PlayableShow Details
Unknown
-win
Used the -win option to prevent problems with Alt+Tab as others have mentioned
The first time I tried running the game, it froze my system. But then I tried running it a second time, and it seemed to work.
Works with -win option if using x11, with Wayland (and nvidia driver 555.42.02) works with Proton 8.0.5 with no options
-win
Game used to crash every time the window lost focus. Solved with the "-win" launch option
Tried every option that the other players here wrote down. All game files verified. Game won't start.
PROTON_USE_WINED3D11=1 %command%
Might be due to playing on external drive? Either way, won't play.
Hangs on Initial Launch
Changed name of file: RA3_EA_logo.vp6 to RA3_EA_logo_old.vp6
I tried running the game and it launches, but then, a few seconds into the lauch, playing a video, it hangs in weird ways.
I've tried running the logging launch command but no errors or anything clear to me is visible in there
Game refuses to run when installed inside a dotfile (i.e ~/.local/share/Steam)
SAGE games have a bug that causes the game to be unable to launch when installed inside a dotfile, install game in alternate library path to fix.
Installed the game in a non-default folder
Game refuses to run if ran from a dotfile
Due to a quirk in SAGE 2 games, installing this game inside any dotfile (e.g ~/.local/share/Steam) will result in the game refusing to launch, being unable to locate any game data.
Doesn't Launch
Tried on Proton 8.0-5, Proton 9 Beta and GE 8-32.
-win -ui
I used -win to force the game to start in windowed mode so i can play borderless the -ui is so i can launch the original Command Conquer Launcher to select my mods
Anti-aliasing must be set OFF
Same as stated by others below
To exclude the slow boot time add this line the end of your system /etc/hosts file -> 127.0.0.1 files.ea.com Bonus: rename Data/Movies/RA3_EA_logo.vp6 to skip the EA logo at the start.
Flawless on Linux Mint, default Steam proton (8.0-3 or Experimental)
Controllers not supported but works anyway. KB&M better.
Borked
Did not even start
Just works out of the box! Proton 7.0.5
Works OOTB! Proton 7.0.5
Anti-aliasing must be set OFF
Base game
- To exclude the slow boot time add this line the end of your system /etc/hosts file -> 127.0.0.1 files.ea.com
- Bonus: rename Data/Movies/RA3_EA_logo.vp6 to skip the EA logo at the start.
Near the base game the best Red Alert 3 mods running flawlessly:
- Armor Rush https://www.moddb.com/mods/red-alert-armor-rush
- RA3Generals2 Remastered https://www.moddb.com/mods/cncgenerals2-remastered
- Rejuvenation https://www.moddb.com/mods/red-alert-3-rejuvenation
- Revolution https://www.moddb.com/mods/red-alert-3-revolution
- The Red Alert https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-red-alert
Mods installation
- download and extract the mod folder to Red Alert 3 Mods folder
- RA3 Mods folder in Steam -> ~/SteamLibrary/steamapps/compatdata/17480/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/Red Alert 3/Mods
- set Steam launch option -> -ui
- hit the Play button -> in the pop up window select Game Browser -> Mods -> select the desired mod -> Launch game
Graphics settings on low on a 12700K and RTX 3080, single digit FPS
Anything about "Low" graphics settings would crash the game to desktop
The /etc/hosts update listed in other reviews bypasses the ea.com timeout
PROTON_USE_WINED3D11=1 %command%
Failure cases: (all fail silently, nothing comprehensible in logs either)
- Wouldn't launch for me with Proton >=5.0 without specifying PROTON_USE_WINED3D11=1 in launch options.
- Also wouldn't launch if I didn't have the 32-bit compatibility libs for the GPU installed. (Expected, but a sane error/warning/etc would be very helpful.)
- I've had issues if compositing is enabled in the past. If you have launch issues try turning compositing off.
Strong recommended tweaks:
- Turn off antialiasing, it causes heavy artifacts with all proton versions.
- Either edit your **/etc/hosts* to include
127.0.0.1 files.ea.com. or run a patched binary else you'll have to wait about 5 minutes at launch for a network timeout. Every. Single. Time. EA took the relevant site down eons ago. This affects windows also.
Behavior I observed with various proton versions:
- Proton Experimental: Massive slowdowns, essentially unplayable
- Proton 7.x: Massive slowdowns, essentially unplayable
- Proton 6.x: Generally works very well, rarely some minor graphic glitches, sometimes cursor leaves window though. Played through one of the campaigns.
- Proton 5.x: Both 5.13 and 5.0 seem to work flawlessly. I recommend 5.13.
- Proton 4.x: Minor graphic glitches, more frequency than Proton 6.x, cursor sometimes left window, some incorrect colors but not on anything of import. Played a mission with each.
Works great (full supported fps), but have to change control layout and takes up to few minutes to load (can be easily fixed)
Some heavy stuttering sometimes, could be due to shader compilation or just due to weird old SAGE engine that is being used. FMV-cutscenes run at maximum of 50 fps by default and game itself runs at 30-31 fps by default (engine-limitation, can't be raised without speeding up the game.)
As the game tries to reach a now defunct server to retrieve the in-game news ("Comrade News"), it waits till that request times out before the game can start. Can take several minutes for the game to load, till that it is just black screen or the loading Steam-logo animation. Can be fixed by either replacing the RA3.exe executable with a different one (see https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Command_%26_Conquer:_Red_Alert_3#Speed_up_loading) or by simply adding "127.0.0.1 files.ea.com" to "rootfs/etc/hosts"-file (which thus leads the request directly to nothing).
WINEESYNC=0 PROTON_USE_D9VK=1 %command%
Water has heavy artifacts if you do not turn anti-aliasing off
Game crashes periodically (about 30 minutes) if you don't include the launch options
Also make sure to include files.ea.com in your hosts file (located at /etc/hosts most of the time) or the game will try to wait to connect to a domain that doesn't exist anymore.
Bonus: Optionally view the game's files and delete/rename Data/Movies/RA3_EA_logo.vp6 to skip the EA logo at the start.
game has try run but nathing is happent
I try run thys game on proton: ,,4.11-13'' ,,5.13-6'' ,,6.3-8'' and ,,experimental'' (all work that same)
PROTON_USE_WINED3D11=1 %command%
Occasional artifacts, especially near water.
minor slowdowns occasionally
Critical step for me was to disable compositing in my window manager, and set PROTON_USE_WINED3D11=1 in launch options, else it won't launch except with proton 4.x (actually, it might need the WINED3D11 too...). Version 7.x and experimental had major slowdowns ; were effectively unplayable for me. Version 6.x had no obvious graphical glitches, but I believe it was this version that after playing a while hit 100% CPU on all cores, forcing me to exit out of the game ; also sometimes fails to grab the cursor (I could cursor to other screens without alt+tabbing) ; version 5.13 had some minor glitches and occasional slowdowns, but proved to be the most playable for me. I didn't try 5.0. Version 4.x works but has heavy artifacts, recommend only as last resort. P.S. don't forget to add files.ea.com and ea.com to your 127.0.0.1 line in /etc/hosts, else it will take ~5 minutes to open. (have to wait for the network connection to time out, seeing as they took the website it's trying to reach offline ages ago).
Textures glitch out and have a different color when playing on Lowest settings.
Use a proton version older than 5.0. Game takes a long time to start but works fine once it does. You might run into graphical glitches when using the Low setting preset.
Kind of looked like big bright spots, also roughly half the screen would go black intermittently.
Wouldn't launch with Proton 5+. A shame because it runs without significant issues with newer versions. (This isn't the first time I've installed and played, it's a rather old game...)
Works like a charm.
One thing to note is that first time you boot this game after installing, it takes around 2minutes to boot, but after that it worked better than on windows given the same hardware!
Doesn't run on newer versions of Proton - Process launches, but the game is not visible.
