Dash Faction on Linux with Steam Proton

Red Faction works perfectly with Proton out of the box. However, if you want widescreen support, improved graphics quality and engine performance, you would want to use a modification like Dash Faction[www.factionfiles.com]. It is an open-source project by Rafał[github.com] designed to address exactly these issues and include some extra features.

This guide describes how to get Red Faction working with Dash Faction on Linux with Steam Proton. It is rather simple, but it might help those who aren't experienced enough with Proton and Linux in general.

Русская версия.

Prerequisites

I'm going to give step-by-step instructions using terminal commands. You are not required to be familiar with the terminal, though it is very welcome. I'm going to assume that the environment variable RFDIR points to the Red Faction's directory in your filesystem. If you don't know the location of the game, you can find it by right-clicking the game in your library and then going to Properties -> Local files -> Browse. The command below sets the default Steam installation path, but you must replace it if yours is different.

$ export RFDIR="$HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Red Faction"

If you don't want to bother with terminal commands, you can check my script at the end.

Also, I use p7zip here to extract ZIP and RAR archives. It should be available in most distributions' repositories. But you may use any extractor that works for you.

Instructions

Dash Faction is only compatible with Red Faction 1.20 North America (NA) executable. You can obtain it from Faction Files[www.factionfiles.com]:

$ wget 'https://www.factionfiles.com/ffdownload.php?id=4403' -O /tmp/RF.rar
$ 7z x /tmp/RF.rar -o/tmp

Once you downloaded and extracted the file, either replace RF.exe in the game directory with it (don't forget to backup the original executable just in case) or rename it to something else and just place it alongside the original - you will then need to specify its path in the launcher options.

$ mv --backup /tmp/RF.exe "$RFDIR/RF.exe" # Backup and replace.

Next, download Dash Faction ZIP from GitHub[github.com].

$ wget 'https://github.com/rafalh/dashfaction/releases/download/v1.8.0/DashFaction-1.8.0.zip' -O /tmp/DashFaction.zip

Extract it into a subdirectory within the game directory.

$ 7z x /tmp/DashFaction.zip -o"$RFDIR/DashFaction"

Finally, link DashFactionLauncher.exe to RedFaction.exe. This is the file that gets executed when you click Play in Steam.

$ ln -sf --backup "DashFaction/DashFactionLauncher.exe" "$RFDIR/RedFaction.exe"

Starting the game

Now, if you did everything right, you should see the launcher once you press Play in Steam:



Check the options and make sure that the executable path is correct.



Once the game (hopefully) launched, verify that it is indeed Dash Faction by looking at the stamp in the bottom right corner.



If you don't want to see the launcher every time you start the game, pass the -game argument through the launch options:

Script

Here[gist.github.com] is a script that basically does everything described in the instructions (also with an option to uninstall the mod). Use it at your own risk though. You need to pass the Red Faction's directory to it as an argument.

$ # Install
$ ./dash_faction_proton_install.sh install "$HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Red Faction"
$ # Uninstall
$ ./dash_faction_proton_install.sh uninstall "$HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Red Faction"

Conclusion

Feel free to ask questions if anything goes wrong, I'll try to answer any of them.

If you have an issue that is not related to Linux/Proton but rather Dash Faction itself, you can get help on #dashfaction-support channel on Faction Files Discord server[discordapp.com].

Enjoy the game and have a nice day!

[Theo Stargazer]

Alpine Faction looks really promising! Maybe I'll write a guide for it when I have the time.

[ZALIAS]

Update this for Alpine Faction instead.

[Theo Stargazer]

You're welcome! And yes, you can totally install it using the EXE. In that case though you might want to specify the installation path within Red Faction's compatdata directory, otherwise it will get installed in your default Wine prefix. Which is not ideal, since it might break the installation if you reset it, move it, or something else happens to it.

Also, at the moment of writing this guide, the EXE had issues with symlinking DashFactionLauncher.exe to RedFaction.exe on Linux. Not sure if it had been fixed since then.

I also didn't want to make an assumption that the reader has Wine installed on their system. Whereas Proton is bundled automatically with Steam.

All of the above would complicate the guide and make it more difficult to follow, which is why I went with the command line approach. But of course feel free to use the EXE if it works for you. Cheers!

[qweertz]

great work, thanks for creating this guide!

though I must add that I was able to install it just by running the dash faction .exe (forgor the exact name) through WINE and point it to the game files without issues

[Dasarakt]

Yep, i tried all Proton, but no one work =(
Maybe it's related with my laptop or my Ubuntu
But I find this way, and it's work
I hope if someone face with a similar problem, this will help =)

[Theo Stargazer]

Thanks for sharing your solution Dasarakt! Weird that it doesn't work with Proton for you. Maybe using an older Proton version would work? You could try 8.0 or 7.0.

[Dasarakt]

If someone else have the same troubles as me, I find the solution:
You need install wine and start the game via wine via terminal
In my case
cd ~/.steam//debian-installation/steamapps/common/Red\ Faction
wine RedFaction.exe
And it works!

[Dasarakt]

Thanks for this guide, but unfortunately this launcher don't see any graphical card on my laptop =(
And after launch it gives me an error: unable to initialize DirectX 8.0

[BBUCommander]

This guide made setting up Red Faction on Ubuntu 22.04 with a 4K widescreen a breeze. Game looks surprisingly good!

Tried the AI upscale textures, but it introduces bizarre artifacts so reverted to default textures which are good enough. It generally has better graphics than Minecraft, so I think contemporary players could still enjoy it.

[Blitzy]

Yeah it can be a little cumbersome, tab complete goes a long way ;) Honestly though I was able to use your terminal commands as a guide to do 90% of the work through the desktop file manager and a web browser. The symbolic link command is where the terminal is most useful.