[Solution] How to edit Proton configs to make your win games work

[Cat on Linux]

Proton installs to your steamapps once you install any of win games. to access it you need to locate Proton folder and run in terminal similar command, where my-steam-lib is path on your system

env WINEPREFIX="/my-steam-lib/steamapps/common/Proton 3.7/dist/share/default_pfx" WINEPATH="/my-steam-lib/steamapps/common/Proton 3.7/dist/bin/wine64" winecfg

maybe you need own wine installed to access winecfg, also this should work with winetricks (installed separately for your OS)
I tried to apply virtual desktop - it works! :)

also make sure to check Proton folder for py script where you can switch from Vulkan to dx

happy tweaking!

PS: if to access this wine prefix from winetricks and check registry entries you can see Valve steam app for windows. Looks like they're running it in the background, so technically we still run 2 steam apps :)

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EDIT:
as mentioned by x_wing
there is one wineprefix for each game you install. Each prefix is identified by their appid as is located here: $YOUR_STEAM_APP_DIR/steamapps/compatdata/[0-9]*/pfx

to access prefix of your game directly issue winecfg on that particular folder. this way you can edit settings only for this game.

as mentioned by user Random,
proton has winecfg support. you can use /tmp/proton_run winecfg on a prefix for protons own winecfg.

Also IMPORTANT NOTE:
all changes you do to main prefix and to game prefixes won't last forever. When you update steam app it will revert Proton main prefix to default empty prefix and your customizations will be lost.
game prefix will last till you repair game files or update it. it can prove difficult to maintain such games with custom tweaks, unless you're willing to reapply your customization every time it resets by steam.

[x_wing]

Didn't see any extra steam client while running a game. But I saw a new process monitoring the game (can remember the name now).

Also, I find out that some ago time while trying to figure out how run a windows game downloaded with steamcmd and using steam linux client, the game was able to report to status to the linux client, but was failing to start (probably due yo drm problems). So, maybe to registry inputs you found are the required ones to be able to run games with linux client... anyway, just guessing here.

[thetargos]

Originally posted by Cat on Linux:

happy tweaking! :tabbycat:

PS: if to access this wine prefix from winetricks and check registry entries you can see Valve steam app for windows. Looks like they're running it in the background, so technically we still run 2 steam apps :)

Hence the memory blackhole.

[Marlock]

Lets hope they further develop this windows-steam-for-proton thingy so it has a smaller footprint and just forwards whatever necessary to proton itself... if that even is what they did to make windows games run happy in proton

[Cat on Linux]

yes, let's hope this thing will improve, it's only release day aftre all.

Another thing I have noticed that Steam Play games won't install on NTFS partitions while common Linux games have no issues with that. Yet another wine bug. If you try to install game on NTFS partition to access it from dual booting it won't work - steam installation will run endlessly with reports about corrupt files. Only ext4. So no dual booting with Steam Play, no NTFS partitions for windows games (which is funny because you can use NTFS for Linux games)

[thetargos]

Most likely relies on symlinks, which NTFS on Linux does not support

[Cat on Linux]

Originally posted by thetargos:

Most likely relies on symlinks, which NTFS on Linux does not support

no, it's issue with permissions, NTFS lacks owner and it causes dismay in some sloppy wine configurations. It happened many times to "linux ports" aka wine wrappers from Topware publisher.

[thetargos]

I have little to no experience running Wine from NTFS volumes other than the occasional run for some random app off a flash drive.

[Cat on Linux]

Originally posted by thetargos:

I have little to no experience running Wine from NTFS volumes other than the occasional run for some random app off a flash drive.

it does not affect own wine, at least I've been able to run software and drm-free games from NTFS (where's my main storage partition) without any issues. Something happens when it's managed from steam. So it is better to install steam games to ext4 just to avoid this hassle.

[thetargos]

I see... Makes sense, especially for the management and perms, where Linux does not support per-user settings of NTFS volumens (at least not with FUSE nor native ntfs I THINK some of the paid for options do have that, but I'd bet it is limited)

[x_wing]

@Cat Just one note: there is one wineprefix for each game you install. Each prefix is identified by their appid as is located here: $YOUR_STEAM_APP_DIR/steamapps/compatdata/[0-9]*/pfx

So, in order to play the games with a local wine, it may be better to point the wine prefix to the one of your steam app (that way all changes you do in order to improve that game will only affect that game).

In the other hand, the only thing I found from the Windows steam are the steam dll (probably required for the game to "authenticate" the copy). Even though, I'm not sure if this dll are the same as Windows version (probably not).

[Cat on Linux]

Originally posted by x_wing:

@Cat Just one note: there is one wineprefix for each game you install. Each prefix is identified by their appid as is located here: $YOUR_STEAM_APP_DIR/steamapps/compatdata/[0-9]*/pfx

good! :) it can help to update prefix directly. I wonder if it can be replaced with 32 bit, or even with own wine prefix

[thetargos]

Maybe in the future you may get the option to use host wine... who knows?

@X_Wing, from what I can tell, you have per game profiles, with a Steam "installation" with some .dlls under $WINEPREFIX/$C/Program\ Filees\ \(x86\)/Steam, at leeast of all the games I have trieed, so that to me says 64-bit profiles by default.

[Cat on Linux]

wine prefix in compatdata folder created on the fly at the first game run and uses master prefix to copy all its content. from what I can see all prefixes it creates is 64 bit just like master prefix.

no, I don't like it. need 3 different prefixes to pick from. 32 bit with dontet 20, 32 bit with dotnet 45 (it won't install in 64 bit) and 64 bit with mono. Now half of games fail because they need .NET and you can't add it manually to 64 bit local prefix with mono.
it's even more hassle to configure than just to run good old wine with already created 32 bit prefix. you need to go thru this process for every game you install.
best way is to move all failed games to category "my wine only" and forget about it. Use only what works out of the box.

[thetargos]

I guess that's gonna be the case as they "whitelist" more games, in the end, is us, the users, who know the tweaks... for some reason, though I have not had issues with my default 64-bit prefix, though. Then again, maybe I do not know which games do require .NET 4.5... Correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't Microsoft forsaking .NET in favor of Mono? (after all, Miguel de Icaza, Mono creator works at Microsoft)

[Cat on Linux]

Originally posted by thetargos:

Correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't Microsoft forsaking .NET in favor of Mono? (after all, Miguel de Icaza, Mono creator works at Microsoft)

Some games are particularly nasty about NET. Sims 3 for example, it needs at least NET 20 to run. When I tried to run it with NET 46 it said "where's NET?" and crashed :) it does nothing in run from mono prefix. NET 20 can be installed only on 32bit prefix. so to run Sims 3 you need 32 bit prefix with dotnet 20, otherwise you won't be able to run it from steam and log your time (64 bit prefix with mono can run game itself but it will lack some EA features).
same way you can have issues with Oblivion and it's script manager and lots of indie games - old and new. Developers are not very good at following latest trends, they can use whatever they have.