NorthstarProton

A Proton build based on TKG's proton-tkg build system to run the Northstar client on Linux and SteamDeck, along with some enhancements out-of-the-box.

Officially supported runner for playing TF|2 + Northstar through Steam on Linux and SteamDeck.

https://r2northstar.gitbook.io/r2northstar-wiki/installing-northstar/steamdeck-and-linux/installing-on-steamdeck-and-linux

IMPORTANT

• This is a custom build of Proton, and is not affiliated with Valve's Proton.
• The use of this Proton build, or any Proton build, outside of Steam is universally unsupported.
• Report any issues with this Proton build to this repo -OR- make a ticket on the Northstar Discord [invite link]. Do not take them to upstream wine, Valve, or TKG.
• Do not use this Proton runner for any games other than TF|2 / Northstar
• Builds are currently done on SteamOS. This means that glibc 2.33 is a hard minimum requirement.

Features

• Latest DXVK release patched with DXVK-async.
• DXVK-async enabled by default, no launch options required.
• wsock32.dll as a DLL override by default to enable Northstar, no launch options required.
• LatencyFleX wine components to reduce setup. Users need to set up the vulkan layer and add LFX=1 to enable.
• Allows for Northstar to run on SteamDeck.
• Some users report Origin is less miserable, an entirely unintended but welcome feature.

Releases

Releases for NorthstarProton will be done if:

• There is a new tagged release for wine-staging, DXVK, or LatencyFleX.
• New features, workarounds, or fixes need to be added.

Users likely do not need to update every release as the state of Titanfall 2 is unlikely to change, however it is recommended. Updates are conducted to keep the runner current.

Usage

Prerequisites

• glibc 2.33 or higher.
• Titanfall 2 on Steam.

Manual Installation

1. Download the latest release from the Releases page.
2. Extract downloaded release archive to the appropriate directory.
   • [Native and SteamDeck] ~/.local/share/Steam/compatibilitytools.d.
   • [Flatpak] ~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/data/Steam/compatibilitytools.d/.
   • Create directory if it does not exist.
3. Restart Steam.

Enabling

1. Right click Titanfall 2 in your Steam Library
2. Click Properties
3. Click the Compatibility tab.
4. Tick Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool.
5. Select the installed version of NorthstarProton.

Options

LatencyFleX

Once you have installed the vulkan layer properly, LatencyFlex can be enabled by adding LFX=1 %command% to your Titanfall 2 Launch Options.

DXVK-async

DXVK-async is automatically enabled by default. If you wish to disable it, add DXVK_ASYNC=0 %command% to your Titanfall 2 Launch Options.

Building

This section is for the sake of documentation. Users are not recommended to make their own builds, however nothing is stopping you.

Requirements:

• A clean and stable building environment that does not have Steam installed.
• All depdencies installed. For this an Arch-based environment is recommended. See the proton-tkg PKGBUILD for a complete list of dependencies.

git clone https://github.com/cyrv6737/NorthstarProton.git
cd NorthstarProton
./generate.sh

Troubleshooting

Gentoo

• Make sure sys-libs/libunwind is installed before using NorthstarProton, otherwise it may not work (R2NorthstarTools#4).

Why?

• Northstar does not run on any Proton build that is based on Valve's wine base. As such, this build is made with upstream wine-staging.
  • GE-Proton has moved to Valve's wine base for a while now, the only Proton-GE builds that work are pretty old and have been found to be pretty inconsistent.
  • TKG-Proton builds based on wine-staging run Northstar great, however they do not run on SteamDeck since the precompiled builds are done on bleeding-edge glibc.
• Northstar requires wsock32.dll to be overridden, this is automatically done via Protonfixes to provide a better end-user experience. A PR has not been made to upstream Protonfixes since Titanfall 2 does not need this override and there may be complications with using it.
• Northstar has native support for LatencyFleX built directly into the client. LFX wine components have been added to this build to significantly cut down on setup steps.
• As with all Respawn games, Titanfall 2 has a ton of stuttering until you generate all the shaders. Granted, it's not nearly as bad as Apex, but having DXVK-async enabled out of the gate is a huge improvement.

Contributing

PRs will only be accepted to generate.sh and 1237970.py. If you would like to see configuration changes done to the way NorthstarProton is built, please make an issue instead of a PR.

Credits

Etienne Juvigny (TK-Glitch), for his constant work on the proton-tkg build system.

Tatsuyuki Ishi (ishitatsuyuki), for LatencyFleX.

Amine Hassane (Sporif), for continually maintaining DXVK-async.

Chris Simons (simons-public) for Protonfixes, which I have shamelessly butchered into this project.