Linux + Wine + Lutris + EpicLauncher == Assets + Happiness

Community Community & Industry Discussion
1

Hi folks,

tl;dr: Install Lutris, change a few configs here and there, install Epic Store from inside of it, install UE4 from inside of the Launcher/Store, run UE4, create a project, install assets in it.

I’m a Linux user (Arch Linux - I use it for personal reasons and for my job as a software developer) and, if you are too, then you probably know the frustrations I’ve been through to try to get the Epic Launcher to work on this OS. The UE4 Editor (tested with 4.22) runs pretty well, with a few non-critical bugs, but the Launcher is simply unavailable for this platform. Which means we (Linux users) have a terrible time trying to get any assets from the Unreal Marketplace (the website doesn’t let you download directly from there, instead it tries to run the Launcher and download from there, meaning, no downloads for us). I’ve been using my wife’s computer, which runs Windows, only to get assets, which is a pretty ridiculous situation.

Tried other tools, as well, such as a NodeJS-based one and a Java-based one, neither work minimally well - the first doesn’t get past the login prompt, the second can’t stay running for more than a few seconds.

Now, I just stumbled upon someone mentioning downloading Epic games through “Lutris”, which is a tool for running games on Linux that I got to know only today (seems kind of a PlayOnLinux), and I decided to give it a try. To my very positive surprise, it worked!

The bad news, though, is that I had to install yet another Unreal Editor 4 in this Launcher instance (which runs on Wine, so it installs a Windows version of UE4), just to be able to create a dummy project and install the assets I wanted to it. So I now have to work with two UE4 instances, the normal Linux-based one and the Wine one. I’m not too bothered about this, though, as I could download the assets, move to the project I have under my Linux UE4 and they worked just fine! :slight_smile:

I also tried running and playing with the Editor in Wine too, it seems to work well, but it ended up crashing when I was experimenting with materials. So I’m not sure how stable it is, but it’s worth trying, I guess.

Anyway, this is the app that can be installed in Lutris: Epic Games Store - Lutris - enjoy!

Cheers,

2

Oh, and I haven’t tried this yet, but I may be able to export my projects to Windows from inside the Wine-powered UE4 too.

3

works amazing, the only thing is that i have already had UE4 linux installation and have to download the Engine again

4

Yeah I have windows on one drive, and I just use that as my location Epicgames\launcher\vaultcache I have debian, and opensuse, but I used centos for a while.

5

I started doing this as well. I’m working primarily on Linux based content and I needed a reliable way to download the free assets, as well as any assets that I might purchase in the future, for my current project.

6

Works really well. I am using TwinMotion. Performance is excellent and it’s stable. TwinMotion does crash fairly often but that’s the same in Windows and is not a Lutris issue.

Just outstanding. My Linux machine has a real GPU and I really needed to be able to do this, or else would have needed a new Windows machine, which I do not want.

Very grateful to the Lutris team!

7

You dont need to install the unreal engine using wine just create a dummy project directory inside your wine prefix :slight_smile: you can install maketplace assets from the epic games launcher then make sure to create a uproject with atleast name on it.

9

There is any chance that UE5 will work with wine too? I’m working with daz studio under wine, and that sucks because it’s export plugin pretend that unreal is runned from windows in order to import that kind of assets to unreal …