Total War: WARHAMMER III released for Linux with a port from Feral

Did they revamp the Feral launcher for better Steam Deck integration?


Last edited by Mohandevir on 16 June 2022 at 2:59 pm UTC

Did they revamp the Feral launcher for better Steam Deck integration?

On Deck Feral titles are usually defaulted to Windows builds.

As most Deck users are normally Windows users and save file incompat, multiplayer incompat is not so desirable.

Usually I'd say "hey, only many months after the release", but let's be honest - that was no release CA did, that was a public early access without the tag...

Sadly, it's another port from Feral that has multiplayer locked per operating system. We repeatedly asked them to clarify it before release but they wouldn't say.

There was obviously no chance in hell that their would be cross-play with Windows. But this suggests that it won't happen between mac and linux either. That's a step down from other releases where they did change the MP code.

The Proton version runs without issue, I already finished 3 campaigns run. I waited two months if Feral releases the native version, so I decided to go with Proton version instead.

The Steam Deck itself is not supported, the reason is the graphics settings can't be changed to something that could run on Steam Deck, so it doesn't matter if there is a native port or not.

But I'm glad that Feral finally released the native version, I will probably switch to it, I don't play multiplayer anyway. But if every patch will be 4 months late (original release is) I will probably switch back to Proton.

Did they revamp the Feral launcher for better Steam Deck integration?

On Deck Feral titles are usually defaulted to Windows builds.

As most Deck users are normally Windows users and save file incompat, multiplayer incompat is not so desirable.

That sounds sloppy. Seems to me that Feral's ports (especially for AMD users) have performed better than Windows+Proton?

Save game compatibility shouldn't be an issue at all, though it always seemed like sloppy coding to not have compatible multiplayer. Though most of that is version drift, but I've seen otherwise in other games. "Those filthy neckbeards don't get to play with the rest of the world!"

For the record; I don't think I've seen anything on the Deck that uses native over proton yet, though I have not looked at all the games I've installed.

Did they revamp the Feral launcher for better Steam Deck integration?

On Deck Feral titles are usually defaulted to Windows builds.

As most Deck users are normally Windows users and save file incompat, multiplayer incompat is not so desirable.

That sounds sloppy. Seems to me that Feral's ports (especially for AMD users) have performed better than Windows+Proton?

Nope. Just tested it and performance in semi-native version is much worse than in Proton on RX580 8GB. Also missing multiplayer with Windows and Mac version = broken port.
I just recommend to stay with Proton anyway. This is just bad port.

Did they revamp the Feral launcher for better Steam Deck integration?

On Deck Feral titles are usually defaulted to Windows builds.

As most Deck users are normally Windows users and save file incompat, multiplayer incompat is not so desirable.

That sounds sloppy. Seems to me that Feral's ports (especially for AMD users) have performed better than Windows+Proton?

Nope. Just tested it and performance in semi-native version is much worse than in Proton on RX580 8GB. Also missing multiplayer with Windows and Mac version = broken port.
I just recommend to stay with Proton anyway. This is just bad port.

To be fair, though, I don't think most of this is ultimately Feral's fault.
That the port is so late - who knows when they got access to the game? The code sure changed a bit in recent months, given how broken it was on release...
And if CA doesn't "order" the multiplayer to be made compatible with Windows, which might be extra work = extra cost for CA.

In my experience, Feral ports have performed better than Proton, albeit not significantly (maybe 10-20%).

Still, while it's somewhat painful to say, Warhammer has generally been one of the cases where the Proton version is preferable due to mod compatibility, multiplayer compatibility and speed of updates. And WH3 is no exception.

Did they revamp the Feral launcher for better Steam Deck integration?

On Deck Feral titles are usually defaulted to Windows builds.

As most Deck users are normally Windows users and save file incompat, multiplayer incompat is not so desirable.

That sounds sloppy. Seems to me that Feral's ports (especially for AMD users) have performed better than Windows+Proton?

Nope. Just tested it and performance in semi-native version is much worse than in Proton on RX580 8GB. Also missing multiplayer with Windows and Mac version = broken port.
I just recommend to stay with Proton anyway. This is just bad port.

To be fair, though, I don't think most of this is ultimately Feral's fault.
That the port is so late - who knows when they got access to the game? The code sure changed a bit in recent months, given how broken it was on release...
And if CA doesn't "order" the multiplayer to be made compatible with Windows, which might be extra work = extra cost for CA.

In my experience, Feral ports have performed better than Proton, albeit not significantly (maybe 10-20%).

Still, while it's somewhat painful to say, Warhammer has generally been one of the cases where the Proton version is preferable due to mod compatibility, multiplayer compatibility and speed of updates. And WH3 is no exception.

It just seems sad and pointless to me; put in effort for a native port... only to have it work in lesser ways than the original. Granted this is why I hope with the Deck, more companies will just release cross-platform from the beginning. If they do it right, then it won't matter what OS you run, things should just work the same across the board.

I will be buying this game as soon as I can upgrade my old video card (GTX 770)

Did they revamp the Feral launcher for better Steam Deck integration?

On Deck Feral titles are usually defaulted to Windows builds.

As most Deck users are normally Windows users and save file incompat, multiplayer incompat is not so desirable.

That sounds sloppy. Seems to me that Feral's ports (especially for AMD users) have performed better than Windows+Proton?

Save game compatibility shouldn't be an issue at all, though it always seemed like sloppy coding to not have compatible multiplayer. Though most of that is version drift, but I've seen otherwise in other games. "Those filthy neckbeards don't get to play with the rest of the world!"

For the record; I don't think I've seen anything on the Deck that uses native over proton yet, though I have not looked at all the games I've installed.

Not really, some Feral games such as Rise of Tomb Raider and Shadow of Tomb Raider works great but for the most ports of them ( especially OpenGL ones ) , you will have better perf with Proton. Dirt Rally might be the exception of that rule.

Save games can be an issue, it was an issue on some ports back in the day ; not sure about current state.

Lots of games on Deck uses native actually, but lots of them are also defaulted to Proton.

Criteria for Deck about native titles:

- They should be able to run with Steam Linux Runtime ( it is a newer one compared to current default one )

- Experience must be the same as Windows build. Such as; no missing graphical features, gamepad support ( many older native ports lacks in that department ) , saves and mp portion of the game must be compatible with Windows.

- Performance difference should be acceptable as in there isn't a big loss against Proton.

You can see which games are defaulted to Proton and which ones are using native on Deck.

https://steamdb.info/instantsearch/?refinementList%5Boslist%5D%5B0%5D=Steam%20Deck%20Verified

Stardew Valley for example:

https://steamdb.info/app/413150/info/

> recommended_runtime: native

Did they revamp the Feral launcher for better Steam Deck integration?

On Deck Feral titles are usually defaulted to Windows builds.

As most Deck users are normally Windows users and save file incompat, multiplayer incompat is not so desirable.

That sounds sloppy. Seems to me that Feral's ports (especially for AMD users) have performed better than Windows+Proton?

Nope. Just tested it and performance in semi-native version is much worse than in Proton on RX580 8GB. Also missing multiplayer with Windows and Mac version = broken port.
I just recommend to stay with Proton anyway. This is just bad port.

To be fair, though, I don't think most of this is ultimately Feral's fault.
That the port is so late - who knows when they got access to the game? The code sure changed a bit in recent months, given how broken it was on release...
And if CA doesn't "order" the multiplayer to be made compatible with Windows, which might be extra work = extra cost for CA.

In my experience, Feral ports have performed better than Proton, albeit not significantly (maybe 10-20%).

Still, while it's somewhat painful to say, Warhammer has generally been one of the cases where the Proton version is preferable due to mod compatibility, multiplayer compatibility and speed of updates. And WH3 is no exception.

It just seems sad and pointless to me; put in effort for a native port... only to have it work in lesser ways than the original. Granted this is why I hope with the Deck, more companies will just release cross-platform from the beginning. If they do it right, then it won't matter what OS you run, things should just work the same across the board.

It would be really nice to have to write one code which will run on any OS, just compile it for the specific OS. But I don't think this will never be true. Especially in the games, because of the optimizations and DRM.


Last edited by Zlopez on 17 June 2022 at 7:58 am UTC

Did they revamp the Feral launcher for better Steam Deck integration?

On Deck Feral titles are usually defaulted to Windows builds.

As most Deck users are normally Windows users and save file incompat, multiplayer incompat is not so desirable.

That sounds sloppy. Seems to me that Feral's ports (especially for AMD users) have performed better than Windows+Proton?

Nope. Just tested it and performance in semi-native version is much worse than in Proton on RX580 8GB. Also missing multiplayer with Windows and Mac version = broken port.
I just recommend to stay with Proton anyway. This is just bad port.

To be fair, though, I don't think most of this is ultimately Feral's fault.
That the port is so late - who knows when they got access to the game? The code sure changed a bit in recent months, given how broken it was on release...
And if CA doesn't "order" the multiplayer to be made compatible with Windows, which might be extra work = extra cost for CA.

In my experience, Feral ports have performed better than Proton, albeit not significantly (maybe 10-20%).

Still, while it's somewhat painful to say, Warhammer has generally been one of the cases where the Proton version is preferable due to mod compatibility, multiplayer compatibility and speed of updates. And WH3 is no exception.

It just seems sad and pointless to me; put in effort for a native port... only to have it work in lesser ways than the original. Granted this is why I hope with the Deck, more companies will just release cross-platform from the beginning. If they do it right, then it won't matter what OS you run, things should just work the same across the board.

It would be really nice to have to write one code which will run on any OS, just compile it for the specific OS. But I don't think this will never be true. Especially in the games, because of the optimizations and DRM.

It's kind of the whole purpose behind using Unity or Unreal. Not to mention Java, etc (the whole write once, run everywhere). Now when using some third party middleware stuff, that definitely doesn't always work out as well as plan, but it's perfectly possible.

As we speak, we have games like Street Fighter V, Them's Fightin' Herds(below in the news), in which you can play with/against console players, Linux, even Mac.

My respect to Feral, but very disappointed with Creative Assembly and with this game.

Currently though, it seems to be the lowest rated in the series, with even Total War: WARHAMMER II regularly seeing double the amount of players.

I think if you add the players of II and III right now, it is probably still less players than how many were playing II before the launch. Imagine launching a new game in the series that discourages people to play even previous games of the series.


Last edited by ElamanOpiskelija on 17 June 2022 at 3:44 pm UTC

I think if you add the players of II and III right now, it is probably still less players than how many were playing II before the launch. Imagine launching a new game in the series that discourages people to play even previous games of the series.

Yup, they completely botched the launch.
Leave it to CA to turn a surefire victory into burning their own reputation (further).

Right now, the community is simply waiting for the "actual" game (Immortal Empires, the complete map with everything) to release, which is supposedly happening in August.

Meh... VERMINTIDE :(

Maybe proton have better fps or minimum low, but I always prefered feral port. They are clean port without issue, everything is nicely rendered, with good audio mapping, it's always a pleasure to play a feral port. I also like the feral launcher, it's a nice addition that windows user doesn't have :)

By the way didn't one of the previous feral port had crossplatform multiplayer? I think it was total war remastered? Maybe it's just my imagination, but I recall having read something on the subject?