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SteamTinkerLaunch is a huge all in one Linux wrapper tool for gaming

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You all love to tinker right? SteamTinkerLaunch is an open source project to bundle together tons of available extra options for running your Steam games.

It's a wrapper which allows you to customize game launching so it can get your games to hook in with other tools like MangoHud, GameMode, vkBasalt, ReplaySorcery, automatically run a growing list of tweaks needed for specific games, it has support for Steam Play (including Proton and other Steam Play tools) and the list goes on for a while.

A big release went up adding in some new features like:

  • An actual user interface settings menu
  • Support for native Linux games
  • Auto configuration to find an available text editor when needed
  • Support for Valve's new GameScope project
  • Lots of other smaller fixes and clean ups

If you've been after a single solution to bundle together lots of other tools, to set them up to run when you launch your games on Steam this might be for you. Seems like it's trying to allow you to do a bit of everything. You can add it to individual games by installing it and then setting a launch option of simply "stl %command%" and then that game will use whatever tweaks you've setup with SteamTinkerLaunch.

Check it out on GitHub. Arch users can install it from the AUR.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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dpanter Sep 25, 2020
Daym, that's impressively crazy... everything and the kitchen sink.
aukondk Sep 25, 2020
Nice to see Luxtorpeda and its dev fork in there. Lots of native executables have been added recently like the new UT99 version and they also have a menu that pops up to choose engines for things like Doom.
DMG Sep 25, 2020
I watched github page and not really sure, how simple that too is for regular user. Does it sets best settings for every game by default or it just gives option to set everything on my own? Because from screenshot of settings it looks so complicated
Perkeleen_Vittupää Sep 25, 2020
Quoting: DMGI watched github page and not really sure, how simple that too is for regular user. Does it sets best settings for every game by default or it just gives option to set everything on my own? Because from screenshot of settings it looks so complicated

One of the biggest challenges for seasoned Linux users is to place oneself in the shoes of a new comer that's also a Windows refugee. What is "simple, handy and easy" (*just a few commands on the terminal*) for us, might be a set of total deal breakers for a "normo" to start with
fagnerln Sep 25, 2020
This GameScope looks really interesting, it really needs a specific release of Mesa? I don't want to mess with Mesa driver, I'm already using the Oibaf PPA
mao_dze_dun Sep 25, 2020
Quoting: Perkeleen_VittupääOne of the biggest challenges for seasoned Linux users is to place oneself in the shoes of a new comer that's also a Windows refugee. What is "simple, handy and easy" (*just a few commands on the terminal*) for us, might be a set of total deal breakers for a "normo" to start with

Had a friend back in the day, who didn't even like GUI. He was convinced everybody had to just learn to use the terminal (and obviously hated Windows). I once asked him: "What about some secretary in an office?", "Yes!!!". And meant it. I think a lot of people in the Linux community do not realize that " just one command" in the terminal is already too much for most people. And honestly - you can't be mad at somebody for not wanting to go out of his way when he doesn't have to.

Anyway - cool tool :D


Last edited by mao_dze_dun on 28 September 2020 at 5:41 am UTC
Linas Sep 25, 2020
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Quoting: dpanterDaym, that's impressively crazy... everything and the kitchen sink.
And the kitchen sink has parameters as well.
Felix Sep 25, 2020
Wanted to try this, but the settings interface doesn't want to start.
After checking if I had all the needed dependencies I tried to start it in the terminal, which gave me this list

Quotewhich: no geany in (/home/felix/.local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/lib/jvm/default/bin:/usr/bin/site_perl:/usr/bin/vendor_perl:/usr/bin/core_perl:/var/lib/snapd/snap/bin)
which: no firefox in (/home/felix/.local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/lib/jvm/default/bin:/usr/bin/site_perl:/usr/bin/vendor_perl:/usr/bin/core_perl:/var/lib/snapd/snap/bin)
which: no netstat in (/home/felix/.local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/lib/jvm/default/bin:/usr/bin/site_perl:/usr/bin/vendor_perl:/usr/bin/core_perl:/var/lib/snapd/snap/bin)
which: no vr-video-player in (/home/felix/.local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/lib/jvm/default/bin:/usr/bin/site_perl:/usr/bin/vendor_perl:/usr/bin/core_perl:/var/lib/snapd/snap/bin)

Why would it look for firefox of all things?
Nanobang Sep 25, 2020
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I applaud all the effort that went into this, especially the comprehensive (if rough draft-y) README.md. It's obvious that stl will be amazingly useful for people who love to fiddle with all things Linux. For plain Linux users such as myself? Maybe not so much. But if I'm honest, I'm fine with that! I think the last time I used a Steam launch option might have been PROTON_USE_D9VK=1 %command% just before D9VK was merged into Proton proper.

For me, if a game's not native Linux, then I have SteamPlay. If it's not SteamPlay, I have Wine. If it's not Wine, I have a entirely separate machine running Win7, which, it must be said, I haven't fired up in over a year. I just haven't needed to because I'm more likely to just not play a game then fire up that damn thing. :)


Last edited by Nanobang on 25 September 2020 at 2:14 pm UTC
Cloversheen Sep 25, 2020
This seems like an interesting project. Will give it a go for sure.

Quoting: fagnerlnThis GameScope looks really interesting, it really needs a specific release of Mesa? I don't want to mess with Mesa driver, I'm already using the Oibaf PPA

It works fine here with normal Mesa 20.1.7 or above, the tricky part is really just that it isn't wildly packaged yet. I put some details on how to get it compiled on Ubuntu and Fedora in a previous thread here.
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