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Gabriel Knight 3 on a Steam Deck

By noam.mor

This guide lists steps for running Gabriel Knight 3 on a Steam Deck.

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Created by

noam.mor
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Category: Modding or Configuration

Languages: English

Posted

18 May, 2024 @ 1:42am

143	Unique Visitors
7	Current Favorites

Guide Index

Overview

Install Tools

Game Installation and Configuration

How do I play?

Comments

Install Tools

Go to the Steam Deck's desktop mode.

From the Discover store, download ProtonUp-Qt and protontricks.

From ProtonUp-Qt download Proton-GE-8.32 (9 didn't work for some reason). Vanilla proton lacks some codecs for this game.

Game Installation and Configuration

Install GK3 on the Deck's internal storage (not SD card).

From the Steam game properties of Gabriel Knight 3, force its Compatibility to Proton-GE-8.32.

Set the game's controller config to the community layout "Gabriel Knight 3 - Steam Deck".

Start the game Gabriel Knight 3, then close it.

Start protontricks. Pick Gabriel Knight 3. press Ok ("Select the default wineprefix"). Select "Run winecfg". Go to Drives. Press Add. Press OK. This added a new drive. Select the new drive and press Show Advanced. Set the new drive's type to CD-ROM, and its path to /tmp. This is the Proton equivalent of Windows guides suggesting mounting an .iso file. In the picture to the right, I added "R:" as a CD-ROM drive.

Now the game should run. Run it and press Play in the launcher.

This is an old game without V-Sync. In the deck power config, set the frame limit to 60 FPS, the GPU clock to 200 Mhz, and the TDP Limit to 5-6W. This way you get 6-7 hours of battery life on an OLED. You can also enable FSR for mildly improved graphics.

If you get horrible flickering in-game, press the start button, go to Graphics options, and disable Incremental Rendering. This is required on Desktop mode (and on Windows). Also, you can adjust the gamma (game brightness) in that menu, I raised it a bit.

If playing on the Steam Deck, I suggets leaving the resolution at 640x480 and living with a bit of aliasing. You're not playing this one for the graphics and that way the UI and text are at a comfortable size.

How do I play?

Move around with the sticks, and use the trackpad and R2 for a mouse. press B for inventory. L2 is mapped to Esc, for skipping scenes and exiting menus.

Everything should work except for one minor animation in one of the menus. Enjoy!

P.S: If you end up needing a guide, I suggest https://www.uhs-hints.com/uhsweb/gk3.php

4 Comments

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Handfradze 19 Dec, 2024 @ 4:25pm

@noam.mor: That is strange... I finished the game. No major problems with SIDNEY, but some slight graphical glitches. Everything that was drawn outside of the "virtual screen" of SIDNEY wasn't erased afterwards. E.g. if Grace says something while using SIDNEY, than the Subtitle stays until leaving SIDNEY...

By the way: There is a "new Gabriel"! Seems to be some distant relative from Austria, named "Markus Ritter". The first part is free on Steam. Have not tried it yet, but looks promising! 😉

noam.mor [author] 19 Dec, 2024 @ 2:11am

Unfortunately changing the resolution to deck native prevents you from finishing the game. From my testing, in day 3, playing at a 16x10 resolution prevents you from using SYDNEY.

I heard it said that the game only really supports 640x480, 800x600 or 1024x768. It's a shame - even without good eyes, 768x480 is nicer than 640x480 when it does work.

Handfradze 1 Nov, 2024 @ 4:28pm

Nice guide! I modified your community layout to get a even better experience by using a lot of tricks and tweaks (e.g. "stuttering" slower camera movement on the left stick, analogue camera movement on the right stick, labeled everything, etc.).

For those with good eyes, you can also set the resolution to the native steam deck resolution (1280 x 800)! Just open the registry editor with proton tricks and follow this guide:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=755593217

Happy adventuring! 🙂

Berto 10 Sep, 2024 @ 3:34am

Thanks for the guide! Works great, I even prefere it to playing on a desktop.

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