I was able to get RealFlight 9.5S running on Linux using Proton/Wine. I haven’t been able to find any existing information on how to get it to work, so I am posting these instructions since there are likely a number of RealFlight users here who would like to avoid using a separate Windows machine or VM for ArduPilot testing.
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Enable Proton in Steam (Settings → Steam Play → Enable Steam Play for all other titles)
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Set RealFlight’s launch options to:
PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%. This disables DXVK, which doesn’t work with RealFlight. -
If you attempt to launch RealFlight now, you should get the following error:
KEError 21017: Registry key load operation failed.
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppPaths\RealFlight9Pro_Steam.exe
Value: ProgramToLaunch. -
To fix this, you need to create the registry key mentioned in the error message. The easiest way I found to do this was to add
PROTON_DUMP_DEBUG_COMMANDS=1to the beginning of the launch options, then try to start RealFlight. This will create a script that can be used to run arbitrary commands in RealFlight’s Wine prefix. -
Modify the following registry file to match your system (you will most likely just need to adjust the username), and save it to a file named
realflight.reg:Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\RealFlight9Pro_Steam.exe] "ProgramToLaunch"="Z:\\home\\ben\\.steam\\steam\\steamapps\\common\\RealFlight 9\\RealFlight.exe" -
In a terminal, run
/tmp/proton_$USER/run regedit, then importrealflight.reg(Registry → Import Registry File…). -
Remove
PROTON_DUMP_DEBUG_COMMANDS=1from the launch options -
Install the Microsoft version of
d3dx9_36.dllusing winetricks. I just pointed the standard version of winetricks at the RealFlight Wine prefix:
WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/1070820/pfx/" winetricks d3dx9_36
Alternatively, protontricks could be used to make this a little easier (not tested).
With this setup, RealFlight works pretty much perfectly. The only issue I have found is that the menu bar disappears after exiting the aircraft editor.