Preventing crashes on steam deck

Documenting any configuration changes needed to get the game up and running on steam deck

Extra configuration

Just using this guide to document any extra config I had to go through to get this game up and running.
As a disclaimer, I play this docked in desktop mode. I use the newest Proton GE version.

Game crashes after first cutscene

Download xaudio2_9.dll and put it in your MGS2 game folder where the .exe is

Download: https://www.dll-files.com/xaudio2_9.dll.html

Add this to your launch commands: WINDLLOVERRIDES=“xaudio2_9=n” %command%

Crashes whenever a codec video is shown

The game would crash for me after I beat Olga. The codec video would have a green bar along the bottom and it would crash after playing for a couple seconds.
The fix is to add this PROTON_HEAP_DELAY_FREE=1 to your launch commands like so:

WINDLLOVERRIDES=“xaudio2_9=n” PROTON_HEAP_DELAY_FREE=1 %command%

Still getting the weird green bar, but doesn't crash at least

[Franatix]

This is an issue with Proton. I have opened a ticket on the Proton Github to make Valve aware. https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/7394

If others can comment on here maybe Valve can action it quicker

[Morpheus AI]

Still does not correct video codec crashes in the tanker holds etc

[Kyo Tanaka]

The issue with Emma is present in the Windows version of the game as well. It's unfortunate that one of the steam deck fixes makes the swimming bit worse.

I have experienced black cutscenes, but not at Emma or Ames. It's been a good while so I forgot where I got it. I want to say it's getting clogged so save and start again? Weird as 3 doesn't have this problem for some reason...

Another thing you all could try is forcefully setting TDP setting to 4-5, and enable profiles so MGS2 launches with this. This game uses way more processing than necessary and it causes some hardware to drag. This might alleviate the issue some, as well as preventing deck from trying to overheat itself. Again, weird that 3 doesn't have this problem...

[Slúrp]

I actually ran into these also, but when I tried to reproduce the issue by running through those two cutscenes again they just ran normally. Not sure how to prevent them, but they weren't a total blocker for me thankfully

[Oscar92player]

Trying these fixes, I reached the part in which Emma refuses to swim, and when a pre-rendered video is supposed to take place, the screen goes black, you hear a few voice lines, and the game crashes.

This also happened before with President Johnson telling you about The Patriots.

And yes, I was using both startup commands at the same time. Seems like there's still some issues despite all the attempts to make the game playable on Deck.

[Slúrp]

I reckon it would probably be the same fix as the codec video crash, iirc there's a video playing on the projector so may be the same cause

[Jackal ♠]

any workaround for crashes in the hold on tanker during commandants speech??