Heroic Games Launcher adds GOG Cloud Saves, Epic Overlay support, anti-cheat helpers

Thanks GOG for not support cloud slaves on Linux. Keeping up the impression that it is barely supported by you...

You would think by how much they are hurting lately, that they'd want to try to support as many platforms as possible for the 'easy' releases (ones that have Linux native support in parity with what Steam has). Hell, especially the DOSBox ones, those are just randomly 'not for Linux'. One would think it'd be fairly straight forward to create an auto-build system that just packages up any DOSBox game into a nice Linux installer.

> although that might not be too accurate.

Is it because of an inaccuracy of AWACY, or something else?

Quoting: slaapliedjeThanks GOG for not support cloud slaves on Linux

Oh, wait... I don't think you meant that in the way it was written... I was about to agree... well, I guess I still do. Down with slavery, everywhere!

Other than that, maybe it isn't that bad... I mean there are now several open launchers instead of one proprietary one. That has to be positive, right?
No, seriously. I like having the choice of manually downloading, archiving, and installing my games. I usually don't have that choice with Steam, unless the devs go out of their way to make sure their games run without Steam.

And while I don't actually know, likely one also doesn't have that choice with any of the other stores (Epic, Ubisoft, etc.?)

It looks great, but does it support incrementing the play time in your GOG account?

QuoteAnd while I don't actually know, likely one also doesn't have that choice with any of the other stores (Epic, Ubisoft, etc.?)

Nobody says you can't do with them what people did with gog or epic games or amazon games.
Reverse Engineer them and make your own launcher is possible.
Some things are already done and heroic teased Amazon Games Support in the future already.
No reason to believe they aren't open for more


Last edited by tpau on 18 July 2022 at 5:44 pm UTC

Quoting: GeamanduraIt looks great, but does it support incrementing the play time in your GOG account?

Not yet. PlayTime Tracking isn't done for Epic Games either at the moment.

Yes! I've been following the PR on Github after they mentioned they're working on it. I wasn't expecting it this soon, but this is amazing.

GOG is finally an option I can consider now, since Cloud Save is one of my primary factors to buy instead of pirate- they've been slowly becoming a "backup plan" to Steam for VNs and have uncensored releases, so I've been wanting for them to have good experience for me. And Epic Overlay solves the issue that made people had to do some workarounds with compatible games.

Now that that's a major milestone crossed, I think we might soon see Heroic's plan to expand to other stores. Itch, Ubisoft, and EA Origins maybe? Maybe Battle.net, Minecraft, FFXIV, and Riot games as well? They've just been solid experiences that I prefer them over Bottles and Lutris.

Quoting: fenglengshunNow that that's a major milestone crossed, I think we might soon see Heroic's plan to expand to other stores. Itch, Ubisoft, and EA Origins maybe? Maybe Battle.net, Minecraft, FFXIV, and Riot games as well?

This is quite some heavy lifting and research. Heroic is far from feature parity with the original clients already and spread thin. They would need more people that supply code.
Unlike Lutris they are not using the original proprietary launchers and wrap those, no they write their own code that interacts with the original servers.

Quoting: Valck

Quoting: slaapliedjeThanks GOG for not support cloud slaves on Linux

Oh, wait... I don't think you meant that in the way it was written... I was about to agree... well, I guess I still do. Down with slavery, everywhere!

Other than that, maybe it isn't that bad... I mean there are now several open launchers instead of one proprietary one. That has to be positive, right?
No, seriously. I like having the choice of manually downloading, archiving, and installing my games. I usually don't have that choice with Steam, unless the devs go out of their way to make sure their games run without Steam.

And while I don't actually know, likely one also doesn't have that choice with any of the other stores (Epic, Ubisoft, etc.?)

We should all have cloud slaves. How else are going to get over this drought?

So.. for keeping save files the same between machines SyncThing might do the trick.

I've got a dedicated low power machine for sync/backup, media playback, and torrenting open source games and libre OS ISOs.

Massive thanks to the developer(s) of both Heroic Games Launcher and Lutris.

That said, Valve really needs to find a way to add these features directly in to the Game Mode of Steam OS, itself.
Like, there needs to be a Discover app built directly in to Game Mode, and a way to add non Steam games to your library, via the Game Mode, itself. It's weird, because Steam Big Picture mode already lets you add non-Steam games, but Steam OS 3.0 doesn't have that same feature.

Quoting: tpauthey write their own code that interacts with the original servers.

Not to diminish their great work in any way, but it's Legendary and GOGDL doing most of the heavy lifting of "interacting with the original servers." As someone else pointed out previously, there is a "nile" CLI tool being worked on for use with Amazon Games, and as I recall the author is a contributor to Heroic. But I've not heard of anything similar for other platforms mentioned (and some are probably harder to reverse engineer than others - I think Blizzard actively went after people who tried in the past?).

Quoting: PhlebiacBut I've not heard of anything similar for other platforms mentioned (and some are probably harder to reverse engineer than others - I think Blizzard actively went after people who tried in the past?).

You can find stuff for Ubi and Origin on github.
Blizzard I think is more after Cheats I think. So far I only saw third party server software for their games and unpackers for their game archives.
I am all ears for any proof of this claim that they sabotaged attempts of a open source battle.net client

Quoting: MrowlMassive thanks to the developer(s) of both Heroic Games Launcher and Lutris.

That said, Valve really needs to find a way to add these features directly in to the Game Mode of Steam OS, itself.
Like, there needs to be a Discover app built directly in to Game Mode, and a way to add non Steam games to your library, via the Game Mode, itself. It's weird, because Steam Big Picture mode already lets you add non-Steam games, but Steam OS 3.0 doesn't have that same feature.

I think that is way at the bottom of their todo list. Valve is a company trying to make money. They sell the Steam Deck at a loss and subsidize it with game sales. Why would they want to support other stores in their own OS.

Quoting: slaapliedjeThanks GOG for not support cloud slaves on Linux. Keeping up the impression that it is barely supported by you...

You would think by how much they are hurting lately, that they'd want to try to support as many platforms as possible for the 'easy' releases (ones that have Linux native support in parity with what Steam has). Hell, especially the DOSBox ones, those are just randomly 'not for Linux'. One would think it'd be fairly straight forward to create an auto-build system that just packages up any DOSBox game into a nice Linux installer.

Is it not still a licensing thing they have the right to sell for Windows but haven't stumped up the cash to have the Linux licence. Or perhaps the publisher has said that's a hard no for Linux. Either way in my eyes gog gave up on Linux long long ago

Quoting: Whitewolfe80

Quoting: slaapliedjeThanks GOG for not support cloud slaves on Linux. Keeping up the impression that it is barely supported by you...

You would think by how much they are hurting lately, that they'd want to try to support as many platforms as possible for the 'easy' releases (ones that have Linux native support in parity with what Steam has). Hell, especially the DOSBox ones, those are just randomly 'not for Linux'. One would think it'd be fairly straight forward to create an auto-build system that just packages up any DOSBox game into a nice Linux installer.

Is it not still a licensing thing they have the right to sell for Windows but haven't stumped up the cash to have the Linux licence. Or perhaps the publisher has said that's a hard no for Linux. Either way in my eyes gog gave up on Linux long long ago

Who knows. I do find it amusing that the game cracks of old that so many were afraid were malware are basically likely the same cracks that GOG uses to make these games playable via DOSBox.

I also find it surprising that Wine is now capable of using some of those same copy protection schemes that some thought would never work. There very much used to be a time when NoCD cracks were required for Wine to work, but I have had games from the raw disc install work fine, but only after mounting it.

Quoting: EWGSo.. for keeping save files the same between machines SyncThing might do the trick.

I've got a dedicated low power machine for sync/backup, media playback, and torrenting open source games and libre OS ISOs.

Not only that but i have a habit of rebuilding my machine and losing all my retroarch saves states progress. So a pro-tip is to use sync thing for retro arch to backup your saves to a separate machine, for when retroarch invariably messes up or your machine is rebuilt.

I suppose there is retroarch on steam but im not sure if the individual machine save states are backed up to the cloud ?

I tried to install a GOG Windows game this morning using Heroic Launcher.
It shows a popup windows with a few prompts for settings eg Wine version.
Then there were two button IMPORT and INSTALL.
1. INSTALL was greyed out , anyone know why ?
2. IMPORT, I was not sure about, does it mean you manually download a zip from GOG and select that ?


I can see how you can list from your library All or Linux or Windows games.

Can you filter this list for All or GOG or Epic games ?

Thanks

Quoting: Stoney_Fish2. IMPORT, I was not sure about, does it mean you manually download a zip from GOG and select that ?
501036256

It's for already installed games that were installed through other means.
It just marks them as installed and let's you launch the game via Heroic.

Quoting: Stoney_FishI can see how you can list from your library All or Linux or Windows games.
Can you filter this list for All or GOG or Epic games ?

The Library has three buttons on top "all" "EPIC" and "GOG" to show only the matching games.

Thanks tpau

Quoting: Stoney_Fish1. INSTALL was greyed out , anyone know why ?

For some reason it said the disk was not writable.

I re-selected it again and Install button works. May be the disk is going to die on me. Must be the heat.