I will admit I am truly surprised at how quickly people managed to find a way to run Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Linux with Steam Play.
343 Industries included an option to turn off Easy Anti-Cheat, to allow people to play single-player and mess around with modding which was the first thing needed to get it working on Linux. While Easy Anti-Cheat supports Linux, it does not work with Proton/Wine.
Sadly though, there was a major problem right at release—it required a login that didn't work with Proton/Wine. However, user LukasRuppert managed to find a workaround for that and posted it on GitHub (with updates after too). So it only took around 8 hours after launch and someone found a way to play Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Linux, simply amazing.
There's a caveat though, it probably will take multiple tries to login before it gets through. It goes without saying but I will anyway, use this at your own risk.
If you don't fancy messing around with building your own Wine with the linked patches, you don't have too. Proton GE already has a test build up on their GitHub. Download it, extract it and place the contents into:
~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d/
Restart Steam and then you will be able to select it by right clicking on the game, going to Properties and at the bottom you will see it:
Actually logging in really can take a while. Sometimes it will give a fatal error and need you to restart it, but eventually it should tell you login failed and allow you to hit retry until it works. Took me a good 5 minutes to get in, and even after that you then need to link up an Xbox Live account which also takes multiple tries (so make sure you have a password ready to copy/paste…).
Eventually though, you get in. After that, you can play the campaign and custom multiplayer modes (no matchmaking due to EAC). Here's a video I took earlier of it running on Manjaro Linux:
Direct Link
If you want all the details shown in the left HUD, use this as a launch command:
DXVK_HUD=full %command%
Performance is actually good, once you get past the usual shader compiling stutter and everything else works as expected. I didn't try messing with any VSync settings, which is why the gameplay is locked to 60FPS. Unless you're a Halo super-fan though, it might be better to wait for a less finicky fix. Hopefully a more complete solution will be worked on and make its way into the official Wine and Proton builds.
This is a great start and it's hard not to appreciate being able to play one of Microsoft's top new PC releases on Linux, that's pretty incredible really. Who would have thought 2-3 years ago, or even 1 year ago that this would be at all possible.
You can find the Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Steam here.
Update 13/12: The latest version of Steam Play Proton adds out of the box support.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
McMarius11 Dec 5, 2019
Quoting: 14Quoting: anodraeusnot to sound like a complete noob, but I don't have a /.steam/compatibilitytools.d/ folder/file, so I have no idea how to use this work around on manjaroExample:
mkdir ~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d
wget https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/archive/4.21-GE-1-MCC.tar.gz
tar -xf 4.21-GE-1-MCC.tar.gz -C ~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d/
i would recommend rkfg's build https://github.com/rkfg/proton-ge-custom/releases/tag/Guy1524
this is the newest version because GE Version does not work anymore
Last edited by McMarius11 on 5 December 2019 at 7:29 am UTC
Quoting: McMarius11Yes, but note that it might not work if your libgnutls version is too old. 3.6.6 and above were reported as working fine. With that patch you won't need to retry logging in, it just works.Quoting: 14Quoting: anodraeusnot to sound like a complete noob, but I don't have a /.steam/compatibilitytools.d/ folder/file, so I have no idea how to use this work around on manjaroExample:
mkdir ~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d
wget https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/archive/4.21-GE-1-MCC.tar.gz
tar -xf 4.21-GE-1-MCC.tar.gz -C ~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d/
i would recommend rkfg's build https://github.com/rkfg/proton-ge-custom/releases/tag/Guy1524
this is the newest version because GE Version does not work anymore
Quoting: 14Quoting: anodraeusnot to sound like a complete noob, but I don't have a /.steam/compatibilitytools.d/ folder/file, so I have no idea how to use this work around on manjaroExample:
mkdir ~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d
wget https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/archive/4.21-GE-1-MCC.tar.gz
tar -xf 4.21-GE-1-MCC.tar.gz -C ~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d/
okay, so whatever the reason, and should add the 3rd command line gave an error, but I extracted the file, and copied it to the "compatibilitytools.d" and regardless of restarting steam or restarting the computer, the new proton doesn't show up as an option; not really sure what I'm missing here, but I am using a non beta version of steam, and running it without an emulator.
To be honest, I've found Halo (or at least Halo: Reach) to be very mediocre so far, having finished 3 missions. Run forward, shoot bullet sponges with boring assault rifles, die from instakill attacks, repeat. Maybe I got spoiled by recent oldschool FPS games like Dusk, Ion Fury, Wrath, but I'm also enjoying Wolfenstein 2. Nice music though.
Quoting: EhvisThis is one of the weirdest store pages on Steam. It has a purchase option for "Halo: Reach". It is also there as DLC, which has a store page that says it's a DLC and requires The Master Chief Collection. And the Master Chief Collection is a package that includes Halo: Reach. Ok then.It's probably because there's only Halo: Reach for now, and other games will be added later. I thought they had released the full collection and was surprised to see Steam dowloading only 15 GB. Now I understand it's only one game, not six.
Last edited by ageres on 5 December 2019 at 3:21 pm UTC
Quoting: ageresI've spent few minutes on trying to sign in to my MS account, it gave me GfWL flashbacks. But eventually I succeeded and could start the game. It seems launching it in the EAC-free mode disables getting achievements.Try my build with the proper patches, it should let you login from the first try.
Quoting: ageresTo be honest, I've found Halo (or at least Halo: Reach) to be very mediocre so far, having finished 3 missions. Run forward, shoot bullet sponges with boring assault rifles, die from instakill attacks, repeat. Maybe I got spoiled by recent oldschool FPS games like Dusk, Ion Fury, Wrath, but I'm also enjoying Wolfenstein 2. Nice music though.That was my impression as well but it definitely gets better in the next missions. They're also pretty different in environment and even gameplay, you'll see for yourself. I know Halo is severly overhyped so it's better to keep your expectations low. I only played CE and 2 long ago, loved CE for its music and atmosphere. Don't expect much from the story, it has some twists but otherwise it's just a space opera about bad aliens and good humans. Unusual exteriors like ring worlds are good, lots of different guns and armor modules are nice, you can drive vehicles (or shoot from them and let the companions drive), use aliens' stationary guns and they can use human guns in trucks as well, some of the enemies are pretty tough and you'll need to flank them to kill. I.e. the gameplay isn't just dumb shoot&cover.
But the story and characters are not like those from better space operas like Mass Effect trilogy. Don't let that disappoint you, enjoy the atmosphere, music and some nice views. Even though the graphics are obviously dated, the textures are pretty sharp so they don't look that bad. I wish there were more triangles... but overall it doesn't distract from playing and doesn't ruin immersion so it's good enough. Not SotTR, of course, but okay.
Also, as I understand Reach is not about the main hero, Master Chief and his AI companion Cortana, both of which are very charismatic. So wait until the next games and you'll probably see why the series is praised so much. The music in CE and 2 is also on another level compared to Reach. Then again, don't expect much and you might be positively surprised. Or not.
Halo 1 was the greatest
Halo 2 was great despite how annoying it was to play as a particular character a lot
Halo 3 was good but not great
Halo ODST - not sure I even finished this one. Not memorable
Halo Reach I know I played but can't remember if I beat it. If rkfg says it was only 7 hours, then I probably did.
Halo 4 was excellent! I remember thinking 343 Studios did the series justice. Better than 3, maybe better than 2.
I have not played Halo 5 still. I'll have to ask around to see if my buddies would want to pay sometime on their system. Man, I used to love Halo, but I haven't had an Xbox for quite a few years.
The gist of this post was supposed to say don't judge the series by Reach. :)
Last edited by rkfg on 6 December 2019 at 10:20 am UTC
Quoting: rkfgPeople say it's a blast in multiplayer but... you know. We don't have a way to verify that claim for now.Which features are enabled when EAC is off? Singleplayer campaign works but any chance for online co-op or customs etc.?
Quoting: MysticalI don't know but you might be able to play with friends that also have EAC turned off. Matchmaking won't work for sure.Quoting: rkfgPeople say it's a blast in multiplayer but... you know. We don't have a way to verify that claim for now.Which features are enabled when EAC is off? Singleplayer campaign works but any chance for online co-op or customs etc.?
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