The Sinking City (gog) videos won't play on Steam Deck
The game launches but the Frogwares and UE4 startup videos don't play, which is fine. However, upon starting a new game, the screen goes black and the game hangs. Presumably, the dream sequence video, an h.264 encoded mp4 file, can't/won't play and the game proper never begins.
Interestingly, if I add the game's executable as a non steam game in steam desktop and set to launch via proton (doesn't seem to matter if experimental, proton 8 or ge-8.24, any of them work) the startup videos and new game videos work just fine and then the game can continue.
Setting different proton versions in heroic and launching the steam shortcut added by heroic didn't help... even though its using the same proton folders as steam... No videos play and it hangs on NEW GAME.
I even renamed the heroic prefix for the game to something else and then linked the new prefix generated by steam (from after adding as a non steam game) to the heroic prefix directory, renaming the linked folder to what heroic expects. Same result when both launching in steam via the heroic generated shortcut or launching via heroic itself. No video playback.
I installed the game's redistributables into the heroic prefix along with using wineticks to install a codec pack... though just adding as a non steam game without heroic doesn't seem to need either to function. I'm outta ideas.
14 Replies
probable-pink•16mo ago
use
wine-ge-proton instead of proton experimental, and turn on the Prefer System Libraries option in the game settingsstormy-goldOP•16mo ago
I'll try that when I get home from work and report back.
I'm curious to learn the difference in using a separate wine-ge-proton and the ge-proton I installed using QT.
wee-brown•16mo ago
Wine-ge is wine. Proton GE is proton
vicious-gold•16mo ago
you can also just use Heroic's built-in Wine Manager instead of ProtonUp
wee-brown•16mo ago
Which makes a whole lot more sense.
With lutris and heroic using proton up is kind of pointless. You really only need it for steam
stormy-goldOP•16mo ago
I get that.. But my question is, if just adding the exe to steam and running through steam's proton experimental works... Why is it any different when heroic builds a launch string that calls that same proton? I can't wrap my head around why it behaves different. Sure it's a different wrapper I suppose.. What with it not directly launching the exe and it launching heroic which then launches the exe..
I do run protonup so I have them available to use from steam.. Convenience and all.. I don't ever really Launch directly from heroic.. The whole point of the steam deck being the consolized experience using big picture mode..
I could add heroic as a non steam game and launch heroic launcher and then launch the game from there but that's not very much more convenient than steam games having uplay... launchers within launchers..
But I'll let you all alone for now. I'll try what you suggest when I get home. Thanks again. I'll report back.
vicious-gold•16mo ago
a lot of what you have said indicates that you have missed one huge thing
you can add games to Steam from Heroic (and automatically at that)
Heroic sets up a shortcut that launches the game properly through Heroic, without showing the Heroic UI
Proton is not intended to be launched outside of Steam. If you are in Heroic, you are outside of Steam
further, you have disabled some important functions, including DXVK and VKD3D
you should never need to add the .exe directly to Steam, and you should never need to launch Heroic to manually launch a game
stormy-goldOP•16mo ago
No.. I completely understand that..
This shortcut in steam WAS automatically added.. This is what I'm trying to figure out... Why the launch string it created has a different behavior than when, as part of troubleshooting the issue, I manually added the game exe to steam and the behavior is different despite using the same translation layer...
I have two steam shortcuts.. The heroic created one and the one I added... Both are calling the same proton version.. Heroic has done this for all of my GOG games all on its own..
And forgive me but 'I' am not disabling anything.. These are the defaults that heroic assigned when I clicked install...
Perhaps I was not clear when explaining my process of trying to hunt down the issue and you assumed I'm confusing my shortcut for heroics ability to add it's own.. But no.. I'm comparing the two trying to figure out why heroics seems to work for everything except the video cutscenese...
I tried to rule out as much as I could before troubling others...
wee-brown•16mo ago
It's a known issue that some MP4s do not play in the flatpak version of heroic especially if the newer wine GE versions. Checking the preferred system library option fixes it. Alternately if you go to an older version of GE the videos will likely play as well. I think you have to go to 8-14 or maybe 8-15 to get videos to work again. Right around that time there was a change in wine GE as to how video codecs were handled in wine so you had to check for her system libraries to get them working again
stormy-goldOP•16mo ago
Cool. Thank you for that. I'll grab an older ge version and see if that helps.
And thank you for not going down a rabbit hole assuming that I don't understand things like that heroic is still running just because it's launching with a no GUI option via the shortcut it generates.. And that I should never have to manually add an exe... Just.. Thank you for treating me like a person.
Man Linux support sometimes.
vicious-gold•16mo ago
I can only go by what is presented. If you have disabled DXVK and VKD3D in your log, I can only assume you disabled it because those are enabled by default.
if you want to be condescending by saying things such as "Man Linux support sometimes," I will just walk off from this thread and lock it accordingly. I haven't said anything dehumanizing or disrespectful, yet somehow you construed it as such.
When you have Proton Experimental and disabled DXVK/VKD3D and talk about adding .exes to Steam, how am I supposed to know what you know otherwise?
the answer has been provided by two different people: use wine-ge and prefer system libraries
mute-gold•16mo ago
i dont know why you wouldnt flip the prefer system libraries, with latest wine-ge thats how you get some videos to play in a flatpak container with latest wine-ge. IME this is only required for flatpak installs.
Just for completeness the right solution is: Use Wine-GE-Latest from heroic wine manager. turn on prefer system libraries.
Literally thats it. You dont need to get some old version of wine-ge to get videos.
When you add a game to the steam library (from Heroic's UI), Heroic automatically creates the wrapper, shortcut, and commands to run the game through Heroic. You are not, at this point, running the game through steam, even though you hit play from the steam library UI. It is not recommended to run proton outside of steam games (games purchased through steam and run directly by steam). Not that you cant, but you are opening yourself to potential problems, and Wine-GE works perfectly in basically 99% of cases. If you dont know why you need proton, dont use it.
iirc, when using proton dxvk/vkd3d are irrelevant settings as proton enables these by default., which is probably why it lists as disabled here?
wee-brown•16mo ago
I only mentioned older versions b/c after an update (I don't know which one) to heroic or the flatpak runtimes (I am not sure which here either) I know of at least one game were some of the videos quit playing. I think the older versions of wine-ge will still work. I can't say that for sure as I just got annoyed enough at that point to just use the rpm of heroic instead
mute-gold•16mo ago
to be clear i dont have video issues in latest wine-ge and i dont use flatpak
but yeah just checking the use system libs box is a pretty simple solution