Download Custom Wine
TinkerGame provides basic functionality to download custom Wine builds. These are downloaded and extracted into the TinkerGame configuration folder. You can find the paths on the Paths wiki page, and they can be updated by modifying the WINEDLDIR.
The Custom Wine download option can be found on the Main Menu, or accessed via the command line. Refer to tinkergame help for command line usage details.
These Wine builds are used internally by TinkerGame, so are stored in its internal folder structure, much like custom Proton downloads.
The list of available Wine builds is auto-generated by parsing all CW_* (Custom Wine) URLs from the Url Config file. It goes to these URLs and fetches a list of releases.
NOTE: jq is required for this functionality to work. On Steam Deck, jq should be present, but on Linux Desktop you may need to install this package separately.
Currently the following Wine builds are available:
Once downloaded, Wine builds can be used with games. You can choose to use Wine instead of Proton on the Game Menu by enabling the Wine checkbox under the Wine options. From here you can choose your Wine build that you want to use. By default, TinkerGame will attempt to use the Steam Linux Runtime with your game, but you can disable this by toggling the "Use Steam Linux Runtime" checkbox, the same as for Proton games.
Game compatibility with Wine may be more limited than with Proton, so it is recommended to only use Wine with Non-Steam Games or custom programs that may require it. Note that TinkerGame does not currently install DXVK or vkd3d-proton for custom Wine versions that may not come with these already.
You can add your own Wine URL to the URL configuration file, following the same variable naming scheme (prefixing it with CW_) and ensuring that the archive format matches Kron4ek, Wine-GE or Lutris Wine archive formats, so that it can be extracted successfully. TinkerGame will then attempt to fetch the release archives.
An example entry might be something like CW_MYCUSTOMWINE="https://github.com/CoolUser/AwesomeWineFunTimes/releases".
It is also possible to manually add your own extracted Wine archive to TinkerGame. Your archive should go into the WINEEXTDIR (see Paths wiki) and have a top-level folder with the name of the Wine build. Inside that folder should be the Wine folder structure, with bin, lib, etc. You can use an existing extracted Wine version from TinkerGame as a reference if you need to.
This option may be useful if you have existing Wine downloads (e.g. from Lutris) that you want to be made available within TinkerGame. It is also useful if TinkerGame cannot download/extract the Wine release archive you want to use, or if you're using a custom build.
If your Wine version cannot use the same directory structure for some reason, it may be possible to create symlinks that mimic the directory structure. Likewise, symlinking builds of Wine that you have already downloaded for something like Lutris may also work.
ProtonUp-Qt offers the ability to select custom directories for compatibility tools. You can set a custom directory such as the WINEEXTDIR (see Paths wiki) and then use ProtonUp-Qt to manage downloading and extracting the Wine versions for you.