I remembered that this game has a launcher in which you can select which of the games to launch. This launcher crashes immediately. I think this might be similar to Age of Empires 2 HD where it is also unable to launch the launcher.
In the game folder there is an folder named /game/ which contains the executables. "player.exe" for the launcher, "Battlegrounds.exe" for the original game and "battlegrounds_x1.exe" for the Clone Campaigns.
Renaming one of those 2 to player.exe will result in a hanging black screen. I tried deleting the intro movies as I thought that might be an issue, but it keeps hanging.
This 2018-APR howto says that the WineCfg "Emulate a virtual desktop" setting is needed to start the game in Wine:
https://appuals.com/play-star-wars-galactic-battlegrounds-wine-linux/
I am unsure how that setting can be replicated in Proton (which is a close Wine fork, I believe), just thought I would mention it, maybe helps solving it under proton.
Look a bit around and the "Emulate a virtual desktop" can be enabled on Proton using the following terminal command:
WINEPREFIX=/home/username/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/356500/pfx/ winecfg
For the resolution, I've kept the defaults.
This still won't boot the game. As mentioned earlier, rename "player.exe" to something else and rename "Battlegrounds.exe" (or "battlegrounds_x1.exe" for the expansion) to "player.exe".
Doing that will boot the game. The menu has some graphical issues and for some reason I couldn't scroll upwards (had to use the arrow keys).
I played through the first mission of OOM-9's campaign and it seems to work okay.
[edit]
Basically the top part of the emulated desktop is unusable, and it does depend on the selected resolution both in-game and for the emulated desktop to how much is usable.
Have anyone testing earlier had working intro video? With 4.2-3 launcher seems to be "working" (at least partially).
Anyway, decided to test it using 4.2-3 and game closed immediately - log contained an error about "vidc IV50" codec missing. I installed iv5setup.exe from here (during installation unselect everything not related to 5.0 codec - especially browser plugins) and game the started, but intro was rendered in a tiny window. Then I ran protontricks 356500 winecfg and enabled virtual desktop. After that game starts (in window - weird); window needs to be moved to the left side of the screen, otherwise menu options won't be reachable with cursor.
I've been unable to launch it, as of yet. I've tried Proton 8 and Experimental.
fsync: up and running. wine: RLIMIT_NICE is <= 20, unable to use setpriority safely /bin/sh\0-c\0/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/reaper SteamLaunch AppId=356500 -- /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-launch-wrapper -- '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/SteamLinuxRuntime_sniper'/_v2-entry-point --verb=waitforexitandrun -- '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental'/proton waitforexitandrun '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/STAR WARS - Galactic Battlegrounds Saga/Game/player.exe' xlogo1.avi xintro.avi battlegrounds_x1.exe\0 chdir "/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/STAR WARS - Galactic Battlegrounds Saga/Game" ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored. ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64): ignored. ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored. ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored. ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored. fsync: up and running. wine: RLIMIT_NICE is <= 20, unable to use setpriority safely Setting breakpad minidump AppID = 356500 Steam_SetMinidumpSteamID: Caching Steam ID: 76561198832168690 [API loaded no] (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.549: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstadder.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstadder.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.549: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstapp.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstapp.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.549: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstaudioconvert.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstaudioconvert.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.549: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstaudioparsers.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstaudioparsers.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.549: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstaudioresample.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstaudioresample.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.549: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstautodetect.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstautodetect.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.549: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstavi.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstavi.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.550: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstcoreelements.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstcoreelements.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.550: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstcoretracers.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstcoretracers.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.550: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstdebug.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstdebug.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.550: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstdeinterlace.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstdeinterlace.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.550: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstid3demux.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstid3demux.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.550: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstisomp4.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstisomp4.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.550: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstlibav.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstlibav.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.550: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstmatroska.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstmatroska.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.550: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstmpg123.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstmpg123.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.550: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstnavigationtest.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstnavigationtest.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.550: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstogg.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstogg.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.550: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstopengl.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstopengl.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.550: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstopus.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstopus.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.550: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstpbtypes.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstpbtypes.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.550: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstplayback.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstplayback.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.550: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstrsdav1d.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstrsdav1d.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.550: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstsoup.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstsoup.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.550: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgsttheora.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgsttheora.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.550: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgsttypefindfunctions.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgsttypefindfunctions.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.551: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstvideobox.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstvideobox.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.551: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstvideoconvert.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstvideoconvert.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.551: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstvideofilter.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstvideofilter.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.551: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstvideoscale.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstvideoscale.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.551: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstvorbis.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstvorbis.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.551: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstvpx.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstvpx.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.551: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstwavparse.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstwavparse.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.551: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstximagesink.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libgstximagesink.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 (wine:31566): GStreamer-WARNING **: 18:04:54.551: Failed to load plugin '/home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libprotonmediaconverter.so': /home/rokejulianlockhart/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental/files/lib64/gstreamer-1.0/libprotonmediaconverter.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 pid 31441 != 31440, skipping destruction (fork without exec?) Game 356500 created interface STEAMAPPTICKET_INTERFACE_VERSION001 / Game 356500 created interface SteamUser017 / User Game 356500 created interface SteamUtils007 / Utils Game 356500 method call count for IClientUtils::RecordSteamInterfaceCreation : 3 Game 356500 method call count for IClientUtils::GetAppID : 4 Game 356500 method call count for IClientUser::GetAppOwnershipTicketExtendedData : 1 Game 356500 method call count for IClientUser::GetSteamID : 1 Uploaded AppInterfaceStats to Steam
So this game won't launch with Proton 8, 9 and 10 unless some workarounds are applied:
player.exe (directory: STAR WARS - Galactic Battlegrounds Saga/Game)battlegrounds_x1.exe named player.exeThe steps above already fix the launch, but some chars and content are misrendered. To fix this we need to translate D3D7 calls to D3D9 with dxwrapper
ddraw.dll, dxwrapper.dll and dxwrapper.inidxwrapper.ini and set Dd7to9=1 (optionally enable vsync by setting EnableVSync=1 in [d3d9])WINEDLLOVERRIDES="ddraw=n" %command%I'm using ranplayer's method of making the game launch.
In order to make multiplayer (even just being able to setup the LAN lobby) work, I did some hunting and found this gist https://gist.github.com/nils-ballmann/ce467beaf4d10b8fa3ad54baf1f8933b
The instructions there didn't work for me, but I did transcribe them to the following steps, which reinstall directplay via protontricks:
$ sudo flatpak install com.github.Matoking.protontricks
$ cd ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/356500/pfx/drive_c
$ rm windows/*/{dplaysvr.exe,dplayx.dll,dpnet.dll,dpnhpast.dll,dpnsvr.exe,dpwsockx.dll}
$ flatpak run com.github.Matoking.protontricks 356500 directplay
with that done, now the LAN multiplayer game dialog actually launches for me, and I can successfully play a LAN game.
I will note that I had to select "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool" and a version of proton for protontricks to run; I selected "Proton Experimental" for that.
proton experimentalx1 2025-10WINEDLLOVERRIDES="ddraw=n"x1 2025-05WINEPREFIX=/home/username/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/356500/pfx/x1 2018-11WINEDLLOVERRIDES="ddraw=n" %command%x1 2025-05dplayx.dllx1 2025-10dpnet.dllx1 2025-10dpnhpast.dllx1 2025-10dpwsockx.dllx1 2025-10ddraw.dllx1 2025-05dxwrapper.dllx1 2025-05
Compatibility Report
System Information
I confirm:
steam-356500.log
Symptoms
I clicked on Play on steam it only states Running and then blinks and then dumps back to the desktop with no game window opening and nothing happens.
Reproduction
Activate the following on Steam Play: