Playing Fallout 3 on Linux Steam Play

[Ketchup_Monki]

So my work around was over complicated. See Ingupin's answer below for a simpler solution.

[farias]

Thanks for the tutorial.

But I still can't play it. After installing xliveredist.msi (or dropping a xlive.dll on the game folder) the game loads up to the menu. But when I try starting a new game though it crashes on the load screen. Can anyone help me?

[ХВОООЙДАААА]

Originally posted by farias:

Thanks for the tutorial.

But I still can't play it. After installing xliveredist.msi (or dropping a xlive.dll on the game folder) the game loads up to the menu. But when I try starting a new game though it crashes on the load screen. Can anyone help me?

Experienced the same problem, this solution worked for me: https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=36226

[Ingupin]

Thanks for the tutorials but i figured these were not really needed.
I did not do anything suggested above.
For me it worked just fine after copying the xlive.dll from SteamLibrary/SteamApps/compatdata/22370/pfx/drive_c/windows/syswow64 over to SteamLibrary/SteamApps/common/Fallout\ 3\ goty/
I also had to disable Transparency Multisampling to make it run ok. Otherwise game works fine. I'm on current Arch x86_64, using latest Steam Beta (1547865289) and Proton Beta(3.16-6 Beta).
I'm running the game on an HP Elitebook Workstation 8560W Laptop with nVidia proprietary drivers version 390.87.
As always, ymmv

[pflo0815]

Thanks Ingupin coping the dll to the game folder worked for me too.

[drewcat]

Originally posted by Ingupin:

Thanks for the tutorials but i figured these were not really needed.
I did not do anything suggested above.
For me it worked just fine after copying the xlive.dll from SteamLibrary/SteamApps/compatdata/22370/pfx/drive_c/windows/syswow64 over to SteamLibrary/SteamApps/common/Fallout\ 3\ goty/
I also had to disable Transparency Multisampling to make it run ok. Otherwise game works fine. I'm on current Arch x86_64, using latest Steam Beta (1547865289) and Proton Beta(3.16-6 Beta).
I'm running the game on an HP Elitebook Workstation 8560W Laptop with nVidia proprietary drivers version 390.87.
As always, ymmv

This needs to be pinned. Thank you for sharing the solution to get this working. I can't believe how simple it was. I copied one file and it just works. Thanks again.

[Norr]

Originally posted by Ingupin:

Thanks for the tutorials but i figured these were not really needed.
I did not do anything suggested above.
For me it worked just fine after copying the xlive.dll from SteamLibrary/SteamApps/compatdata/22370/pfx/drive_c/windows/syswow64 over to SteamLibrary/SteamApps/common/Fallout\ 3\ goty/
I also had to disable Transparency Multisampling to make it run ok. Otherwise game works fine. I'm on current Arch x86_64, using latest Steam Beta (1547865289) and Proton Beta(3.16-6 Beta).
I'm running the game on an HP Elitebook Workstation 8560W Laptop with nVidia proprietary drivers version 390.87.
As always, ymmv

I can confirm this fix is still accurate and worked for me in June 2020 on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS with Steam Play (Proton 5.0-9). Thank you so much!

[Ingupin]

For me it works perfectly, even the pip boy radio. Running Arch Linux with latest Proton from Steam(Beta release)

[shimdidly]

Originally posted by Ingupin:

Thanks for the tutorials but i figured these were not really needed.
I did not do anything suggested above.
For me it worked just fine after copying the xlive.dll from SteamLibrary/SteamApps/compatdata/22370/pfx/drive_c/windows/syswow64 over to SteamLibrary/SteamApps/common/Fallout\ 3\ goty/
I also had to disable Transparency Multisampling to make it run ok. Otherwise game works fine. I'm on current Arch x86_64, using latest Steam Beta (1547865289) and Proton Beta(3.16-6 Beta).
I'm running the game on an HP Elitebook Workstation 8560W Laptop with nVidia proprietary drivers version 390.87.
As always, ymmv

I am on Manjaro and this fixed my issue as well. Thank you!

[Linux Guy]

Wanted to add my experience with Linux and Steam Play in case it helps anyone.

1. Followed the advice pinned above first (xlive.dll, etc.)

2. I was having glitches with the cut scenes with the newest version of Proton. I switched to Proton 5.0-10 which seems to have fixed these (so far).

3. Was having random crashes / lockups even on low graphics settings. Followed the instructions for Windows as detailed in the pinned post: https://steamcommunity.com/app/22370/discussions/0/828937546147175081/

Specifically, I just followed item #4. You should be able to find the relevant .INI file under:

SteamLibrary/steamapps/compatdata/22370/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/My Games/Fallout3/FALLOUT.ini

You may want to make a backup first, and then use vi / nano / gedit / whatever to modify the file. I now run much higher graphics settings without any issue, and I've played the game until I've exited the Vault. YMMV.

[sneakyweazel]

Thank you! This helped me to launch the game

Originally posted by Ingupin:

...
For me it worked just fine after copying the xlive.dll from SteamLibrary/SteamApps/compatdata/22370/pfx/drive_c/windows/syswow64 over to SteamLibrary/SteamApps/common/Fallout\ 3\ goty/
...

And this helped me for random and often happening crashes and freezes

Originally posted by Linux Guy:

...
3. Was having random crashes / lockups even on low graphics settings. Followed the instructions for Windows as detailed in the pinned post: https://steamcommunity.com/app/22370/discussions/0/828937546147175081/

Specifically, I just followed item #4. You should be able to find the relevant .INI file under:
SteamLibrary/steamapps/compatdata/22370/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/My Games/Fallout3/FALLOUT.ini

Edit with notepad:
find (control F) bUseThreadedAI=0
CHANGE to bUseThreadedAI=1
Immediately after this line, ADD this new line:
iNumHWThreads=2
...

Again, thank you to both! My mint 20.1 box with gtx 980 and 460.91.03 driver now handles this game very well. Only alt+tabbing does something funky