Heroic Games Launcher continues to evolve into an even more impressive cross-platform game launcher for GOG, Epic Games, Amazon Prime and more with v2.16 bringing some great enhancements.
For people using it on Linux / Steam Deck there's some nice compatibility improvements to see from it. For starters, the UMU project is now the default, which is a unified way to run Windows games with Proton outside of Steam, including various automatic fixes being applied for you. This also switches the compatibility layer to GE-Proton, from the now unmaintained Wine-GE.
There's a ridiculous amount of other changes, making it what they said is "one of our biggest releases yet".
Some other highlights include:
- Env Variables in Known Fixes: Customize game fixes with environment variables for better compatibility.
- Launch Arguments via URLs: Pass game arguments directly through protocol URLs for streamlined launching.
- Steam Shortcuts for Uninstalled Games: Add Steam shortcuts for games you haven’t installed yet.
- Anti-Cheat Logging: Anti-cheat details now appear in logs for easier troubleshooting.
- Gamescope "Force Grab Cursor" Toggle: Prevent cursor escapes in full-screen games.
- GOG game setup improvements.
- DXVK-NVAPI Enabled by default for NVIDIA GPU users on Linux.
- + various UI improvements and other smaller updates.
See more on the GitHub.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Since we don't have a forum anymore, I'll ask here: what is the best way to run GOG and itch.io games on Steam OS?
1 Likes, Who?
mr-victory a day ago
itch.io has a native client like Steam, use this for gog.
4 Likes, Who?
Caldathras a day ago
DXVK-NVAPI Enabled by default for NVIDIA GPU users on Linux.Lutris has been doing this for a while. This feature is an annoyance for me. My Nvidia dGPU predates NVAPI. I have to make sure this feature is disabled to avoid poor performance that eventually leads to games crashing. It took me quite a while to figure out what was causing the problem. Made worse by the fact that most of the games I play are not enabled for NVAPI, so the game that was enabled for it took me by surprise.
1 Likes, Who?
I've been getting into heroic lately, not as a replacement to lutris (which still has its own uses) but rather as my main front-end to view and launch all my pc games
It's smooth and attractive looking, but I do wish games were easier/smoother to browse with keyboard keys, it tends to cycle through the play and config/settings button and various other buttons making it feel a little cumbersome
It's smooth and attractive looking, but I do wish games were easier/smoother to browse with keyboard keys, it tends to cycle through the play and config/settings button and various other buttons making it feel a little cumbersome
0 Likes
All of these fixes are stuff I've wanted for a while, kudos to the HGL team, there's a reason I go out of my way to buy GOG stuff using the affiliate link inside the launcher.
Would only be 2 launchers after this addition, Steam and HGL, if HGL also gets a "full backup" option like Bottles has where it zips up a WINE prefix and all the changes I made to it into one file that can be transferred and deployed across different systems and distros, since that's the main reason I can't do without Bottles.
Last edited by WMan22 on 2 Mar 2025 at 9:20 pm UTC
itch.io has a native client like Steam, use this for gog.Would still be nice to eventually get itch.io implemented in HGL so I only need 3 launchers to play games on linux, not 4.
Would only be 2 launchers after this addition, Steam and HGL, if HGL also gets a "full backup" option like Bottles has where it zips up a WINE prefix and all the changes I made to it into one file that can be transferred and deployed across different systems and distros, since that's the main reason I can't do without Bottles.
Last edited by WMan22 on 2 Mar 2025 at 9:20 pm UTC
3 Likes, Who?
Have been getting a bit peeved at heroic lately - having no option to keep it offline and not being able to disable playtime tracking creeps me out. That's on top of the annoyance of having a shop inside the launcher.
I am an un-fan of the slow but steady stacking of such features that one can't disable.
Last edited by emphy on 3 Mar 2025 at 4:24 am UTC
I am an un-fan of the slow but steady stacking of such features that one can't disable.
Last edited by emphy on 3 Mar 2025 at 4:24 am UTC
0 Likes
fenglengshun 13 hours ago
Have been getting a bit peeved at heroic lately - having no option to keep it offline and not being able to disable playtime tracking creeps me out. That's on top of the annoyance of having a shop inside the launcher.Playtime tracking is done through the timestamp.json file.
And yeah, there are some things about Heroic that's sub-optimal for me, but it's compromises that I'm fine with given it's the most convenient client for GOG and Epic (aka the free-games-dispenser marketing-black-hole platform).
0 Likes
I have to make sure this feature is disabled to avoid poor performance that eventually leads to games crashing. It took me quite a while to figure out what was causing the problem.
@Caldathras which game and GPU are you having issues with? dxvk-nvapi shouldn't be causing trouble.
0 Likes
Caldathras 4 hours ago
@Blisto
Checking my notes (I keep notes for every game I install in Linux), I think it was on my old "gaming" laptop, which had an Nvidia GeForce GT 730M dGPU. The game stuttered and eventually crashed until I disabled DXVK-NVAPI. The 730M had other problems, as it was stuck on the 470 series driver and had incomplete dx11 support in Linux. I ended playing the game in Win10 because the driver had complete dx11 support there.
In retrospect, it may be more likely that the 730M's incomplete Vulkan support (up to 1.2 only) was the reason that DXVK-NVAPI had issues.
My current "gaming" laptop has an Nvidia GeForce MX150 dGPU. When I installed the game, I never bothered to test DXVK-NVAPI. I just disabled it. The game runs nicely with full dx11 support in Linux.
Are there any appreciable benefits to utilizing DXVK-NVAPI?
which game and GPU are you having issues with? dxvk-nvapi shouldn't be causing trouble.The game was the GOG version of Styx: Shards Of Darkness.
Checking my notes (I keep notes for every game I install in Linux), I think it was on my old "gaming" laptop, which had an Nvidia GeForce GT 730M dGPU. The game stuttered and eventually crashed until I disabled DXVK-NVAPI. The 730M had other problems, as it was stuck on the 470 series driver and had incomplete dx11 support in Linux. I ended playing the game in Win10 because the driver had complete dx11 support there.
In retrospect, it may be more likely that the 730M's incomplete Vulkan support (up to 1.2 only) was the reason that DXVK-NVAPI had issues.
My current "gaming" laptop has an Nvidia GeForce MX150 dGPU. When I installed the game, I never bothered to test DXVK-NVAPI. I just disabled it. The game runs nicely with full dx11 support in Linux.
Are there any appreciable benefits to utilizing DXVK-NVAPI?
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