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Linux users: Are we over-reliant on Steam? (beehaw.org)

submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I’ve recently moved my whole game library over to Linux and stopped dual booting. Everything runs great on Linux, I just run it through Steam’s Proton layer.

Therein lies the problem. Even my non-Steam games I run through Steam since it’s so convenient with Proton. My experience with using straight up wine, winetricks, Lutris etc. had been much more clunky in comparison and less reliable for getting things running.

While it’s working fine for now, what do I do if I’m offline and Steam decides this is one of those days offline mode doesn’t work? What if I get banned from Steam?

Has anyone had any luck replicating their Proton setup outside of Steam? Or simply just running a Proton game outside of Steam after getting it set up using Steam?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

Has anyone had any luck replicating their Proton setup outside of Steam? Or simply just running a Proton game outside of Steam after getting it set up using Steam?

I have run many Windows games outside of Steam.

I prefer to set up each one manually: Create a Wine prefix, install the game (or copy it from an existing installation), install a few key libraries like DXVK and a Visual C++ runtime, make a launch script with game-specific environment settings or launch options. Tools like Lutris and Bottles can automate much of this, in case you need a little help or just find a GUI more convenient.

This is my usual approach to non-Steam games (especially GOG), but even Steam games can be convinced to work offline with the help of a Steam emulator. It wouldn't work with a game encumbered by DRM (e.g. Denuvo) unless a cracked version could be located, but in my experience, that's a minority of Steam games that I categorically avoid in the first place.

So, I'm not worried about my game library vanishing if I ever lose access to Steam for whatever reason. Most (if not all) of it could be recovered with a bit of effort.