wiki/wiki/games/lutris.md

Lutris

Lutris is a free and open source video game platform for Linux systems. It features compatibility with GOG, Humble Bundle, Epic Games, Steam and many other Windows games via its own installer that uses WINE. Lutris can also use Proton

• a patched version of WINE developed by Valve. Additionally to that Lutris supports many different emulators. For running both Windows applications aswell as games Bottles can be used.

Usage

The following section describes the usage of Lutris.

Manually Add a Game

By clicking on the + in the left upper corner of the Lutris application a new game can be manually added.

Mount .iso files as explained in the ISO image entry. Some installations require the swapping of discs during the installation. An easy way around this is to mount the ISO image and copy them into another directory. This way the files from two discs can be put in one folder. Afterwards follow the installation as usual.

If a setup executable is available select Install a Windows game from media. Then select the setup executable from the mounted path. And proceed with the installation. Lutris will automatically pick the correct executable to start the game after setup.

For non-setup .exe files of completely downloaded games select Add locally installed game. Make sure to select the runner WINE for the game in the following window. Make sure to set the Wine prefix to the desired location. Select the Working directory to be the location of the downloaded game. For cleanup afterwards the game can be moved into the WINE prefix folder as if it was installed inside Windows. If so make sure to point the Executable after right-clicking the game and selecting Configure to the right location and remove the Working directory entry as it is not needed if the executable is inside the WINE prefix.

Setting Environment Variables

Environment variables can be set globally or on a per game basis. To set them globally navigate to the Global options tab in the Preferences. There the Environment variables can be added and removed by selecting the corresponding buttons. To set the environment variables for a single game right-click the game and select Configure. Navigate to the System options tab where the Environment variables can be found.

An environment variable has two parts. The key and the value. This guide uses the notation key=value for better readability. The following is an example of an environment variable in this notation.

__GL_SHADER_DISK_CACHE=1

Nvidia Shader Cache Settings

This section is based on a piece of documentation by Lutris regarding performance optimization for systems with Nvidia GPUs.

For Nvidia GPUs the shader cache is set to have a softlimit of 128MB. This can be easily reached by some games and will cause performance limitations. The cleanup of the cache after reaching 128MB can be disabled. For this set __GL_SHADER_DISK_CACHE_SKIP_CLEANUP to 1 as explained in the section regarding environment variables.

By default Lutris uses a cache location for all games. For better trouble shooting capabilities a unique shader location for each game can be set. This can be done with the environment variable __GL_SHADER_DISK_CACHE_PATH=</path/to/shaders/> that has to be set as a per game variable and adapted with a path of your choosing.

Performance Tweaks

This section addresses ways of increasing the performance of games when run by Lutris.

An easy way to increase the performance of games is to install and enable Feral GameMode as recommended in the documentation of Lutris. It is important to install both the 64-bit and the 32-bit version to ensure full functionality. Check the package manager of your distribution for packages with the names gamemode and lib32-gamemode or similar names or install it manually via git. Afterwards check in Lutris Preferences if Enable Feral GameMode is checked under the Global options tab.

Another way to increase the performance is to increase the Nvidia Shader Cache limit.

Installing Windows DLLs

Select the game in the Games tab of the library. Then select the upwards arrow next to the WINE symbol in the bar at the lower screen. Select Winetricks and Select the default wineprefix in the window afterwards. After selecting Install a Windows DLL or component the package to install can be selected.

Change WINE/Proton Version

Windows games are handled by WINE. After right-clicking a game and selecting Configure the Wine version can be changed under the Runner options tab. There are many different versions of WINE, WINE-fshack and various Proton and Proton GE versions to select. Using the default runner of Bottles - called Caffe - is also possible.

Disable Networking for a Game

For disabling networking for a command the program firejail can be used. In Lutris after the installation of firejail right-click the game to disable networking on. Select Configure and navigate to System Options. Enable Advanced and insert firejail --net=none --noprofile into the command prefix field. Afterwards all networking of the selected game is disabled.

Adding and Removing Runners and Sources

Runners are ways to run games on Linux. Examples for runners are WINE, Steams Proton or Flatpak. Sources are platforms for game distributions like Steam and Lutris itself.

Both sources and runners can be added and removed as needed by entering Preferences through the drop-down menu and toggling on or off sources aswell as installing or uninstalling runners.

Minimizing and System Tray

Under Interface in the Preferences available by selecting the menu there are options available to minimize client when a game is launched. This can be useful to unclutter the workspace selected. This option works best with Show Tray Icon checked because it will display Lutris inside the system tray.

Troubleshooting

This section addresses various errors that can happen when using Lutris.

DX12/DX13 is not Supported on Your System

This section handles a fix if the game is not able to run due to the system not supporting DX12 or DX13. This can be easily fixed by inserting -dx11 in Arguments under the Game options tab that pops up after selecting Configure for a selected game.

Crashes for Windows Games

When it comes to crashes for Windows games that get handled by WINE one point of failure is the selected WINE version. Change the version used as explained in the regarding section. Especially trying Proton GE versions or WINE fshack versions can lead to successful running of the game. Specific games also benefit from running Caffe.