Tips and Tricks

We strongly recommend choosing a distro that has up-to-date packages and a solid maintenance reputation.

  • ⭐ Fedora
  • Arch
  • EndeavourOS (Arch-based, easier installation)
  • openSUSE Tumbleweed
  • ⭐ Bazzite (see note below)
  • Ubuntu (only the latest release)
  • Debian Testing
  • Gentoo

Immutable Distros (ie. Bazzite)

Some immutable distros such as Bazzite come pre-configured with packages that can make it easier to get up and running (nVidia drivers). While initial setup may be much simpler, they generally limit your ability to tweak and customize the way the system operates. Installing software that isn’t already packaged for the OS can also be challenging.

A distro like Bazzite can be a good choice for Penguins who don’t need to tweak things beyond the default install, but be aware of its limitations.

  • Debian Stable
  • Ubuntu LTS
  • Mint (based on Ubuntu LTS)
  • Pop!_OS (based on Ubuntu LTS)
  • Zorin (based on very old Ubuntu LTS)
  • Drauger OS
  • openSUSE Leap
  • Manjaro

LTS Distros

LTS releases and out of date distros will likely require extra knowledge and effort to get Star Citizen running. Note that LTS ≠ stable in the traditional sense. LTS distros typically lock their packages to specific major versions which then only receive security updates. This is great for servers but problematic for gaming where new drivers, features, and fixes are important.

Gaming Distros

We do not recommend most gaming-focused distributions as many of our Penguins have had issues getting Star Citizen to run. They generally have only an individual or a very small team backing them and, at least where Star Citizen is concerned, don’t offer much benefit beyond our recommended distros for most Penguins.

  • LUG-Wine
    • Default runner in the LUG Helper
    • TKG Builds with LUG patches specifically for Star Citizen
      • lug-wine-tkg-fsync-git
        Standard Wine built for maximum compatibility. Works with glibc as old as v2.31
      • lug-wine-tkg-ntsync-git
        NTSync patched Wine. Requires linux kernel 6.14+ and glibc >=2.38
      • lug-wine-tkg-staging-fsync-git
        Wine plus experimental staging patches. Works with glibc as old as v2.31
      • lug-wine-tkg-staging-ntsync-git
        NTSync patched Wine plus experimental staging patches. Requires linux kernel 6.14+ and glibc >=2.38
  • Mactan
    • Managed by the LUG Helper
    • TKG builds with LUG community patches
    • Experimental wine wayland patches
  • RawFox
    • Managed by the LUG Helper
    • Recommend v10.0 as of 7-25 its unpatched and works with the C:\ path and enabled EAC

How to add a Wine runner

  • Select the option to “Manage Wine runners” in the LUG Helper and it will handle it for you.
  • Alternatively, to manually add a custom wine runner:
    • Extract the archive to your runners folder. Restart your game launcher after adding a runner and toggle on CLI mode
      • Heroic: ~/.config/heroic/tools/wine/
      • Heroic flatpak: ~/.var/app/com.heroicgameslauncher.hgl/config/heroic/tools/wine/
      • Lutris: ~/.local/share/lutris/runners/wine/
      • Lutris flatpak: /.var/app/net.lutris.Lutris/data/lutris/runners/wine/
      • Wine: ~/Games/star-citizen/runners
    • Use the LUG Helper maintenance menu to edit sc-launch.sh to use the runner 
       ################################################################
 # Configure the wine binaries to be used
 #
 # To use a custom wine runner, set the path to its bin directory
 # export wine_path="/path/to/custom/runner/bin"
 ################################################################
 export wine_path="/home/you-username-goes-here/Games/star-citizen/runners/wine-tkg-ntsync-git-10.3.r0.g3364df08cb6-327-x86_64/bin"

How to Run the LUG Helper

  1. Download the latest LUG Helper .tar.gz archive
  2. Extract the .tar.gz archive
  3. To run lug-helper.sh from a terminal (recommended):
    1. Open your terminal and use cd /path/to/extracted/archive to navigate to the location
    2. List files with the ls command
    3. Once you are in the directory containing the lug-helper.sh script, run it by typing 
      ./lug-helper.sh
  4. Alternatively, to run lug-helper.sh from your file manager:
    1. Navigate to the extracted archive location
    2. Right click on lug-helper.sh and select Run as a Program

The Helper uses Zenity for its optional GUI. If you don’t see the GUI and want it, install Zenity from your package manager.

How to edit the launch script

  1. Run the LUG Helper and select the Maintenance and Troubleshooting menu
  2. Choose the option to Edit launch script
    Edit launch script
  3. Alternatively, locate the sc-launch.sh file in your Wine prefix directory (by default, ~/Games/star-citizen/sc-launch.sh) and open it for editing.

How to update the launch script

  1. Run the LUG Helper and select the Maintenance and Troubleshooting menu
  2. Choose the option to Update launch script Update launch script

How to get a Wine maintenance shell using the launch script

  1. In a terminal, navigate to your Star Citizen wine prefix directory. By default, this is ~/Games/star-citizen
  2. Verify that sc-launch.sh exists.
  3. Run ./sc-launch.sh shell to enter a prepared shell environment for your prefix. All Wine prefix environment variables will be set for you.
  4. Type exit when done.

Updating DXVK Within a Wine Prefix

Use the LUG Helper tool’s Update DXVK button

To downgrade dxvk to a previous version:

  1. Enter a Wine maintenance shell for your prefix using the sc-launch.sh script.
  2. Run winetricks
  3. Click “Select the default wineprefix” (verify that the file path in the title bar is your star-citizen game)
  4. Click “Install a Windows DLL or component”
  5. Select an older dxvk such as dxvk 2.6.1 or older and click OK

NixOS

On NixOS, to set vm.max_map_count and fs.file-max, add the following to your NixOS config:

# ... your NixOS Config ...
boot.kernel.sysctl = {
  "vm.max_map_count" = 16777216;
  "fs.file-max" = 524288;
};

Custom wine runners will not work out of the box if the system wine install does not work ( wineWow64Packages.stableFull recommended) try wine-astral from nix-citizen or one of the Alternative Installation methods.

RSI Launcher Manual Update

  1. Download the latest RSI Launcher installer
  2. Enter a Wine maintenance shell for your prefix using the sc-launch.sh script.
  3. Then, run the following command (be sure to type the correct download path): 
     WINEDLLOVERRIDES="dxwebsetup.exe,dotNetFx45_Full_setup.exe=d" wine "/path/to/downloaded/RSI Launcher-Setup-2.6.0.exe" /S

Console Variables

  • r_displayinfo [ 1, 2, 3, 0 ]
    • show fps and other details
  • r_displaysessioninfo [ 1, 0 ]
    • show session info QR code for reporting
  • r_displayframegraph [ 1, 0 ]
    • show chart of frame time
    • MT (main thread)
    • RT (render thread)
  • pl_pit.forceSoftwareCursor [ 1, 0 ]
    • force software cursor

USER.cfg

Varibles set using the in-game console must be reapplied each session. Create a USER.cfg file to apply the changes automatically each session.

  1. Create a file named USER.cfg in your LIVE directory
  2. Copy the text block below into it
  3. Uncomment any variables and configure as needed
  4. Save then launch the game as normal. Any changes will be automatically applied
# Set to your display resolution
# r_width = 1920
# r_height = 1080

# Enable software cursor to workaround cursor warping
# pl_pit.forceSoftwareCursor = 1

# Enable borderless windowed mode
# r_WindowMode = 2

# Force game renderer - 0 = DX11, 1 = Vulkan
# r.graphicsRenderer = 0

# Enable in-game performance HUD
# r_displayinfo = 1

# Limit frame rate
# sys_MaxFPS = 120
# sysmaxidleFPS = 120

# Toggle vsync
# r_VSync = 0

Easy Anti-Cheat

Check the latest news for any wine changes

  1. Use RSI Launcher 2.5.1 or newer
  2. Ensure there are no symlinks or special characters in the path to your Wine prefix
  3. Use the latest LUG Helper to switch to a LUG-Wine runner
  4. Update your launch script
  5. Remove any EAC workarounds by editing your launch script or your game launcher settings, check for each one to see if it exists
    • Remove Environment variable EOS_USE_ANTICHEATCLIENTNULL=1
    • Remove Hosts entry in file named /etc/hosts with the value 
      127.0.0.1 modules-cdn.eac-prod.on.epicgames.com #Star Citizen EAC workaround
    • In the RSI Launcher, navigate to Settings -> Games -> LIVE -> Game Location. If you previously used the Z:\ path workaround, put it back to the default C:\ path
      Game path in launcher

Wine Wayland

RSI Launcher buttons may be offset, resize the window or use tab/shift+tab controls for the launcher

  • Experimental Wine Wayland
    • Use a Wine without staging in the name
    • Edit the launch script to add environment variable export DISPLAY= to unset it to empty
    • Add RSI Launcher.exe argument --in-process-gpu example: 
      "$wine_path"/wine "C:\Program Files\Roberts Space Industries\RSI Launcher\RSI Launcher.exe" --in-process-gpu > "$launch_log" 2>&1
  • Experimental Proton Wayland
    • Add environment variable PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1
    • Add RSI Launcher.exe argument ` –in-process-gpu`

HDR (High Dynamic Range)

CIG’s vulkan doesn’t have HDR yet

Requires experimental native Wayland or Gamescope

To enable HDR in native Wayland:

Run wayland-info|grep color in a terminal, if you do not see wp_color_manager_v1 then you will need to install VK_hdr_layer and add environment variable ENABLE_HDR_WSI=1

  • Wine
    • Add environment variable DXVK_HDR=1
  • Proton (GE-Proton10-1 or newer)
    • Add environment variable PROTON_ENABLE_HDR=1

Gamescope

  • Use the LUG Helper to edit your launch script
  • Prepend your gamescope arguments to the launch line at the bottom of the launch script. For example: 
    gamescope --hdr-enabled -W 2560 -H 1440 --force-grab-cursor "$wine_path"/wine "C:\Program Files\Roberts Space Industries\RSI Launcher\RSI Launcher.exe" > "$launch_log" 2>&1
  • Enable HDR with flag --hdr-enabled

Pre-launch and Post-exit Scripts

The launch script installed by the LUG Helper can be modified to run pre-launch and post-exit scripts. These scripts can be used to launch utilities like antimicrox, opentrack, etc., or disable/re-enable mouse acceleration for more precise FPS handling.

This can be inserted into the launch script above the “Launch the game” section:
sc-launch.sh

#############################################
# Run optional prelaunch and postexit scripts
#############################################
# To use create the scripts with your desired actions in them and
# place them in your prefix directory: sc-prelaunch.sh and sc-postexit.sh

# Run the prelaunch script
"$WINEPREFIX/sc-prelaunch.sh"

# Run the post-exit script on exit
trap "\"$WINEPREFIX\"/sc-postexit.sh" EXIT

Some example pre/post launch scripts:

sc-prelaunch.sh

#!/bin/bash
## Disable Mouse Acceleration

## GNOME
# gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.mouse accel-profile flat

## KDE
# kwriteconfig5 --file "kcminputrc" --group "Mouse" --key "XLbInptAccelProfileFlat" true

sc-postexit.sh

#!/bin/bash
## Reset Mouse Acceleration

## Gnome
# gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.mouse accel-profile default

## KDE
# kwriteconfig5 --file "kcminputrc" --group "Mouse" --key "XLbInptAccelProfileFlat" false