Star Wars: The Force Unleashed:
| Rating: | Silver |
| Release(s) Tested: | Steam |
| Game Version (if relevant): | N/A |
| Application Version: | GE-Proton 8.1 |
| Test Scope: | Entire single-player campaign (not including DLC) |
| Input Method: | Controller |
| Launch Options: | STRANGLE_VSYNC=2 strangle 30 %command% (see below) |
| Date of Report: | 1 June 2023 |
Summary
If you find a configuration that works for your eyes (and your monitor), this game can offer a Platinum experience. But no one solution works for everyone, and the out-of-box framerates may make some people nauseous.
Installing & Running
Installs and runs out-of-box on Steam (but see workarounds for FPS below).
Results & Issues
The game crashed extremely rarely, and in one case froze (black screen) on startup. Restarting the game was sufficient to resolve the issue.
The game executable is locked to 30 FPS, and physics behavior is tied to framerate. Although a community FPS unlocker does exist, exceeding 40 FPS will cause numerous physics bugs, which were more extreme on Linux than on Windows:
- Objects held via Force Grip moved upwards very quickly, making it difficult or impossible to aim.
- Puzzle objects held by Force Grip were difficult or impossible to move (creating the makeshift bridges on Raxus Prime was especially frustrating).
- Environmental objects and platforms were "bouncy", making platforming very difficult (especially on Felucia).
- Enemy animations were faster and combat quickly became frustrating; it was almost impossible to time many combos without getting interrupted.
- Quick-time events, notably during bossfights, had much less margin for error, even on the easiest difficulty level.
The performance on 60 FPS was very smooth. However, the physics and timing bugs were too distracting for sustained gameplay. Other FPS patches were tested (40, 50, 60, and unlimited), but all proved unsatisfactory. Using unlocked FPS with a manual FPS limit over DXVK resulted in slow motion movement and/or physics.
Vulkan was unstable when playing at the default 30 FPS—to the point of provoking nausea. Camera movement was significantly choppier than on Windows at this framerate, as were all tested combat scenarios. This might normally be resolved by forcing a half refresh rate vertical sync on my 60Hz monitor; however, the Linux NVIDIA drivers did not offer this option. At the time of this writing, DXVK can limit framerate, but cannot force a true vertical sync to refresh rate.
I found a workaround by installing a dedicated frame limiter https://gitlab.com/torkel104/libstrangle. To install it from source (my kernel had a different gcc, which was incompatible with the default instructions), I used the following commands:
(dependencies) apt-get install gcc-multilib g++-multilib libx11-dev mesa-common-dev (within the source directory) make CC=gcc-11 CPP=g++-11 CXX=g++-11 LD=g++-11 sudo make install
To get this limiter working with the game, I did the following:
- Rename
SWTFU Launcher.exetoSWTFU Launcher.exe.BAK. - Rename
SWTFU.exe—the original game executable, not with unlocked FPS—toSWTFU Launcher.exe. - Set the following launch options for the game in Steam:
STRANGLE_VSYNC=2 strangle 30 %command%
Camera movement became considerably smoother after applying the limiter. Almost all cutscene and combat stutter was entirely resolved using this workaround, and the game finally became playable.
However, Windows-native or console-like smoothness could not be achieved by any means. Camera movement quality was "blurry", rather than the "stuttery" feel offered out-of-box by Vulkan. This was initially very disorienting, but I grew accustomed to it after the first two levels. My eyes never became accustomed to the default behavior (i.e. without this limiter).
Interestingly, the game was a bit smoother on my ASUS VN248 (native 60Hz) than on my ACER Predator XB253Q (native 120Hz, but set to 60Hz), even without the limiter. Both offered a playable experience, but the former monitor was definitely more enjoyable.
It can be expected that each person's eyes will be different, and individual monitors may exhibit different levels of smoothness. A Silver rating is assigned due to this unpredictability, which may or may not seriously impede enjoyment of this game. Your experience may vary!
Notes
On both Windows and Linux, sounds may be missing for latter levels of the game. These missing sounds can be downloaded from https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/505-star-wars-the-force-unleashed-missing-sounds-fix/ and copied into the main game folder.
Intro videos can be skipped by renaming or deleting the following files in the FMV directory of the main game folder:
Aspyr.bikFMV-GoldGuy-WMV9_HD_STEREO.bik(or the equivalent for your language)
There is a small delay when striking enemies with a lightsaber. Although this can be mistaken for stutter, the delay was actually intended by the developers to simulate an old-school fighting game, and this same behavior can be observed on Windows. There is no way to remove this effect.