Anonymous
Published
5.9-GE-5-ST GloriousEggroll
https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/releases/tag/5.9-GE-8-ST
Audio stuttering at the initial SEGA logo, and a very brief but irritating buzz noise at the start of the Relic Entertainment splash video.
When I ran the game with Proton 5.0-9, it was perfectly playable, but some of the initial splash videos would not play (leaving only a black screen for several seconds before The Eccentric Ape's logo was shown) and the animated background of the main menu did not work (so the background was just black instead). With Proton 5.9-GE-8-ST, the splash videos play (but with some audio glitches) and the animated main menu background is restored.
Some missing video; no impact to gameplay
Some splash videos don't play, and the animated main menu background is missing.
The game works for me with Proton 5.13-1 (as it did with Proton 5.0-9), the only apparent issues being that some of the initial splash videos don't play (leaving only a black screen for several seconds before The Eccentric Ape's logo is shown) and that the animated background of the main menu doesn't work (so the background is just black instead). During gameplay, everything works as expected.
This game used to work out of the box, but with Proton 5.0-1, it seems this is no longer the case; without any tweaks, it just fails to run the game. By adding PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command% to the launch options, I was able to get the game fully working again.
As noted in other reports, the initial launcher window does not render properly. However, the word "Play" is still visible and clicking it launches the game. The game itself runs perfectly.
Prior to trying the PROTON_USE_WINED3D flag, I had tried forcing Steam to use various Proton versions. Rolling back to Proton 4.11-12 got the game's initial launcher window to open, but then the game itself still wouldn't run. It was only by forcing Steam to use an even older version, Proton 4.2-9, that I was able to run the game without any launch options. For those who can't (or don't want to) run the game with the PROTON_USE_WINED3D flag, using Proton 4.2-9 seems like a viable alternative.
Works out of the box, despite messed-up launcher window.
As noted in other reports, the initial launcher window does not render properly. However, the word "Play" is still visible and clicking it launches the game. The game itself runs perfectly.
In a previous report, I wrote that the game wouldn't run with the latest Proton version without enabling the PROTON_USE_WINED3D flag in the launch options, but that was apparently because I didn't have the Mesa Vulkan drivers installed. After getting the Vulkan drivers working on my system, I have been able to run the game with no launch options using Proton 4.11-12, Proton 5.0-1, and Proton 5.0-2.
Works out of the box
Everything works as expected with no tinkering required.
(In my previous Steam Play report, I noted that the launcher window did not display properly; this problem occurs with older Proton versions but not with the current version. My earlier Tinker report also mentioned the PROTON_USE_WINED3D flag, but this shouldn't be required on systems which support Vulkan and have the drivers installed.)
Black screen.
When I try to launch the game, the Steam overlay works but the game itself does not. I just get a black screen, and a force quit is required to close it.
5.9-GE-5-ST GloriousEggroll
https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/releases/tag/5.9-GE-5-ST
With Proton 5.0-9 (and all previous versions I had tried), the game does not work at all; I just get a black screen, and a force quit is required to close it. However, with Proton 5.9-GE-5-ST, the game works perfectly.
Now playable with default Proton
The short intro video showing the Fantastico Studio logo is replaced with color bars.
Whereas the game would get stuck at a black screen with Proton 5.0-10 and Proton 5.13-6, it is playable with Proton 6.3-7, with only one minor issue: the intro video with the developer's logo won't play, and displays as color bars instead. (Proton GE fixes this, but I suspect that this issue is inconsequential to most players who may prefer just to use the version of Proton provided by Steam anyway.) From the opening cutscene proper and onward, everything displays and functions normally with Proton 6.3-7. Controllers and local multiplayer work as expected.
It just works.
Even the previously broken intro video is working now.
Sound does not work.
All sound effects and music are missing.
When running in fullscreen, the game appears behind the Cinnamon desktop environment's panel/taskbar, and thus the bottom edge of the screen, where health and ammo are displayed, is obscured unless the panel is moved or its auto-hide feature is enabled.
- Running
protontricks 595100 directmusicgets the sound working, but sound effects have a delay of about half a second. As of now, I'm not aware of a solution for the delay. - I also ran
protontricks 595100 windowmanagermanaged=n, which fixes the issue of Cinnamon's panel/taskbar covering the bottom of the game as described in my earlier report. However, this fix makes the game always appear on top of everything (even when switching focus to another application with Alt+Tab), and it also seems to cause issues with keyboard input under certain circumstances (possibly because the game loses focus despite being on top), which in turn may cause some difficulty in closing the game. Usewindowmanagermanaged=nat your own risk, and only if you need it.
Sound is restored with the directmusic tweak, but sound effects are noticeably delayed. See the notes regarding Protontricks.
Either Cinnamon's panel appears on top of the game, or I am unable to escape from fullscreen using Alt+Tab, depending on whether I set windowmanagermanaged=n. See the notes regarding Protontricks.
I'm recommending Proton 5.0-10 because, with the latest version (Proton 5.13-4), the game is not playable in fullscreen mode out of the box; it doesn't fill the screen so only the top-left corner of the game is visible. The windowmanagermanaged=n tweak does seem to get fullscreen mode working with Proton 5.13-4, in addition to fixing the Cinnamon panel issue with Proton 5.0-10, but I am hesitant to recommend that tweak because it caused other issues. See the notes regarding Protontricks.
It works now.
The issues mentioned in my previous reports are resolved; the sound works, and the game properly fills the screen. Both the current Proton version (7.0-5) and the older version I had tested before (5.0-10) run the game perfectly, so most likely the problems were fixed by changes to the game itself. CTHON was updated to the Game Maker Studio 2 engine on 12 April 2022 according to this news post.
Note: The game does have a native Linux version, but Proton compatibility of the Windows version is of interest because the native Linux version may not work out of the box, particularly with Mesa drivers (although, in this case, simply putting radeonsi_sync_compile=true %command% in the launch options should get it working).
With Steam configured to run the Windows version of the game with Proton, the game works without any launch options or other tweaks.
Proton provides workaround for broken Linux version.
With the native Linux version, I could only get as far as the level select screen, and then the graphics completely glitched out on me when I actually tried to play. Meanwhile, Steam Play with the latest version of Proton works perfectly.
I installed ThirteenAG’s widescreen fix, which requires a DLL override in the launch options: WINEDLLOVERRIDES="d3d8=n,b" %command%
- When configured to use Proton 4.11-13, the game runs perfectly without any additional tweaks. (The unofficial widescreen fix does require a DLL override, but if you're okay with a 4:3 aspect ratio, the game itself works out of the box.)
- With Proton 5.0-10 or Proton 5.13-6, the game requires the "Use Wine D3D" flag (
PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%); otherwise it will crash upon reaching the main menu. With this tweak applied, however, it seems to work as well as with Proton 4.11-13. - With Proton 6.3-7, again the game requires the "Use Wine D3D" flag, but even with this tweak it won't run perfectly. As with several other games, Proton 6.3-7 seems to cause issues with color depth, and I get noticeable color banding which does not occur when using older Proton versions.
Works out of the box.
I did experience occasional bugs, such as visual glitches in the menu and dialogue getting stuck on the screen, but Steam forum posts suggest that the same bugs exist when playing on Windows.
Proton performance is notably worse than native Linux performance.
Running the Windows version with Proton, I loaded a few different levels and I saw significant frame rate drops in some places (especially with explosions and lots of enemies), whereas I had never noticed any performance problems in the native Linux version.
I had decided to try running the Windows version with Proton because the Linux version didn't recognize my mouse wheel (which is used to switch weapons by default). However, I used Proton only briefly because of the performance issues; the Linux version is still playable even with default controls because the space bar is also used to toggle between the primary and secondary weapons.
Works perfectly, except for fullscreen toggling issue.
When switching from windowed mode to fullscreen, the game sometimes minimizes itself and, when restored, is offset so that it does not fill the screen. The problem is fixed by using Alt+Tab to switch to another window and then back to the game. This seems to be a common issue affecting several other (but not all) games.
It works.
Some people are surprised by the apparent lack of sound, as we can see on the Steam forum, but the game simply has no music and has only a few sound effects. Previous reports here claim that the sound doesn't work with Proton, but, as of the current stable version, the few sound effects that do exist in the game (e.g. the "hit" sound) are working for me.
As for the missing text on the right-click menu, this is also not a Proton issue. It's just a bug in the game, which was mentioned on the Steam forum even before Proton was released.
Skip the Linux version and use Proton.
The Linux version — which actually appears not to be a native Linux port but rather the Windows version of the game packaged with some version of Wine — does not work for me at all. If I simply force Steam to run the Windows version of the game with Proton instead, it works perfectly. It actually runs better on Linux with Proton than it did when I played it on Windows 7, at which time I experienced frequent crashes unless I set the game's processor affinity to one core. No such tweaks or workarounds seem to be required with Proton.
I'm forcing the use of Proton 5.13-6 for this game, because Proton 6.3-5 seems to cause problems. (When running with Proton 6.3-5, the game renders at a low color depth, even if I've selected a 32-bit video mode in the options. This causes very noticeable color banding. I've had similar problems when running other early 2000s games with Proton 6.3-5 as well. Simply rolling back to Proton 5.13-6 immediately solves the problem, and the game runs perfectly.)
As for the Linux version of this game: I noticed that it had been updated somewhat recently, so I tried it again, but it still doesn't work for me --- and, as far as I can tell, it's still just the Windows version with an apparently inferior Wine wrapper.
Imperfect but fully playable
The in-game graphics look perfectly normal; however, some of the initial splash videos don't play (leaving only a black screen for several seconds before The Eccentric Ape's logo appears), the animated background of the main menu doesn't work (so only a static purple background is shown), and the opening cutscene (which should play upon starting a new game) appears to be missing.
The game crashed once. I launched and played it several times after that, and everything seemed fine; I could not reproduce whatever the issue was.
5.9-GE-8-ST GloriousEggroll
https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/releases/tag/5.9-GE-8-ST
A very brief but irritating buzz noise at the end of the SEGA 60th Anniversary splash video.
The game tends to become unresponsive and/or crash when I start a new game after quitting a game in progress and returning to the main menu. This doesn't seem to happen with the default Proton (with which I saw the game randomly crash once but not consistently like this).
When I ran the game with Proton 5.13-1, there were some video issues: some of the initial splash videos did not appear (leaving only a black screen for several seconds before The Eccentric Ape's logo was shown), the animated background of the main menu did not display properly (so the background was just a solid purple color instead), and the opening cutscene did not play. With Proton 5.9-GE-8-ST, the splash videos play (but with some audio glitches), the animated main menu background is restored, and the opening cutscene works. However, due to the crashes which seem to occur with this custom Proton but not the default Proton, it might be better to use the default.
Opening cutscene broken. Everything else seems good.
The opening cutscene is not visible; the sound works but the screen is all white. Once the main menu appears, everything looks fine. The graphics are normal during gameplay as well.
It works.
I was able to play the game using Proton 5.0-5 with no problems. However, as with many games that come packaged with the Windows version of DOSBox, you're probably better off running this game with native Linux DOSBox instead. You can do this using Boxtron: https://github.com/dreamer/boxtron
5.9-GE-5-ST GloriousEggroll
https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/releases/tag/5.9-GE-5-ST
The game crashed once on start-up. In fact, it crashed the very first time I tried to run it with Proton 5.9-GE-5-ST, but I simply launched it again without changing any settings and it started normally, so I can't explain it.
With Proton 5.0-9, cutscenes would not play but could still be skipped. After switching to Proton 5.9-GE-5-ST, the cutscenes are now working.
Significant problems with controller input
All in-game graphics are normal, but the SEGA 60th Anniversary splash video does not appear upon start-up.
- Keyboard input works as expected, once the input mappings are added in the configuration window. (Note that some actions are not mapped to keyboard inputs by default; this is not a Proton issue.)
- Playing with an Xbox 360 controller mostly worked. However, pressing the Start button during gameplay added a second player character, also controlled simultaneously by the same Xbox 360 controller. I found that I could use the keyboard to control one of these characters, but the single Xbox 360 controller would still control both of them at once.
- I plugged in two controllers to try multiplayer. The first character was controlled by the first controller as expected. However, pressing the Start button on the second controller resulted in the addition of two more characters, both controlled simultaneously by the second controller, for a total of three characters (or four characters if I had already created a duplicate character with the first controller as explained above).
Being a prototype, this game obviously has some noticeable bugs which are not Proton-related. So I tested the game on Windows, as well as on Linux with Proton, and bugs which I encountered on Windows are not covered in this report.
It runs. Aside from a window-switching issue in fullscreen, I had no problems.
When I run the game in fullscreen mode, it insists on staying on top of other applications at all times — so, although Alt+Tab can switch focus to other windows, the game still covers them up. This continues even after I change to windowed mode from the menu. However, if the game is launched in windowed mode, then window switching works as expected until fullscreen mode is used again.
Developer splash screen not visible at start-up. Everything else seems to work.
The short opening video showing the Heaven Brotherhood logo does not play correctly; I just get a black screen with music for a few seconds before the main menu. Once the main menu appears, everything is normal. I did not notice any graphical problems during gameplay.
To get past the start-up error, I replaced the game's libGLESv2.dll with a version linked in another report. To fix the subsequent black screen, I added d3dcompiler_46.dll.
cd ~/.steam/root/steamapps/common/'METAL SLUG'
rm libGLESv2.dll
wget https://wikidll.com/download/13293/libglesv2.zip
unzip libglesv2.zip
rm libglesv2.zip
wget https://wikidll.com/download/5374/d3dcompiler_46.zip
unzip d3dcompiler_46.zip
rm d3dcompiler_46.zip
(I did not replace libEGL.dll as recommended in other reports. At least on my system, it doesn't appear to be necessary.)
Use of Proton 4.11-13 does not seem to be strictly necessary, but it may be the best choice. Although I was able to run the game with Proton 6.3-8 and 7.0-1 after adding the DLLs, I experienced some minor issues (e.g. menu getting cut off when disabling fullscreen and decreasing resolution), and switching to Proton 4.11-13 seems to fix this. I was unable to get the game to run with Proton 5.0-10 or 5.13-6.
With Proton 5.13-6, everything works except the opening video; Proton 6.3-5 seems to cause a problem with color depth
I installed ThirteenAG's widescreen fix, which requires a DLL override in the launch options: WINEDLLOVERRIDES="d3d8=n,b" %command%
When I tried Proton 6.3-5, the game did not display properly. Specifically, it did not seem to respect my chosen color depth setting; even with the color depth set to 32-bit, I saw banding as if the color depth were set to 16-bit. This problem was solved by rolling back to Proton 5.13-6.
Another minor problem which others seem to overlook --- or, perhaps, which occurs only on my system --- is that the opening video does not play before main menu. With Proton 5.0-10, this video is skipped entirely; with Proton 5.13-6 and Proton 6.3-5, it tries to play the video, but I just get a black screen (which I can skip by pressing something on the keyboard). After reaching the main menu, everything works, including in-game cutscenes.
The game works, despite some annoying but mostly inconsequential windowing/fullscreen issues.
- Sometimes, when launched in fullscreen mode, it doesn't perfectly fill my screen and I can see a bit of my desktop background along the edges. This is fixed when I use Alt+Enter to switch to windowed mode and back.
- When launched in windowed mode, no graphics are displayed. This is fixed when I use Alt+Enter to switch to fullscreen and back.
- Alt+Tab does not always work. Whether fullscreen or windowed, the game tends to insist on being on top of other windows.
- If I do manage to Alt+Tab away from the game (which seems to work only once after launching it) then, upon switching back, the graphics are too large and I can only see the top-left corner. This is fixed when I use Alt+Enter to switch to windowed mode and back.
- When switching from windowed mode to fullscreen mode with Alt+Enter, fullscreen mode fails to respect the game's aspect ratio and the graphics are stretched. This is fixed when transitioning between the main menu and the game or when transitioning between levels.
- Used Protontricks to fix the "new game" cutscene:
- Deleted the directory containing the game's Wine prefix (
~/.steam/root/steamapps/compatdata/283290). - Launched the game once, just to create a new Wine prefix, and exited immediately (without attempting to start a new game).
- Installed
quartz.dllin the newly created prefix by running a Protontricks command:protontricks 283290 quartz
- Deleted the directory containing the game's Wine prefix (
- Used libstrangle to limit the frame rate and enable vertical sync.
- In the game's launch options:
strangle 60 -v 1 %command%
- In the game's launch options:
No available Proton version runs the game perfectly out of the box. With Proton 5.0-10 and older, the game works almost perfectly, the only issue being that an opening cutscene video is skipped when starting a new game. Meanwhile, with Proton 5.13-6 and newer, the cutscene works but in-game performance is inexplicably terrible.
I don't know of a fix for the performance issues in Proton 5.13-6 and up, but the cutscene can be made to work with Proton 5.0-10 by using Protontricks to install quartz.dll in a fresh Wine prefix. Once the cutscene issue is fixed, Proton 5.0-10 runs the game perfectly as far as I can tell.
I also recommend using some third-party software to limit the frame rate and enable vertical sync. The inability to do these things with Nosferatu's built-in options is not really a Linux/Proton problem, though, so this last recommendation applies to those playing on Windows as well.
Limited frame rate with libstrangle (strangle 60 %command% in the launch options).
When I run the game with Proton 6.3-5, it doesn't fill the screen; it occupies only a tiny area in the upper-left corner, rendering it quite unplayable. Simply rolling back to Proton 5.13-6 fixes the problem.
Aside from forcing a specific Proton version, the only other tweak I use is a frame rate limiter. (The game's frame rate is uncapped on both Windows and Linux, so I had used other software to limit the frame rate when I played the game on Windows as well.)
Doesn't run with Proton.
When I attempt to run the game using the current version of Proton, it opens a DOSBox window which — after a few seconds of an oddly flashing DOSBox logo — becomes unresponsive and does nothing. To get rid of the unresponsive DOSBox window, I have to Alt+Tab to the DOSBox status window and close that instead.
Rather than using Proton to run this game with the included Windows version of DOSBox, one would be better off circumventing Proton entirely and instead attempting to run the game with the native Linux version of DOSBox; this can be done using Boxtron (https://github.com/dreamer/boxtron).
Out of the box, I got a black screen (audio only). This was fixed by running the following:
protontricks 366270 d3dcompiler_46
Other reports recommend installing d3dcompiler_47 as well, but the game seems to work perfectly well without it (and, when I installed it anyway, it didn't seem to improve anything).
Note that the game's local multiplayer requires two controllers, because if one controller is plugged in then the game assumes it's for Player 1 (so it's not possible to control Player 1 with the keyboard and Player 2 with a single controller). This is a shortcoming of the game itself, rather than a Proton issue, as it was mentioned in a Steam forum post that predates the release of Proton.
The fact that the game runs at no more than 58 frames per second is documented on PC Gaming Wiki as an issue with the Steam version of the game, and is also, therefore, presumably unrelated to Proton.
Native Linux version wouldn't work. Steam Play worked when given the right launch options.
When I first tried forcing Steam to run the Windows version with Proton, it worked perfectly with no tweaks; however, this was several months ago (with an older Proton version, an older Linux Mint version, etc.), and now it fails to launch out of the box. Putting PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command% in the launch options gets it working perfectly again.
I am using Proton because the native Linux version seems broken. It gives me sound, but no graphics.
Native Linux version wouldn't work. Steam Play works perfectly.
The native Linux version seems broken. It gives me sound, but no graphics. Forcing Steam to run the game with Proton works perfectly. In a previous report, I wrote that the game wouldn't run with the latest Proton version without enabling the PROTON_USE_WINED3D flag in the launch options, but that was apparently because I didn't have the Mesa Vulkan drivers installed. After getting the Vulkan drivers working on my system, no launch options are required.
The Windows version works with Proton, except that Steam Overlay doesn't work (and the Linux version has the same problem).
System Shock: Classic, which comes with System Shock: Enhanced Edition on Steam, does have a Linux version. The Windows and Linux versions of the game are actually just the original DOS game packaged with, respectively, the Windows and Linux versions of DOSBox.
Proton seems to have no trouble running the Windows version, so it's an option for those who have problems with the Linux version. Running a DOS game in the Windows version of DOSBox on Linux using Proton is a bit convoluted, and might not be the best way to enjoy the game, but it does work. The only issue I experienced while running the Windows version with Proton is that the Steam Overlay doesn't work.
To be fair, the Steam Overlay doesn't work out of the box with the Linux version either, so I think it's just a DOSBox issue. Additionally, the DOSBox included with the Linux version of the game tends to mess with my display settings, mirroring my two monitors when the game starts in fullscreen mode. I was able to fix all of these issues in the Linux version by replacing the included DOSBox executable with dosbox-staging (https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbox-staging).
The Steam Overlay issue can also be fixed for the Windows version by running it with Boxtron (https://github.com/dreamer/boxtron), a compatibility tool which swaps out Windows DOSBox for Linux DOSBox, but I don't recommend it for this particular game. The use of Boxtron, with no further manual configuration, broke the music for me and seemed to cause performance issues. Rather than using Boxtron to configure Linux DOSBox to run the Windows version of the game, you might as well just run the Linux version (preferably with dosbox-staging).
Works perfectly for me, except for minor issue with toggling windowed mode.
I tested windowed mode just for the sake of this report. Switching to windowed mode worked, but then I had some trouble switching back to fullscreen. (The game minimized itself and, when restored, did not fill the screen properly. I fixed it by using Alt+Tab to switch to another window and then back to the game.) I've seen exactly the same thing with a few other games, though, so I wonder if it's just a general problem with my desktop environment or window manager.
Opening cutscene plays, then game crashes.
Running the game in fullscreen mode (the default option), using the latest Proton and with no attempt at tweaking, I was able to watch an opening cutscene, but then the game simply closed itself before I could get to the main menu. The game also closed itself when I attempted to skip the opening cutscene. Running the game in windowed mode did not help; I just got a black window and not even the cutscene would play.
PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=90 %command%
Used launch option to fix occasional audio popping/crackling. Maybe a lower number could be used; I didn't spend much time fine-tuning it.
Everything seems to work perfectly except for Alt+Tab.
The only problem I experienced was that, when running the game in fullscreen mode, I was unable to switch to other applications on the same monitor using Alt+Tab. Even as the focus was switched to other windows, the game stayed on top.
This game is not currently available on the Steam store, having been replaced with Zombie Driver HD — but, for the record, it does work out of the box, window-switching issues aside.
Works perfectly for me, aside from a fullscreen toggling issue.
When I switch from windowed mode to fullscreen, the game sometimes minimizes itself and, when restored, does not fill the screen properly. I can fix it by using Alt+Tab to switch to another window and then back to the game. I've seen exactly the same thing happen with a few other games, though, so I wonder if it's just a general problem with my desktop environment or window manager.
