Strike Fighters 2 on Linux (SteamOS) and Mac (M4) — Crash Analysis & Call for Help

[wigoplus]

Hi all,

I've spent considerable time trying to get SF2 running on non-Windows hardware and wanted to document what I found in case anyone else has been down this road, or has a solution.

HARDWARE TESTED

Lenovo Legion Go 2 - SteamOS 3.8.2 (AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, Radeon 890M)
Apple M4 Max MacBook Pro - macOS

LEGION GO 2 / SteamOS - What I tried:

Bottles with DXVK enabled - instant crash inside GraphicsEngineDX10.dll at a consistent address, null pointer dereference. DXVK threads are running but the game never reaches the menu.

Bottles with DXVK disabled (wined3d) - silent exit, or a black "Program Error" dialog with no visible text.

Bottles + Proton-GE - same MODULE_NOT_FOUND exception (0xc06d007e) thrown from inside GraphicsEngineDX10.dll at init. Identical crash across Wine 10.0 Staging, Wine 11.0, and multiple Proton-GE versions.

Steam directly (non-Steam game, forced Proton-GE) - same result.

Tried ForceDX9=TRUE in Options.ini - no effect. The game always loads GraphicsEngineDX10.dll regardless. There is no GraphicsEngineDX9.dll in this installation.

Copied d3dcompiler_43.dll and other DLLs from a working Windows 11 install into the bottle - no change.

The crash address inside graphicsenginedx10 is identical across every Wine/Proton version tested, which suggests either a missing delay-loaded DLL or an unimplemented Wine DX10 interface returning null.

Mac M4 Max - What I tried:

CrossOver - crashes or black screen, no graphics output.

Windows 11 ARM on Parallels - game launches but no graphics at all. Parallels runs Windows on ARM and emulates x86. SF2's 32-bit DX10 engine appears to fail in this emulation layer, likely an architectural dead end.

For reference, the game runs perfectly on native Windows 11 x86, so this is purely a Wine/compatibility layer issue.

Questions for the community:

Has anyone successfully run SF2 under Wine, Proton, or any compatibility layer on Linux?
Is there a known workaround for the DX10 engine crash under Wine?
Does anyone know what specific DLL or COM interface GraphicsEngineDX10.dll is probing for at startup?

Happy to provide full crash logs if useful. Any leads appreciated.

Thanks

Edited April 17 by wigoplus

[Wrench]

PLEASE do NOT post in the Knowledge Base!!! Moved to a more appropriate Forum.  

People will actually SEE the question in the regular forums, and perhaps even discuss it. 

The KB* exists as a repository of answers, not discussions. That's what these main forums are for. Once this topic has been 'worked out' to a viable, easily used operational fix, we can move it TO the KB, and then lock it down.

 

*=I mean, people hardly uses the f'ing thing, no matter how much we try and even post links. So sad.

[Erik]

Where was this? The only place it could have been posted in the KB is in General Discussions which is what that sub-forum is there for, or at least that's what I thought you wanted it there for. Let me know and I can append the permissions as necessary which will prevent this from happening again. 

[Wrench]

yes, it was in the General Discussion, iirc. The thing being, discussions should happen only in the main forums. The KB is, and always was, a repository of Answers (tm) 

So, yes, removing the ability of non Staff to post in KB is a good idea. That way, we have better control of what important information gets locked in place. Real Answers, for mainstream users etc. 

[Erik]

Clarifying, so you don’t want a general discussion sub-forum in the KB?

[streakeagle]

As Steam OS rises in popularity, I expect more modern games to begin favoring compatibility with LINUX. I am actually rooting for this because MS Windows has been a monopoly for too long, and MS has been abusing that position for decades.

The problem is that SF2 is an update of SFP1, a game that was originally designed to run on Windows 98 with 3dfx Voodoo cards. While the update made it far more compatible with DirectX and Windows 7, some people have struggled to get it running well on Windows 10 and Windows 11. The various LINUX windows emulation layers have largely been developed to run far newer games and work with much newer gpu drivers. It does not surprise me that SF2 is having issues running on LINUX.

I have thought about purchasing a new hard drive just so that I can experiment with running Steam OS or a straight LINUX distribution. But I am waiting for DCS World to support Steam OS/LINUX, as that is my primary reason I am still on Windows. Beyond DCS World, I need the Quest 3 for VR and several utilities like SRS, Voice Attack, and VAICOM to be compatible with LINUX as well as support for WinWing/WinCtrl USB controllers and its associated software, SimAppPro.

I have no advice or experience to offer in your quest to run SF2 on LINUX, but I do offer support since Microsoft deserves to lose and LINUX appears to be the future to escape the Windows trap. Good luck. If you finally figure out the solution, please post it here on Combat Ace.

Edited April 23 by streakeagle