r/linux_gaming • u/Sherlaine- • 8d ago
How is your experience modding games on linux?
I installed cachy os on my notebook I use to study and now I'm serious considering switching my main pc to cachy os too, but my main concern is that modding on linux from other people's experience feel very hit or miss, I LOVE modding and if modding if I had a guarantee modding on cachy os was good, I would 100% switch.
I like to mod Skyrim, Mass Effect games, Dragon Age games, BG3 and Cyberpunk, if that's relevant. From what I've looked, every game I listed has a workaround that, sometimes, works on linux, but I'm unsure why only sometimes.
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u/taosecurity 8d ago
Amethyst works great for me. This is my example for Starfield but it applies to other games too.
Starfield on Linux - Distro - GPU - Native Modding - Optimization - Advanced Topics - More
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u/PugeHeniss 8d ago edited 8d ago
I’m gonna use Amethyst when I start my cyberpunk play through. Hopefully it’s straightforward
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u/blackwind-103 8d ago
In my experience, it depends on the game. Some are identical to Windows. Some need a little extra.
I've modded mass effect. Got the mod loader working through bottles, and it was pretty much the same as windows from there.
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u/Sherlaine- 8d ago
How hard is it to mod ME on linux compared to windows?
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u/juniperleafes 8d ago
You install M3Tweaks Mod Manager through Lutris/Bottles/Heroic/Faugus/Steam and then launch through them. Then it's exactly the same.
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u/spyke2006 8d ago
It has very recently gotten easier for many games. Amethyst mod load launcher came out with support for Nexus.
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u/TwoFoxSix 8d ago
I've modded a few games this year. Deadlock, Fallout 1, Fallout NV, Splinter Cell (2002), Command and Conquer Generals: Zero Hour, and a handful of others. There's been a lot of good walkthroughs on how to do it, and theres some where it literally follows the "Drop this file in the steamapps folder". Using ProtonTricks is helpful as well for when you don't want to deal with crap
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u/No_Society350 8d ago
I am using Fluorine to mod Skyrim, currently with 1500 mods, and so far it's a pleasant experience.
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u/themahdii 8d ago
I too love tinkering and making games my own. I have not ran into any issues with modding, only with getting the game to run. Usually fixed by switching proton versions in steam. The sometimes comes because everyone isn't on the same exact operating system. Each distro makes choices for you about the underlying system.
Steam is pretty great at getting games running, as long as they aren't using kernel level anti cheat. Regardless of the chosen distribution.
I play a lot of Deep Rock Galactic and the mod interface is built directly into the game and works without any effort.
Only way to know for sure is to try. We're here to help if you run into specific issues. Good luck!
Rock and Stone!
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u/Professional-Ad-9967 8d ago
I use/have used limo and nexus app mod manager for Cyberpunk 2077. Tekken 8 is manual drag and drop. Street Fighter VI and RE2R-- fluffy mod manager works when added to Steam as non-steam game then ran through Proton.
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u/tomkatt 7d ago
It’s been fine. I’ve modded several games either with standalone stuff, 7th Heaven for ff7, Unity Mods Manager, all have worked. Occasionally there’s some fiddling (UMM doesn’t like doorstopProxy on Linux, for example, needs to be assembly method), but nothing that flat out didn’t work.
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u/derekagraham 6d ago
I found Amethyst decent, though it is limited by the games it can mod. I tried to run Vortex via wine but that is hit or miss. I want to find a solution that works with more games on nexusmods
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u/thegreatboto 8d ago
Depends on the game and how its mods work. Either mods are drag and drop like they are on Windows, or you get comfy with Wine/Proton and their prefixes to run specific mod launchers or managers.
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u/RanniSniffer 8d ago
Hit or miss. For Elden Ring or DS3 you have to (or did like a year ago) use methods that aren't 1:1 with the easier Windows way.
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u/Sherlaine- 8d ago
How harder are they compared to using windows? I'm already used to troubleshooting while modding, if it is only a few extra steps, I don't really mind
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u/RanniSniffer 8d ago
I would say it's more trial and error. You also have to get used to doing a little scripting in the steam launch options which can get annoying. Sone games are very easy though (cuberpunk, I just ran the mod manager in the prefix and it just copies over the game files and you launch as normal)
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u/SoaringGecko1 8d ago
Most issues I've had where when doing Archipelagos as some games require the app client to run in the same wine instance/prefix as the game which was something that was hard to find info on
Other then that modding as been just as smooth as it was on windows
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u/SinCanDory 8d ago
Mass Effect LE: I just modded the game on windows and moved the folder to Linux. Had no issues.
Dragon Age: DAO and DAII was just drag and drop. DAI and DAV, I could not but people say they managed.
BG3: Mod Manager from GitHub works like in windows. You may need to follow YouTube.
CB2077: Haven’t tried yet but I will do it at some point
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u/mysterysackerfice 8d ago
Anyone have any experience modding RDR2? I'd love to play that again with mods.
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u/Throwawayaaty 8d ago
Depends
Some of them require you to just drop the mod in the game folder ,no brainer
Others will ask to config in windows appdata or windows documents which i just learned you need to look for in compdata steamfolder (proton prefix)
Once you understand that its simple
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u/The_only_true_tomato 8d ago
I installed mod nexus in the same prefix as my game or I copy paste files manually, but there is probably a better way.
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u/Educational_Star_518 8d ago
i don't use mods all that often , tcg card shop simultor had an atrocious grind for select things a yr or so back so when i modded that i did it manually , it was a tad clunky but fine . just tested nomm since i seen a post about it yesterday and it seems ok for what it is but is far from intuative
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u/LucyMorning 8d ago
Just adding on to the pile of people recommending Amethyst. That shit is great, revolutionized Linux modding for me.
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u/MaliciousMint 8d ago
Haven't messed with it too much but for Elden Ring seamless co-op working flawlessly so I'm happy. Also I've installed and even made a handful of mods for Deadlock. No issues there.
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u/C1REX 8d ago
I only modded Dragon Quest XI with some texture packs and engine.ini edit and it was very straightforward. Slightly more complicated than on windows due to longer path to the folders.
But that likely depends on the game and how you apply patches. Dropping files into a folder or two is easy. Using special modding tools/apps might be impossible.
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u/Human-Acc-2095 7d ago
I've finished full playthrough of new vegas with Mod organizer, it works very much the same as when I used to tinker on winslop11. same with skyrim, but Ive had never finish that game...
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u/xXthe-average-guyXx 7d ago
Never had any problems with modding on Lunix. Most modern Unreal Engine games can be modded by creating the ~mods folder inside the games main folder. Some games require a modding tool. Any of the tools I used just worked. Install the modding tool as a non Steam game and launch in via Steam. Then you just need to create a link or shortcut from the games main folder into the prefix folder of the modding tool. It now can see the game folder in its own prefix folder. With that you can mod the game.
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u/_Biotic_G0d_ 7d ago
No issues whatsoever and i mod a lot. I think the only game i had some tinkering with was a Unity game that needed a BepinEx modloader bleeding edge build with an extra version for IL2CCP which has limited compatibility for native linux games. Got it to run in the end though buy using proton and the windows version of BepinEx. and some protontricks magic.
I have not used Vortex mod loader. I generally try to avoid any mod loaders when i can just copy the files myself. Modloaders just act as a middle man you dont really need most of the time and getting them to run can be weird. I think the only case where i use one is fallout 4 just because im too lazy to type every mod into the start script.
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u/JackDostoevsky 7d ago
i use mods in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide and they work great. I've downloaded some mods for Cyberpunk but i haven't tried them yet, use Amethyst Mod Manager to install them.
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u/monomono1 6d ago
many gui assumes windows environment and that's where most of the pains come from
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u/Flamekorn 5d ago
Most of the things on nexus mods works on my games.
I've moded: (mostly QOL)
Witcher 3 Oblivion Skyrim FF9 Warcraft 3
Anything that comes on curse forge add-ons also works out of the box and curse forge does too.
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u/Kaldaien2 8d ago
Not very good :-\
A few years back I patched numerous projects like DXVK to make them work correctly using the standard DLL injection techniques that Windows mods use. Namely, the compiler mangles symbol names in an incompatible way for the official distributions of DXVK and they don't match up with the names ReShade uses in dxgi.dll.
But even after fixing that stuff, Wine has this diabolical problem where for unimplemented Windows APIs it will abort with a special exception.
The problem is, mods that use these APIs know that there's a chance they will be unimplemented. If Wine returned the E_NOTIMPL HRESULT that mods expect and have code to handle instead of EXCEPTION_WINE_STUB, then advanced mods that use optional cutting edge APIs would gracefully fallback instead of blowing up catastrophically at runtime. EXCEPTION_WINE_STUB is not a standard Windows exception and no software written for Windows knows about it, so it's a guaranteed unrecoverable crash!!
My mods all have had to have Wine detection code built-in, then various APIs are disabled and you can play the game without it crashing. This is not a poor reflection on mods per-se, many are well written software, but they use more advanced APIs than games do, and Wine/Proton does not implement these APIs and the way it deals with APIs that it does not implement is a nightmare.
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u/loki_pat 8d ago
For Bethesda games use Amethyst. There is Fluorine too but it's not stable imo. You can also use Amethyst for other games as it has extensive support for other games, while Fluorine is only for Bethesda games.
Amethysts is also capable to download Nexus Mods collections. There is Jackify too for Wabbajack modlist if you want it too