PlayableShow Details
Unknown
Gem in the rough, dust it off and play this whacky alternative to GTA. If you liked GTA Vice City and Crackdown you'll like this game
Use the High Quality Music and Audio mods to restore sound to the better quality versions
Hair is drawn improperly, allegedly setting anti-aliasing should fix it but didn't for me
Wasn't able to set 2560x1440 resolution
Mouse tracking isn't perfect
30-60FPS cap enabled on the native version
Going to have to dig into it more, but Saints Row 2022 had me looking back here and found this beautiful little game
A few crashes but thats pretty much par for the course even on Windows, added the Gentelmen of the Row mod.
Runned really fine. Stable and no problems afterall. I completed to 100% with only 2 crashes (25hours to complete)
xact32, xact64 installed
Reduced TDP. Reduced the wattage usage, capped the gpu clock to 700. Runned stable at 60+ fps
No audio. Solved with protontricks and installing xact files
It is important to install xact files. Idk if changing proton version it will work, but it is essential to play properly. Doing so, the game runs perfectly
Works on ProtonGE, not on Proton 8.0-4
The game has a list of hard coded resolutions it "supports" going up to 1920x1080, it doesn´t even list 3840x2160 for example. There's a windows tool to edit the settings.dat file and put in whatever resolution you want.
A friend of mine reverse engineered it and created a linux version available here: https://pastebin.com/ydi3mg3m
Just compile it with g++ and provide the settings.dat file (steam/steamapps/compatdata/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Local/THQ/Saints Row 2/settings.dat) and the resolution you want.
For the game to start working you need to force compatabily to Proton experimental.
It's highly Recommended to downlod Gentelman of row throught this link https://users.saintsrowmods.com/idolninja/sr2/gentlemen_of_the_row/Gentlemen_of_the_Row_Saints_Row_2_Super_Mod_v1.9.2.rar
Instractions on how to install Gentelman of row mod:
Download the mod to your PC and extract it into a folder Double click Create_Custom_Gotr_v1.9.2.bat in the opend command window you can press the numbers and add more mods when you're done. press P and enter/
after everything is finished copy the contents of MY_COSTUM_PATCH folder to a usb drive and transfer it to the directory of the game on desktop mode in the steam deck
the directory should be /home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/saints row 2/
Fixing the audio: to fix the audio problem you need to go into desktop mode, through the discover tab, search and download Protontricks and launch it
1.Select Saints Row 2 in the list of games 2.Select "the default wineprefix" 3.Select "Install a Windows DLL or Component" 4.from the list check faudio, xact and xact64 and click OK
wait a few moments for it to finish, when window opens again you can click on close.
now the game should have Audio working.
Randomly crashes ans sometimes being annoying like crashes when doing a mission.
Some music from the in game radio dont play.
Many textures were transparent like buildings/cars and some npc's.
Does not detect logtech controller had to use mouse and keyboard.
Sometimes the game will not acually save your progress in the manual slot. had to load a autosave as a result.
Major fps drops but it is a bad port. could not get a stable 30 fps.
The game completely freezes and stops running eventally could not play more than 20 min maximum.
Native verson is borked but after installing gentelman or the row mod proton verson worked
Gentlemen of the Row mod is highly recommended, since mod works as a patch and fixes a lot of technical issues and improves graphics.
Noticed that CPU and GPU utilization are always lower than 50%, but FPS are bad. Probably just how the game works. So I set TDP limit to 5 Watts, GPU clock to 700 to save battery.
Without Gentlemen of the Row the game is a mess on any PC. With this mod SR2 is easily one of the best open world games of all time.
Here is how to install Gentlemen of the Row.
- Using Windows PC download and unpack Gentlmen of the Row archive.
- Run "Create_Custom_GotR_v1.9.2.bat", press "P" to get default mod version. This will create 3 files in MY_CUSTOM_PATCH folder.
- Copy these files to Saints Row 2 folder on Steam Deck: /home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Saints Row 2
Then pick GE-Proton7-42. I used Proton 7.0-3 and Proton6.3-8, but both had one nasty bug with large building shadows flickering on and off while driving.
- Install protonup-qt in desktop mode
- Start protonup-qt, install GE-Proton7-42
- Go to properties for the game, then Compatibility and pick GE-Proton7-42
I recommend setting performance to 30 FPS if framerate stability is key for you, since anything above will lead to unstable framerate in some situations. 40 FPS looks stable at the first glance, but driving around the city shows dips. If framerate dips to 30-35 are Ok or you find them rare, you can try 40.
DXVK_HUD=1 %command% gamemoderun %command%
You have to force the game to use Vulkan to get stable frame rates. Then setup the 'dxvk.conf' file to force the game to be capped at 60FPS max. This allows for smoother performance.
I've created a script you can run, that fixes these issues and resolution issues find it here: https://github.com/dontna/SaintsRow2-Proton-Fixer
After applying the fixes mentioned previously, it still drops frames here and there. It isn't anything big enought to stop me playing though.
The game crashes no matter what you do to it, so I recommend saving often.
Note: There is an on-going patch being worked on by a handful of people over at Volition. This report was made prior to that happening. Just keep note of that.
Запускается под протоном из коробки, но присутствуют случаные вылеты. Runs under a proton out of the box, but there are random crashes.
mangohud gamemoderun %command%
блики теней
40Hz refresh rate
Audio occasionally fell out of sync after putting the deck in standby mode with the game running. This only happened a couple of times though.
Additionally, the PC port has downsampled audio. I used a mod to restore the music to its original sample rate, but the voices still sound like they were recorded from an internet radio station in the dialup era.
Broken shaders and particle effects. However, this is a problem with the PC port in general and is not caused by Proton.
The PC port is incredibly buggy, as it did not receive patches or DLC.
In addition to the radio mod, I also used the Gentlemen of the Row mod, and a UI improvement mod. For these two mods, I had to use my Windows VM to configure the mods before copying them over to the deck.
It was pretty common during this era for PC ports to be an afterthought, if they existed at all. Volition has a small team working on updating the PC version to bring it up to parity with the console version including DLC, but the team lead, IdolNinja (who also made the Gentlemen of the Row mod) passed away from cancer. The project has not been canceled, but progress seems to be slow.
Set the GAME RESOLUTION in Steam General game options
Gentlemen of the Row mod used for fixes
Coop also works.
Using the third party patch Gentlemen of the Row is needed for mostly stable play. And once forced to 30 FPS.
Constant stuttering at 60 FPS. Given the age of this game it shouldn't have an issue on the Steam Deck. However, the original game was known to be a buggy console port. Forcing via Gamescope to 30 FPS seems to help.
Player character sometimes is bad lit, half of it is lit differently
Its not possible to set my maximum resolution (2560x1440), i can only set one below it.
At 1080p MSAA 2x high FPS is between 30 and 80 depending on the situation. Also noticeble stuttering.
On cutscenes inside vehicles the characters just fly behind the vehicle. Noticebly on the first boat
As stated below, most of those bugs are related to a bad PC port and performance is not great on proton.
There is a native port. I was able to show the intro video by instaling lib32-libva1-compat and adding LD_PRELOAD="/usr/lib32/libGLX_nvidia.so" %command% to the lanch options.
Didn't played enough to experience crashs.
Use the "Gentleman of the Row" mod for bugfixes/stability. Run the game in windowed to help prevent crashing. Disable the radio on cars/motorcycles to help prevent crashing. Disable Steam Overlay for stability. Use Mangohud to limit the FPS to 60, to fix bugged cutscenes.
Disable Dynamic Lighting to prevent glitched face lighting on the player.
Fullscreen increases frequency of crashing. Windowed is recommended.
With the fixes listed above, the game is playable for 1-2 hours at a time. Save often.
Without the fixes listed above, the game crashes with unplayable frequency.
Para poder jugar bien el juego hay que usar un escritorio virtual y si la resolución no aparece un editor de resoluciones
Escritorio virtual y editor de resoluciones
https://youtu.be/9hMBAps7J8I aca una guía de como solucionar los problemas del juego en nativo va pésimo
Was only able to run the game on Proton6.3-8 for ~1hr at a time. Frequent crashes.
As with Saints Row 4: it seems like having the radio/music playing causes the game to crash noticeably more often.
While flying a helicopter the ocean has broken textures. Video cutscenes have items out of place (commonly things in NPC's hands will be floating around the scene).
Game will crash after a max. of 1hr gameplay (if you're lucky) or sooner if in-game radio is playing. Other versions of Proton/Experimental (did not test GE builds) will not launch the game or crash after intro videos.
As others have mentioned: the startup and intro videos will not play unless the mouse is moving. This was fixed by renaming the "logo_" files in the /video/ folder where the game is saved.
As others have mentioned: this is a fun game but a terrible console port. When the game runs it works well but the fun doesn't last for long before the next crash. I did not attempt to install "Gentlemen of the Row" mod.
Had to install xact through protontricks to get the audio to work, otherwise there was no audio whatsoever except from the intro splash screens.
Some black stripes artifacts were popping up constantly on my screen. Turning Vsync On in the game video options fixed it.
Some random crashes. Seems to be tied to how long I've been playing for the day. Restarting the game periodically, like once an hour or two, prevented these random crashes from happening.
I played it from start to finish with a Xbox 360 controller and Gentlemen of the Row mod installed, both worked flawlessly. Due to my current system being a low spec laptop, I can't give an accurate report on performance other than the game being taxing, but playable.
Proceed with caution! It works perfectly fine under Proton, but is still a terrible PC port
Gentlemen of the Row mod
NPC speech crackles and sometimes cuts off abruptly when the game tanks below 30fps - which is somewhat frequent, even on modern hardware. This also goes for story NPCs that spew dialog while driving around, but not for phone calls you get in-game.
Not sure if this is due to Proton or a poor PC port.
Player skin texture / shader seems to be corrupted upon exiting and re-opening the game, as seen here. The right half of the player model appears normal, however the skin on the left side is black or green depending on the lighting. Entering the character creator and changing player properties (aka visiting Image As Designed or starting a new game) fixes this issue until the next restart.
Some inputs don't register when the game drops below 30fps. Unsure if this is due to Proton or a poor PC port.
At one point all of my savegames got corrupted and settings reset to default following a crash and subsequent re-launch of the game, losing me about 7 hours of progress. So not only save often and keep multiple savegames, but also be sure to make frequent backups of them aswell!
This game is very prone to random crashes, often at the worst possible time, like right after completing a mission or upon exiting the character creator. Sometimes it'd crash to desktop while chilling in the pause menu for seemingly no reason at all. Sometimes I can go 3-4 hours without a single crash, sometimes it crashes to desktop every 20 minutes. It's extremely unpredictable, so do save a lot and save often!
I am aware that there is a native Linux version of this game, however, this native version would not work on my system - however, it's produced the strangest bug I've ever seen, whereby the intro videos would only play if the mouse is moving, and then crash; this can be seen here.
Take note that this PC port is quite shoddy to begin with. While the game originally shipped with a 31fps cap, this has been patched out over the years, this does not mean it can maintain a stable 60 or above - quite the contrary, as the framerates fluctuate wildly between the mid-40s and low 90s on my system without vsync. Turning vsync on in-game provides a smoother experience, at the cost of a bit of input lag.
Gentlemen of the Row mod is a must! Not only does it pack a whole bunch of additional content, it also makes the game a whole lot more stable from what I can tell.
Shadows are sometimes not processed correctly indoors
Running in fullscreen causes the game to crash quicker
Unable to finish the first real level after the tutorial due to repeated crashes
Remember to use Gentlemen of the Row mod, in terminal wine cmd is your friend
Bad performance, but better than in native version
Some textures are missed (native version shows them)
game launch but unable to play
I can change options and everything but when I try to start a new game it comes back to the menu instead of starting... I have the same behavior :
- native
- proton experimental
- 6.3-5
- 5.13-6
Installs, but crashes after splash screen
Tried DXVK, D9VK and WINED3D11 on Proton 5.13-4 and Experimental. In all instances game keeps crashing with Unhandled exception: page fault on read access. (and btw the Native version work like crap, ~30 fps with framedrops to <10 fps; on an RX590! :o - really disappointing)
No audio with Eggroll's 5.9 Proton. Works fine on 5.13
Had to turn off "shadow maps" to get smooth 60fps. Would hover at around 30-40 otherwise.
Windows build runs at 2x speed on my PC. Native Linux port doesn't run at all. (Comes up with some "Ubuntu" error.) Proton with D9VK is running at 50-60fps with no issues. For me, this is the only way to play this game.
Dynamic Lighting can glitch without warning, resulting in light & shadows flickering on and off. Turning Dynamic Lighting off fixes the problem but makes the visuals look flat. Not consistent, and may go 30 minutes without an issue, or it may happen multiple times within 5 minutes. (Dynamic Lighting works correctly in the native Linux port).
The native Linux port averages around 45fps, the Windows version through Proton averages around 60. Both still demonstrate Saint Row 2's horrible optimization, with frequent frame-drops into the 30's (the Linux version drops even lower, into the upper 20's). If you're picky about your graphics quality and don't mind a lower frame-rate, the Linux port will work. Also worth considering: save games from the Windows version are not compatible with the Linux version (neither are Linux saves compatible with the Windows version). Which version is better comes down to which sacrifice you're willing to make: frame-rate or visuals.
The game runs noticeably better with Proton and D9VK compared to the native Linux port. The native Linux version never went over 50 FPS, averaged about 40, and had many dips to mid 20 FPS, whereas Proton+D9VK generally averages around 60 FPS, with the highest framerate I've seen in game being 79 FPS and the absolute lowest dip being 35 FPS in a very intense sequence. The only thing that keeps me from wholeheartedly recommending this is there are occasional crashes when entering a vehicle that I haven't found a consistent recreation for yet. As for performance, as stated previously, it's a much better experience than the native port.
Native version doesn't work for me. On Proton now the game starts in a black box on the left top, but I cannot resize the window so not possible to start the game. After installing D9VK, the game start fine and playing is possible, but not fully stable and the menu doesn't seem to work.
The game starts, but when after loading screen for a new game it will always crash on Proton.
