Running osu! via McOsu (and more!)

Do you wanna pretend that osu! is a Steam game? This guide will show you a simple way to run osu! via McOsu and, with it, track your osu! hours via McOsu on Steam! You can also use this method to run other games through this method as well.

Quick Disclaimer

While this can be a legitimately cool method to trick Steam into thinking osu! is McOsu, this method can and will have an effect on performance.

You may lose a non-insignificant amount of performance by running osu! using this method, so do be wary when using this. Though it depends on your PC specs. If you have a lower end machine, I recommend not doing this and just running osu! natively.

Why would you want this? Doesn't osu! already have an hour counter on your profile?

Well, yes it does, but the hour counter doesn't factor in a lot of things. One of the many examples is mapping. You could just be an osu! user who makes a lot of maps and has very few hours on your osu! profile as a result. With this, you could say a lot of your hours come from McOsu on Steam because you used this method to run osu!

Or if you're playing offline or on a private server and still wanna make your osu! hours universal across all platforms, online or offline.

This is more so for these types of people.

"you can just add osu as a non steam game" 🤓☝️

Adding osu! as a non-Steam game does not track your hours.

This guide is specifically for those who want to track their osu! hours through Steam by sacrificing another game.

How to run osu! via McOsu

Now that that's out of the way, the process of setting this up is fairly straightforward.

Step 1:

Install McOsu (or your desired game of choice). This won't work if you're trying to use a game that isn't already installed.

Step 2:

Right click on McOsu (or your other game of choice) in your Steam Library and hit "Properties".

Step 3:

Add the following line to your launch options:
"[game directory]\osu!.exe" %command%

As an example of how this looks like, here's what mine looks like.


You should replace the "C:\Program Files (x86)" bits with wherever your osu! install is located.

Step 4:

Hit "Play" and you should now be greeted with osu! instead of McOsu.


You will be greeted with an error message within osu! saying it can't recognize some parameters. You can ignore this, it doesn't affect anything.

Side note: The launch options you select do not have an impact whatsoever. If the game you're launching, such as McOsu, presents you with multiple launch options, you can select whichever one you want and osu! will launch all the same.

Linux

After much troubleshooting, I've found out that this method does work on Linux!

...with osu!lazer only. This is because osu!lazer is a native Linux AppImage that you can download directly from the osu! website & can use the same method as on Windows to make Steam point to the AppImage file on boot instead.

The only catch is that you need to use a Linux native game for this to work properly. Fortunately, McOsu is native on Linux! The reason you want a native game is to avoid Steam trying to force Proton.

Unfortunately, because the Stable client needs a patched custom version of Proton to run & launching through Steam forces the default Proton versions onto any shortcuts that you add, osu!stable will not work with the redirect method.

The only way I can imagine this actually working is if you managed to add the patched osu! Proton version into your custom Proton versions on Steam & setting whatever game you choose to run with it. In that case, you would actually want a non-native game so you can customize the Proton version you run with.

I will update this further if any details arise in the future that will make it possible to do this reliably on Linux as well.

FAQ!

Can this get me restricted in osu!?

You are not breaking any of the osu! rules by doing this. You are merely redirecting McOsu to osu!, nothing else. This will not risk a ban on your account.

Does this method work for other games?

From our testing - yes! You can turn any non-Steam game on your PC into a Steam game via this method. This guide shows an example of how to turn osu! into McOsu on Steam, but we've done stuff like turn Obulis into Minecraft or turn FlatOut 2 into Soapbox Race World!

You can even do this to run osu!lazer instead of regular osu! as McOsu. It all depends on your creativity.

It does not work with every game though. Some games do not know how to interpret %command% launch options and immediately crash. Do some of your own testing and see what works! From my own testing - games from before 2010 do not usually work, but some do.

How long will this work?

As long as Steam continues to support adding your own launch options, it'll continue to work!

Will I have any of McOsu's features by doing this?

osu! and McOsu are two separate games, so the answer is no. And no, the rich presence feature showing you playing a map also does not work, as Steam has no way of reading osu!'s memory for that feature.

If you want to go back to playing McOsu, you will have to delete the launch option.

Why does osu! run at a lower framerate by doing this for some people?

Steam Overlay. Turn it off if you're experiencing framerate issues. Do keep in mind that you will no longer be able to take screenshots for Steam by doing this.

How do I connect to a private server using this method?

Simple. You just add a -devserver servername.here parameter before %command%, pressing "Play" then will connect you to the private server you have put in there.


Here's an example image, the server name in this screenshot has been redacted to avoid any sort of promotion.

Can I do this with osu!lazer?

Yes you can, it works in the same exact way.

Credits

Many thanks to Sam for showing me how to do this initially and for being cool with sharing this method with all of you. Hope you enjoy playing osu! on Steam!

[martypower2064]

nvm you can just install protonup

[martypower2064]

you can get custom versions by installing proton ge

[huu]

After much looking into it, for now the results are:
- osu!lazer works as it's a native Linux AppImage & can be redirect to no problem.
- osu!stable does not work due to it requiring a custom Proton version

Stable might be doable if I can somehow figure out how to add that version of Proton to the list of custom Proton versions.

[huu]

I did ask around about getting this method to work in Linux and the consensus is "theoretically doable", so that's enough for me to continue looking into it.

[martypower2064]

i mean i got osu to run under wine with a config i found online, its very specific so i doubt you could make it use mcosu

[huu]

@martypower2064 Not sure if you care, but 3 weeks ago I've switched to Linux myself and I haven't been able to get this to work (yet).

I'm still trying to see if it is possible, in theory it should be, but in practice - no results for this as of yet. I'll report back & update the guide later if I do (or don't) manage to figure it out.

[huu]

Tried it, couldn't get it to work. Maybe it's possible but I was way too dumb to figure it out.

[martypower2064]

i wonder if you can you do this on linux

[VI5CERAL鬼]

Simple. To the point. Worked instantly.

Thank you!

[lucky]

thank you