Hello y’all, I’m at my wits end. I got the GoG version of BG3 (cause DRM free yay!), but for the love of me I cannot get it to work. I’ve done so much googling and so many workarounds, I’ve installed .net, I’ve skipped the launcher, I’ve used the alternate .exe, I’ve tried proton experimental and 8 and hotfix, but nothing has got me even as far as a loading screen. I just get a flash of black then crashed back to desktop. If anyone has any insights or help I would greatly appreciate it, I’m using Heroic right now but honestly I’ll do whatever to get this thing working.
Hate to say it, but I refuse to buy games on other storefronts since I got the deck (I love the drm-free aspects of gog). Until other companies put in the effort to support Linux, I don’t see how they deserve my money.
If GOG really cared about the consumer they would provide better support for Linux. Their anti-DRM talk is very hollow
Honestly, same, my buying habits did a full 180 (I use to wait to get a game on GoG, now I never do). But my witcher 3 I had on GoG worked great even if it was a little less convenient, and BG3 seems like a game I’ll want to have forever, so I figured why not. Unfortunate that they had to go and give me a reason why not…
cause DRM free yay!
BG3 doesn’t use Steam for DRM, only for distribution. You could zip up the game’s folder and burn it on a million floppies or whatever, and play the game wherever you like.
Thanks for the hot tip, after spending 10+ hours struggling I’m just refunding and going to get it on steam. Having to zip my own backup is slightly annoying, but much less so than this nonsense
Interesting. What works for me is an install from Heroic, adding exe to Steam, and also a flag –skip-launcher for it. AFAIK .NET is only needed for the launcher.
Have you tried adding it to Steam as a non-steam game and then forcing compatibility for it to proton experimental in Steam?
Yep, with both exes, no dice. Currently waiting for my lutris download as a next step to try
Are you launching steam with
STEAM_RUNTIME=1?Sorry if this doesn’t make sense within the context of the steam deck, I don’t actually have one I just stumbled upon this post from all.
Let us know how you get on! I was planning on buying on GOG myself.
I gave up, so many workarounds and reinstalls and everything for nothing. I’ve refunded and purchased through steam. Luckily someone else in this thread gave me a tip even the steam version is DRM-free, so that’s nice
Try Bottles. Lutris almost never works for me, Heroic is a bit better. But once I discovered Bottles, I’m basically never using anything else. Bottles can also automatically add an entry to Steam for your game. So any non-Steam game on my steamdeck is via Bottles.
It broke for me because gustav.pak was missing. Might be the sameissuee for you or something similar. Try repairing the game with Heroic. If that doesn’t work (didn’t for me because of space), try downloading it on a different PC and copy the files on top. That fixed it for me.
Also, disclaimer that this just worked for me and I can’t guarantee anything.
I don’t have an exact answer for you but I can 100% confirm it works through Heroic.
Switch to desktop, install heroic launcher, install BG3 with default options to internal SSD, launch with Proton Experimental, it will say you need .net so accept the dialogue and download the exe, use Heroic to install the .net exe to the game’s prefix, go to the configuration again and add --skip-launcher (two hyphens at the beginning) to the launch commands.
That’s it, I did that and ran the game from desktop and then used heroic to add it to Steam. Now I launch the game straight through Game Mode. I also added Heroic as a non-steam game so I can launch it occasionally for patches.
Skipping the launcher is important, as is installing the correct .net exe. I’ve read that some folks had the game claim to be installed but then realized it never actually completed successfully because they ran out of disk space during the final step. It’s a very large install. I also read a one-off comment that power tools can break it, if you have that installed through decky loader.
Tried this on a fresh install (including new prefix) and no luck. Currently just un and reinstalled heroic itself, and am waiting for my Bauldurs gate download (again), I’ll try these steps again once that’s done and hope for the best
Still failed :/ If I can ask, when did you get your steam deck? Maybe there’s subtle manufacturing differences causing the issue? I got mine Sept 2022
I had pre-ordered prior to release and got it last July. The 256gb model but I’ve upgraded to a 1TB since then. I’ve had issues in the past with Heroic and debated simply running the game through Windows or installing GOG through Lutris but luckily Heroic worked.
Have you considered trying to just install GOG through Lutris? I run Diablo IV like that (via Battle.net of course) and it’s simple enough.
Are you downloading it directly from GOG? Have you tried installing other games? I see you’re going to try lutris, which may work better. I use Heroic Games Launcher which works like a dream for both gog and epic. Have not tried Baldur’s Gate 3 through Heroic though.
I was trying Heroic, but it didn’t work. I’ve installed other games through Heroic and they worked just fine. Currently installing it through Lutris to see if that works for some reason
I attempted, it got done downloading most of the BG3 installers, and then… It all just disappeared? No record of the files or downloads anywhere. Since it took an hour+ I gave up on that angle
Weird. Only issue I’ve ever had close to that was when I didn’t have enough space for the installer files and the installed game.
Haven’t tried with BG3 but I’ve had great luck with Heroic Game Launcher.
You’ll need to use desktop mode to install it and add steam shortcut. You might need to run Winetricks inside HGL to install latest version of MSVC and . net if it doesn’t launch.
A recent thread on Reddit seemed to help some folks: https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/15hg5ta/gog_version_of_baldurs_gate_3/
Yep found that in my various googles, sadly none of those tricks helped me
Do you have anything else installed that might interfere with the game ? In another thread I saw someone have issues due to stream deck tools. Some launcher mods ?
Nope, nothing, I haven’t really modded my deck at all. I did have dexky just for steamgriddb and protondb badges, but I uninstalled both of those and then dexky itself just to be sure and no changes
Try using heroic launcher.
I’m using Heroic right now
