Linux compatibility for Space Engineers (version 1)

Overview

This plugin contains the compatibility patches required to run Space Engineers natively on Linux, without Proton or Wine. Pulsar applies it automatically right after the dotnet-compat plugin, so there is nothing to install from this repository.

Features

• The game runs natively on Linux, on both Wayland and X11. Set SDL_VIDEODRIVER=x11 to force X11.
• The game's window (in windowed mode) can be resized freely and is compatible with display scaling.
• Fonts and icons are sharper than on Windows.
• Mods keep Windows semantics (backslash paths, a synthetic C:\ drive, CRLF) while the game's internals use native Linux paths. See ARCHITECTURE.md.

Prerequisites

• Space Engineers installed by Steam for Linux (standard installation for Proton)
• Pulsar, which downloads and applies this plugin for you

How it works

Pulsar loads the plugin into the game's process before the game starts, and the plugin uses Harmony patches to replace the Windows-only parts of the engine at runtime, without modifying any of the game's own files.

It redirects the calls bound for Windows DLLs to their Linux counterparts, so DirectX 11 runs on DXVK over Vulkan and the OpenAL, Steamworks and Epic SDKs come from their Linux builds. The game's own native libraries (Havok, VRage.Native and RecastDetour) have no Linux build, so the original Windows binaries keep running behind Linux shim libraries that convert between the Windows and Linux ABIs.

An SDL implementation takes over the Win32 window, input, cursor and clipboard code, and video playback runs through FFmpeg instead of DirectShow.

Linux filesystems are case-sensitive and use a different separator, so the plugin resolves the casing of the paths the game builds and keeps mods believing they still run on Windows.

Differences that are not Linux-specific, like the ones between .NET Framework and the .NET 10 runtime the game now uses, show up on Windows too and belong to the separate dotnet-compat plugin, which Pulsar applies first.

Development

Local build paths (Bin64, DS64, Pulsar, Magnetar, Steamworks, Dependencies, Wrappers) are empty in Directory.Build.props. To override them, copy its first PropertyGroup into Directory.Build.props.user (git-ignored) in the repo root, wrapped in a top-level <Project> element, and fill in your paths.

Bin64 and DS64 are auto-detected from Steam if left empty.

Shared/ compiles into both ClientPlugin and ServerPlugin; verify that both build. Format the code with csharpier before committing.

Testing

tests/mod-api/ holds the automated mod API boundary suite (client and dedicated server harnesses). See tests/mod-api/README.md.

tests/physics-border/ covers the bounded-world broad-phase border cleanup through both MyPhysics.CreateHkWorld creation paths. See tests/physics-border/README.md.

Bug reports

Please start a support thread on the Pulsar Discord

Credits

• SpaceGT for his 50% contribution in helping to finish this plugin.
• OwendB for his relentless testing effort.
• Linux123123 for the discussions and support in late 2024 (my first attempt on this).

Legal

Space Engineers is a trademark of Keen Software House s.r.o.