Gaming with CachyOS Guide

Welcome to the guide for Gaming in CachyOS. We’ll guide you through the essentials aspects on how to setup everything and have a great experience.

Prerequisites

Caution

Before we dive into the fun stuff, it’s essential to ensure that your graphics card drivers are installed and functioning correctly. If your graphics card isn’t performing optimally, you may encounter issues when playing games.

Essential Packages

To make things easier for you, CachyOS has grouped all the necessary packages for gaming into one meta package that includes all the necessary dependencies and libraries for gaming in Linux and a separate package for the tools and launchers/stores. This makes the installation and setup process for gaming faster and less convoluted for everyone.

If you find that any packages are missing, feel free to let the CachyOS team know.

Follow the steps below to start with the gaming setup.

Meta Package

sudo pacman -S cachyos-gaming-meta

Tools & Stores

This package includes the following:

• Gamescope, Goverlay, Heroic Games Launcher, Lutris, MangoHud and Steam.

sudo pacman -S cachyos-gaming-applications

CachyOS Hello

• Go to Apps/Tweaks and click on Install Gaming packages

CachyOS Hello installs both packages cachyos-gaming-meta and cachyos-gaming-applications

Proton-CachyOS

Proton-CachyOS is based on Proton’s bleeding-edge branch and applies a number of modifications on top of it.

• Wine-staging patches
• Wine Fullscreen FSR
• Includes video and audio codecs for game cutscenes
• Support for umu-launcher including UMU-Protonfixes
• Adds early hotfixes/workarounds for games

Note

The proton-cachyos package from the CachyOS repositories is compiled against native system libraries, it doesn’t use the Steam Linux Runtime. The target architecture depends on the repository. Currently x86_64_v3, x86_64_v4 and znver4 repositories use the same x86_64_v3 binaries.

How to properly set multiple launch options

The launch options in Steam are constructed using the following pattern

• <env variables> <wrappers> %command% <application arguments>

  • <env variables>: These are options in the form of VARIABLE=value. For example PROTON_DXVK_D3D8=1 or DXVK_HUD="fps,memory,version,api"
  • <wrappers>: Applications and scripts that modify how the real application is run. Arguments to the wrapper usually go after the wrapper’s executable. For example mangohud --dlsym or gamescope -W 1680 -H 1050 -w 1280 -h 720 -S fit -F fsr --mangoapp --
  • %command%: This is the real application. This should be specified exactly as is and Steam will replace it with the proper command when the application is run.
  • <application arguments>: These are various arguments to the real application, and they depend on the application. For example -dx11 should go here if the application supports it.

• Example: __GL_SHADER_DISK_CACHE_SKIP_CLEANUP=1 prime-run game-performance %command% -dx11

Caution

Don’t add multiple %command% by using them as separators for multiple launch options.

Example: __GL_SHADER_DISK_CACHE_SKIP_CLEANUP=1 %command% game-performance %command% prime-run %command%

• In this case, everything after the first %command% is going to be ignored because it’s being treated as game arguments, therefore only __GL_SHADER_DISK_CACHE_SKIP_CLEANUP=1 gets recognized as a launch option.

Environment Variables

Graphics & Upscaling

• DLSS & NVIDIA Features
  • PROTON_DLSS_UPGRADE=1: Automatically upgrades DLSS to the latest version
  • PROTON_DLSS_INDICATOR=1: Shows DLSS status indicator in-game
  • PROTON_NVIDIA_LIBS=1: Enables NVIDIA libraries (PhysX, CUDA) - not needed for DLSS/ray tracing

Advanced NVIDIA Controls

• PROTON_NVIDIA_NVCUDA=1: Enables CUDA support only
• PROTON_NVIDIA_NVENC=1: Enables NVENC encoding only
• PROTON_NVIDIA_NVML=1: Enables NVML monitoring
• PROTON_NVIDIA_NVOPTIX=1: Enables OptiX ray tracing
• PROTON_NVIDIA_LIBS_NO_32BIT=1: Only enable in 64-bit games (fixes RTX 4000+ performance issues)

• AMD & Intel Upscaling
  • PROTON_FSR4_UPGRADE=1: Automatically upgrades FSR to latest AMD version
  • PROTON_FSR4_RDNA3_UPGRADE=1: Uses RDNA3-optimized FSR4 DLL
  • PROTON_XESS_UPGRADE=1: Automatically upgrades XeSS to latest version

Display & HDR

• Wayland & Display

  • PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1: Enables native Wayland support
  • Benefits: HDR without Gamescope, improved latency/frame pacing
  • Caveats: Breaks Steam Overlay, currently experimental
  • PROTON_NO_WM_DECORATION=1: Disables window manager decorations
    • Fixes: Borderless fullscreen issues, mouse clicking through windows

• HDR Support

  • PROTON_ENABLE_HDR=1: Enables HDR output support
  • Requirements: Gamescope with --hdr-enabled OR PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1
  • Setup: Additional configuration needed

Performance & Caching

• CPU & Sync Performance

  • PROTON_USE_NTSYNC=1: Uses NTSync for better CPU performance
    • Best for: CPU-bound games, replaces WINESync
    • Note: Experimental, may cause issues in some games
    • Verification: Use lsof /dev/ntsync (MangoHud reports incorrectly)

• Shader & Cache Management

  • PROTON_LOCAL_SHADER_CACHE=1: Enables per-game shader cache, similar to Steam’s “Shader Pre-Caching”. This does NOT compile shaders ahead-of-time, it ONLY isolates the shader cache of each game. Shaders will still be compiled during gameplay.
  • PROTON_ENABLE_MEDIACONV=1: Enables Proton Media Converter
    • Note: Testing purposes only

• AMD Anti-Lag

  • ENABLE_LAYER_MESA_ANTI_LAG=1: Enables AMD Anti-Lag for reduced input latency

  Danger

  proton-cachyos disables this because it prevents FSR4 upgrades and can trigger stuttering or other issues (details).

Input & Compatibility

• Controller & Input
  • PROTON_PREFER_SDL=1: Workaround for controller detection issues
  • PROTON_NO_STEAMINPUT=1: Disables Steam Input support
    • Fixes: Wayland controller/gamepad issues

Setting Up Proton-CachyOS with Lutris and Heroic

The following configuration only applies to proton-cachyos. If you’re using proton-cachyos-slr, -GE or -EM, you can skip this section.

Make sure you have umu-launcher from CachyOS installed in your system.

Install it with the following command:

sudo pacman -S cachyos/umu-launcher

Lutris Global

1. In the main Lutris screen, click the cogwheel icon next to Wine.
2. Go to the Runner Options tab and confirm that your settings match the following:
   • Wine version = proton-cachyos
   • Use System winetricks = Disabled
   • Graphics
     • Enable DXVK = Enabled
     • Note: User-defined versions of DXVK, VKD3D and DXVK-NVAPI are not applied when using umu-launcher
3. Navigate to the System Options tab.
   • Lutris
     • Disable Lutris Runtime = Enabled
     • Prefer system libraries = Enabled
4. Continue scrolling down to the Game execution section and locate the Environment variables table
5. Add the following environment variables:
   • Key: UMU_RUNTIME_UPDATE optional
     • Value: 0
     • This will skip Steam Linux Runtime updates for proton-cachyos. Do not use this with any Proton that utilizes the Steam Linux Runtime, such as proton-cachyos-slr, -GE, or -EM.
   • Key: PROTON_VERB optional
     • Value: waitforexitandrun
     • This allows protonfixes to work with a corresponding GAMEID.
6. Click Save to apply the changes.

Lutris Per Game

1. Right Click in the game you want to configure, then click on Configure
2. Go to the Runner Options tab and confirm that your settings match the following:
   • Wine version = proton-cachyos
   • Use System winetricks = Disabled
   • Graphics
     • Enable DXVK = Enabled
     • Note: User-defined versions of DXVK, VKD3D and DXVK-NVAPI are not applied when using umu-launcher
3. Navigate to the System Options tab.
   • Lutris
     • Disable Lutris Runtime = Enabled
     • Prefer system libraries = Enabled
4. Continue scrolling down to the Game execution section and locate the Environment variables table
5. Add the following environment variables:
   • Key: UMU_RUNTIME_UPDATE optional
     • Value: 0
     • This will skip Steam Linux Runtime updates for proton-cachyos. Do not use this with any Proton that utilizes the Steam Linux Runtime, such as proton-cachyos-slr, -GE, or -EM.
   • Key: PROTON_VERB optional
     • Value: waitforexitandrun
     • This allows protonfixes to work with a corresponding GAMEID.
6. Click Save to apply the changes.

Heroic Games Launcher

1. Click on the Configure button next to the Play Now button in the game you want to run.
2. In the WINE tab. Set the Wine Version to Proton - proton-cachyos.

Anti Cheat Support

Important

If you encounter issues with games using Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) or BattlEye (BE) such as refusing to log in game servers, you can use the version of Proton-CachyOS built using Steam Linux Runtime. Also known as proton-cachyos-slr

How to install proton-cachyos-slr

protonup

1. Open a terminal and install protonup

   sudo pacman -S protonup-qt

2. Open protonup-qt and follow the screenshot:

   

   Note

   Choose the x86-64_v3 version if your CPU supports AVX2.

   Otherwise download the one ending with x86-64.

3. Restart Steam if you had it opened.

pacman

Run the following command

sudo pacman -S proton-cachyos-slr

Manual Installation (Advanced)

1. Download the latest version here. (Scroll down to Assets)

   Note

   Choose the one that ends with x86-64_v3 if your CPU supports AVX2 Otherwise download the one ending with x86-64.

2. Decompress the file and move the folder to ~/.steam/steam/compatibilitytools.d/
3. Restart Steam if you had it open.

Wine-CachyOS

This is the same wine that is at the core of proton-cachyos, but as a standalone package. It can be used in Lutris, Heroic, Bottles and others.

• All the Wine modifications included with Proton-CachyOS
• Adds early hotfixes/workarounds for games

Note

In the CachyOS repositories, Wine-CachyOS is offered by two different packages. wine-cachyos installs it as the default system Wine and replaces wine or wine-staging. wine-cachyos-opt installs it in a different location, which allows multiple wine versions to co-exist in the system.

Caution

Wine-CachyOS’s primarily intended use is for gaming. Although it can be used as a system Wine with desktop applications, be aware that it might lead to some unexpected behavior and issues due to the gaming focused modifications.

If you want to use desktop application, we suggest using wine or wine-staging as your system’s Wine and installing wine-cachyos-opt for gaming.

Additional configuration options

• WINE_WMCLASS="<name>": Sets the WM_CLASS of all wine windows, allowing the window manager to control the Wine’s windows through rules.
• WINEUSERSANDBOX=1: Disables the creation of symlinks from Wine user folders such as Documents/Pictures, to the equivalent folders in the user’s HOME directory
• WINE_NO_WM_DECORATION=1: Disables window decorations using the Linux window manager. It can fix issues with borderless fullscreen and the mouse clicking through the window.
• WINE_PREFER_SDL_INPUT=1: Enable to work-around issues with proper controller detection.

How to use wine-cachyos-opt

Standalone

Normally, running /opt/wine-cachyos/bin/wine instead of just wine should be enough for an application to run using wine-cachyos-opt.

If a more strict configuration is required, it could look like this:

export PATH="/opt/wine-cachyos/bin/:$PATH"
export WINEDLLPATH="/opt/wine-cachyos/lib/wine:/opt/wine-cachyos/lib32/wine:$WINEDLLPATH"
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/opt/wine-cachyos/lib/:/opt/wine-cachyos/lib32/:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH"

If you want to use winetricks with wine-cachyos-opt, you can invoke it like this:

WINE=/opt/wine-cachyos/bin/wine WINEPRFIX=<your prefix> winetricks <verb>

Lutris

Note

The second image also applies for setting it up per game.

Heroic Games Launcher

Steam FAQ & Tips

Note

Laptop users with discrete NVIDIA GPUs should refer to the Dual GPU Laptops guide

Tip

CachyOS provides various Proton versions that we build & maintain for further performance improvements:

• proton-cachyos (included in the cachyos-gaming-meta package) is the one that we develop with added QoL changes + cherry picked patches + compilation optimizations (x86-64-v3 & x86-64-v4)

Tip

To check if your game is compatible or how it runs with Linux, visit ProtonDB or Are We Anti-Cheat Yet?.

Which Proton version should be used in Steam?

• Proton 10.0 is the stable release from Valve. Use this if the game you want to play is known to work well.
• Proton Experimental is the bleeding edge release from Valve. Use this if the game you want to play is relatively new, doesn’t work well with the current Proton stable release, or if people recommend it on ProtonDB.
• proton-cachyos-slr is the one we build and maintain. Using it is highly recommended with various quality-of-life features, fixes and optimizations. For games using anticheat, such as BattlEye or Easy Anti-Cheat or custom launchers, prefer proton-cachyos-slr.
• proton-cachyos is the same version as proton-cachyos-slr but built without depending on the Steam Linux Runtime. Use it only if you understand the significance of this difference and fallback to proton-cachyos-slr if issues occur.
• Proton-GE is a custom build made by GloriousEggroll. It includes various fixes, and can be useful to have in certain situations.
• Proton 9.0.4 or lower are the stable releases from Valve. Use this if the game you want to play only works in a previous Proton release.

Fix stuttering caused by the Steam Game Recorder Feature

Caution

Adding this environment variable causes Steam’s Overlay to stop functioning.

Add the following launch option to your game

LD_PRELOAD="" %command%

Capturing and sharing Proton logs

Note

When sharing logs with CachyOS, please upload them to paste-cachyos instead of posting directly.

You can simply drag and drop the log file onto the website, then share the generated link.

To enable Proton logging for a game:

1. Right-click your game in Steam and select Properties.
2. Under Launch Options, add the PROTON_LOG environment variable:

   PROTON_LOG=1 %command%

   This will create a log file in your home directory, named steam-<AppID>.log (for example, Counter Strike 2 uses AppID 730, so the file would be steam-730.log).

Custom Log Directory

To set a custom log directory, use PROTON_LOG_DIR:

Example

PROTON_LOG=1 PROTON_LOG_DIR=/home/cachyos/steam-logs %command%

Pre-caching shaders with Proton-CachyOS, -GE and -EM

Note

It’s advised to disable the Steam Precache of Shaders feature when utilizing Proton-CachyOS, Proton-GE or Proton-EM. They already contain all the necessary codecs to play videos inside games, and nowadays a relatively modern GPU-CPU combo should be more than capable of dealing with compiling shaders in-game.

But if you have time to spare, then you can ignore this tip and let Steam pre compile some shaders for your game.

Keep in mind that not everything gets cached during this process.

Here is how to disable this feature:

Note

It’s highly recommended to increase your maximum shader cache size after disabling pre-caching on Steam.

Repurposing a Windows NTFS game partition

Caution

Avoid using Proton on NTFS drives. Valve does not support this configuration, and it can cause games to behave unpredictably.

If you’re willing to proceed. Follow their unofficial guide.

Lutris

Lutris serves as a central hub for all your games on CachyOS.

With Lutris, you can efficiently manage your game runners, including Wine, Proton, and emulators.

• You can launch games through Lutris simply by clicking the Play button.
• Add any game you want clicking the + sign in the top left.
• Set up a store in the Sources at the left panel and connecting your account, it will then proceed to install said store, and then you’ll be able to run games from within the store, just like you do on Windows.
• And more!

Games stores supported in Lutris:

• EA App
• Epic Games Store
• GOG Galaxy
• Steam
• Ubisoft Connect

How to properly set multiple launch options and environment variables in Lutris

• Launch options such as -dx11 or -fullscreen should be added in the Arguments field under the Game options tab using a space as a separator.
• Command wrappers for example mangohud --dlsym or game-performance should be added in the Command prefix field under the System options tab using a space as a separator.
• Environment variables such as PROTON_ENABLE_HDR=1 should be added in the Environment variables table under the System options tab using the + button to add a new entry.

Do not include = in the Key field. It should only contain the variable name.

Performance & Misc tips

What not do when Gaming in CachyOS

Combining gamemode and ananicy-cpp

Due to gamemode and ananicy-cpp both trying to modify a process niceness at the same time, it can lead to conflicts and unexpected behavior. It’s recommended to use gamemode without ananicy-cpp.

To stop ananicy-cpp, execute the following command:

systemctl stop ananicy-cpp

Power Profile Switching on Demand

Note

This behavior differs slightly with intel_pstate. On Intel, the governor stays at powersave, but the EPP/EPB values are adjusted for performance.

game-performance may not provide any benefit on old CPUs.

CachyOS includes a wrapper script game-performance which uses power-profiles-daemon to temporarily switch the power profile to performance. The profile raises system power levels and sets the CPU governor to performance.

When used to launch a game, the system remains in performance mode until the game exits, at which point the previous profile is restored.

Feral’s GameMode offers similar functionality.

How to add game-performance to Steam, Lutris and Heroic Games Launcher

Steam

1. Open your Steam Library.
2. Right click the game’s title and select Properties.
3. On the General tab you’ll find Launch Options section.
4. Add the following Launch Option:

   game-performance %command%

Heroic Games Launcher

1. On the left panel open Settings.
2. Go to Game defaults then click on Advanced.
3. In the wrapper command section. Add the following line without any argument:

   game-performance

4. Click on the + sign to save changes.

Lutris

1. On the top right open the hamburger menu.
2. Go to Preferences/Global options.
3. Enable Advanced Mode on the top right.
4. Scroll down to Command prefix and add the following line:

   game-performance

5. Save changes.

Increase maximum shader cache size

Game shaders are compiled automatically while playing, which may cause long loading times and stuttering the first time you encounter them. These shaders are stored on your system to be reused when needed.

However, there is a maximum limit to the shader cache’s file size, causing old shaders to be forgotten when exceeding the default size. This can be an issue since large games can have shaders over 1GB in size, causing them to re-compile shaders every launch.

To avoid long loading times and stuttering, we can increase the global shader cache size:

Nvidia GPU

1. Open the terminal.
2. Enter this command to edit the environment file:

   sudo nano /etc/environment

3. Paste the following at the end of the file:

   # Increase Nvidia's shader cache size to 12GB
   __GL_SHADER_DISK_CACHE_SIZE=12000000000

4. Save the file by pressing CTRL+X, Y, then Enter.
5. Restart your system.

AMD GPU

1. Open the terminal.
2. Enter this command to edit the environment file:

   sudo nano /etc/environment

3. Paste the following at the end of the file:

   # Enforces RADV Vulkan implementation
   AMD_VULKAN_ICD=RADV
   
   # Increase AMD's shader cache size to 12GB
   MESA_SHADER_CACHE_MAX_SIZE=12G

4. Save the file by pressing CTRL+X, Y, then Enter.
5. Restart your system.

After restarting, the maximum shader cache size should be permanently increased. Thanks to psygreg’s shader booster for helping this guide.

Forcing the latest DLSS preset

How to add dlss-swapper to Steam, Lutris and Heroic Games Launcher

Steam

1. Open your Steam Library
2. Right click the game’s title and select Properties.
3. On the General tab you’ll find Launch Options section.
4. Add the following Launch Option:

   dlss-swapper %command%

Heroic Games Launcher

1. On the left panel open Settings.
2. Go to Game defaults then click on Advanced.
3. In the wrapper command section. Add the following line without any argument:

   dlss-swapper

4. Click on the + sign to save changes.

Lutris

1. On the top right open the hamburger menu
2. Go to Preferences/Global options.
3. Enable Advanced Mode on the top right.
4. Scroll down to Command prefix and add the following line:

   dlss-swapper

5. Save changes.

Manual DLL Replacement Method

If dlss-swapper is not working or causing issues try updating game’s DLSS implementation manually by replacing nvngx_dlss.dll with an up-to-date version and using the dlss-swapper-dll wrapper script instead.

Ray tracing Support

The Arch Wiki has already provides comprehensive instructions on how to enable ray tracing for various hardware platforms.

• Ray tracing on NVIDIA
• Ray tracing on AMD
• Ray tracing on Intel

Performance drop on NVIDIA in DirectX12 games

Some users report that the issue is related to how NVIDIA’s Linux drivers handle GPU scheduling—unlike on Windows, where proper scheduling is enforced. There’s no official NVIDIA statement yet. Currently there is no known workaround for this issue and NVIDIA is supposedly working on a fix but it’s not clear when it will be released.

It has nothing to do with CachyOS.

In some titles the performance drop is less noticeable than in others. Check out this benchmark comparison video for reference.

Follow the NVIDIA thread about this issue to know more about it.