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Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3D:

Rating: Gold
Release(s) Tested: Steam
Application Version: N/A
WINE/Proton Version: Proton 5.0-10
Test Scope: Entire single-player campaign
Input Method: Controller
Launch Options:
Date of Report: 3 June 2023

Summary

Requires some very specific tweaks, and it crashes a fair bit, but this game offers a solid experience with performance superior to Windows.

Installing & Running

The game installs, but does not run correctly out-of-box. You must first install the game and attempt to launch it (it doesn't matter if the game crashes), then perform the following fixes:

  1. Set the game to use Proton version 5.0-10. Other Proton versions, including GE, will not work (see details below).
  2. Download the 2.8.1 dgVoodoo2 release from https://github.com/dege-diosg/dgVoodoo2.
  3. Copy the contents of dgVoodoo2_8_1/3Dfx/x86 into your RogueSquadron/ROGUE/ game folder.
  4. Copy dgVoodoo2.conf into your RogueSquadron/ROGUE/ game folder.
  5. Within dgVoodoo2.conf, there is a [Glide] section. You must set the option ForceEmulatingTruePCIAccess = true, then save this file, or the game will crash after missions. Within this same section, you can also set your game resolution to widescreen (e.g. Resolution = 1920x1080).
  6. To get the game to use the Voodoo wrapper, use the command protontricks 455910 regedit to bring up the Registry Editor for this game. Then add or overwrite the following registry entries:
    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC\Rogue Squadron\v1.0]
"3DSetup"="TRUE"
"VDEVICE"="Voodoo (Glide)"

If you are not comfortable navigating the registry, you can also save the above into a file myFile.reg and import these entries within the File menu of the Registry Editor.

You should now be able to launch and play the game. The launcher will not officially recognize that Voodoo has been "installed", but the game should still run correctly.

Results & Issues

The game launched to a black screen prior to performing the Voodoo fix as described above. After this workaround was applied, performance was seamless in both videos and gameplay.

Only Proton 5.0-10 worked correctly for this game. Other Proton versions allowed the game to launch and play, but produced an issue in which the keyboard layout was not recognized and the game could not be paused. Further, it was impossible to choose a player name or remap controls with other Proton versions. Interestingly, this bug has been occasionally reported on Windows as well, though I did not encounter it during my comparison test.

Gameplay was seamless and even superior to Windows in certain cases (particularly when toppling AT-ATs with the Snowspeeder, which never worked quite right on Windows, even on the retail disc version).

Controller inputs were easily remapped within the game itself. However, the Xbox One trigger buttons could not be mapped (all other buttons could). Vibration did not work on my controller, but this feature did not work on Windows either.

Crashes occurred semi-frequently, almost always on every 3rd or 4th attempted mission (including restarts). Ordinarily this would be a major drawback, but the interval was very predictable, and I found myself preemptively restarting the game to prevent "the next crash" from occurring.

The game did not always exit cleanly, especially after a crash, and Steam would continue to see the game as "running". Exiting the game through Steam itself was sufficient to resolve this.

Notes

There is a bug in which your ship appears very far away from the camera on certain view modes, making it almost impossible to fly. Changing the view to a closer one (or using the cockpit view mode, as I did) will resolve the problem. You may need to do this at the start of each mission. This bug occurs on both Windows and Linux.