Important
SimpleSteamTinker is still in HEAVY development and very unfinished. Expect an incomplete interface and lots of missing/unstable features.
If SteamTinkerLaunch is fast enough for you and fits your needs, you should not use this tool right now.
With that being said, I'd still very much appreciate people testing SimpleSteamTinker and reporting issues or contributing.
A work-in-progress simple, fast, and modern Adwaita alternative to SteamTinkerLaunch.
I like SteamTinkerLaunch, I like it a lot. In fact, I consider it to be one of the most important tools for Linux gaming.
However, it has always been flawed to me : it is slow, it is not comfortable to use, and the user interface is very messy.
I want Linux Gaming to be for everyone. SteamTinkerLaunch, as a tool, fails to make itself easily usable by non-technical users.
Finally, one time, my curiosity led me to look inside its source code, only to be met with a single Bash script containing 26 000 lines. At that point, I decided there should be an alternative to it.
And thus came SimpleSteamTinker...
TL;DR : Simple, Fast, Modern & User-Friendly
SimpleSteamTinker aims right now to be only an alternative to SteamTinkerLaunch, not to replace it : I do not intend to implement the more complex features of it that the average user won't need.
Using Lua, a fast and simple language, and Adwaita, a modern user-friendly interface system, the goal of this project is to have a clean and easy but powerful way of launching Steam games with custom options and tools.
It takes inspiration from Bottles and Adwaita applications in general.
Additionally, I consider SimpleSteamTinker should work with Steam rather than hack/replace its features. Anything that can be easily done on the Steam side of things will not be implemented (Proton version management for example. If you want to use Proton-GE, I'd recommend ProtonPlus or ProtonUp-Qt).
And finally, as a side goal : prove that Lua can also be used for developing modern applications, just like for example Python (which I often see in Adwaita apps).
SimpleSteamTinker can be installed from Arch Linux, Manjaro, and variants through the provided PKGBUILD.
Always download the latest version of the PKGBUILD, then use makepkg in its directory.
It will eventually be made available on the AUR once the program is complete enough.
To enable a game in SimpleSteamTinker with this installation method, use this text as launch options in Steam :
sst %command%Here are informations which might be useful to you :
SimpleSteamTinker is meant to be installed in /usr/share/SimpleSteamTinker (except sst which goes into /usr/bin).
The system desktop file goes in /usr/share/applications and the icons go in /usr/share/icons like many applications.
Most of the file structure installation steps can be achieved with the Makefile. It is recommended to use it if possible in your packaging system.
It depends on :
- Lua 5.4
- LGI (development version specifically) + GTK4 + libadwaita
- Steam installation, with a user configured and games installed.
- LuaFileSystem
- LuaSocket + LuaSec
- dkjson
- xclip (Might be replaced/made optional in the future.)
- libnotify
And optionally (if they're missing, their related features will simply be disabled) :
GameMode, MangoHud, Mesa (for Zink support), switcheroo-control and Gamescope.
Simply install the project's dependencies described earlier and clone it.
To test the launch of Steam games, insert in their launch options :
/PATH/TO/CLONED/REPO/sst %command%For example, in my case /PATH/TO/CLONED/REPO/sst is /home/jordan/Programmation/SimpleSteamTinker/sst.
Additionally, if you want to perform UI-related changes, you'll need Blueprint. If, in the future, LGI becomes stable enough with GTK4 to use it directly to generate the UI, Blueprint might be dropped.
Note : A desktop file won't be provided with this method, and icons won't be installed.
| Development | SteamTinkerLaunch | SimpleSteamTinker |
|---|---|---|
| Language | Bash | Lua |
| Code | 26k lines in a single file | Neatly organised in modules and commented |
| UI definitions | Mashed into the code | (Mostly) done in separate GTK Blueprint files |
| Interface system | yad + GTK3 | LGI + GTK4 + libadwaita |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Features (interface) | SteamTinkerLaunch | SimpleSteamTinker |
|---|---|---|
| Launch speed (on primary laptop) | ❌ (25 seconds) | ✅ (1 second) |
| Game list | ❌ | ✅ |
| Game status | ❌ | ✅ |
| ProtonDB integration | ✅ | ✅ |
| Launch Button | ✅ | ✅ |
| Steam AppID | ✅ | ✅ |
| Notifications | ✅ | ✅ |
| Pre-game launch window | ✅ | ❌ (Not implemented to speed up game startup and not get in the user's way. Might change in the future.) |
| Categories | ✅ | ❌ |
| Custom default game config | ✅ | ❌ |
| Game location | ~ (separate button) | ✅ |
| Compatdata location | ❌ | ✅ |
| Help pages (ProtonDB, PCGamingWiki, SteamDB) | ~ (messy to access) | ✅ |
(Note : Native Linux features/tools/settings are prioritized over alternatives designed for Windows.)
| Features (tools, settings, etc.) | SteamTinkerLaunch | SimpleSteamTinker |
|---|---|---|
| Non-Steam game support | ✅ | ❌ (Bottles recommended) |
| Proton version management | ✅ | ❌ (ProtonPlus recommended) |
| dGPU management | ✅ | ✅ |
| GameMode | ✅ | ✅ |
| Custom launch system | ✅ | 🚧 (Planned, high priority) |
| Winetricks | ✅ | ❌ (Planned ?) |
| Protontricks | ❌ | ❌ (Planned ?) |
| Proton settings | ✅ | 🚧 (Planned, high priority) |
| DXVK settings | ✅ | 🚧 (Planned, high priority) |
| VKD3D settings | ✅ | 🚧 (Planned, high priority) |
| FSR settings | ✅ | 🚧 (Planned, high priority) |
| MangoHud | ✅ | ✅ |
| Gamescope | ✅ | ✅ |
| Shader support (ReShade/vkBasalt) | ✅ | ❌ (Planned, low priority) |
| SDL Wayland video driver | ✅ | ✅ |
| Zink | ✅ | ✅ |
| PulseAudio latency | ✅ | 🚧 (Planned) |
| Vortex | ✅ | ❌ |
| Mod Organizer 2 | ✅ | ❌ |
| HedgeModManager | ✅ | ❌ (Planned ?) |
| geo-11 3D Driver | ✅ | ❌ |
| SpecialK | ✅ | ❌ |
| FlawlessWidescreen | ✅ | ❌ |
| Stereo3D | ✅ | ❌ |
| RADV Perftest Options | ✅ | ❌ (Planned, low priority, cannot test properly due to lack of an AMD GPU) |
| Steam Linux Runtime toggle | ✅ | ❌ |
| steamwebhelper toggle | ✅ | ❌ |
| obs-gamecapture | ✅ | ❌ |
| Nyrna | ✅ | ❌ |
| ReplaySorcery | ✅ | ❌ |
| Boxtron | ✅ | ❌ |
| Roberta | ✅ | ❌ |
| Luxtorpeda | ✅ | ❌ |
| Network monitoring and control | ✅ | ❌ |
| Discord Rich Presence | ✅ | ❌ (Planned, low priority) |
You can report bugs or suggest features by making an issue, or you can contribute to this program directly by forking it and then sending a pull request.
Any help will be very much appreciated. Thank you.