How to get AC to run on Linux (Proton & Steam Deck)

How to set up Proton on PC and the Steam Deck to run Assetto Corsa with Content Manager.

Preparations

Hint for Steam Deck users: This guide works for you, just make your filesystem temporarily writable and install protontricks.

Before starting, make sure you don't already have existing compatdata for Assetto Corsa: Remove the pfx directory in your SteamLibrary at /path/to/SteamLibrary/steamapps/compatdata/244210 if you have it.

The guide currently works as of 01/2024, I'll do my best to keep it up to date in the future.

Update 01/2024: ProtonGE automatically installs the dependencies now, so I've updated the guide accordingly.

Base game

Alright, let's get started with the game itself.

1. Install the game.
   
   
2. If you don't have it already, install the latest version of ProtonGE according to their instructions: https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom. If you're using an Arch-based distro, you can install proton-ge-custom-bin from the AUR.
   
   
3. Right-click Assetto Corsa in Steam, go to Properties --> Compatibility, check the 'Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool' checkbox and choose Proton 5.0-10 from the dropdown list.
   
   
4. Start the game. It will crash, but that's okay, we just need the folder structure it generates.
   
   
5. Right-click the game in your library again, but now select ProtonGE in the compatibility menu.
   
   
6. Run the game. ProtonGE will now install all the requirements - this will take a long time, so be patient. When it's done, you'll get an error message that says 'This application could not be started'. Click 'No'.
   
   Great! If all went well, your game should be able to start now. If you don't want to use Content Manager or CSP, you can stop here and start playing. To get CM to run, you'll need to complete a couple more steps.
   
   Note: Setups with AMD GPUs might get better performance by installing dxvk via protontricks:
   

   protontricks --no-background-wineserver 244210 dxvk

Content Manager

1. Firstly, we need to create a symlink to your loginusers.vdf file so CM can find it. Replace the /path/to in the following command with the actual path to your SteamLibrary directory:
   

   ln -s $HOME/.steam/root/config/loginusers.vdf '/path/to/SteamLibrary/steamapps/compatdata/244210/pfx/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Steam/config/loginusers.vdf'
   

   
   
2. Download Content Manager from https://acstuff.ru/app.
   
   
3. Extract Content Manager.exe to your game's installation directory. You can find it by right-clicking Assetto Corsa in Steam, then going to Manage --> Browse local files.
   
   
4. Rename Content Manager.exe to Content Manager Safe.exe. This disables hardware acceleration in its UI.
   
   
5. Set the Assetto Corsa launch parameters in Steam to start Content Manager instead. Right-click Assetto Corsa in Steam and paste the following parameters after modifying the paths according to your Steam library location:
   

   proton waitforexitandrun /path/to/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/assettocorsa/'Content Manager Safe.exe'; echo %command%

   
   Hint: This requires the proton-command in your terminal to run ProtonGE. If you don't have this set up, you can instead rename AssettoCorsa.exe to AssettoCorsa_original.exe and Content Manager.exe to AssettoCorsa.exe and leave the launch parameters empty.
   
   
6. Launch the game. If you're on a Deck, run it in Desktop mode for now. It might take a while to launch.
   
   
7. Set your installation folder to the following, but replace the /path/to with the actual path to your Steam library:
   

   Z:\path\to\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\assettocorsa

   
   
8. Set your player name, click 'OK' and exit Content Manager.

Nice! Content Manager is set up. Now let's install the Custom Shaders Patch.

Custom Shaders Patch

1. Run the following command:
   

   protontricks -c winecfg 244210

   
   
2. Go to the ‘Libraries’-tab, type dwrite into the ‘New override for library’-textbox and click ‘Add’.
   
   
3. Look for dwrite in the list and make sure it also says ‘native, built-in’. If it doesn’t, switch it via the ‘Edit’ menu.
   
   
4. Press ‘OK’ to close the window.
   
   
5. Download the latest version of CSP from https://acstuff.ru/patch.
   Hint: I'm running v0.2.2 at the moment, but newer versions might work as well.
   
   
6. Extract the ZIP file into the root of your game's install directory (dwrite.dll and the extension folder should be where we put Content Manager Safe.exe earlier).

Depending on the version of CSP you have, you may need to install some fonts in order to run the game:

1. Install corefonts in your prefix:
   

   protontricks 244210 corefonts

   
   
2. Download the font files: https://files.acstuff.ru/shared/T0Zj/fonts.zip
   
   
3. Extract them to your game folder: /path/to/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/assettocorsa/content/fonts/. Do not put the TTF-files into the folder with the ones that are already there. Make sure to put the 'system'-folder from the archive into the fonts folder, otherwise CSP won't find them.

All done!

Enjoy the game! :)

Credits: This guide is a mix of a bunch of guides I found online, but ANBAL534 on Github did the bulk of the work, so huge thanks to him! The original icon I used was made by Blagoicons on DeviantArt, I just added Tux.

This discussion here on Steam also has very useful information, I used some of it for the 2024 update - thank you, sev!

[KramT]

Thanks @siha, works great!

[Private_Airport]

Thanks siha! That worked. Now all the drop down menues are usabel in content manager.

[lightwo]

Sometimes Wine's graphical issues can be worked around by using Wine virtual desktop (enable it in winecfg). Unlikely to help in this situation, but it's worth a shot.

Of course, sharing a screenshot could help a little too.

[Private_Airport]

I've followed the guide and renamed AssettoCorsa.exe to AssettoCorsa_original.exe and Content Manager.exe to AssettoCorsa.exe, but in the content manager I cannot see the options in the drop-down menus, they just appear black. Is there any known workaround?

[siha]

@truckmaniac Just go to Settings -> Content Manager -> Appearance and check "Disable windows transparency", that fixed it for me.

[Private_Airport]

I renamed AssettoCorsa.exe to AssettoCorsa_original.exe and Content Manager.exe to AssettoCorsa.exe, and it launches, but the launcher does only show blackness in drop-down menus. Maybe there is a workaround or maybe it will work better in safe-mode?

Or maybe you could give some details to on how to set proton-command in your terminal to run ProtonGE, but I am not sure I wanna do that, as I have lots of different versions on lutris for example.

[siha]

I've made a script to automate this process :) https://steamcommunity.com/app/244210/discussions/0/4637115050041131426/

[raimann111]

okay i never played AC but i think there is a simpler soulotuion

[ThunderDownUnder]

CSP started working for me, didn't do anything, running it with proton experimental.

[cuWILLISnt]

you might not have been in the right place when you made it