Vortex
(Project Page:Vortex Mod Manager)
(although being pretty huge, this wiki might be incomplete(?))
site-note: stl also has built-in support for Mod-Organizer 2
Most of the Vortex options can either be configured via the Vortex Extra Button from the Main Menu or from the Vortex Category Menu This category menu supports Gui-Columns!
**NOTE: wine versions below 6.6 have issues with installing dotnet48, which isrequired for Vortex! if an incompatible wine version is configured (currently - 2021.09 - the official proton wine version is 6.3, so not compatible), stl opens an requester, where an automatic switch to a compatible proton version can be selected (an timeout it will be selected automatically) When switching, the latest proton TKG build will be downloaded, extracted, configured and used for Vortex automatically (Proton-6.16-GE-1: doesn't have "UIAutomationCore.DLL" which is needed by L"C:\Program Files\Black Tree Gaming Ltd\Vortex\Vortex.exe") **
If Vortex is not yet installed yet, it will be installed on the first launch of a game configured to use it. Alternatively you can also install it via Command Line and also via special Vortex Install gui (see below).
The Vortex Version to be installed is the latest stable by default, but alternatively the USEVORTEXPRERELEASE flag
can be set in the Global Config to use the latest pre-release instead.
Vortex is installed into its own Wineprefix (see #Vortex Configuration) and required game directories are symlinked into it from the corresponding game Wineprefix
The the nxm-protocol mime type is automatically configured and updated for directly opening nxm with Vortex (renaming that from Mod-Organizer 2 when found)
Vortex can be used without any stl configuration and will work ootb without zero configuration.
There are multiple different ways to start Vortex:
Just create a "Vortex" Steam Category and add your (Vortex compatible) game to it and start the game regularly. Vortex will start, with the selected game preconfigured and ready to mod. When you exit Vortex the selected game will start normally (with your mods).
see Command Line
Enable USEVORTEX in the Game Menu or directly in the Game Config
A Vortex Gui, where one can en-/disable Vortex for all supported and installed Games can be opened
using the stl vortex games Command Line.
It is not possible from here to disable Vortex for Games which have it enabled via Steam Category. In that case simply remove it regularly from the Steam Category using the Steam Client.
Vortex uses 2 main Deployment_Methods to enable Mods for the managed games. "Hardlink Deployment" and "Symlink Deployment". Symlink Deployment doesn't work under wine, so Hardlink is required (and automatically set for every game from stl, although it is default anyway) Those "Hardlinks" only work if the "Staging directory" is on the same partition as the game (yes the same physical partition, not the same "windows drive in wine). As Steam Library directories can be on multiple partitions a "Staging directory" is required for every one of them.
When you start a game stl will parse on which mount point it actually lies. Then it tests if it can create/write a "Vortex" directory in the root directory of the partition. If it fails to create a directory in the previous step, it tests next if it can create/write a "Vortex" directory directly in the "Steam Library" directory of the started game besides the "steamapps" directory.
The first succeeding directory will be added automatically to the VORTEXSTAGELIST list
and will be used from now on as "Staging directory" automatically for all games lying on the same partition.
So after you have started one "Vortex" game from each of your "Steam Library" partitions the VORTEXSTAGELIST variable is ready for all of your games.
The only exception is the partition where your steam is installed ("/" or "/home" if you have an extra /home/partition).
Here the default "Vortex Staging directory" is STLVORTEXDIR/staging instead.
Other additional paths can be added easily, just make suggestions.
If you don't want that automation just set DISABLE_AUTOSTAGES to 1 and set them manually instead:
Several games (Skyrim, Fallout flavours) have many mods which depends on a special "Script Extender" program ("SE"). Unfortunately those "SE" programs don't work with default proton since some time. When stl detects one of those "SE exe" files in the game dir, a requester will pop up with the following options:
- start the regular game exe
- start the regular game exe and save the decision (so don't ask again)
- start the found "SE exe"
- start the found "SE exe" and save the decision (so don't ask again)
When choosing "SE exe" make sure the selected Proton Version can actually run the exe!
(The "don't ask again" option SELAUNCH can't be set in the Main Menu
and must be removed manually from the Game Config -f.e. via Editor Menu
- An initial Vortex installation from scratch can takes some time, without download a full installation and start from zero stl configuration to the vortex gui showing up should be below 2 minutes
- stl (atm?) doesn't have a status requester, so be patient and take care of the notifier popping up!
- I tested ~25 games and they worked ootb, feel free to open an issue for a not (automatically) working game if you think this is a stl bug. (Nehrim doesn't seem to work (yet))
- Vortex can stop working under linux/wine anytime after an update (as it already did before). Don't complain and rant when it doesn't work as expected (anymore) (as it happened already before with other Vortex-linux solutions), but try to help fixing the issue instead then (no offense, but imho linux already had better times regarding this!) !
- Vortex depends on dotnet48. See bold NOTE and DotNet