Proton 7.0 out with Easy Anti-Cheat improvements, more games for Linux & Steam Deck

Tested it, most of my games still work great, including Star Wars Squadrons!

Only downside, Elder Scrolls Online seems to be running noticeably slower, so it's not all good. May be related to a cache not refreshed or something like that. I rollbacked it on Proton 6.3 for now (good thing you can have several versions installed!).

Quoting: pleasereadthemanualA number of things have to get a lot better before visual novels on Linux are a good experience, let alone the Steam Deck. I wish it were better.

...that's interesting, but I kinda just don't really care? If I can get a game on Steam, I'll buy it there, assuming it's uncensored or there's a restoration patch. If there aren't, then I just go to the high seas. Though it is interesting that you don't mention Johren/Shiravune (which is a spin-off of DMM/Kadokawa), the old timer MangaGamer, Denpasoft, Kagura Games, Fakku, DLSite, JAST, and Nutaku.

I don't see it as fundamentally that different than the usual case of buying VNs as an English players, especially with Wine/Proton 7.0 seems like it's fixing codec issues now (which took the bulk of the old setup instruction.

I can open VNs games just fine with a double-click with Wine most of the time, maybe set `LC_ALL=ja_JP.UTF-8` and `TZ=Asia/Tokyo` variables which is easy with Lutris (the flatpak version works fine for Wine games) and Bottles (also has flatpak version) or just with Steam's Add Non-Steam Games functions. Textractor seems to work just fine so long as you run them in the same winepfx as the game (much like running CheatEngine, which works just fine aside for the speedhack function).

Maybe for the Japanese people who want to buy JP games legitimately, but for that market it's only recently announced that they're going to open pre-order there. Though even then, last time I tried DMM to play Princess Connect, it managed to install just fine, with the only issue being the hand-off between starting the game on DMM to the PriCone.exe running which I wouldn't discount being fixed by Wine 8.0 since they seems to be tackling a lot of old issues this year (like WoW64, which is the other bulk of that old VN setup instruction). Besides, those market are currently mostly covered by Switch (aside for eroge, ofc).

Personally, it's an absolutely fine way of playing VNs. I've tried playing VNs via Steam Link on phone, and the only issue is my wifi's bottleneck. Worst case, I could just dual-boot Windows or run the games via VM (Gnome Boxes fortunately available on Flatpak) which works just fine for most VNs even on my 10yrs old Lenovo laptop.

So, yeah, that's some neat things to know, but a lot of that aren't particularly relevant to me, and most of the issues seems like it'll be solved or has a fairly simple workaround.

Quoting: fenglengshun

Quoting: pleasereadthemanualA number of things have to get a lot better before visual novels on Linux are a good experience, let alone the Steam Deck. I wish it were better.

...that's interesting, but I kinda just don't really care? If I can get a game on Steam, I'll buy it there, assuming it's uncensored or there's a restoration patch. If there aren't, then I just go to the high seas. Though it is interesting that you don't mention Johren/Shiravune (which is a spin-off of DMM/Kadokawa), the old timer MangaGamer, Denpasoft, Kagura Games, Fakku, DLSite, JAST, and Nutaku.

I did mention Johren briefly. I don't have any experience with Johren aside from the horror stories I've heard about their DRM. I don't imagine it will work on GNU/Linux, but who can say?

I also mention that DLSite is the only good site that Japanese players can get Japanese VNs from because the DRM actually works on GNU/Linux.

I think that English VN players are better off buying VNs directly from localization companies like MangaGamer and JAST, which I alluded to by saying that "Steam is not a great platform for VNs." and saying that players are better off "buying it on another store in the first place." In my opinion, JAST and MangaGamer (as well as other localization companies' stores) are much better stores than Steam because all games are DRM-Free, the prices are better, and you don't have to patch in the Adult Patches yourself...on a handheld.

It seems that you didn't read part of my response.

My point was that for Japanese players, their only good options are to either to install Windows, only buy physical/from DLSite, or, as you say, torrent the games. That's not a great experience. I don't encourage downloading games from file sharing services—particularly in an industry where a lot of the participants are from Doujin circles. If I can't play it...I'll wait until they release it unencumbered or not at all. Fortunately, most publishers do so with the physical release, so I don't feel like I'm missing out on much. The other obvious reason is that downloading executables is inherently dangerous, no matter how much you trust the release group, because unless you're a good reverse engineer, you have no way to tell what has been done to it.

QuoteI don't see it as fundamentally that different than the usual case of buying VNs as an English players, especially with Wine/Proton 7.0 seems like it's fixing codec issues now (which took the bulk of the old setup instruction.

I can open VNs games just fine with a double-click with Wine most of the time, maybe set `LC_ALL=ja_JP.UTF-8` and `TZ=Asia/Tokyo` variables which is easy with Lutris (the flatpak version works fine for Wine games) and Bottles (also has flatpak version) or just with Steam's Add Non-Steam Games functions. Textractor seems to work just fine so long as you run them in the same winepfx as the game (much like running CheatEngine, which works just fine aside for the speedhack function).

I don't think this is particularly difficult myself, but I wouldn't call it a great experience on a handheld, having to type in a series of global environment variables, thumbing through your file system to find your game and link it up to Lutris, and again to find the cover art. And if you want it to show up in your app launcher, you need to create a .desktop file and edit it to manually link up the app icon by typing it in so that it's not a blank icon.

Steam's "Add Non-Steam Games" function doesn't work unless you already have a .desktop icon for the game—it can't find it. To do this, the easiest way I've found is setting it up in Lutris first and then generating the aforementioned .desktop file.

Most non-Linux users are not going to know how to do this, and are probably not going to want to do this when the alternative on Windows is "double click the .exe and click through a wizard."

I regularly link to that guide; it's the best setup guide of them all. I'd also rank it as the best overall Japanese guide.

QuoteMaybe for the Japanese people who want to buy JP games legitimately, but for that market it's only recently announced that they're going to open pre-order there. Though even then, last time I tried DMM to play Princess Connect, it managed to install just fine, with the only issue being the hand-off between starting the game on DMM to the PriCone.exe running which I wouldn't discount being fixed by Wine 8.0 since they seems to be tackling a lot of old issues this year (like WoW64, which is the other bulk of that old VN setup instruction). Besides, those market are currently mostly covered by Switch (aside for eroge, ofc).

I've purchased 4 games on DMM, and none of them work. They all use Soft-Denchi. I'd be grateful if you could confirm what DRM the game used, because that might mean that some games from DMM do work on Linux. Additionally, it is very unlikely that any DRM schemes have been fixed in the newest WINE release. I contacted Codeweavers support directly and they expressed no interest in working on Soft-Denchi compatibility, not to mention that DRM support in WINE is the hardest and most thankless work there is. An excerpt from this link:

QuoteIn an effort to make copy protection more effective (i.e. resistant to cracks), the methods used by many copy protection products have become complex, difficult to understand (obfuscated), and hard to debug. In some cases Wine would need to be altered to allow for almost rootkit-like functionality of programs to get some of these copy protection schemes to work. To support copy protection Wine developers have to contend with undocumented interfaces, code obfuscation, and maintaining compatibility with *nix security models.

If 88% of people not buying the releases for one company is any indication of how few people actually buy VNs, maybe this won't be an issue for Japanese players after all. Only the people who actually buy the games.

QuoteSo, yeah, that's some neat things to know, but a lot of that aren't particularly relevant to me, and most of the issues seems like it'll be solved or has a fairly simple workaround.

I mention the simplest workaround of them all in my response: use Windows. The Steam Deck would be fine on Windows, even for Japanese users. The issues that arise are purely due to the Steam Deck running Linux, and (by extension) the majority of the games from the VN genre not being on Steam. These games not being on Steam on a Windows version of the deck isn't an issue because these DRM schemes were built to work on Windows, as are VNs in general.


Last edited by pleasereadthemanual on 21 February 2022 at 11:17 pm UTC

Quoting: pleasereadthemanualSteam's "Add Non-Steam Games" function doesn't work unless you already have a .desktop icon for the game—it can't find it.

I'm pretty sure this was fixed, as I recently tested this with Hitman 3 (pirated) after I mentioned the same issue somewhere before. The only issue from my testing that it seems to interpret spaces as end of line, so you have to manually reinput the correct exe directory and folder directory which would stop at the first space it sees, but after that, it works just fine.

Overall, it's fair assessment, but from a hardware and price point perspective? I think it's great and I think it's a valid usecase for the product. I personally don't feel any of the issues are major issues for me, but I do understand that it might take a while for the simpler instructions to make it through the less experienced users (and Bottles, as much as I love it, is still not as reliable as normal Wine or even Lutris).

Mind, most of the time I use Garuda so I could install wine-tkg-staging-fsync which plays most thing easily with a single click (including JP games if you made some .desktop file in ~/.local/share/applications for Wine run w/ specific env variables) but I don't think that's hard to do with SteamOS if you enable Dev Mode (though, again, there's Bottles and Lutris' Flatpak is progressing bit by bit).

Quoting: fenglengshunI'm pretty sure this was fixed, as I recently tested this with Hitman 3 (pirated)

I like how you had to mention you pirated Hitman 3 for no reason, other than thinking it's some kind of sign of coolness, when in fact it's a sign you're being an asshat to the developers. Buy the sodding game.


Last edited by Dribbleondo on 23 February 2022 at 8:36 am UTC

Quoting: Dribbleondo

Quoting: fenglengshunI'm pretty sure this was fixed, as I recently tested this with Hitman 3 (pirated)

I like how you had to mention you pirated Hitman 3 for no reason, other than thinking it's some kind of sign of coolness, when in fact it's a sign you're being an asshat to the developers. Buy the sodding game.

I will, once it reached a decent price and no longer as convoluted. I am a big fan of the series, played through the old games (except the very first one) to the new Hitman 2, did a few SASO and full challenge in Hitman 1 and 2, already did the carryover process even though I don't own the game yet.

I just also don't want to support the shitty moves they pulled and will only pay once I think it's reached a point it's worth paying for with my <$350 SE Asian meager wages. I thought about not paying, but I love the series too much and value progression enough that I'll eventually pay it. For what I think it's worth, which by my poor ass stand, should at most be a fifth of what I pay for rent every month or about $20. Also a good excuse to wait out until they finished releasing all the updates and I could play them all in one go.

I do generally pay for my games, eventually, but piracy is just what it is in SE Asia man. We used to grab PS2 games on the street for $1, with PS3 and PS4 never achieving as much success as it makes far more sense to buy a laptop/PC and buy games $2-10 up until internet becomes cheap (so torrenting becomes a real option) and Steam presents a sensible price for us with regional pricing (I ain't paying for what's equal to ~50 meals for a single game unless it's really good).

Isn't trying to be cool or anything, just the reality of gaming in a poor ass country with long history of piracy. Can't be helped if some people just have different standards and priority than you, is just what it is, man.