Rage
Introduction
Rage is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software, released in November 2010 for iOS, in October 2011 for Microsoft Windows, the PlayStation 3, and the Xbox 360, and in February 2012 for OS X. It was first shown as a tech demo at the 2007 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference and was announced at the QuakeCon. Rage uses id Software's id Tech 5 game engine and was the final game released by the company under the supervision of founder John Carmack.
Installation
Until recently, running RAGE on Linux was pretty much impossible, and even worse to play if you did get it to run.
After years of badgering, the good folks at Valve have listened to the Linux community and developed a polished version of the WINE compatibility layer to make it easy to run games made for Windows in Linux... Steam Play. This, combined with the work of cutting edge video card drivers called Proton make playing RAGE in Linux a reality.
However, the process has many stages, nothing is 100% guaranteed, but the result is truly amazing.
Here we go...
- Latest Linux Kernel
- Latest MESA Video Card Drivers
- Latest Steam Client
- Enable Steam Play And Proton
- Buy RAGE
- Acquire DirectX Vulkan Drivers
- Tweak The Startup Options
- Keep Your Fingers Crossed
Latest Linux Kernel
Ubuntu 18.04 only has kernel 4.x by default, so you need to manually install the official Ubuntu build of kernel 5.x
First, search for the latest version...
apt-cache search linux-generic | grep '\-5\.'
Then, install the 3 required packages - replacing the 5.x with your latest version, eg...
sudo apt -y install linux-image-unsigned-5.3.0-51-generic linux-modules-5.3.0-51-generic linux-modules-extra-5.3.0-51-generic
Reboot...
sudo reboot
First bit done!
Latest MESA Video Card Drivers
The Mesa project began as an open-source implementation of the OpenGL specification - a system for rendering interactive 3D graphics. Over the years the project has grown to implement more graphics APIs, including OpenGL ES (versions 1, 2, 3), OpenCL, OpenMAX, VDPAU, VA API, XvMC and Vulkan. A variety of device drivers allows the Mesa libraries to be used in many different environments ranging from software emulation to complete hardware acceleration for modern GPUs. Mesa ties into several other open-source projects: the Direct Rendering Infrastructure and X.org to provide OpenGL support on Linux, FreeBSD and other operating systems.
Proton requires the latest Mesa video card drivers to work...
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/wiki/Requirements
AMD / Intel
First, add the repository...
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kisak/kisak-mesa
Then, update your package lists...
sudo apt update
Then, upgrade your system...
sudo apt dist-upgrade
Then, install the driver (which will pull in all the required packages for Mesa)...
sudo apt install mesa-vulkan-drivers mesa-vulkan-drivers:i386 mesa-utils
Finally, reboot...
sudo reboot
When you have rebooted and logged back in, check your Mesa version...
glxinfo | grep "OpenGL version" OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 20.0.6 - kisak-mesa PPA
Run the test software...
glxgears
NVIDIA
First, add the repository...
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
Then, update your package lists...
sudo apt update
Then, update your system...
sudo apt dist-upgrade
Then, install the driver (which will pull in all the required packages for Mesa)...
sudo apt install nvidia-driver-418 mesa-utils
Finally, reboot...
sudo reboot
When you have rebooted and logged back in, check your Mesa version...
glxinfo | grep "OpenGL version" OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 20.0.6 - Proprietary GPU Drivers PPA
Run the test software...
glxgears
Second bit done!
Latest Steam Client
Steam is a video game digital distribution service by Valve. It was launched as a standalone software client in September 2003 as a way for Valve to provide automatic updates for their games, and expanded to include games from third-party publishers. This is the only way to buy and play RAGE on Linux.
https://repo.steampowered.com/steam/
First, download the official Debian installer package...
wget https://repo.steampowered.com/steam/archive/precise/steam_latest.deb
Then, install the package...
sudo dpkg -i steam_latest.deb
Then, run the steam installer...
steam
At this point, you will see the Steam Installer window which will ask you to install a bunch of extra software, so go ahead and do this.
It will then go through a long process of downloading the Steam files.
Then, if you are like 90% of Linux users, it will stop with an error window saying "Failed. Cannot load steamui.so"
(IF YOU ARE LUCKY YOU WILL NOT SEE THIS AND YOU CAN CONTINUE TO LOGGING IN :)
So, we need to now fix the DLL library file conflict...
cd /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/ sudo mv libpng12.so.0 libpng12.so.0-OLD sudo cp -av /home/user/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libpng12.so.0.46.0 . sudo ln -s libpng12.so.0.46.0 libpng12.so.0 sudo chown root:root libpng12.so.0* sudo ldconfig
NOTE - this fixed it for me, but your mileage may vary!
Now, you can try to run the Steam for Linux client again...
steam
Log in to your Steam account and search for RAGE.
Third bit done!
Enable Steam Play And Proton
You now need to turn on Steam Play and allow the Proton drivers to work their magic.
When you are in the Steam Client, go to...
Settings > Steam Play > Enable Steam Play for supported titles > Enable Steam Play for all other titles > Run other titles with > Proton 5.0
Click OK and it will ask you to restart Steam along with installing some additional software.
Fourth bit done!
Buy RAGE
Go on, get your money out and do the necessary.
Then, wait while it downloads about 18GB of game.
Fifth bit done!
Acquire DirectX Vulkan Drivers
Go on press PLAY...
...it will then ask you to download the DirectX Vulkan Drivers.
Sixth bit done!
Tweak The Startup Options
You will need to add some RAGE startup command options otherwise you will see absolutely nothing when you press PLAY.
Library > RAGE > Settings Cog > Properties > General > Set Launch Options > allow_glsl_builtin_variable_redeclaration=true force_glsl_extensions_warn=true MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.5COMPAT DRI_PRIME=0 %command% +com_skipIntroVideo 1 +image_anisotropy 16 +g_fov 100 OK
Seventh bit done!
Keep Your Fingers Crossed
Turn the lights out and turn the audio volume up...
Keep your fingers crossed and hold your breath...
...press PLAY.
Choose the 64-bit version and wait...
...after the opening movie, there will be a long delay where it appears to have crashed.
It's not, just wait...
...and wait...
...and wait...
...now, ENJOY :-)
Playing
I found the volume too loud and the mouse way too fast, so just go to the in-game options and tweak as required.
