mezzodrinker
Published
I do remember experiencing issues with Proton Experimental and other Proton versions, but after settling on Proton 8.0-4 (which should be the current stable version at the time of writing), the in-game cinematics work, the (Live2D?) menu background works, my controller is supported, and I have yet to encounter any issues in the game.
Occasional minor network lag, but overall very much playable.
The game will fail with the message "Error #1" if you use a glibc version that has had the constant DT_HASH removed (glibc >= 2.36). As a remedy, there are custom patches available online that patch in that very constant again, for example glibc-eac/glibc-eac-bin from Arch's AUR. After replacing the standard glibc package, the game starts up normally.
This is due to the fact that NWI missed out on updating their Easy Anti-Cheat version to make it compatible with a breaking change in glibc that has been known for at least 10 years. Admittedly, though, the game is only marked compatible with Windows, and the developers haven't paid much — if any — attention to Linux at all.
PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%
gamemoderun %command%
Game crashes occasionally, but I am not sure if this is connected to the Linux install or not. I have observed crashes in the Windows version, too, and at about the same rate as on Linux.
Finding a specific server in the server browser can be a... struggle sometimes, which has become even more of an issue since the devs switched over to Epic's matchmaking, but before Epic, I had similar issues on Windows. With Epic's matchmaking services, I haven't compared with a Windows install yet.
Once you join a server, the online multiplayer works---as far as I can tell---the same as on Windows.
The tutorial, Jensen's Range, and the Pacific Proving Grounds, which are all singleplayer, work like a charm.
gamemoderun %command%
Slight stuttering in the beginning of cutscenes, perhaps due to resource loading; Gameplay is very smooth despite highest settings.
Couldn't get past the initial cutscene with Proton GE (GE-Proton9-13), but after switching to Proton Experimental, to my surprise, it worked flawlessly. Not sure if that's just a peculiarity of my system, but if the game (and the Steam client) freeze on you after you start the game and see the first few seconds of the intro cutscene, switching to Proton Experimental might be worth a shot.
SteamDeck=1 mangohud gamemoderun %command%
Occasionally, my keyboard input showed significant input lag. Meanwhile, the mouse was entirely unaffected. I was able to exclude hardware as a cause, though I also experience this with other Proton games. Might be a Proton thing.
Connection health (especially ping) appears to be slightly worse than in comparable games. It's nothing particularly significant, but it is noticeable.
v3.0 of Space Marine 2 broke Linux compatibility. From what I have heard, it's due to a URL for EasyAntiCheat that is no longer available and hence cannot be used to download EAC on Linux. I find it weird that the game can connect to the live service servers by just setting an environment variable, but it appears to work fine.
Also, don't forget to disable the Steam overlay. If you don't, you will likely get stuck on the "Warning: Risk of seizure" screen right after starting up the game.
Face capture needs to be done with a native program and plugged in via VMC, as Proton does not pipe through camera devices in a way that the software can use correctly.
Couldn't get the application to run with any Proton versions above 8.0-5, including GE and Experimental. Every time I started Warudo with one of those versions, Unity would crash. Seeing thow the game appears to use a Unity version from 2021 still, that might be the cause of the issue.
Playing the game in fullscreen only really works with a 4:3 resolution (e.g. 1440×1080), as using a 16:9 resolution on a 16:9 screen will result in parts of the image being cut off at the top and bottom. Considering its age, I neither consider this a game nor a Proton issue.
The game not detecting the controller is not really the game's fault. It's from 1999, and the controller is designed for an Xbox One.
Do note that most menus, especially the main menu and station menus, can only be navigated with the keyboard (i.e. arrow keys, enter, and escape) or a suitable joystick.
Game performs poorly when aliens' avatars are shown and animated. Dropping to below 30 FPS is not uncommon.
