UnknownUnknown
This game has some serious "titanfall" energy. It also reminds me of "shogo - mobile armor division" but less unfair and cripplingly hard
Figured I'd update this as other info is 2 years old. All I did to get this game running was installing the D3D patch that can be found on PCgamingwiki.
After the patch is unpacked in your base game folder, replace the stock SlaveZero.exe with d3d_SlaveZero.exe (from the patch archive)
Finally, open "szOptions.ini", and set "Display Mode Wanted=13" in the [Video] section
a few lines below the line we just edited, set "windowed mode=1", this ensures the steam deck can scale the image properly
szHardware.ini contains a list of set video modes, and with the line above, we are telling the game to use a mode 1280x960 32bpp.
The game is a touch buggy (it was a Dreamcast game, after all) but it plays smoot as buttah and it's a blast on the Deck
just needed to remap a few commands in the game's option menu
full screen will always be offset/in the corner, and not respond to scaling options in the steam sidebar settings
The only hurdle i really encountered was not reading the readme that comes with the D3D patch. After I looked that over more carefully, it immediately made sense. Additionally, the game will run on the basic Steam proton, but it also works with the most recent GE-Proton-9-XX
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 gamescope -e -r 60 -f -F fsr -W 3840 -H 2160 -S stretch %command%
Had to fiddle with the sensitivity and speed of my mouse as well as the DPI to fine tune a reasonable setup. Seems that there is a minimum number of 'ticks' the mouse has to travel before the games picks up. I believe this means the game cannot handle very high dpi so super fine tunes movements are a little tricky. Once you get used to it, it's workable and lightyears better than the Dreamcast version in terms on ease of hitting targets, only it's a little odd making super fine adjustments.
Very rare hitches that last a second or so. Happens every 15-20 minutes
For unknown reasons, I had severe issues getting the game to launch initially. and for no apparent reason, I will periodically have to launch it twice for the game to open, not an issue overall as once it gets into game it works beutifully and will stay open for however long I wish.
This game is very difficult to get working in Windows as well. I own a physical disc copy of this game and at the time this was released on Steam, this was objectively easier and better. However, these days the nGlide wtc that was used for this game is just outdated and almost worthless, causing more problems than it is worth. I had severe issues getting this game to eun. For a while I considered giving up and calling it unplayable.
Turns out that if you have a Steam deck or used a newer or older version of proton to try and play this game you end up having severe issue. I actually went the route of deleting the /run/media/****/[DRIVE OR SD CARD ID]/SteamLibrary/steamapps/compatdata/328470/ entirely and that actually solved the issue of the game launching but only showing the load screen once and crashing to desktop. I beleieve it is because on Windows, and another failed attenpt to get this working on Linux, I had modified the compatdata files to install DGVooDoo2 without any success. Regardless of the resons, it works now and I am happy, played half the game in one sitting I was so stoked.
One other issue of note isnt an issue running the game itself or with Steam or proton, it is the way this and many other very old games work. if you have the game set to a resolution higher than the display, you end up having the game crash to desktop immediately on opening, further muddying the waters. This game supports a maximum resolution of 1600x1200 so one way to work around this is to use gamescope to force the game to detect a resolution of 1600x1200 regardless of your actual viewport. This or you can delete the games INI file in the install directory to reset to defaults, which is 640x480.
Second to last note here, you need to install the community made D3D patch for this to work at all. It will still use nGdlide and to wrap Glide to D3D and then DXVK will wrap that to Vulkan allowing you to play. I dont know the technical details here as to why the D3D patch is required only that it was for me like it was for so many others.
One final note here on this game and it's odd packaging. You need to configure it via the nGlide config when launching the game. For completeness I will give you what I have it set to. Screen resolution is forced to 1920x1080 being scaled with FSR via gamescope to 3840x2160. The game itself is set to 1024x768. nGlide aspect is fit to screen, refresh forces to 60fps, vsync off, gamma 1.0, Splash on just for fun. other modes do work....
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%
Installed D3D patch from https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/546-slave-zero-direct3d-patch/
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%
Sorry to triple post here but I realized I missed a couple of important steps and wanted to correct them. Here's a guide I put on Steam that I'll update as needed https://steamcommunity.com/app/328470/discussions/0/3425563679848533975/
Also happy to answer any questions there! I've since finished the game on the Steam Deck and it was pretty smooth. The final boss can cause some crashes so save often!
The Steam Deck's native resolution isn't supported but it worked ok with 800x600. Anything higher will distort it too much to play.
Some crashes at the last boss, but it's playable.
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%
Disabled VSync, installed D3D patch and used video modes 4 and 9 in szOptions.ini
Despite installing all neccesary fixes for this game as reported by others, the game refuses to load into the title screen regardless of proton version or arguments. The game isn't even playable on Windows 10 anymore either, so this game is fully borked. :(
The game loads but only shows the loading screen for 2 seconds before crashing to desktop.
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%
Installed D3D patch via https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/546-slave-zero-direct3d-patch/
It's better than it crashing on launch but I still can't figure out how to get it actually running.
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%
Installed the Direct3D patch from PCGamingWiki
vsync also needs to be turned off in the nGlide configuration and in the game settings. After that it works great (played through first two missions without any issues)
Installed the Direct3D patch from PCGamingWiki
Was able to consistently get to the start of the first level, but it would usually crash within the first 30 seconds.
Game is borked on steam deck and will not launch.
does not even try to start, so many options, but i feel like it's something really really stupid.
video seems my best bet (nglide? have no idea how wine handles that), maybe it's dumb and wanting a cd drive to even consider starting.. although most games throw an error at least. since it's such a old game, i'm not sure a "alternative" exe even exists to test DRM.
UnknownDoesn't even open.
UnknownUnknownGoes to "Running", then process dies.
Unknown
Does not start.
