EQ2 on Linux and Mac guide

I was reading a thread where Sigrdrifa was showing a screenshot of her parse program; I believe it was damage numbers for her warlock (I may be wrong on that). It got me to thinking that surely there's one available somewhere that's similar to the Window's-only programs. I searched a couple hours and couldn't find one. Heck, I even asked ChatGPT =) and everything it posted lead to a 404.

If it's just log parsing, I could probably write something up to do that, if I can find out which logs to parse; however, if it's more in-depth to get those kind of statistics, then I could figure out the course to take based on what would work and not get me in trouble with DBG.

Hey G, could you post that screenshot where Sig was showing off her program or numbers, pls? And what is her parse program called? Some kind of game addon maybe or something more sophisticated or maybe even self made?

I’ve been playing EQ2 via Lutris (with ACT and EQ2Map) for a few years now. The experience has always been good!

I actually developed a small harvest tracker during my time playing on Linux. I haven’t touched it in some years but it might still be useful for somebody. https://github.com/azcn2503/eq2-harvest-tracker

And it's for any level, right? Not just for those using items or being high enough crafter level?

Uwk

I like Win 11 because you don't have to do much.


However Linux is amazing and I intend to get a Linux pc

I was incredibly skeptical of the possibility that Linux would run this game so well. I found an old 2.5" SSD laying around and gave it a whirl... and I am honestly floored at the performance. It's an absolute game changer. Thank you, Sturmlocke, for the guides. I used those to get all this going.

Question, though: I faced a lot of issues getting the launcher to consistently open, and the only way I get a launcher is by running Proton 4.11-13. Has anyone else had this type of issue? Would love to run the newest version of Proton that I can to make sure I'm getting all the performance I can using this method. If I can get this figured out, I don't think I'll ever go back to playing on Windows (at least until the DX11/12 change is done).

Results from trying to run various versions of Proton (within Steam):
Proton Experimental: Click play button, turns to blue stop button, immediately back to green play button, no launcher (both with and without gamemoderun command)
Proton 8.0-4: Same result as above
Proton 7.0-6: Same result as above
Proton 6.3-8: Same result as above
Proton 5.13-6: This is where results get interesting. Click green play button, turns to blue stop button, but stays this way indefinitely. No launcher ever pops up, with or without the gamemoderun command. Steam thinks it's running, but it's not. I was able to get a launcher last night, and this did not work after shutting down for the night.
Proton 5.0-10: Click green play button, turns to blue stop button, stays this way for roughly five seconds before switching back to play. Same results with/without gamemoderun command.
Proton 4.11-13: Launcher successfully opens, game runs.

System specs:
CPU: Intel i5 13600k
Mobo: ASUS Strix Z790-E Gaming Wifi
GPU: MSI RTX 3090 Suprim X 24gb
RAM: 64gb DDR5 6000 mhz
PSU: 1000w Platinum
Case: Lian Li o11 Dynamic Mini
Cooler: EKWB Nucleus 240 with 9 EKWB Loop 120 fans
Storage: 3 NVMe (500gb for Windows 11, two 1tb drives for storage, games etc in the Windows environment), 1 2.5" SSD (250gb - containing my Ubuntu install)

Thanks for any help/ideas!

-Kyen

Hail kyen, typing on my mobile. Fam is sick currently, so I'm focusing my energy on this right now, but I'll try to respond to your post by tomorrow night and answer all of your questions. Thanks for sharing your experience, super happy that it all worked out and that you're happy with the results! btw, if you decide to stick with Linux, it'll be an even better experience on amd gpu due to the combined effort of all parties involved in making the open source drivers (Valve is pushing hard).

Read you tomorrow!

Ok, will try to throw in a few words in here before we go to bed again (it's 3 am here rn):

Quick question: Are you running the native (Steam installer) or sandboxed version of Steam on Ubuntu (Flatpak or Snap)? Is it Ubuntu lts or the smaller interim sts release? Edit: Are you trying to access an existing game installation on a separate drive or did you download and install the game freshly on the 250 gig ssd where you have Ubuntu installed on?

If it's the native Steam installation (recommended for ease of use), check out the description of my video posted here:

After the gamemode %command% you have to add --disable-gpu for the launcher to start and show up. It's a bug that has to do with the hardware acceleration of the launcher in itself and it can happen on Windows too, and this is how you turn off gpu hardware acceleration for the launchpad only when it first starts. I have more ideas if this doesn't fix it, depends on a few things ofc. You're right btw, if you're seeing great performance by using that super outdated version of proton, you'll be stunned by how much better it'll run with newer versions that have enhanced performance many, many times over in recent years. It's a night and day difference for sure! I'm currently using Proton 8 on both my Nvidia and amd gpu for eq2 on Linux and it's doing twice the fps versus the vanilla Windows dx9 client, at a minimum that is. The dx11 upgrade for these games should boost dxvk performance on Linux even further, making the game run even faster on Linux still. Proton 8 also introduced many substantial performance upgrades when compared to previous versions, resulting in even better performance and ootb compatibility with everything gaming.

Will post more tomorrow, let me know if this helps *thumbsup*

Thanks for the reply! I'm sorry to hear that your family isn't feeling the greatest and I appreciate the reply. To answer some of your questions/points:

1.) I am running the native Steam installer, the one that's available to download from the Ubuntu applications.
2.) It is the newest Ubuntu LTS.
3.) The game is downloaded and installed freshly on the 250gb SSD that Ubuntu is installed on. EQ2 and Ubuntu are the only things I've installed on that drive to make it as clean as possible.
4.) I have tried the Proton versions both with and without the gamemoderun %command% --disable-gpu and another, --use-gl=gles2. I was trying a happy mix of everything, throwing whatever I could and seeing what would stick to make the game run. What works for me currently is Proton 4.11-13 with gamemoderun %command% --disable-gpu.
5.) I would be open to getting an AMD GPU, but considering I paid over $2,200 for my 3090, I would like to make this card last as long as possible before I swap it.

All that aside, Proton 4.11-13 is working for me and I'm seeing good performance on Extreme Quality. There are very few situations running around or fighting solo that I'm dipping below 60fps, which is awesome. What I may do is wipe the EQ2 installation and all associates files, then reinstall (again using Steam) and try the newer Proton versions again. I have my UI settings file for my main on a thumb drive, so I'm not losing anything but time trying that.

Happy to record the tests via OBS and post them to YouTube to demonstrate the issues I've had, if that helps diagnose this.

Curious to hear any additional thoughts you have. I'll be doing some testing again this evening when my wife/son go to sleep, so I'll update accordingly.

-Kyen

Hail Kyen, sounds good! Thx mate, winter time = lots of virii in the air! In the process of bringing my kids to bed rn, will get back to you when they're asleep.

Iirc Proton 4.x doesn't even use Vulkan / dxvk by default, so chances are you're actually still running on OpenGL, or an older version of dxvk at best, and if performance is already this good then it'll be even better once you get to use the newer builds for sure! I think it was Proton 5+ that made dxvk the default, don't remember exactly though.

A few questions beforehand:

Can you double check that it's actually the native Steam installer pls. I ask because on Ubuntu 22.04 lts the software center offers two versions of Steam, one called "Steam installer" (native, standard version, has full access to the entire system) and one available as Snap (prepackaged by the Ubuntu team with more goodies and more secure / restricted access in a confined sandboxed environment = better for privacy). You can tell by going into the software center and checking in the upper right corner of the app version that you chose to install. The Snap version will show Snap and the repo it got installed from. Usually the Snap version can behave the way that you're describing due to some default settings that would have to be tweaked in this version of Steam. Native version should not have this issue though.

Have you encrypted the drive during installation of the os?

The game was downloaded via Steam servers and not manually added as a non steam game via the eq2 install.exe, right?

Which Nvidia driver version are you running right now (the app Nvidia-settings should show the info) and did you install the drivers via the official "additional drivers" tool in Ubuntu or some other (manual) way?

Can you try these launch options and report how it goes pls?

PROTON_SET_GAME_DRIVE=1 gamemoderun %command% --disable-gpu

The above command is also needed when you want to use EQ2 beta because it grants you the access needed to patch the beta files. Try with and without gamemoderun pls. Try with the launch command and without. Some ppl are reporting that they don't need the launch options anymore with recent proton builds: https://www.protondb.com/app/201230

Are you running on Wayland or X11 by any chance? I assume you're on Gnome (Ubuntu default)? If you're on Wayland, switch back to X11 via the lower right corner of the login screen of Ubuntu (X11 should be the default for Nvidia unless you changed it somehow).

Wip, we'll take it from here then.

Ps: Nvidia works well with Proton these days tbh, it's just that their closed source drivers can misbehave every now and then, but tbf they're currently developing a more open compatible version of their closed blob and that should make things much more stable on Nvidia in the near future. Performance wise Nvidia is really good these days and Installing their official drivers is a mere click on Ubuntu luckily.

Thanks for all your help! Ironically, your first question was the correct one.

I was on the Snap version of Steam. I uninstalled that and used the "Steam Installer" version, and lo and behold everything works. Running in Proton Experimental at the moment and it's beautiful!

I'm doing some screen recording and will take a few screenshots to show the performance. Going to run an old raid zone with a coercer, because particle effects, and will post it in a follow-on.

-Kyen

Hail kyen, awesome! Glad it worked! Btw, I recommend staying on Proton 8 for eq2 because experimental is a moving version that can introduce regressions or other changes due to its nature of always rolling along. Experimental is more for testing anyway or when a game is too new / "special" to run with the stable version of Proton. Gamemode should help increase performance, and if you open up nvidia -settings, you can set Powermizer to prefer maximum performance too. That way your gpu will push out a few fps more even. Last but not least, setting the cpu performance plan in Ubuntu settings to full performance will help sustain a high fps rate at all times, so that's recommend while gaming too.

Looking forward to your recording! Show us the newly acquired power of your brand new Ubuntu system and congrats for giving it a shot. Let me know if you have any other questions, will try to help where I can.

Ps: if you do recording with obs (available in the software center, note that you have the option for the Snap or native obs version here too and I believe the native version is more up to date iirc), then that Nvidia gpu of yours will be auto configured to use its dedicated hardware accelerated chip for video recording and streaming via the launch assistant. That means it won't stress your cpu when recording and performance will remain high even when recording during gameplay

For everyone else, Ubuntu 23.10 has entered the chat and we're one version away from the next lts with ten years of extended long term support.

As we currently have a bug which prevents the game from running under Windows 7 - can somebody please check whether Ballads of Zimara is running under Linux?

If I want to avoid upgrading to Win 10 - might switching to Linux be an alternative?

Anyone able to check on windows 11. i cant log in

I have windows 7. I was the first to report the bug. Thankfully I can still log in. The patcher throws out the message but will load eventually for me. I hope they get it fixed for everyone else soon.

Hail Trajan, I'm answering from mobile again, kids in my arms. In short, sure, I should be able to test in about two or three hours when my fam goes to sleep (long nights currently). I'll give it a shot and report back, unless someone else with Linux is faster ofc (looking at you, Kyen *smile*). But yes, switching to Linux is a very good alternative tbh, and it won't cost you a single penny because it's completely free. Our family has been on Linux (and Mac) for decades now, we actually don't have a single Windows PC in our household anymore. You can always still go for Windows or MacOS if you don't like Linux, so there's no harm in giving it a whirl.

Not meaning to stir anything up here, but switching to Linux will also have other benefits, such as enhanced security, enhanced privacy and more choice and transparency. Windows Updates now come with malware (not the first time this has happened btw):

Nice, wtg for the bug report! I'm actually quite surprised that eq2 is still supporting Win7 after all these years, considering its end of life status, so major kudos to Darkpaw. I bet compatibility with older systems is one of the major reasons they went with directx 11 for the api upgrade that EQ1 and 2 are going go be receiving soon (instead of dx12). That said, I'd prefer to use Win7 over everything else that came after it. Aesthetically Windows Vista was my favorite from the Windows operating systems.

Btw, what bug are y'all talking about here exactly? I've seen ppl mention it here and there but I didn't realize it was affecting so many ppl tbh.

Edit: Nvm, found it -> https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/launcher-issues-11-29.613153/page-3

Update @Trajan: I can confirm that EQ2 Ballads of Zimara is running just fine under Linux. Proof below: On one of my three Youtube recording machines running Linux (Ubuntu and OpenSuse primarily). Screenshots from idle to login.

Linux Gnome Desktop (OpenSuse), Greater Faydark Style

EQ2 Steam Preparing Performance Enhanced Vulkan Shaders (DXVK)

EQ2 + Steam + Fully Patched = Ready To Play (no issues whatsoever)

EQ2 In Windowed Mode (fully logged in, no issues during patch + login, no issues during gameplay)

Hope this helps @everyone!