Post #2279468
2026-05-02 06:34 UTC
I’ll legit look into this tomorrow.
The answer is generally: Proton/Steam. There was a patch to WINE or Proton recently that made it much easier to use mods that require custom DLLs.
The core weird trick is understanding that there’s a directory for your game (once installed/setup in Proton) that’s essentially the C: drive. As far as your game is concerned, it’s running on Windows where it is the only non-system software installed.
So, any mods that are just scripts/plugins where you copy them into a folder then launch the game (anything without DLL, basically), you install the same way… But you use the directory, that contains the “C drive” for that specific game.
It sound complicated but once you do it once or twice it’ll feel familiar. You just now have a unique “C drive” directory for each game.
You can install/run multiple applications in the same bottle (basically what WINE calls the fake c drive using virtual windows environment). For example, when I play PoE2, I use a third party program to make trading easier. I just run that program inside the same bottle as the game and they think they’re both running on the same computer.
For basic things like installing and playing games on Steam it’s all handled automatically. You click the install button and then click the play button. Installing workshop mods is also exactly like in Windows. Steam just knows how to use WINE/Proton.
Replies (1)
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@bridgeburner@lemmy.world 2026-05-02 13:26
That approach doesn't work for any game, tho. For example, I can't get mods working for World of Tanks. If I move the mid files in the directory where they normally would be under Windows, WoT crashes when I start it.