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Any chance to move over a game with its mods from Windows drive to Linux drive? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Might be a stupid question, but bear with me, I just started the transition to Linux!

I've been playing a game on Steam for some time now, and modding it was a huge hassle (not modding it per se, but rather make every mod work together, incompatibilities, merging, etc., you know the drill), so I'd rather NOT do that again from scratch (especially because the mod organizer tool I used is only for Windows, unless I can run that through Proton?); on the other hand, if I wait until I beat the game, it's going to delay the move to Linux a lot, months.

I think most of the files needed to run the modded game lie in the game folder, some user settings needed for the mods to work correctly are in the game's Documents folder; would I be able to just crudely copy-paste these two folders from Win to Linux? If yes, I guess I have to use an external drive to do so, since I can't access each other OS's partitions while I'm on one or the other, correct?

If you need more info feel free to ask; as I said I just started moving to Linix so I probably forgot important info! Thanks in advance

edit: don't know if websearches return Lemmy threads, but just in case: I installed the game via Steam on Linux and launched it once through Proton. After that, I just copy-pasted the folders that cointan mods from the Windows drive to the Linux drive and then the game's document folder as well (although this one doesn't go into the Linux's Documents folder, rather in a Documents folder inside the Steam directory of the game). Game boots with no script compiling errors (meaning everything went well with the simple copy-paste). Haven't played yet apart from a quick load to confirm that mods were working, but usually if the game starts there won't be problems down the line! Guess I can start booting Linux instead of Win for the most part! Thanks everyone for the help!

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can’t access each other OS’s partitions while I’m on one or the other, correct?

Not entirely correct. Linux can read and write to NTFS partitions. However, probably a better idea, if you have three disks or partitions is to format a 'data' drive that Windows and Linux can share. The exFAT format might be preferred for this.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I now know! Since I couldn't see the Linux drive via Win I assumed it was the same the other way around

Once I finally start to main Linux, I plan on organizing my drives better, especially for the shared drive!

Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’ve been using a btrfs partition for my games shared volume. Just install winbtrfs on Windows.

I wouldn’t recommend ExFAT for anything other than a thumb drive used to exchange files between computers. It lacks many features of modern file systems which makes files on it a lot more susceptible to corruption.

https://github.com/maharmstone/btrfs

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Thanks, I'll look into it! Appreciate the tip

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not sure whether it is a good idea for your mods, but in my Linux home folder I have a link to a folder of documents on my Windows drive that I want to be able to access from both.

It was a symbolic link first, but I made a bind mount now which is treated more like a normal folder.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the tip, I'll keep it in mind for other games as the one I'm currently playing has a dedicated folder for mods in its own folder so I don't think I need to do as you did. I'll have to look into how to do that in case I need to in future. Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Make a backup first!!

But yeah should be otherwise copy-paste.

The exceptions are things like ENB mods, but textures/models/quest lines should all be fine.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

That's some great news! I'll try later and report back.

I'll keep the game on the Win drive as a backup, not taking any chances lol

Thanks for the help!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Definitely keep the original files intact/backup the files before doing anything, but theoretically, I think it should be possible. Likely, though, depending on the game (especially if it's a game not made to be modded) there may be specific things like DLLs that look for a niche Windows component or driver that Proton can't translate and won't work.

That being said, Proton is open-source so there are old versions and forks that may work better, GE-Proton most famously. Also, if the game has built-in mod support or rely on a platform-agnostic runtime like Minecraft Java edition, those probably won't be an issue anyway as the engine/language runtime should handle low-level stuff like that by itself

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Mhm, no idea to be honest if the mods I have do some "hacking" to work. Most of then were a simple drag and drop into the gane folder, although some of them are scripted mods which I don't really know what it means lol thanks for the help, I'll try later and keep my fingers crossed

[–] lzbz 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

First, which game are you talking about? Does it need proton on linux, or does it run natively?

Definitely first install the game through steam on linux and then overwrite stuff.

You should be able to access your windows drive through linux. I would expect it to show up in your file manager automatically and ask for your linux root password when you try to access it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Game is The Witcher 3, according to ProtonDB people play it through Proton so I guess it doesn't run natively on Linux

Great, glad to hear that a simple overwrite should be enough! Gonna need some time to download it again on Linux, but I'll try that later!

access windows drive through linux

Even better, so I can skip moving to the external drive!

Thanks for the help

[–] lzbz 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You might have difficulty locating the documents folder on linux. It should be under /compatdata/292030/pfx/c_drive/users//documents (I just typed that off the top of my head, so it's might not be exaclty that, but something similar, sorry)

Also I would recommend you run the game once, before copying stuff, sometimes games write files on first launch, which could mess with your settings

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Don't worry about it, thanks!

Alright, sounds easy enough overall, I'll try later! Thanks again for the help

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think this should work assuming that the game and mods are compatible with proton. Also, you don't need an external drive, you can access the windows partition from linux (probably not the other way around though since linux understands NTFS but windows doesn't understand ext4). If there are any issues, maybe try the "Verify Game Files" feature of steam. This might remove the mods but at least you don't have to download the game again.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

mods are compatible with proton

Mhm, what kind of mods aren't compatible? Some of the ones I have are scripted mods, no idea what kind of scripts though lol

I'll try running it later and hope those work too.

Thanks!