nice that, as you said, it mostly "works" when you're just playing, since it suggests that there's a plausible fix that wouldn't be too much hassle.

[Solokow]

Any chance to see a fix for that issue so we don't have to do the workaround anymore?

[codechopper]

Sorry to dig up the topic, but I found a fix to the screen flickering (this works on WITE2 and WITW). If you have wine installed on your system, add this to the game launch parameters in steam...

PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%

It has something to do with DIVX but I'm not well versed in it, it's something I found while perusing the arch wiki today. I started playing WITW and since it has no full screen Commander's Report, the flashing was unbearable...so I started digging. This is the only thing I've found to fix it, and it also fixes WITE2.

[Frank Exchange Of Views]

Originally posted by codechopper:

Sorry to dig up the topic, but I found a fix to the screen flickering (this works on WITE2 and WITW). If you have wine installed on your system, add this to the game launch parameters in steam...

PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%

It has something to do with DIVX but I'm not well versed in it, it's something I found while perusing the arch wiki today. I started playing WITW and since it has no full screen Commander's Report, the flashing was unbearable...so I started digging. This is the only thing I've found to fix it, and it also fixes WITE2.

So this is super belated, I saw this message ages ago but didn't reply but I'd just like to shout out, this absolute gem of an reply! Credit where it's due, thanks sooo much for this! This has massively improved my game experience, eliminated a lot of the flickering and instability I was experiencing! Thanks codechopper! This should go on protondb if it isn't already!