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My setup for playing FFXIV on Linux

Originally published on , last updated on . Written by .

One of my hobbies is playing the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, with an expanded free trial which you can play through the entirety of A Realm Reborn and the award-winning Heavensward expansion up to level 60 for free with no restrictions on playtime.

I also switched from Windows to Linux again on my personal computer in late 2025, and so I've spent some time getting it to work the way I want. This page serves as documentation of the current state of my setup, both for me to refer to later if I need to, as well as to help anyone else working to set it up too.

Note that this is not meant as a tutorial, mostly because I don't really understand all the underlying systems well enough myself to say with any authority "this is what you should do, and how you should do it".

Here's the summary of my setup/requirements I have:

  • Fedora 44
  • Ultrawide monitor (21:9, 3440×1440)
  • HDR monitor
  • NVIDIA graphics card
  • Azeron Cyborg II controller
  • I want to be able to record gameplay with OBS
  • I do not have a Steam service account (I did not buy the game through Steam)

Table of Contents

System Configuration

I have the following relevant system packages installed:

  • obs-studio-plugin-vkcapture - Used to let OBS do a "game capture" of my game
  • akmod-nvidia - nvidia driver from RPM Fusion, currently version 595.71.05.

Launcher

XIVLauncher is probably the most common custom FFXIV launcher, and the one I use and would recommend for any player wanting to run FFXIV on Linux. I specifically run RankynBass' fork, commonly known as XIVLauncher-RB. I've installed this using the install-local.sh experimental script in this repository, which installs XIVLauncher usingXLM.

In the launcher, I have the following (non-default) configuration:

Launcher Configuration - Game

  • Additional Game Arguments:OBS_VKCAPTURE=1 PROTON_WAYLAND_MONITOR=HDMI-A-1 %command%
    • OBS_VKCAPTURE=1 - Used to enable the vkcapture plugin to make the "Game Capture" source in OBS work for OBS recording.
    • PROTON_WAYLAND_MONITOR=HDMI-A-1 - Theoretically sets the main monitor (although I think it should pull this automatically from my desktop environment, but sometimes KDE decides to change which monitor is my main one). Not entirely convinced this does anything.

Launcher Configuration - WINE

  • WINE Install: Managed Proton - I'm using using Proton as it fixed an issue with stuck mouse buttons for me.
  • Proton Version: GE-Proton 10-34 - I haven't experimented too much with this, I mostly just upgrade to the latest every now and then.
  • Umu Launcher: System - I think this might be the default?
  • Enable Feral's GameMode: Disabled, from what I've read in the XIVLauncher & Dalamud Discord, it's not really recommended or required on modern kernels.
  • WINE Sync Method: NTSync. It's my understanding that this is the best option if your kernel is new enough to support it.
  • Enable Wayland Driver: Enabled - Seems to be required for HDR to work properly.
  • Set Windows version to 7: Disabled.
  • Enable Gamescope: Enabled. This fixed my mouse issues (although I have to actively Alt-Tab out now, which is mildly annoying), and also fixed my issue with the window getting offset after my monitor goes to sleep.
  • Gamescope Arguments:--force-grab-cursor -f -H 1440 -W 3440 --hdr-enabled

Azeron Cyborg II Configuration

I use an Azeron Cyborg II keypad as my controller of choice, together with keyboard for chat and a mouse for camera movement. My current keyboard is a Steelseries Apex Pro US without any particularly interesting configuration, and my mouse is a Logitech G502 Hero with the thumb buttons mapped to Ctrl and Shift (I believe I did this in the Windows configuration software and set them up as saved-on-hardware bindings).

For the Azeron Cyborg II itself, I use renatoi/azeron-linux to configure the bindings. I installed it using the RPM package in the GitHub releases, using dnf install azeron-software-<version>-x86_64.rpm. I also had to install the udev rules as mentioned in the README, as well as loading the xpad module on boot (echo xpad | sudo tee /etc/modules-load.d/xpad.conf). My bindings are configured like this:

U
Esc
H
M
]
Shift + F
=
-
0
9
I
Shift + Tab
8
7
6
5
Tab
Xbox Joystick
 
C
4
3
2
1
X
Z
B
F
Space

And for reference, here's what those are actually bound to in-game:

  • 0-9, - and = together with Ctrl and Shift on my mouse thumb buttons are bound to hotbars 1–3.
  • M - Shortcuts > Maps
  • ] - Shortcuts > Character
  • U - Shortcuts > Duty Finder
  • I - Shortcuts > Inventory
  • Shift + F - Targeting > Set Focus Target
  • Tab - Targeting > Cycle through Enemies (Nearest to Farthest)
  • Shift + Tab - Targeting > Target Nearest Enemy
  • Z - Movement > Draw/Sheathe Weapon
  • B - System > Confirm
  • Space - Movement > Jump
  • H - General Actions > Mount Roulette (via hidden shared hotbar)
  • F - General Actions > Sprint (via hidden shared hotbar)
  • X - General Actions > Limit Break (via hidden shared hotbar)
  • C - Bound to a hidden hotbar, but nothing currently on it. Used to be current potion/tincture, but I kept pressing it accidentally, so I removed it.

OBS Recording

I've installed OBS through the Fedora system package (not through Flatpak), and I've installed the vkcapture plugin as well. Together with setting OBS_VKCAPTURE=1 in the additional game arguments as detailed above, this makes the "Game Capture" source in OBS pretty much just work, although I'm currently having an issue getting it to capture colours correctly when HDR is enabled, as detailed below.

HDR with RenoDX

I used the FFXIV RenoDX mod on Windows in order to get a better HDR implementation in game, and so I wanted to get that working on Linux as well. This ended up being relatively easy to set up, using the reshade-steam-proton script to install Reshade, by running it as RESHADE_ADDON_SUPPORT=1 ./reshade-linux.sh, and pointing it to ~/.xlcore/ffxiv/game as the game path. There's no need to set up WINEDLLOVERRIDES unlike what the script says, but you need to copy ~/.xlcore/ffxiv/game/d3dcompiler_47.dll to~/.xlcore/protonprefix/drive_c/windows/system32 (or ~/.xlcore/wineprefix/drive_c/windows/system32/ if you're using WINE). Remember to also put the renodx-ffxiv.addon64 file in ~/.xlcore/ffxiv/game, and things should work with the settings I outlined above. I'm currently running ReShade 6.7.3.

The main things I found I needed to do to get HDR to work, though (at least with KDE Plasma and an Nvidia GPU), in case you haven't copied my setup exactly:

  • Enable HDR for your display in System Settings
  • Use Nvidia driver 595 or later.
  • Check the Enable Wayland Driver setting in XIVLauncher-RB.
  • Use GE-Proton.

Known Issues

Not everything is working exactly the way I want it right now, here is a list of the things I haven't quite been able to fix yet. If you know of a way to fix this, please do get in touch! I'm @foophoof@tech.lgbt on Mastodon, and @foophoof.com on Bluesky.

HDR Recording in OBS

The OBS recording setup worked perfectly until I enabled HDR, now the colours are all messed up in the recordings, as I feel like is often the case when enabling HDR.

I tried setting my Colour Format and Colour Space (in Settings > Advanced) to P010 and Rec. 2100 (PQ), which I think was all I needed to get HDR recording to work on Windows, and while the output file is now an HDR file, the colours and exposure seems all wrong.

I suspect my issue might be the same as this one, which seems to be that the colour space is not detected properly by obs-vkcapture?

Update, 13 March 2026: Looks like obs-vkcapture 1.5.5 fixes this, but it hasn't been released for Fedora yet, will update this guide properly when it does.

Fixed Issues

Here are a list of specific issues I had, and how I fixed them. There are mostly things that were (or would've been) "known issues" in the past, included here in case anyone else has similar issues.

Stuck Mouse Button

I primarily use the right mouse button to move the camera. I used to have issues where the right mouse button would get "stuck", i.e. when I let go of the mouse button, the game would treat it as if I still held down the mouse button, and the camera would still move, until I press the button again.

Several people in the XIVLauncher & Dalamud Discord said that this was a WINE issue, and suggested switching to Proton, and after doing that I no longer had this issue. I've also seen people claim that enabling the in-game setting to restrict the cursor to the game window fixes this too, but as I have multiple monitors and regularly move the cursor from the game to other monitors, this wouldn't really work all that well for me and is not something I tried.

Window Resize After Screen Turns Off

Update, 20 April 2026: With the latest XIVLauncher-RB, 1.4.0.2, I was able to try out Gamescope, and that seems to have fixed this issue for me. I'm describing the issue as it was below.

Any time my primary monitor (the one FFXIV is on) turns off and on again, the FFXIV window ends up getting offset and partially off the screen. Whenever I launch FFXIV, it first starts as a window very briefly, before resizing to my monitor resolution, and then finally that window moves to the top left of my monitor. That last move is what gets undone after the monitor turns off, so the window is now still the same size as my monitor, but just moved.

The only workaround I've found that sort-of fixes this is after it happens I can open the game's System Configuration and switch to full screen mode and back to borderless windowed mode again.

Things I've tried that hasn't worked:

  • Right clicking the game in the taskbar and selecting "Fullscreen", "Maximize" or both.
  • Installing the "Beeg Dinosaur Eat Window" and/or "Better borderless window mode".
  • Set WAYLANDDRV_PRIMARY_MONITOR.
  • Moving the window to another screen and back again.

Changelog

  • 13 May 2026 — Upgraded to Fedora 44 recently, no significant changes. No longer pulling a more recent Nvidia driver version, just using the one RPM Fusion ships for Fedora 44 now. Also, switched to renatoi/azeron-linux to configure my Azeron Cyborg II instead of input-remapper.
  • 20 April 2026 — Upgrade XIVLauncher-RB to 1.4.0.2. Enable Gamescope.
  • 7 April 2026 — Upgrade akmod-nvidia to 595.58.03-1.fc45.
  • 23 March 2026 — Upgraded to GE-Proton10-34, mostly to check the .exe dynamic relocation. Also upgrade akmod-nvidia to 595.45.04-4.fc45.
  • 11 March 2026 — VK_hdr_layer is obsolete, and no longer works. Upgraded Nvidia driver to 595.45.04, which made HDR work again. 
    ENABLE_HDR_WSI=1
    no longer needed. 
    PROTON_ENABLE_HDR=1
    no longer needed. Proton with Wayland driver enabled still required, although Wine with Wayland driver enabled had working HDR, but the game just ran as 16:9 on my ultrawide, so didn't use the full screen. If you use a 16:9 screen, Wine-with-Wayland may work for you.
  • 6 March 2026 — Upgrade ReShade to 6.7.3.
  • 19 February 2026 — Add "Window Resize After Screen Turns Off" known issue.
  • 15 February 2026 — Removed 
    PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1
    in favour ofEnable Wayland Driver in the WINE settings, as these do the same thing. Also, removed 
    PROTON_USE_NTSYNC=1
    as this is what theEnable NTSync setting does under the hood.
  • 2 February 2026 — Upgraded to ReShade 6.7.1.
  • 27 January 2026 — Switched from GE-Proton 10-27 to GE-Proton 10-29 (no particular reason other than staying up to date).
  • 25 January 2026 — XIVLauncher-RB 1.3.1.1 has been released, so customising the launch script is no longer needed.