GTA IV via Steam unter Linux spielen (via Proton 3.7)

Ich habe mich dank Proton-Vulkan-Unterstützung in Steam dazu entschlossen, mir GTA IV zuzulegen. Wollte ich schon die vergangenen 10 Jahre lang, aber hatte nie eine passende Plattform bzw. Lust, so viel Geld auszugeben. Nun gibt es in der ProtonDB gute Ratings, doch das Spiel zum Laufen zu bringen braucht etwas Arbeit. Deshalb mal einen Auszug von Pastebin, was fehlt, um GTA IV lauffähig zu machen. Übrigens: Das gilt für zwei von drei Teilen auch für die Windows-Version ;c)

###Necessary steps for Installation of 

1. Install GTA IV through Steam.

2. Get additional dlls needed for GTA IV and put them in the right place...
Download https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/pool/main/wine-staging-i386_3.13.0-2~bionic_i386.deb and https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/pool/main/wine-staging-amd64_3.14.0~bionic_amd64.deb for 32bin and 64bit libs respectively.
No need to install them. Just open them with your archive manager of choice and extract the nvapi files to their respective folder:
(archive)/opt/wine-staging/lib64/wine/nvapi64.dll.so -> ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton\ 3.7/dist/lib64/wine/nvapi64.dll.so
(archive)/opt/wine-staging/lib64/wine/fakedlls/nvapi64.dll -> ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton\ 3.7/dist/lib64/wine/fakedlls/nvapi64.dll
(archive)/opt/wine-staging/lib/wine/nvapi.dll.so -> ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton\ 3.7/dist/lib/wine/nvapi.dll.so
(archive)/opt/wine-staging/lib/wine/fakedlls/nvapi.dll -> ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton\ 3.7/dist/lib/wine/fakedlls/nvapi.dll

3. Download the xlive.dll 
(https://github.com/AccountOneOff/lutris_files/raw/master/xlive.dll)
and put it in GTA's install folder: 
"~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Grand Theft Auto IV/GTAIV/"

4. Add the following line to your /etc/hosts file (this redirects the 
connection to rockstar's servers to localhost, effectively blocking the
connection which is necessary for the game to work):
127.0.0.1 tv.rockstargames.com

###Optional Enhancements

Right click game in steam library, add launch options ():
-width 1920 -height 1080 -nomemrestrict -norestrictions -percentvidmem 100 -availablevidmem 2048 -noprecache -novblank
Explanation: -width and -height are your Monitor's resolution and -vidmem the available GPU vram. These values may differ for your PC. The other options give more memory and disable v-sync.

The bullet spread .asi fix puts bullet spread back in the game.
(https://github.com/Crspy/IV-RecoilFix/releases/)
Download, extract it and put in the GTA game directory.
I'd reccomend it. The dead accurate aim with mouse+keyboard controls feels unnatural and makes the game far too easy.

Let the game use 4 GB of RAM, instead of two. Apparently 4 is the max that GTA IV can utilize...
Change the following contents in this file 
(~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Grand Theft Auto IV/GTAIV/pc/stream.ini)
to the following values:
virtual 409600
physical 409600
virtual_optimised 409600
physical_optimised 409600

Skip intro video:
https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV#Skip_intro_videos


###Things not to do

Do not rename paul.dll, or the game won't start.
PC gaming wiki claims that this can help, but it doesn't.

You will see for example on PC gaming wiki that there is a .asi called colaccel
that will supposedly improve your loading times.
For me it lowered performance and made the game crash whenever I died or got arrested by police.
Avoid this .asi file.

###Credit

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/350
https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV

Thanks to everyone who helped figuring this stuff out!

---

###Report
This worked for me with GTA IV v. 1.0.8 and Steamplay Proton 3.7
OS: Arch Linux 64-bit
GPU: Nvidia Geforce GT 640M

Performance: I got low framerates with high settings, but with low settings (everything lowest, except medium textures, 16x anisotropic filtering, resolution 720p) the game ran smooth enough
and I played through the main story with only one real issue: during the bank heist mission,
the walls in the inside of the bank went completely transparent, making it difficult to complete.

Graphical issues (maybe these are generally an issue with the game though): 
- Water reflections are very flickery, even when turned off
- Sometimes the lighting on buildings in the distance flickers

Overall though, perfectly playable to me, but I don't have high standards...
I'd give it a high silver rating. Mostly because the multiplayer doesn't work.
If it was only about the singleplayer, I'd still give it gold.
Another thing to take into consideration is that this game also seems plagued by issues in windows.

Kudos bzw. der passende Thread auf Github.

Fatal error: Failed to load steamui.so unter Ubuntu 14.04

Da ist man als aufgeschlossener Linuxer auch gleich im Beta Release Channel von Steam, da zerschießt ein Update mal den gesamten Client, welcher sich fortan nur noch dazu hinreißen lässt, die steamui.so-Bibliothek zu forden. Das Problem gibt es auch unter Windows (steamui.dll) und tritt häufiger bei Updates oder Grafikkarten/Treiberproblemen auf. Doch welcher Weg ist nun der, der letztlich zur Lösung führt und den geringsten Aufwan bedeutet?

Für mich dieser: Einfach wie die Jungs aus dem Steamforum angeben folgenden Befehl in die Konsole eingeben, um Steam zu starten.

STEAM_RUNTIME=1 steam

Hiernach sollte sich der Client starten, die Updates abbrechen und auf den Ausgangszustand zurückgehen. Hat bei mir funktioniert, auch wenn andere Nutzer berichten, dass das Löschen der Betaupdates aus

rm ~/.steam/steam/package/beta

ebenso helfen soll.