While you might struggle to get in due to ongoing server issues, Overwatch 2 is out now free to play and it can run quite nicely on Steam Deck and Linux desktop. Here's how to get Overwatch 2 installed and running. Since it's not available officially for Linux, we're going to be using the Wine compatibility layer for this, along with help from the Bottles app.
First up is the video guide which walks through each step, plus some gameplay:
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Direct Link
Direct Link
Text Guide:
- Download Bottles. On Steam Deck be in Desktop Mode where it's found in the Discover app.
- Load it up and create a new Bottle for Gaming.
- In the main Bottles settings, go to Runners and download Caffe.
- Go inside the Bottle you created (click it).
- Head to preferences, scroll down to System and change the Runner to Caffe.
- Go to the Installers section, install Battle.net.
- For Steam Deck: when finished installing Battle.net and Overwatch, you can add Bottles to Steam to launch in Gaming Mode via the big "Add A Game" button on the bottom left of the Steam window. Bottles has it's own add to Steam ability, but for me it didn't work.
- It can then be found in the Non-Steam section of your Library in Gaming Mode.
- After launching Bottles when in Gaming Mode, you can hold down the Steam button and use the right thumbpad / right thumbstick to move the mouse and right trigger for left mouse button by default so you can leave Steam Input as a gamepad. Makes it easy to click buttons in launchers while keeping gamepad for in-game.
That's pretty much all there is to it. Performance will be really quite bad until the shaders compile though, just be patient with it and after a good while it will sort itself out quite nicely. I wouldn't recommend doing any Ranked gameplay until you've put a good few hours into each map so a lot of the shaders will be sorted.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
9 comments
mr-victory Oct 5, 2022
So create wineprefix, install launcher, install game, done. That simple. Wow.
Hopefully the shader cache issues will be resolved as graphics pipeline library extensions make it to the stable drivers.
Hopefully the shader cache issues will be resolved as graphics pipeline library extensions make it to the stable drivers.
0 Likes
Ludological Oct 5, 2022
Reminds me when I was trying to move over to Linux. I was big in to Heroes of the Storm at the time, and it was unplayable due to the shader caching. The game always seemed to stutter at the worst time possible; in the middle of some critical 5v5 melee where one person used an ultimate ability that I hadn't faced when playing bots.
0 Likes
mr-victory Oct 5, 2022
Quoting: LudologicalThe game always seemed to stutter at the worst time possible;Check this out if you have Nvidia GPU:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/forum/topic/5349
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: GuestYou forgot the step where battle.net and a few other processes lock everything up...EVERYTHING *(cough Agent.exe)*. Bottles Battle.net will install the client and games but trying to play one...lockup.I can safely say I’ve never had it cause any kind of lockup. So no, I didn’t forget anything. You can clearly see me playing the game in the video it works well.
0 Likes
FYI, you can use flatseal to give executable permissions to bottles and it will allow you to add desktop shortcuts / directly to steam.
0 Likes
Thought I should add instructions for Lutris as lots use it
Download Caffe from https://github.com/bottlesdevs/wine/releases/download/caffe-7.18/caffe-7.18-x86_64.tar.xz
Extract it into its own folder in ~/.local/share/lutris/runners/wine/
Next you need to configure Overwatch 2 in Lutris
Right click Configure > Runner option > Select the downloaded caffe from the first drop down menu.
If you get an error about a missing libunwind. just install it.
Because the runner changed , the game will run like ass for the first couple of minutes as the shaders need to compile.
Download Caffe from https://github.com/bottlesdevs/wine/releases/download/caffe-7.18/caffe-7.18-x86_64.tar.xz
Extract it into its own folder in ~/.local/share/lutris/runners/wine/
Next you need to configure Overwatch 2 in Lutris
Right click Configure > Runner option > Select the downloaded caffe from the first drop down menu.
If you get an error about a missing libunwind. just install it.
Because the runner changed , the game will run like ass for the first couple of minutes as the shaders need to compile.
1 Likes, Who?
Sadly, it doesnt work for me... I intalled bottles, did the set up, downloaded and installed caffe, installed battle.net, but when i tried to open it, it just doesnt....this is my second try actually, i did a factory reset ti try this, before that i actually got to open battle.net, download overwatch but when i tried to open it... Nope... Somoene with my problems?
0 Likes
thomasofthemoores Oct 9, 2022
Quoting: GuestQuoting: Liam DaweQuoting: GuestYou forgot the step where battle.net and a few other processes lock everything up...EVERYTHING *(cough Agent.exe)*. Bottles Battle.net will install the client and games but trying to play one...lockup.I can safely say I’ve never had it cause any kind of lockup. So no, I didn’t forget anything. You can clearly see me playing the game in the video it works well.
It's called being cheeky ;p (...but also true.) Anything launching via battle.net installed with the bottles installer just locks things up. wineserver -k...sudo kill -9...nothing brings that trash down but a full reboot.
Thanks for this. Works a treat.
Getting no stutters and 165 fps
0 Likes
So I followed all the instructions, but when I tried to install battle.net, it failed because, "The installer is not well configured." Does anyone know of a way to fix this?
0 Likes
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me