GTA Vice City Nextgen Edition - Steam Deck Guide

So... You want to run GTAVCNE on your Linux system or on your little Steam Deck? And you’re probably encountering a crash at launch, or maybe you installed a compatibility pack to remove ENB only to end up with an unsightly tint in Vice City.

Fear not—there is hope! ENB can indeed work directly on the Steam Deck. The prophecy has come true!

Special thanks to @TwosHusbandS on Telegram for the heads up, to RevolutionTeam for their amazing project (although please fix Demolition Man—I barely got through it), to Valve for releasing Proton, to GloriousEggroll and team for their excellent work on ProtonGE, and to the Linux community for being awesome. A small thanks also to Rockstar developers.

Let’s get started! This guide assumes you have a basic knowledge of Linux or how the Steam Deck operates when running games. If something isn’t working, please ensure you have a completely fresh installation—no mods, no fixes, and no extra DXVK (Proton already includes DXVK!).

Make sure you have a fresh and correct installation of GTA VCNE on your preferred drive.

  1. Download the required tools:
    • ProtonTricks – to install dependencies not included by default in Proton.
    • ProtonUp-QT – to install ProtonGE (version 9.xx or later) for improved compatibility.
  2. Open ProtonUp-QT and install ProtonGE (version 9.xx or a later version).
  3. In Steam, create a shortcut to LaunchGTAIV.exe, then launch it and let the game crash. This crash is normal and necessary for ProtonTricks to work.
  4. Open ProtonTricks, select your game (the name you gave in Steam), and wait.
  5. When the first menu appears, click on Select The Default wineprefix and press OK.
  6. Click on Install a Windows DLL or Component and press OK.
  7. In the list, find and install the following DLLs: d3dcompiler_42, d3dcompiler_43, d3dcompiler_47, d3dx9_42, and d3dx9_43. Please be patient as this may take a few seconds.
  8. Once installation is complete, open winecfg and navigate to the Libraries tab. Search for d3d9 and click Add to override the DLL with the game version.
  9. Finally, open the game’s properties in Steam and add the following to your launch options:
    WINEDLLOVERRIDES="dsound=n,b" %command%
  10. Enjoy! Note: You might experience a crash during the intro. This is normal—simply relaunch the game and skip the cutscene.

FAQ

Q: Do I need DXVK?
A: Proton uses DXVK by default and always will. It is essential for the Steam Deck.

Q: Are the dependencies from the game installer required?
A: No. Most dependencies come with Proton these days, and ProtonGE includes nearly all required components.

Q: Do NVIDIA/Intel/AMD graphics work?
A: Yes. Although Linux NVIDIA drivers might still have minor issues, improvements are ongoing thanks to open-source kernel developments.

Q: What about using the VCNELauncher?
A: It requires extra effort for minimal benefit. If you need language support, consider adding .NET versions (3, 3.5, 4, and 4.5) during step 7, but note that errors may occur.

Q: How is performance on the Steam Deck?
A: With ENB enabled, performance differences are minimal. Small improvements may come with slight FPS drops. It is recommended to lock the framerate to 45 FPS/HZ.

Q: Can I mod the game?
A: You can try, but modding on Linux is challenging. OpenIV on Linux can be unstable, and overriding some DLLs may cause issues.

Q: I’m getting a black screen!
A: Reinstall the game in a fresh directory. Ensure that the ENB SERIES logo appears during startup, as it indicates a proper setup. If it does not appear, repeat steps 4–9. Also, check that no other d3d9 override (such as a DXVK file in the game folder) is interfering.

Q: Are crashes more frequent?
A: No. Crashes occur at the same points as on Windows—a one-to-one experience.

Q: What about streaming issues (e.g., missing LOD models or map glitches)?
A: Edit the commandline.txt file in the game folder and add:
-availablevidmem 3072.0 for 3GB VRAM or -availablevidmem 2048.0 for 2GB VRAM. The game, being 32-bit, cannot utilize more than 2–4GB of memory.

Q: My game has jittery characters and crashes during cutscenes.
A: Lock the framerate to 60 FPS. Higher framerates can cause instability—problems often occur above 100 FPS.

Q: I receive errors “Securom reported error #2000” and “0xc000007b”.
A: On step 7, install Visual C++ 2005 to resolve these errors.

I apologize if any part of this guide is unclear. I hope it helps resolve your issues and provides you with the true VCNE experience. If you create video guides based on this, please credit me (although I prefer not to, as the information can quickly become outdated).

Thank you all, and happy gaming. Remember: Stay Elite.

- Guide By @Elitefiree

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