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Weird issue with launching Total War: SHOGUN 2 (Steam ver.)
Duck Hunt-Pr0 Sep 19, 2020
Having a weird issue with Total War: Shogun 2, where it apparently won't run if executed directly trough the Steam client.

Though; For some weird reason or another, I can run it just fine by manually executing the Shogun2.sh launch script (located at ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Total War SHOGUN 2/Shogun2.sh) in a terminal, and letting that launch Steam in addition to the game...

$ cd "$HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Total War SHOGUN 2/"
$ ./Shogun2.sh


Which will launch the Steam client and then autostart the game/app itself, just fine..

Though if i simply click "Play" on the game in the Steam client, the green "Running" status will only show for a split second or two, and then nothing happens..


I would assume that Steam would be using the Shogun2.sh script to launch the game upon clicking "Play" ..So why there seems to be a difference, i've no idea ATM.. And terminal output does not provide any useful info regarding what's the problem, as far as i can tell..


Anyone here experienced something similar, or have any tips on how to troubleshoot it further, or preferably how to resolve it?.. It's quite annoying having to give a game 'special treatments' to run it.. ...


Note: I've also got Total War: Warhammer (and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided), which are both utilizing the same engine etc. etc. , but which both does launch perfectly without issues whatsoever..

  • hastebin listings of Feral's "Generic Feral Launcher script" source: Shogun2.sh script


Last edited by Duck Hunt-Pr0 on 19 September 2020 at 6:36 pm UTC
This topic has an answer marked - jump to answer.
Arno Oct 6, 2020
Hey there

I'm having the same issue. The game *should* run natively, but besides the quick green flash that says I'm running the game, nothing happens.

I also tried your solution, but that also does nothing unfortunately.
This is what I get:

WARNING: Total War SHOGUN 2 not launched within the steam runtime
         This is likely incorrect and is not officially supported
         Launching steam in 3 seconds with steam://rungameid/34330
Manjaro steam native configuration found!
Running Steam on manjarolinux 20.1.1 64-bit
STEAM_RUNTIME is disabled by the user
Can't find 'steam-runtime-check-requirements', continuing anyway
/home/arno/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam steam://rungameid/34330


I tried different compatibility tools too, to no avail.
Any helpful pointers would be welcome!
whizse Oct 6, 2020
Any error messages if you launch steam from a terminal and then launch the game normally?

(Steam outputs a lot of text during start, so it's most likely the messages printed after you hit the play button that's of interest.)
Duck Hunt-Pr0 Nov 4, 2020
Quoting: whizseAny error messages if you launch steam from a terminal and then launch the game normally?

None of any helpful indications after the splash launcher starts.

However, I did eventually get SHOGUN 2 to work. Unfortunately i forgot exactly how. (and sadly made no notes)

Though, I still had the problem that; If i ever launched WARHAMMER, SHOGUN 2 would again seize to launch anymore. Which led me to kind of put it on ice for a while out of frustration quite rapidly.

But, at least to me in my case, the problem appeared to be with the Total War "splash launcher" application(s), and not the actual game(s) (e.g their splash launchers kept messing with eachothers launcher's config/data files. If i'm not remembering incorrectly)

I'll try to dig up again what solved it, at least to what made it run.
  • I might've simply uninstalled WARHAMMER and then manually deleted whatever traces and orphan files I could find of it. And then installing and running SHOGUN2 again. Though not too sure
    And in hindsight, that might've been easily workaround' by using a renaming/restoring script.


Last edited by Duck Hunt-Pr0 on 4 November 2020 at 7:54 pm UTC
Duck Hunt-Pr0 Nov 4, 2020
Quoting: ArnoHey there

I'm having the same issue. The game *should* run natively, but besides the quick green flash that says I'm running the game, nothing happens.

Would you happen to also have Total War:WARHAMMER , or perhaps other games using the same engine ? If so, see my https://www.gamingonlinux.com/forum/topic/4590/post_id=30537

Sorry i can't be of more help than that ATM

Last edited by Duck Hunt-Pr0 on 4 November 2020 at 7:22 pm UTC
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