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FAQ
Frequently asked questions about GameAtlas.
GameAtlas is a desktop companion for PC gaming on Windows and Linux.
It combines game discovery, system information, diagnostics, modding resources, save management, performance tools, and game-specific utilities into one application.
For a broader overview, see Features.
GameAtlas supports:
- Windows
- Linux
Linux support is designed with modern gaming environments in mind, including distributions such as Bazzite.
Some features differ between operating systems because Windows and Linux expose different launchers, drivers, APIs, filesystem layouts, and gaming tools.
See:
Current support includes several major game sources.
- Steam
- Epic Games Launcher
- GOG Galaxy
- Ubisoft Connect
- EA App
- Xbox / Microsoft Store
- Manually added games
- Steam
- Heroic Games Launcher
- Lutris
- Native Linux games
- Proton and Wine-based games discovered through supported launchers
- Manually added games
See Supported Launchers.
GameAtlas is primarily focused on organizing, inspecting, troubleshooting, and managing installed games.
Its main purpose is not to replace Steam, Epic, GOG, Heroic, Lutris, or other launchers.
Some workflows may interact with game executables or launch-related information, but the original launcher may still be required.
Yes.
Manual game addition is useful for:
- Standalone games
- Portable games
- Unsupported launchers
- Custom installations
- Source ports
- Fan games
- Other unusual installations
See Game Detection.
Common causes include:
- Unsupported launcher
- Game installed on an unmounted drive
- Missing launcher metadata
- Game moved manually
- File permission problems
- Incomplete installation
Try rescanning the library first.
See Troubleshooting and Game Detection.
You may have more than one valid installation.
Examples include:
- Steam and GOG versions
- Steam and Epic versions
- Native Linux and Proton versions
- Multiple editions
- Manual entry plus automatic detection
GameAtlas attempts to preserve the installation source so you can distinguish between them.
Yes.
GameAtlas can detect supported game libraries across multiple drives as long as:
- The launcher knows about the installation
- The drive is connected or mounted
- GameAtlas has permission to access it
This applies to both Windows and Linux.
Yes.
On Linux, GameAtlas can detect Windows games running through Proton when they are installed through supported launchers such as Steam.
GameAtlas treats these as Linux-hosted installations using a Windows compatibility layer.
See Linux.
GameAtlas can encounter Wine-based installations through supported sources such as Heroic and Lutris.
Support depends on how the game is installed and what local metadata is available.
See Linux.
Yes.
GameAtlas is designed to work with gaming-focused Linux distributions such as Bazzite.
Some workflows may differ from traditional Linux distributions because Bazzite uses an image-based system design.
See Linux.
Depending on the title and installation, GameAtlas may show:
- Game title
- Cover artwork
- Install path
- Executable
- Version information
- Launcher
- PCGamingWiki information
- RenoDX support
- Vortex support
- Save tools
- Performance diagnostics
- Shader cache tools
- Other game-specific utilities
See Game Information.
Feature availability depends on factors such as:
- Launcher
- Game engine
- Executable metadata
- PCGamingWiki coverage
- Save path availability
- RenoDX support
- Vortex support
- Operating system
- Installation method
Not every game exposes the same amount of useful information.
GameAtlas can connect a detected game with information from PCGamingWiki.
This can help surface:
- Save locations
- Configuration locations
- Known issues
- Fixes
- Graphics information
- Input support
- Compatibility details
See PCGamingWiki.
No.
GameAtlas uses PCGamingWiki as an external source of technical game information.
GameAtlas does not control or edit PCGamingWiki content.
Possible reasons include:
- No matching PCGamingWiki page exists
- The title match failed
- The page is incomplete
- The game is very new or obscure
- The selected edition uses a different name
See Troubleshooting.
RenoDX is a community project focused on rendering, HDR, color, and display improvements for supported games.
GameAtlas can detect whether a selected title has RenoDX support and provide a path to the relevant resource.
See RenoDX.
No.
GameAtlas currently detects and surfaces RenoDX support.
Installation remains controlled by the individual RenoDX project or implementation.
Sometimes.
A Windows game running through Proton may be able to use a RenoDX implementation, but compatibility depends on the title, Proton version, rendering path, and modification.
GameAtlas showing RenoDX support does not guarantee Linux compatibility.
GameAtlas can check whether a game has a supported Vortex extension.
This helps users quickly determine whether the game can be managed through the Vortex mod manager ecosystem.
See Vortex.
Platform behavior differs:
- On Windows, GameAtlas detects Vortex support but leaves installation and deployment to the official Vortex application.
- On Linux, GameAtlas 2.4 provides its own managed mod library with staged archive extraction, deployment preview, enable/disable controls, priority, profiles, verification, repair, and upgrades.
See Vortex and Linux Mod Manager.
Vortex is primarily a Windows-focused application.
Some users run it through Wine or other compatibility solutions, but GameAtlas does not automate that workflow. GameAtlas instead provides a Linux-native managed mod library.
See Vortex and Linux Mod Manager.
Yes, for supported games.
Save-management features can include:
- Save-location detection
- Backup
- Restore
- Snapshots
- Configuration file access
See Save Management.
Yes.
For the safest workflow:
- Close the game.
- Wait for cloud synchronization to finish.
- Perform the backup or restore.
- Relaunch the game.
This reduces the chance of files being changed while GameAtlas is working with them.
No.
GameAtlas works with local save data.
Cloud synchronization remains controlled by services such as:
- Steam Cloud
- Epic cloud saves
- Ubisoft Connect
- EA App
- Xbox services
Be careful after restoring an older local save because the launcher may detect a cloud conflict.
For supported games, GameAtlas can surface configuration-file locations and related workflows.
These may contain settings for:
- Graphics
- Input
- Resolution
- HDR
- Audio
- Engine options
See Save Management.
Clean Launch checks for background software that may interact with games.
This can include:
- Overlays
- Recording tools
- Monitoring software
- Communication applications
- Graphics utilities
- Other processes that may hook into games
See Clean Launch.
No.
A detected application is simply something worth considering during troubleshooting.
For example, Discord being detected does not mean Discord is causing the problem.
Clean Launch is intended to help simplify the test environment.
GameAtlas can help identify and manage supported shader caches.
These may include:
- Driver caches
- DirectX caches
- Steam shader data
- Mesa caches
- Other platform-specific shader data
No.
Shader caches are normally beneficial.
Clearing them is mainly useful as a troubleshooting step when there is reason to suspect stale or corrupted data.
After clearing them, some games may stutter temporarily while shaders are rebuilt.
That can be normal.
Once the cache is removed, the game may need to compile shaders again.
The stuttering may decrease after the required shaders have been rebuilt.
Performance Diagnostics helps identify likely causes of gaming performance problems.
Examples include:
- Shader compilation
- CPU bottlenecks
- GPU bottlenecks
- VRAM pressure
- Slow storage
- Wrong GPU usage
- Overlay conflicts
- Refresh-rate mismatches
- V-Sync problems
No.
GameAtlas is primarily a diagnostic and management tool.
It can surface information, warnings, and useful controls, but it does not automatically change every game setting or guarantee a certain performance level.
No.
GameAtlas does not automatically overclock CPUs or GPUs.
Yes.
GPU detection is used for features such as:
- Hardware information
- Performance diagnostics
- Driver diagnostics
- Shader cache management
- Wrong-GPU detection
See Hardware Detection.
Yes.
GameAtlas can surface multiple graphics adapters where the operating system exposes them.
This is useful for systems with:
- Integrated plus dedicated graphics
- Multiple dedicated GPUs
- Laptop hybrid graphics
GameAtlas can use detected graphics information and runtime context to help identify suspicious GPU selection.
This is particularly useful on laptops and multi-GPU systems.
Yes.
GameAtlas can show connected controllers that are visible to the operating system.
See Controller Detection.
That usually means the controller is visible to the operating system, but something later in the input chain is causing the problem.
Possible causes include:
- Steam Input
- XInput or DirectInput support
- Virtual controllers
- Game-specific limitations
- Proton or Wine translation
See Controller Detection.
Common causes include:
- Steam Input plus native controller support
- Virtual controller software
- Multiple input remappers
- Duplicate devices
- Multiple physical controllers
Disconnecting unnecessary devices and disabling one translation layer at a time can help.
GameAtlas can detect supported controllers exposed by the operating system, including PlayStation controllers where available.
Actual in-game support depends on the game, connection method, Steam Input, and platform.
Yes, when the controller is recognized by the operating system.
Xbox controllers generally have broad compatibility with PC games, especially on Windows.
GameAtlas focuses on gaming-related system information and diagnostics.
Detailed real-time telemetry such as:
- Fan RPM
- Exact power limits
- Detailed thermal sensors
may still require dedicated hardware monitoring software.
GameAtlas can surface display information relevant to gaming, including refresh-rate context where available.
This helps identify situations such as a high-refresh monitor accidentally running at 60 Hz.
See Hardware Detection and Performance Diagnostics.
GameAtlas can surface game, display, PCGamingWiki, and RenoDX information that may be relevant to HDR.
HDR itself depends on:
- Operating system
- GPU
- Display
- Driver
- Game
- Runtime
GameAtlas is not an HDR calibration application.
Linux functionality is expanding around tools and controls such as:
- MangoHud
- FPS limiting
- Runtime options
- Proton or Wine context
- Linux-specific performance controls
See Linux.
No.
MangoHud is useful for performance monitoring, but it is not required for GameAtlas as a whole.
Features that depend specifically on MangoHud may only appear when it is available.
Possible reasons include:
- Required software is not installed
- The feature is not supported on the current distribution
- GameAtlas did not detect the relevant runtime
- The selected game does not use that feature
- The feature is platform-specific
See Linux and Troubleshooting.
Some functionality depends on Windows-specific APIs or data.
Examples include:
- Windows registry information
- Windows executable metadata
- Microsoft Store package data
- Certain graphics driver diagnostics
GameAtlas hides features that do not apply to the current platform.
The same principle applies in reverse.
Linux-specific tools such as Proton context or MangoHud are not relevant to native Windows systems.
Most normal GameAtlas functionality should not require elevated access.
However, some locations or system configurations may restrict access to files or hardware information.
Avoid running GameAtlas as administrator or root unless a specific troubleshooting step requires it.
GameAtlas stores its application preferences locally.
See Settings for currently documented settings and behavior.
Possible causes include:
- Configuration write failure
- Permission problems
- Application closing unexpectedly
- A bug in the affected setting
See Settings and Troubleshooting.
GameAtlas is intended to use a dark UI.
A light dropdown or select control is likely a styling issue rather than an intentional design choice.
Report the affected screen if it persists.
Use the update mechanism available for your installed version and platform.
Release and package availability may differ between Windows and Linux.
If the update section reports that the current platform is unavailable, see Troubleshooting.
GameAtlas primarily works from locally detected installation and system information.
Some features may need to query external services for information such as game metadata or integration availability.
GameAtlas should not require uploading your entire game installation to perform normal detection.
No.
Most GameAtlas features inspect or surface information.
Actions that can modify local data, such as:
- Restoring saves
- Clearing shader caches
- Resetting files
should be initiated explicitly by the user.
Many local features can still work without internet access, such as:
- Local game detection
- Hardware information
- Local path inspection
- Some diagnostics
Features that rely on external information may not update while offline.
Examples can include:
- PCGamingWiki
- RenoDX lookup
- Vortex extension lookup
- Update checks
No.
GameAtlas is better thought of as a PC gaming companion and management tool.
It brings together information and utilities that are normally spread across multiple launchers, websites, settings panels, and troubleshooting tools.
On Linux, yes: GameAtlas 2.4 includes a managed mod library for local deployment. On Windows, GameAtlas surfaces modding resources and Vortex support while the official Vortex application handles deployment.
See Linux Mod Manager and Nexus Mods Integration.
No.
GameAtlas is intended to make technical PC gaming information easier to understand and access.
Beginners can use it for basic game discovery and troubleshooting, while more advanced users can make use of detailed paths, diagnostics, save tools, and platform-specific information.
Yes.
GameAtlas continues to gain new features, broader platform support, and improved Windows/Linux parity.
See Roadmap.
A useful bug report should include:
- GameAtlas version
- Operating system
- Game title, if applicable
- Launcher
- Steps to reproduce
- Expected behavior
- Actual behavior
- Error messages
- Screenshots where useful
See Troubleshooting for a sample bug report format.
See Contributing for information about contributing to GameAtlas development or documentation.