UnsupportedShow Details
Unknown
Works fine desu. Thanks to whoever mentioned using mf_catherine. You don't need to add mf or anything, GE-Proton and mf_catherine works
You need to run the mf_catherine.verb script via protontricks
Alt-tabbing causes issues
Doesn't work without the script, cutscenes don't load or the game crashes after the second cutscene. With the script installed via konsole through Protontricks and using latest GE-Proton, the game works without any issues. It sure was a headache to figure out, though.
Plays well out of the box
Occasional issues with getting stuck or custscenes not loading
gamemoderun %command%
some models bug out during cutscenes - faces at the bar with friends
without this version of proton it wouldn't load, and sometimes the cutscenes wouldnt play, and I couldn't get past the first level.
resolution seems to influence the cutscene playback. 4k doesnt work for some. 1440p seems ok so far.
Flashing screen during graphical cutscene, character model glitches in 3D cutscenes, blank beige screen for the second cutscene after skipping the first. Some strange symbols in the text messages..? Climbing tip videos (?) don't work
Mouse input feels kind of slow and laggy even at max sensitivity, though the game should be playable with just a controller or keyboard
Launching it directly from Steam with default settings might not work
First tried whatever Hotfix was set as the default, it got stuck on a black screen after the first cutscene. Then tried Proton 7, 5 and 4 according to what other similar users had reported working, none of which worked, some didn't even reach the main menu while others got stuck at the loading screen with a quote. Finally switched to 9.0-4 which appears to be the latest stable Proton version and it magically started working
It isn't a demanding game performance-wise, runs well on my laptop with integrated graphics
Cutscenes would not play without using protontricks to install the "mf" DLL set.
If moving from Windows, remove config file from /home/user/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/893180/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Application Data/TheEccentricApe/Catherine
V-Sync breaks fullscreen, makes app launch in nonexistently small window
Proton 3 - launches, untested
Proton 4/5 - fail to launch, runtime error
Proton 7 - works
9/Experimental - no launch at all
Mixed bag vs using Experimental
ONLY WITH EXPERIMENTAL: the audio drifts in and out of sync (behind) with the pre-rendered cutscenes (mf-install was generally in sync)
ONLY WITH MF-INSTALL: the pre-rendered scenes lower the performance of the game to ~40 (Experimental was ~60)
Ran great outside of the issues with the pre-rendered movies. Both Experimental and mf-install have their own issues, but do not use 9.0-4 as the pre-rendered movies will flash occasionally.
Without mf-install, the Steam overlay would change between a 720p display and a 1080p one, especially during pre-rendered movies. The cursor was also not visible unless hovering over an element regardless of what was used.
Videos not displayed
The game itself launches and runs with GE-Proton9-21 but the videos wouldn't work properly (only sound, no pictures).
I tried to solve the issue by applying the following Protontricks workaround to no avail: https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/15pee9k/comment/k9z58q8/ Ultimately, I bruteforced the issue and used FFMPEG to convert all .wvm videos in the Movie and Movie2 folders to .mp4, a format actually supported by GE-Proton or Experimental.
If you try to apply the same solution, don't forget to remove the original .wmv from the folders and rename the new files extension to *.wmv so that the game can find these back when calling the videos. Restoring the original files can be done by simply verifying the game's files in Steam.
Followed this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/15pee9k/how_to_fix_catherine_classic/
come on dude below, atleast give us the guide to use mf-install rather than just "yeah it work with it"
Installed mf_catherine.verb
None of other reports from this page (below) and the next page hepled me - either video don't play, game had audio issues, or something else. Only working combination I found is latest GE-Proton with mf_catherine.verb script. I was able to complete the game with just two or three crashes. All graphics features work with this combination, so you won't need to adjust graphical settings or switch from DXVK to WINED3D.
I cant really put a "maybe" because well the game works out of the box but no story cutscene is just bruh
game uses .wmv as its cutscene and it just doesnt show up
As stated above any pre-rendered/animation cutscene is just a no
you absolutely have to use nvidia-utils and its lib32 nouveau does not work at all
Unable to boot / Crashes
Tried multiple Proton vers / GE Proton vers doesn't boot at all
I can get experimental with "PROTON_USE_WINE3D=1 gamemoderun %command%" to run the game except it's either distorted or crashs with "!status && vkAcquireNextImageKHR"
Steam Ver for linux is borked for me. There are probably other workarounds to play this game, but hopefully there will be a fix for this game. ):
I've tried many different versions of protons and command line options but nothing works.
Borked
Cinematics (when they work that is) seem to crash the game
This game heavily relies on cinematics, and they either don't show up, or crash the game.
PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 gamemoderun %command%
Choppy videos, and low framerate during the gameplay if not in fullscreen mode with certain versions of Proton
Sometimes the game would boot to a tiny window, I could switch back to borderless by pressing ALT+Enter twice, but it woudln't go to fullscreen.
Some crashes, sometimes the game would hang at loading screens.
Proton versions older than 8 wouldn't make it pas the first loading screen, 8 and 9 were not super stable and had big glitches in videos, Experimental was better but not perfect for the videos, but the framerate didn't seem to go up to 60 during gameplay like the (one of? can't remember) other versions. None of the configurations really were enjoyable to play.
Finally playable on linux without GE :)
Going trough the Intro and then "Destroy" itself
The problems with cutscenes are a huge issue as they are integral to the story of the game.
Heavy flickering or fully missing animated FMV cutscenes.
Fullscreen did not work for me, but borderless worked without issues.
The cutscenes were completely missing on Proton Experimental and GE-Proton8-28. On GE-Proton9-7, the cutscenes sometimes worked but with flickering or they were completely missing too. I used protontricks (from the github issue above), otherwise the game would refuse to even start with GE-Proton. Other than that, I experienced no other issues during gameplay or with stability of the game. I would not recommend to play until the cutscenes are fixed as they are a vital part of the story.
Fullscreen makes the game 1 pixel tall after you restart the game. Use borderless fullscreen to fix this.
The game crashes randomly, happened last time after a random sheep tutorial
The game fails to play videos (and continue) with regular proton. with proton ge videos work but the game crashes randomly and frequently. This happens no matter which proton ge version you use.
The game resolution is 1 pixel tall if you use fullscreen mode and restart the game. To fix this use borderless fullscreen option.
The game works only with Proton GE 8.28. Other versions cause crashes or getting stuck at sheep tutorials and Proton without GE fails to play videos.
Some sheep tutorials dont display the video properly
If you fullscreen the game and restart the game the game will be 1 pixel tall. Fixed by using borderless fullscreen.
Crashes often
GE-Proton8-28 gave me the best results. Using no GE meant missing videos and a newer version of GE like 9-2 made the game crash during Trisha's introduction.
There seems to be a DoF issue with in-engine cutscenes (at least for me) where everything will be blurry in mid-range shots but close-up shots of characters are normal. Turning off Depth of Field in the settings fixed it for me.
Movies would not play, though everything else seems to be working out of the box.
For the cutscenes on Proton9 (beta), it either displays a "test screen" image or the screen flickers rapidely between black and white. The GE version has no such problems: the cutscenes are displayed normally
After 9 months from my last review you can finally play Catherine on Linux for the first time, without any crash, Proton-GE is the way to go to make the cutscenes work, i tried both experimental and hotfix and they don't have cutscenes but Proton-GE does now
Requires Proton-GE. Make sure to set your monitor refresh rate no higher than 60 fps or it'll glitch cutscenes
PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 gamemoderun %command%
Proton GE takes a while to launch first try as it downloads Codex.
While it did start with pretty much any previous Proton version, you were never able to get past the first cutscene, as it would just not play or simply crash the game. Using Hotfix (by Valve, not Proton GE) it now works without crashing and with playing all the cutscenes without any problems. [2024-01-30] I had to keep Steam Input enabled to be able to use my controller (Xbox controller), but as it's enabled by default I just wanted to mention it without giving it too much weight.
Videos dont play, stuck at sheep tutorial
Videos dont play, stuck at sheep tutorial
I have tried proton ge and other tricks as described in other reports and the game works but videos play too fast and desync with audio, making it unwatchable. Also with wine 3d blur is buggy and incorrectly applied
PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 gamemoderun %command%
Runs fine once you can get it running, I forget what, if anything beyond whats listed, I needed to do to get it running but it seems to be a finicky game to start running. I don't play it very often and unless I pin it to the listed version with the given flags it tends to not start
No need for any tinkering or messing with wine verbs, it seems Catherine likes GEProton8-20. Works out of the box with 0 issues as far as I could tell. I started it up and then loaded a save game without issues and started playing.
PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 gamemoderun %command%
What I did to make it work:
I installed the Steam, Flatseal, Protonup-Qt and Protontricks Flatpaks from Flathub.
Using Steam flatpak, I installed and tried to run Catherine Classic (in order to generate the requisite directories for the next steps).
Using Protonup-Qt, I downloaded GE-Proton7-43 to the Steam Flatpak runtime.
For Catherine Classic, I changed the default Proton version to GE-Proton7-43 and added the following Launch Options: PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 gamemoderun %command%
I used Flatseal to change Protontricks permissions to "All System Files"
Run command: echo "alias protontricks='flatpak run com.github.Matoking.protontricks'" >> ~/.bashrc
Run command: wget https://gist.github.com/Neodamode/22871fae8020a87a6cd816ccac405358/raw/83f1c56add0adbcff9d116b2a51a157da7bcc954/mf_catherine.verb
Run command: protontricks --no-bwrap 893180 --force mf_catherine.verb
Once game started, I disabled V-sync and ran 1600x900 Windowed mode. Game ran flawlessly!
Without the tinkering steps listed, game would load the menu screen and wouldn't start game or play any animations. Side note: I did the following steps after completely uninstalling the game and deleting the Proton folders for the previous installation attempts. Game works flawlessly without any crashes or issues once configured correctly.
PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 gamemoderun %command%
Audio in cutscenes is out of sync
Blur
Since the cutscenes are a major part of this game I wouldn't recommend playing in this state. I tried the solutions listed below for the PC reviews, using an specific ProtonGE version, the latest one or Proton Experimental provided the same results.
PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 gamemoderun %command%
protontricks --no-bwrap 893180 --force mf_catherine.verb
Crashes if alt+tab/virtual desktops gets abused
Very rare crashes
Re-report to say, the tinkering is necessary to enjoy this game from start to finish. I had tried different proton version, but for some reason Catherine likes THIS one , so I'd suggest you try 7-43 instead of experimental or even other proton versions. Cutscenes work on my end, though one time it crashed for desktop switching. If you like ATLUS games, this is a must buy; even if you have to tinker. The lemons are worth the squeeze!
It is a silver+ experience in my opinion, after those workarounds (wined3d, the script, mf-install and specifically ge-proton7-43)
PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 gamemoderun %command%
I used the protontricks mf-install and the mf_catherine.verb command: protontricks --no-bwrap 893180 mf_catherine.verb
Switching desktops may degrade performance and/or make the game crash, happened once, in a 7 hour period.
Maybe manual camera movement during bar sections, but it wasn't a problem and could be just the game behaving normally? Not significant, however.
A cutscene stopped playing when I switched desktops, just the audio played with Vincent's image frozen.
Could be a lot better, but it is one of those strange ports that barely work. I don't know if it's JUST mf messing with the whole game and making it crash; probably not. The game is 100% playable from start to finish with all I've mentioned, in my experience at least. Anime and rendered cutscenes work flawlessly, though I haven't finished the game in it's entirety, it is probably the same experience.
Doesn't work anymore
Tried the steps detailed here, apparently the game doesn't work anymore.
Can't begin new game
Not able to start a new game, hangs on the loading before the first cutscene.
Game won't start
PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 gamemoderun %command%
Ran updates as below. Installed protontricks. Installed game. Ran protontricks. Installed MF (Media Foundation DLL). Downloaded mf_catherine.verb. Ran: protontricks --no-bwrap 893180 mf_catherine.verb.
Game would load but wouldn't start new game. After Protontricks work-around listed below, game will not even load. 2 hours of troubleshooting, no game. Borked!
