Original question by @communism@lemmy.ml
I’ve finally started having some free time lately and have been working through my Steam library, most of which is Windows games I’m playing with Proton.
I wanted to install some mods, and wanted a mod manager for this. Nexus Mods has Vortex, which is not available for Linux. In any case, running Windows games on Linux through Proton on Steam is fairly specific; the game files will be at certain locations on a Linux filesystem, not at the same locations as they would be on a Windows filesystem. So I think I would need software that has specifically been designed for this use-case (Windows games from Steam running on Proton).
Are there any such mod managers out there? What do other people do when playing games on Linux? I can’t be the only person who wants to play video games with mods.
Uhm I am pretty sure that you can install vortex into the same wine prefix as your Bethesda game you want to mod. And then run it through wine or proton as you would other windows only applications.
But even when you install vortex in its own prefix, you can simply point the mod directory and game directory to your target game just like under windows (you would use the Z: drive in the directory/file chooser though)
Stardew Valley, Baldurs Gate 3, and Cyberpunk 2077 are easily modded with their New Nexus App. It is still in development, but it has native support for Linux, I’ve had zero issues with it so far.
steamtinkerlaunch has a mo2 and a vortex installer. I suggest the mo2. Playing skyrim with 400 mods and ENB as well as FO4 with 500 mods with ENB NAC. Both running extremely well on my nv3080. Well still have the FO4 NG stutter but overall playable.
Might have a hard time modding Starfield though. Last I checked STL installs an outdated mo2 version.
I have started modding cp2077 but haven’t given it much time.
There is also rockerbacon’s version. I think you can use lutris to install it. I think this is the newest version of MO2 so should work with Starfield. I recently tried it but the installer was complaining about a gtk-theme I have installed. I use KDE and whatever gtk theme I have is not compatible. Was in the middle of rewriting it in kdialog but i hit a snag and forgot about it. My bash is rubbish!
The biggest differences are STL is a whole program designed around proton/wine and offers a ton of tweaks that are as easy as clicking a button or dropdown for the most part. STL offers a single instance MO2 install using symbolic linking to all your game prefixes. While rockerbacon’s is meant to be installed for each game. Both have their benefits and drawbacks.
Both devs are pretty fucking cool!
STL’s interface is a bit odd at times but is well documented. Dont ever scroll over the right side of the Game Menu GUI as you can change settings you don’t mean to. That said it works pretty damn well.
Mostly I just install Skyrim mods manually because I’m insane I guess, but for some games I like to run Mod Organizer 2 under proton. Your whole linux filesystem can be made accessible to windows programs, not sure if it is by default. But anyway since we’re talking steam games here the game itself normally will be in the same place as usual, as far as windows programs know.
