Paradox Launcher on Steam Deck

[Heraclius Caesar]

I was thinking about jumping back into EU4 but is the Paradox Launcher operational on Deck? I know it basically stopped functioning on Deck like a month~ or so ago and Paradox said they'd investigate, but I haven't seen any updates or anything since then.

[Sharpie The Dragon]

Paradox abandoned the investigation

[grotaclas]

I have not seen any recent comments about the launcher on the steam deck and I don't have a steam deck, so I can't test it myself. Do you have a steam deck? Then you can just test it yourself(let me know the results if you do). If the current launcher version still doesn't work, then there are several possible workarounds:

• use proton. It is probably a bit slower than the native linux version(especially on startup), but several people said that the launcher works there
  
• start eu4 directly to bypass the launcher. If you have DLCs and they don't work, you can add a steam_appid.txt in the folder in which eu4 is installed with "236850" (without quotes) as its only contents. Alternatively you can change the launch options for eu4 to bypass the launcher, but I'm not sure what exactly you have to put there
  
• delete the launcher to get the older version which is shipped with eu4(assuming that this one still works) and then prevent further launcher updates (e.g. by making the folder where the launcher is installed read only)

Originally posted by Sharpie The Dergun:

Paradox abandoned the investigation

Do you have a source for that? I only found a comment by the launcher developer from Jan 18th[forum.paradoxplaza.com] in which they announced that the launcher would support the steam deck in the future.

[Sharpie The Dragon]

Originally posted by grotaclas:

I have not seen any recent comments about the launcher on the steam deck and I don't have a steam deck, so I can't test it myself. Do you have a steam deck? Then you can just test it yourself(let me know the results if you do). If the current launcher version still doesn't work, then there are several possible workarounds:

• use proton. It is probably a bit slower than the native linux version(especially on startup), but several people said that the launcher works there
  
• start eu4 directly to bypass the launcher. If you have DLCs and they don't work, you can add a steam_appid.txt in the folder in which eu4 is installed with "236850" (without quotes) as its only contents. Alternatively you can change the launch options for eu4 to bypass the launcher, but I'm not sure what exactly you have to put there
  
• delete the launcher to get the older version which is shipped with eu4(assuming that this one still works) and then prevent further launcher updates (e.g. by making the folder where the launcher is installed read only)

Originally posted by Sharpie The Dergun:

Paradox abandoned the investigation

Do you have a source for that? I only found a comment by the launcher developer from Jan 18th[forum.paradoxplaza.com] in which they announced that the launcher would support the steam deck in the future.

I was mostly kidding tbh. It does take them a long time to do things, for example their GUI Scale has been in experimental for over two years. So it wouldn't surprise me if Deck users are waiting a year or longer to get a fix.

[grotaclas]

Originally posted by Sharpie The Dergun:

I was mostly kidding tbh. It does take them a long time to do things, for example their GUI Scale has been in experimental for over two years. So it wouldn't surprise me if Deck users are waiting a year or longer to get a fix.

I wouldn't count on fast results either. But I think we are much more likely to get a working launcher on the steam deck than a good GUI scaling, because previous launcher versions already worked. I think the GUI scale hit some kind of roadblock and they don't want to invest much development time to get it working properly. But there were some unannounced changes since it was introduced, because in the first versions many windows were cut off at the bottom if you increased the scale so much that it was bigger than on a 1080p screen. But now even a scale of 1.5 on a 1080p screen is mostly usable.

[Heraclius Caesar]

Originally posted by Sharpie The Dergun:

Paradox abandoned the investigation

Lol I guess that wouldn't be too surprising

[Heraclius Caesar]

Originally posted by grotaclas:

I have not seen any recent comments about the launcher on the steam deck and I don't have a steam deck, so I can't test it myself. Do you have a steam deck? Then you can just test it yourself(let me know the results if you do). If the current launcher version still doesn't work, then there are several possible workarounds:

• use proton. It is probably a bit slower than the native linux version(especially on startup), but several people said that the launcher works there
  
• start eu4 directly to bypass the launcher. If you have DLCs and they don't work, you can add a steam_appid.txt in the folder in which eu4 is installed with "236850" (without quotes) as its only contents. Alternatively you can change the launch options for eu4 to bypass the launcher, but I'm not sure what exactly you have to put there
  
• delete the launcher to get the older version which is shipped with eu4(assuming that this one still works) and then prevent further launcher updates (e.g. by making the folder where the launcher is installed read only)

I do have a Steam Deck. The last time I tried a Paradox game on it (CK3) about a month or so ago, it simply didn't launch or do anything after I hit "play." I also attempted to launch from desktop mode and it was the same thing, no Paradox launcher appearing and the game just didn't start. I did update proton experimental and checked off "force compatibility," and still the same thing.

It's a shame as I was enjoying CK3 on the Deck for sometime until the launcher goofed. I assume it would be similar with EU4 where it just doesn't open the game and the launcher doesn't appear. At the end of the day it's not a huge deal I can always break out my laptop but it was really neat being able to play Paradox games on Deck..

[grotaclas]

Originally posted by Heraclius Caesar:

I do have a Steam Deck. The last time I tried a Paradox game on it (CK3) about a month or so ago, it simply didn't launch or do anything after I hit "play." I also attempted to launch from desktop mode and it was the same thing, no Paradox launcher appearing and the game just didn't start. I did update proton experimental and checked off "force compatibility," and still the same thing.

About a month ago was definitely before any possible fix for the launcher. But you might not automatically get a fix, because the launcher version which is installed on your steam deck might be broken enough, so that it can't update anymore. You could try to remove the launcher and then start eu4 from steam again(not ck3, because I think eu4 should ship with an old enough launcher version while ck3 might ship with one of the broken versions). When using the native Linux version of the game("force compatibility tool" checkbox disabled) the launcher is the ".paradoxlauncher" folder(each version has a separate subfolder). That folder is hidden and per default in the $HOME folder of the user on Linux, but I don't know how the steam deck handles folders. Searching for the folder name or the files "bootstrapper-v2", "cpatch", "Launcher" and "Paradox Launcher" might allow you to find it. There are also config/log/cache files of the launcher in ~/.local/share/Paradox Interactive/ (or $XDG_DATA_HOME/Paradox Interactive/) which you should delete.

Likewise proton versions of the game have their own launcher installation. For me on ubuntu they are in "~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/236850/pfx/drive_c/Program Files/Paradox Interactive/launcher/", but this is probably different on the steam deck. You would have to find and delete them manually as well before trying the proton version again.

[Square Box]

Originally posted by COLOR_CYAN Sharpie The Dergun:

Paradox abandoned the investigation

So they're just going to leave us all hanging like this?

[Jacobim Mugatu]

For me it's working, I just installed it today in a brand new (and updated) steam deck. Let the launcher to update at will, I just had to accept the agreement in the desktop mode. Then it worked flawlesly in game mode. I am playing right now. No further steps needed. It is running the native Linux version. Beautiful.

[Heraclius Caesar]

I should have updated this thread awhile back but must have forgot about it. I ended up getting CK3 to work great again for awhile just by deleting developer proton files, it would crash here and there but still mostly playable & enjoyable. Unfortunately since the recent updates it crashes frequently.

Haven't tried EU4 on it, would have to muster up some interest in playing it again first.

[grotaclas]

Originally posted by Heraclius Caesar:

Unfortunately since the recent updates it crashes frequently.

Does it crash during startup? The Linux version of eu4 often crashes on startup if the steam overlay is active. This happens since the big steam update a few months ago. Maybe it applies to ck3 as well. Deactivating the steam overlay helps in that case. If that doesn't help, you could check if ck3 writes an exception.txt in the crashes folder or logs the crash in some other way. This could show where it is crashing to see if this might be caused by something external to ck3

[Heraclius Caesar]

Originally posted by grotaclas:

Originally posted by Heraclius Caesar:

Unfortunately since the recent updates it crashes frequently.

Does it crash during startup? The Linux version of eu4 often crashes on startup if the steam overlay is active. This happens since the big steam update a few months ago. Maybe it applies to ck3 as well. Deactivating the steam overlay helps in that case. If that doesn't help, you could check if ck3 writes an exception.txt in the crashes folder or logs the crash in some other way. This could show where it is crashing to see if this might be caused by something external to ck3

Not during startup no, it happens after anywhere from 10-40 min of play time. If I save and exit out frequently I can avoid the crashes for the most part.

[grotaclas]

Have you looked for crash logs or other details about the crashes in the ck3 data folder?
Have you checked if other ck3 users have the same problem? Maybe it is a general instability. You could also try to verify the integrity of game files, and make sure that there are no active mods(the launcher might have activated them automatically) and switch between proton and the native linux version of the game

[Heraclius Caesar]

Originally posted by grotaclas:

Have you looked for crash logs or other details about the crashes in the ck3 data folder?

I hate to say this but I don't know how to do that on the Deck.

Originally posted by grotaclas:

Have you checked if other ck3 users have the same problem? Maybe it is a general instability.

Unfortunately I am permanently unable to ask that in the CK3 forums but from things I've read here and there I'm definitely not the only one experiencing it.

Originally posted by grotaclas:

You could also try to verify the integrity of game files, and make sure that there are no active mods(the launcher might have activated them automatically) and switch between proton and the native linux version of the game

I do have mods disabled and I've verified integrity of game files numerous times. I've always had it set to proton experimental, I might try turning that off and seeing what happens.

[grotaclas]

Originally posted by Heraclius Caesar:

Originally posted by grotaclas:

Have you looked for crash logs or other details about the crashes in the ck3 data folder?

I hate to say this but I don't know how to do that on the Deck.

The ck3 data folder is the one which also contains your save games folder if you don't use cloud saves. It might be something like "~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/1158310/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/Paradox Interactive/Crusader Kings III" or it might use a Document folder of your linux user (e.g. "~/Documents").

Originally posted by Heraclius Caesar:

I do have mods disabled and I've verified integrity of game files numerous times. I've always had it set to proton experimental, I might try turning that off and seeing what happens.

You could try proton 8 as well.
If you have launcher problems again, you can try to add the launch option "--disable-gpu" (without quotes) in the steam properties of the game. This disables hardware acceleration for the launcher and helped me to use the launcher on proton 8 for another game.