Adding outside game EXEs to Steam...then playing via Proton

[Moebius]

Is this possible? If you have a DRM free copy of a game, is there a way to "install" it on Linux, add to Steam, and then play via Proton?

[🐧 thohal]

Sure - u can run $whatever-binary via steam :)

You'll end up with a command like this...

WINEDEBUG=-all wine "/home/user/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/$PiratedGame/PiratedGame.exe"

[Bloo Alien]

Originally posted by 🐧 thohal:

Sure - u can run $whatever-binary via steam :)

You'll end up with a command like this...

WINEDEBUG=-all wine "/home/user/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/$PiratedGame/PiratedGame.exe"

Note that "DRM-free" does not necessarily imply "pirated". GOG and Humble Bundle (among others) sell more than a few entirely legit games totally sans-DRM.

[jason]

Games > add a non steam game > browse > change file type to all files and find the exe > add selected programs

Right click the new entry in your list, check the force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool and select Proton version. Give it a nice name and an icon if you want.

[Moebius]

Originally posted by jason:

Games > add a non steam game > browse > change file type to all files and find the exe > add selected programs

Right click the new entry in your list, check the force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool and select Proton version. Give it a nice name and an icon if you want.

Excellent, I figured Steam had that ability still in Linux. I guess my question is, lets say i get a game from GOG, how would I extract and "install" on Linux?

[WarnerCK]

Originally posted by ♢ Moebius:

Excellent, I figured Steam had that ability still in Linux. I guess my question is, lets say i get a game from GOG, how would I extract and "install" on Linux?

One way is to initially point Steam at the installer, run that through Proton, then change the file that Steam's pointing at to the now-installed game executable file.

Another way is to run the installer through Wine/Lutris/whatever and then point Steam at the Wine container.

The first way is neater, since everything ends up in the same place as it would if you were installing a Steam-native game through Proton. The second way is a reasonable alternative if you've already got it running, or the install scripts don't work well with Proton, or whatever.

[Moebius]

Originally posted by WarnerCK:

Originally posted by ♢ Moebius:

Excellent, I figured Steam had that ability still in Linux. I guess my question is, lets say i get a game from GOG, how would I extract and "install" on Linux?

One way is to initially point Steam at the installer, run that through Proton, then change the file that Steam's pointing at to the now-installed game executable file.

Another way is to run the installer through Wine/Lutris/whatever and then point Steam at the Wine container.

The first way is neater, since everything ends up in the same place as it would if you were installing a Steam-native game through Proton. The second way is a reasonable alternative if you've already got it running, or the install scripts don't work well with Proton, or whatever.

Thanks for the info! I did end up doing it the second way. I added the game EXE in Steam. You mentioned pointing steam at the "Container" are you referring to the installed games folder? or the EXE like I mentioned?

Additionally, the Proton database website mentions starting games with certain commands. Where is that done? And does WINE/steam let you change the windows versions from lets say 7 to XP or vice versa?

[WarnerCK]

Originally posted by ♢ Moebius:

You mentioned pointing steam at the "Container" are you referring to the installed games folder? or the EXE like I mentioned?

Wine sets up a pretend Windows environment to run Windows applications in. You can have more than one. Proton and Lutris by default have a different pretend environment for each application. Wine by default just throws everything into the same one.

The Wine documentation refers to it as a "prefix," since the way to say which environment you want to use is specified before you run the command, but conceptually that's not terribly helpful.

Additionally, the Proton database website mentions starting games with certain commands. Where is that done? And does WINE/steam let you change the windows versions from lets say 7 to XP or vice versa?

If you're starting them in Steam you just set them in the game's Properties: options you're adding after the command would be of the form

-blah -blahblah

and ones before would be of the form

blahblah %command%

since %command% is a placeholder. You can combine them into

blahblah %command% -blah

if you need to.

Which pretend Windows version is used in each pretend Windows environment can be set. Running winecfg in the prefix you're interested in is one way, although there are others. Lutris makes it easy, messing directly with text files makes it hard, winetricks/protontricks are somewhere in the middle.

[Moebius]

Originally posted by WarnerCK:

Originally posted by ♢ Moebius:

You mentioned pointing steam at the "Container" are you referring to the installed games folder? or the EXE like I mentioned?

Wine sets up a pretend Windows environment to run Windows applications in. You can have more than one. Proton and Lutris by default have a different pretend environment for each application. Wine by default just throws everything into the same one.

The Wine documentation refers to it as a "prefix," since the way to say which environment you want to use is specified before you run the command, but conceptually that's not terribly helpful.

Additionally, the Proton database website mentions starting games with certain commands. Where is that done? And does WINE/steam let you change the windows versions from lets say 7 to XP or vice versa?

If you're starting them in Steam you just set them in the game's Properties: options you're adding after the command would be of the form

-blah -blahblah

and ones before would be of the form

blahblah %command%

since %command% is a placeholder. You can combine them into

blahblah %command% -blah

if you need to.

Which pretend Windows version is used in each pretend Windows environment can be set. Running winecfg in the prefix you're interested in is one way, although there are others. Lutris makes it easy, messing directly with text files makes it hard, winetricks/protontricks are somewhere in the middle.

Thank you 1000x for your help :) :)

[🐧 thohal]

Originally posted by Bloo Alien:

.. snip...

does not necessarily imply "pirated". GOG and Humble Bundle (among others) sell more than a few entirely legit games totally sans-DRM.

Same goes for STEAM, which does not provide any DRM worth mentioning....

I'm with you - i was just painting down a $random usecase so readers get an idea about this superpowers :)

Im using Lutris for windoze related stuff, which does a great job and is very handy...

Yes - I m Daisy Chaining STEAM | LUTRIS | (EGS|GOG|$RANDOM_EXE), which sounds odd, but works great :)

[🐧 thohal]

and who will take care of all the wineprefix(es)?

Do yourself a favour and go with Lutris[lutris.net], which ships support for most games[lutris.net] out-of-the-box...

Originally posted by ♢ Moebius:

Originally posted by jason:

Games > add a non steam game > browse > change file type to all files and find the exe > add selected programs

Right click the new entry in your list, check the force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool and select Proton version. Give it a nice name and an icon if you want.

Excellent, I figured Steam had that ability still in Linux. I guess my question is, lets say i get a game from GOG, how would I extract and "install" on Linux?

Pretty much straightforward in Lutris - search for it and click install :-)

[Moebius]

Originally posted by 🐧 thohal:

and who will take care of all the wineprefix(es)?

Do yourself a favour and go with Lutris[lutris.net], which ships support for $whatever_goggame[lutris.net] out-of-the-box

Thank you for this!!!

How do I play a game with this and wine?

[🐧 thohal]

Originally posted by ♢ Moebius:

Originally posted by 🐧 thohal:

and who will take care of all the wineprefix(es)?

Do yourself a favour and go with Lutris[lutris.net], which ships support for $whatever_goggame[lutris.net] out-of-the-box

Thank you for this!!!

How do I play a game with this and wine?

Think about a Dashboard for Gaming, where you can PLAY, install, update etc [lutris.net] doing all the $linuxmagic under the hood automagically....