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taskset --cpu-list 0-3 %command%
This game does not like processors with many cores and i needed to limit the core count for the game.
With all cores: ~ 30 fps With 4 cores: ~ 100 fps
Finally seems to work with whatever experimental proton version is out as of 2 April 2025. Make sure your config is set to not use DX9.
Performance sucks because the engine sucks
Check your graphics device type and make sure it's set to D3D11 -
gfx_device_type 1; # gfx_device_type , Set device type, 0-D3D9, 1-D3D11, 2-GL3 #
line 21 (in my system) of this file:
SteamLibrary/steamapps/compatdata/214950/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/The Creative Assembly/Rome2/scripts/preferences.script.txt
All the Total War games from Total War: Medieval II to Total War: Atilla works with my setup instructions
d3dx9_42, d3dx9_43, d3dx11_42, d3dx11_43, d3dcompiler_42, d3dcompiler_43, d3dcompiler_46, d3dcompiler_47
30 fps
There are some things you must do to each and every Total War game from Total War Empire, all the way up to Total War Atilla to run them smoothly, luckly they are a one time thing. Only Total War: Empire needs a few extra tweeks.
With my instructions, you should be fine to use either dx11 or dx9. I prefer dx11.
Step one: Use protontricks to install missing dll files (I may have used too many but if you download these for the total war games I listed above, it will work every time so I haven't messed with them). Please install d3dx9_42, d3dx9_43, d3dx11_42, d3dx11_43, d3dcompiler_42, d3dcompiler_43, d3dcompiler_46, d3dcompiler_47
Step two: confirm you are running on Proton Experimental (If you don't set the compatability to a version of proton, steam will automatically download the native linux version which you DO NOT WANT, most of them have been broken for quite some time. The Windows versions run better than the linux versions anyways).
(Only if you are playing Total War: Empire) Step three: Go to https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/7074#issuecomment-1948807811 and follow the instructions to fix Total War: Empire.
Step four: Profit!
P.S. As of today I have tested out these Total War games with the above steps and they have all worked on March 10th, 2025: Total War: Empire, Total War: Napoleon, Total War: Shogun II, Total War: Rome II, Total War: Atilla.
Total War Medieval II works great too, but other people have already covered it. If you do try to play it, make sure to use Desktop Mode since running it in gaming mode causes massive fps drops when hovering over UI Prompts. Also make sure to set your proton compatability (preferably Experimental) because otherwise it will download the native linux version which is broken
There was no lag or stuttering, and I did not experience any crashes or other issues.
It ran out of the box, no issues whatsoever
I guess proton has gotten better in the past few years... every other report has said it would die immediatly
taskset --cpu-list 0-3 gamescope -W 2560 -H 1440 -r 165 -f -e --force-grab-cursor --mangoapp %command%
Edited the line "gfx_video_memory 0" to "gfx_video_memory -4000" in "preferences.script.txt" (located in SteamLibrary/steamapps/compatdata/214950/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/The Creative Assembly/Rome2/scripts/preferences.script.txt) to use more VRAM.
After restricting the game to use only 4 CPU cores (taskset --cpu-list 0-3), it runs smoothly. The game doesn't seem to like modern multicore processors, so you may have to limit the amount of cores to get smooth framerates. Also, GE-Proton9-15 seems to just work.
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 gamemoderun %command%
The game crashed halfway through ending a turn, and it crashed upon loading into a battle.
The game starts and even allows you to load into a campaign, unfortunately, I couldn't load into battles without the game crashing.
Trop de crash avec le proton experimental
After the set launch option and lowered shadow details, I seem to be able to load battles & settlement battles with no issues. (large/small)
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1
Battles will crash unless in-game setting have been altered.
This verdict shouldn't be too conclusive as I'm still testing different settings and adjustments to laucher settings. What you see posted in this current message does say that its playable and with no issues, that I've noticed so far at least. I'll update this post with any newer information on playability as it comes.
https://steamcommunity.com/id/jake_in_the_box/screenshots/?appid=214950
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 %command%
Changing the resolution in-game leads to crashes
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 DXVK_FRAME_RATE=30 gamemoderun %command%
Set number_of_threads in preferences.script.txt to the number of my threads
I got bad terrain textures when I ran the game in DX9 mode
Game is crashing on newer proton/protonge versions or if you set the highest settings
I've combined some settings from previous reviews, but the main things are that d3dx11_42.dll and D3DCompiler_42.dll have to be installed with protontricks, use older proton version and lower the graphical settings. I got more than 100 turns without crashes with 5.0-10, but the frame limiter is not working there, so I switched to 7.0-6 which seems stable too, for now.
My game settings:
AA: Off
Texture Quality: High
Shadows: Medium
Water: Medium
Sky: High
Trees: High
Grass: High
DoF: Off
Particle Effects: High
Terrain: High
Building Details: High
Unit Details: Medium
Unit Size: Large
Texture Filtering: 16x
Shader Model: 5
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 %command%
From my short experience, one needs to try downgrading Proton version by version, starting from the most up to date and then older versions.
Frequent crashes make the campaign unplayable. However custom battles work as expected for the most part.
Playing the campaign would cause frequent crashes everytime I went to the next turn.
Playing the Teutoberg Forest map in Custom Battles or playing Custom Battles for a prolonged period of time would also cause the game to crash
Crashes
Crashes whenever you start a battle or the prologue
Weird graphical glitches and missing textures on a normal Linux setup (need case insensitive partition for them to appear)
PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 %command%
Higher graphic settings break the campaign map. Lower shader settings if issues arise. Also if the cursor is missing install the game onto a drive/partition with case insensitive paths!
Play on Windows if you can.
Used to be much worse. Have been able to play multiple hour long sessions with no crashes. Performance still leaves a lot to be desired.
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 DXVK_FRAME_RATE=30 %command%
Stutters and slowdowns in battle gameplay
Can play with no crashes but expect some performance issues.
If you play this with friends online its not playable at all for that, but singleplayer seems to be okayish for me.
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 gamemoderun mangohud %command%
Some thumbnails weren't loading in properly
Could not connect to a session with a friend invite via steam.
MANGOHUD_CONFIG=fps_limit=120, no_display
Switching to the kron4ek-wine-9.1 runner resolved the occasional crashes.
It strained my GPU when vsync or fps limits werent enabled but I dont think thats an issue with wine
Constant crashes after a while. Seems like something with VRAM
Significant slowdowns, low FPS on lowest graphical settings; stuttering
The game crashes every session
The game is simply unplayable. Crashes due to VRAM issues. Until it's fixed don't buy. https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/issues/2604
Mine only worked with Proton 7.0-6 and by downgrading my NVIDIA drivers to nvidia-driver-525.
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 %command%
So:
- Downgrade driver to nvidia-driver-525 (In ubuntu: Software & Updates -> Additional drivers
- In game settings go to complatibility -> choose Proton 7.0-6
- PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 %command% in launch options
cant start campaign
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 %command%
Doesnt work with default and experimental proton, tried recommended settings - no change
Crashes during battle load
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 %command%
Installs, Main Menu and other menus work. Campaign map loads. Crashes when entering battle (custom and campaign) Specifically the battle loading screen shows, the loading bar progresses to about 80-90% finished then the game will crash to desktop. I have tried native and every version of proton including Experimental going back to 4.2-9. I have tried the launch options reccomended by other users with no sucess. I know the game was working earlier this year but currently will not load a battle I don't reccomend this game at this time but I hope the issue is resolved soon
Can't get past launcher
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 %command%
The launcher opens when starting the game. But the game crashes when I click the play button.
I have jumped right in a save game that I had from my PC. The game works fine, maybe the UI is a bit small but you can play it no problem. All high graphics stable 30FPS on campaign map, but I did not test the battle.
The only problem I can think of is that on a such a small screen, the big campaing maps is a bit of work to navigate from one corner to another but if you can pass that the game is very much playable.
I did disable the gyro, but other than that I left everythig as is. Battery is around 2h of gameplay.
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 DXVK_FRAME_RATE=30 %command%
To fix dark shadows. Bug in DX11, so we switch to DX9 Go to /home/user/.steam/root/steamapps/compatdata/214950/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/The Creative Assembly/Rome2/scripts/ open preferences.script and change the line gfx_device_type 1 to gfx_device_type 0.
- Initially installed via Steam with Compatibility set to Proton 7.0.6
- Run the game. Preferences file was created. Dark shadows bug appeared.
- Switched to DX9 as described above
- Added launch options for esync and fsync. Added frame throttling option due to laptop heat
- Worked well until click of End Turn. AI would go through its turns and when it was my turn again game would crash.
- Installed Proton-GE. Went into Steam -> right-clicked Rome 2 -> Properties -> Compatibility -> switched from Proton 7.0.6 to Proton-GE
- Ran the game. No crash yet (~4 hours of uninterrupted gaming)
- Multiplayer finds games. Can't join due to mods installed (Divide et Impera - DEI). Might work, haven't tested.
10 months since my last report. There are still problems, but they are less inconvenient.
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 gamemoderun %command%
Does not save the graphics settings.
It was a hassle to get going:
Firstly I had to upgrade my graphics drivers to (Nvidia) 535.
Then I had to try different proton versions. Only proton 7 doesn't crash in anything other than the main menu, and only if I launch with the afrementioned custom parameters.
It no longer crashes DURING battles, but it has a propensity to crash after a turn or when loading a battle. It still crashes sometimes when a new turn is supposed to begin or a battle is to load.
It no longer crashes in the middle of a battle. I'd call that an improvement since I no longer have to repeat some battles several times, albeit its a minor one.
The game no longer saves any changes you make to the graphics settings, it however defaults to some very high ones, which I am okay with.
Flickering shadows when running the forest benchmark.
Crashed during single-player prologue. Locked up at start of my turn in multi-player map.
Other than the crashing, it worked fine. The crashes were common enough to be a deal-breaker, though.
It crashed, repeatedly, less than an hour into playing.
Loads, but frequent crashes. Cannot play at max settings.
I was able to launch a campagin by lowering graphic settings from "Extreme" to "High". About 10 minutes after starting, the game crashed.
If you cannot start a campagin at all, try lowering the graphics setting to "High" or below.
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 %command%
No textures on flags such as capture points like arrow towers and gates, no flame textures on thrown torches.
Set graphics preset to high, use launch options, set proton version to 7.0-6. I played for about two hours with no issues in and out of battles no sudden crashes on the map screen. Some textures were missing but nothing too severe.
PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 %command%
Settings don't save, you have to set things like the graphics settings every time you open it. Game saves work though so you don't lose any progress.
There's some issues like settings not saving but disabling e-sync fixes the freezing issues that break the game. With e-sync disabled it is fully playable.
Trying to remap controls doesn't seem to work for some reason
Crashes when exiting some battles
Graphics settings aren't saving, they reset each time the game is launched
The game is running and you can play all the different parts of it without any bugs in the gameplay itself but the stability isn't there yet. Sometimes it will appear to be stuck during loading and then work again, other times it never starts working again and you have to force quit. It wouldn't be enjoyable to play a full campaign because you could lose an hour long battle to this bug. Playing individual battles would be okay and the campaign itself doesn't seem to have issues so auto-resolve only might be an option. There's also an issue with the settings not saving so your graphics default to Ultra every time you open the game which is annoying but not game-breaking. Playing with mods seems to massively slow down the game. Mods work but there may be some clash with proton that's making them perform worse than usual.
Crashes after starting Campaign
PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 %command%
Start campaign -> starts to load the game, then crashes to desktop when loading is complete. Tried with/without the "PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 %command%" setting.
