Super short Linux HOWTO
These are my notes. If you use these, you assume all risk.
I might refine them later when I have some IRL cycles for a more "unofficial" HOWTO.
Unreal 5 has decent support under WINE. As WDC is "lightweight", there's no need to use Proton flavors, but straight up WINE is ok. Proton is likely much better, but, we are going for "stupid simple" atm.
There's probably also an easier way with Flatpaks. I've not installed WDC on my SteamDeck. The WINE dependencies will still be the same, but shoehorning it on the SteamDeck is on you for the moment. If you do a SteamDeck install, please post a HOWTO for those less savvy. I'm sure others will want to take their Waifu everywhere they go like a sexual Tamagotchi. (Someone gets caught in a public WC with their SteamDeck Waifu. Lulz. Or, someone asks, " Why is your SteamDeck wrapped in cling wrap?" ROFL. XD)
Anywho. Even with Build 25, I've still not had a major problem (or any problem) yet.
These are some quick notes from my command history. There could be gaps becase if I used `tmux` at any point, then my history is lost.
* with your distro's package manager, install wine-core and winetricks. They'll pull in other dependencies.
- `sudo apt install wine-core winetricks` # debian flavors
- `sudo dnf install wine-core winetricks` # fedora flavors
(I'm throwing out the two most common distros. Arch, Alpine and others know their shit. I personally prefer Alpine as I feel systemd has scope-creep like a strangle-vine. ok, I won't rant anymore.)
* You can make a "Prefix" (Windows drive sorta) specific to a game like Steam does. For non-steam games, I tend to make them based on "Engine":
- `mkdir -p ~/.wineprefixes/unreal5`
* We need to install some DirectX dependencies now:
- `WINEPREFIX=~/.wineprefixes/unreal5 winetricks -q corefonts dxvk vcrun2022 vkd3d`
(IIRC, I had to answer some text dialogs. It's been a couple of months.)
* We should be ready to play.
- you should have downloaded and unzipped your WDC Build zip file. It does NOT need to be in the WINEPREFIX. Put it in a games directory.
- `cd` into the unzipped WDC Build directory to run it:
- `WINEPREFIX=~/.wineprefixes/unreal5 wine game.exe` # here game.exe is the WDC.exe. Being for Unreal 5, it should be any Unreal 5 game.
Q: Where can I find the WDC Save files? I want to transfer over all my progess from Windows.
A: Sure, no problem. Here's the save file location:
~/.wineprefixes/unreal5/drive_c/users/$USER/AppData/Local/Waifu_Dreams_City/Saved/SaveGames
If you re-use for other Unreal 5 games, their saves should be peppered through the ~/.wineprefixes/unreal5/drive_c/users/$USER/AppData directory tree.
Q: A new build just came out? Do I have to do that all install again?
A: Since you asked the question, "Sure, knock yourself. Waste your fucking time, drive space, and be sure to unzip when entertaining yourself XD"
For those that didn't ask that dumbass question, unzip your WDC.zip, cd into the directory, and re-use the 'game.exe' command line above.
NOTE: A great thing about WINE, is it's like a "condom". You cannot get some App's STD or have some stupid DRM like Denuvo in there that backdoors or fucks your OS Kernel. I *always* Virus check all my non-Steam Windows games, (and then sometime even select Steam games - particular if the update without using Steam's CDN) -- not counting on just MS Defender (which is pretty good). With WINE, I can be a bit more relaxed about it.
Again, there's always some IRL stuff requiring some adulting of me. We'll see if/when I circle back to update these notes. Or get to the SteamDeck version.