Steam's Proton with proprietary Nvidia drivers

[Fuzzy Penquin]

I finally got around to installing Steam onto my Mint drive and then installing some games that I'd bought back in Sept. I am amazed at how extremely well my games played in Linux with the proprietary Nvidia drivers that came with the OS (as opposed to bleeding edge). The games were flawless. But more to my point, there is one particular game which owns my soul: Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition, and especially it's Aurora Toolset which allows you to make your own games. The toolset is NOT Linux compatible** however, so I am required to boot into Windows to use it. Has anyone here enabled Proton in their Steam settings? It requires you to install the bleeding edge graphics drivers, which is why I haven't done it yet (computer is currently extremely stable: don't fix it if it isn't broken). If anyone here has enabled Proton and happens to have this game, have you tried the Neverwinter Nights Aurora Toolset in it? I have had no luck getting the Toolset to work in Crossover (won't even launch), and it looks like Wine isn't much better so I haven't tried it yet. If all else fails, I can still use it under Windows, so it's not that big of a deal. I just was curious if anyone had tried it in Proton yet. (Neverwinter Nights itself works just fine in Linux, BTW)




**Reason it doesn't work in Linux: according to Beamdog, the toolset was originally written in C++ by Bioware. In order to port it to Linux, it would require a total re-write from scratch, and due to the small number of people working for Beamdog, it would be prohibitively difficult. So they aren't going to port it.

[ShyGuy]

I have Proton installed with Steam under my Mint 19.1 and it works pretty well. I first was using it with the Nvidia 390.116 drivers, and the only game I ran into an issue with was The Evil Within, some of the textures and effects wouldn't display properly. I upgraded to Nvidia 415.27 to fix that issue, That was a little painful, but another story.

Internet searches suggest on Linux to run the Neverwinter Nights Aurora Toolset under VMWare Windows.

[Fuzzy Penquin]

Thanks for the response, ShyGuy. That's interesting to hear that Proton worked mostly fine with the 390 drivers. I may have to give it a try just to see what happens.

Sadly, yeah, Windows either in a VM or dual booted seems to be the only way to make the Neverwinter Nights Aurora Toolset work. Too bad, because I was hoping to be able to make it work via Proton, so that I could get rid of my Windows 7 install. Oh well, I guess it lives to see another year. Lol.

[jchelpau]

I wouldn't give up hope. There's a lot of articles online about how to get the application you want working in Wine, with some workarounds.

[Fuzzy Penquin]

I wouldn't give up hope. There's a lot of articles online about how to get the application you want working in Wine, with some workarounds.

Yeah, I saw those. I'll have to try them out, and see how well it works. I did try Crossover, but had no luck getting the Aurora Toolset to even launch. I've used Wine in the past for other programs and found it could be kind of a pain to get stuff working (some software more than others), so was hoping to avoid that if possible. However, beggars can't be choosers, so Wine is still worth a shot. It does work great when something is 100% supported, no doubt.

Itinerary for next week, when I will have enough free time for actual experimentation instead of just talking about it:
Try Proton
Try Wine
(Or if the above fails me...) suck it up and fire up Win7.

[Fuzzy Penquin]

Had some free time last night. Enabled Proton, and tried running the Aurora Toolset. No luck. Just as with Crossover, it won't launch. I might not bother trying Wine at this point. This version of the Toolset comes with the Enhanced Edition of Neverwinter Nights, which is not the same as the original game (and Toolset). It's been modified and messed with, to improve graphics a little as well as to run on modern hardware. The Toolset itself is also worked over, I think (with another patch coming down the pipe soon. Saw the announcement last night). So even though the original Aurora Toolset can apparently be made to work in Wine, I think the Enhanced Edition version doesn't. Both Proton and Crossover are all based on Wine, with Proton having heavy focus on making (Windows) games work.

Soooo, Windows 7 it shall be. The Aurora Toolset was originally coded in C++, which the Beamdog guys say would require a complete re-write from scratch to be made Linux-compatible. They are a small group and don't intend to make the port (prohibitively difficult for a small team, they say). Perhaps one day it will work via Proton, Crossover, or Wine itself. But today is not (yet) that day. Lol.

[catweazel]

Soooo, Windows 7 it shall be. The Aurora Toolset was originally coded in C++, which the Beamdog guys say would require a complete re-write from scratch to be made Linux-compatible.

https://annex.fandom.com/wiki/Neverscript

[jchelpau]

The Aurora Toolset was originally coded in C++, which the Beamdog guys say would require a complete re-write from scratch to be made Linux-compatible.

Linux-compatible is different to Wine-compatible. It may just be that Proton is missing some files or hasn't implemented some interfaces the toolset uses.

[Fuzzy Penquin]

Soooo, Windows 7 it shall be. The Aurora Toolset was originally coded in C++, which the Beamdog guys say would require a complete re-write from scratch to be made Linux-compatible.

https://annex.fandom.com/wiki/Neverscript

OooooOOOOoooh, what is this?? I have never seen mention of this in my searches. It sounds interesting, but unfortunately their website doesn't work anymore. I'm not sure how to get this program... will have to Google this. Thanks Catweazel!

[Fuzzy Penquin]

The Aurora Toolset was originally coded in C++, which the Beamdog guys say would require a complete re-write from scratch to be made Linux-compatible.

Linux-compatible is different to Wine-compatible. It may just be that Proton is missing some files or hasn't implemented some interfaces the toolset uses.

This is true. The mention of being Linux-compatible was mostly in reference to having a native working of this part of the game. The main game itself has been made native and works flawlessly in Steam without the help of Proton (a supposedly souped-up Wine). It's just the Aurora Toolset that is still not native and apparently can't be made so by Beamdog.

But your point that Proton could be missing some files or interfaces that the Toolset uses, is a good one. If this is the case, Crossover is missing it/them as well, since it too failed to launch the Toolset. I suppose Wine, maybe with Lutris, might be able to do it. I can't imagine that there are no Windows programs out there that work just fine in Wine (or Crossover, or...) that were written in C. So the problem can't be it's language. It's got to be something else. Some file. And my Google-fu is not strong, since I'm not turning up what I'm looking for. Gonna have to give it another try tomorrow or something, since I've just been informed that we're about to have company in a couple minutes. *sigh*

[catweazel]

OooooOOOOoooh, what is this?? I have never seen mention of this in my searches. It sounds interesting, but unfortunately their website doesn't work anymore. I'm not sure how to get this program... will have to Google this. Thanks Catweazel!

The site is working for me, and it's my pleasure.

[Fuzzy Penquin]

OooooOOOOoooh, what is this?? I have never seen mention of this in my searches. It sounds interesting, but unfortunately their website doesn't work anymore. I'm not sure how to get this program... will have to Google this. Thanks Catweazel!

The site is working for me, and it's my pleasure.

I should clarify that the link you gave (https://annex.fandom.com/wiki/Neverscript) works just fine, but on it there is a link to NWscript's own project website (http://neveredit.sourceforge.net/) and it is this one that doesn't work for me (being sourceforge, I would assume that it used to hold the download for this program). I get a generic "oops we can't find the page you're looking for" error. But no worries, Google will hopefully turn something up. I just got home from work and scarfed down dinner, so now I am free to continue working on this.

Bleh, edit: I followed a link from the Neverscript page to the Neveredit page, which is supposed to be another program written by the same people. It is on the Neveredit page where I found the link to the sourceforge page. The NWscript page has a link to the Bioware Developer's Portal, but the connection times out before anything ever loads.

Edit 2: well apparently the Neveredit's sourceforge page still works if you get there through Startpage search engine. Must have been a broken URL implementation on the other page.

[Fuzzy Penquin]

Soooo, the joys of living in a rural area: came home to a power outage for three hours, not sure how long it was out before I came home. So much for everything I had been working on last night, lol.

I installed Wine tonight after the power came back on, but am having no luck launching the Aurora Toolset with it. Installed some Vulkan drivers, updated my graphics drivers to the bleeding edge branch, installed 32-bit libraries, installed some other things.... still wont launch.