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The Heroic Games Launcher is a fantastic community effort to bring the Epic Games Store to Linux and Heroic Games Launcher 1.9 builds upon the foundation to provide a better experience. Since Epic Games clearly still have zero interest in bringing their store to Linux officially, this is one of the best options that doesn't require messing with the Wine compatibility layer directly.

As a reminder: since Epic Games don't support Linux, all downloaded titles will use a compatibility layer like Wine.

Heroic 1.9 is now a lot faster. It has a cache of information stored and makes requests in the background, so the whole app should feel more responsive, which is very nice. There's a bit of a design refresh too with new colouring and the login screen now reflects that too. There's also a better tray icon too and a few UI tweaks.

Not all of it is style related though, there's new features too. You can select to have it start minimized, there's a playtime tracker (stored locally), a new game install flow to show a window with the options to install or import the game, running Heroic from a terminal will give more output to help debug issues, there's an AMD FSR toggle and Sharpness strength for Wine settings (although this needs a supported build of Wine to work) same with Resizable BAR for NVIDIA and there's also now Wine and Prefix information on the game page.

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9 comments

Purple Library Guy Jul 28, 2021
As I've said before . . .
Good project, done well, fuck Epic.
VoxPelli Jul 29, 2021
I wonder if it will get a mode similar to the Steam one for the upcoming Steam Deck.

Same goes for Itch.io, GOG and others.

If someone were to make a UI that brings games from all stores together into one UI and makes it easy to launch on the Steam Deck, then it could be a compelling alternative to the official Steam UI
nullzero Jul 29, 2021
Quoting: VoxPelliI wonder if it will get a mode similar to the Steam one for the upcoming Steam Deck.

Same goes for Itch.io, GOG and others.

If someone were to make a UI that brings games from all stores together into one UI and makes it easy to launch on the Steam Deck, then it could be a compelling alternative to the official Steam UI

ChimeraOS (previously GamerOS), the arch based SteamOS 2.0 couch gaming distro, has a web app that you can use on any device in your local network via URL (for example a laptop using same wifi) and install GOG or Epic games that then show in the steam games. I did it myself for Magic the Gathering Arena for Epic and it way fairly simple... and all GUI based.
rustybroomhandle Jul 29, 2021
Quoting: VoxPelliI wonder if it will get a mode similar to the Steam one for the upcoming Steam Deck.

Sort-of, the dev is looking into a fullscreen mode for launching from Steam as a non-Steam app, and also the ability to add any installed game to Steam as a non_steam app.

I say "looking into" because that's the only thing said so far on the github. :)
rustybroomhandle Jul 29, 2021
[quote=nullzero]
Quoting: VoxPelliChimeraOS (previously GamerOS), the arch based SteamOS 2.0 couch gaming distro, has a web app that you can use on any device in your local network via URL

Been wondering if that app can be used on a different arch-based distro.
mao_dze_dun Jul 29, 2021
Extra points for adding AMD FSR and Sharpness options. I'm curious, though - to these work with Nvidia cards on Linux? Also, why has the developer still not applied for an Epic grant? Seriously...
nullzero Jul 29, 2021
[quote=rustybroomhandle]
Quoting: nullzero
Quoting: VoxPelliChimeraOS (previously GamerOS), the arch based SteamOS 2.0 couch gaming distro, has a web app that you can use on any device in your local network via URL

Been wondering if that app can be used on a different arch-based distro.

Apparently yes (its on the AUR*), but I suppose only if using the steamos-compositor-plus, according to the: https://github.com/ChimeraOS/chimera

Btw now chimera is the name of this web interface. Before it was called Steam Buddy.

* EDIT: indeed on the AUR it is still named steam-budy. Thanks rustybroomhandle! The github entry was renamed recently so the "its on the AUR was probably meant for the old name."


Last edited by nullzero on 30 July 2021 at 12:35 pm UTC
Cyril Jul 30, 2021
[quote=nullzero]
Quoting: rustybroomhandle
Quoting: nullzero
Quoting: VoxPelliChimeraOS (previously GamerOS), the arch based SteamOS 2.0 couch gaming distro, has a web app that you can use on any device in your local network via URL

Been wondering if that app can be used on a different arch-based distro.

Apparently yes (its on the AUR), but I suppose only if using the steamos-compositor-plus, according to the: https://github.com/ChimeraOS/chimera

Btw now chimera is the name of this web interface. Before it was called Steam Buddy.

I can't find any "chimera" package on the AUR...
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/?O=0&K=chimera
rustybroomhandle Jul 30, 2021
Quoting: CyrilI can't find any "chimera" package on the AUR...

Same. Look for "steam-buddy", although that did not install for me.


Last edited by rustybroomhandle on 30 July 2021 at 10:52 am UTC
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