Quick Guide for Sonic Generations + Performance Fix + Unleashed Project

So! I wanted to play Sonic Generations on the deck, but saw it doesn't run so well (and is thus "unsupported") due to an old version of direct3d that doesn't play nice with DXVK.

I also saw that it can be fixed via a mod that updates direct3d, but this process (installing mods) is complicated on linux and can be accomplished ten different ways, and I didn't find a guide that covered everything start to finish + didn't involve stuff like lutris/bottles (which I've never had good experiences with).

So I wrote my own! Thanks to some awesome recent work from some tool devs, this whole process is extremely easy now, takes like 15 minutes, and doesn't require any heavyweight programs.

Here's the step by step:

  1. Install Sonic Generations like normal from Steam
  2. Switch to Desktop Mode
  3. Install ProtonUp-Qt from the Discover store and open it
  4. Click "Add Version", then install the latest SteamTinkerLaunch
  5. Open a terminal
  6. Use STL to launch HedgeModManager by running ~/stl/prefix/steamtinkerlaunch hmm start
  7. The first time you run this, it will need to install HMM and its dependencies, takes about 5 mins, so be patient
  8. Download the Direct3D 11 Mod as an archive
  9. Unzip the archive to a folder somewhere
  10. Click "Add Mod" in the "Mods" tab of HMM, select "installing from a folder", then select your unzipped folder
  11. If it asks you to install the Mod Loader, click "yes"
  12. Make sure you see the mod now in the list and its box is checked
  13. Click "Save and Play"
  14. On the Generations configuration page, on the "Input" tab, select the Xbox controller from the dropdown
  15. Click "Save and Exit"

And if you want to also install the Unleashed Project mod (optional and very cool):

  1. Launch HMM the same way as above
  2. Download the Unleashed Project from Google Drive
  3. Unzip the archive to a folder somewhere
  4. Click "Add Mod" in the "Mods" tab of HMM, select "installing from a folder", then select your unzipped folder
  5. Make sure you see the mods now in the list and their boxes are checked
  6. Click "Save and Play"

And you're done, Generations should now run at a solid 60FPS! You can now go back to Game Mode (you don't need to launch Sonic Generations via HMM every time), and if you want to enable or disable the Unleashed mod, just launch HMM the way you see above and check or uncheck its boxes in the "Mods" tab.

Enjoy :)