Xenia on SteamOS

Please read

• NOTE: This guide is intended for SteamOS 3 on the Steam Deck using Xenia Canary Experimental.
• Original source: https://youtu.be/gnmP6e6daHo
• Yes, you can* use EmuDeck by replacing the path of the Xenia exe with Xenai Canary Experiement, but that is outside of this current guide. I may add steps for that soon here.

Installing Xenia Canary Experimental

1. Download Xenia canary_experimental release here from desktop mode to ~/Downloads or another desired folder.
2. Open Steam (not return to gamemode)
3. Go to Libary
4. Click add non Steam game (lower left)
5. Find xenia_experimental.exe and add it.
6. Open the title selection from the library page
7. Click options
8. Go to compatibility
9. Select the latest version of Proton GE. If you are not sure how to install Proton GE, use the project's readme or this projects helper script get-proton-ge.sh.

Xenia "bootstrapping"

1. Start Xenia from within Desktop Mode > Steam.
   • If you can't move your mouse, hit the Steam button
2. Close the app (top right X) while you have control of the mouse. This will populate the necessary files
3. Back in your file manager, open xenia-canary.config.toml
4. Go to Edit > Find
5. Look for 'gpu = "any"'
6. Change this to 'gpu = "vulkan"' (no single quotes)

Creating a launcher for your ROM

1. Go to the ROM folder you extracted (Say for Goldeneye XBLA)
2. Open up bean folder and select the default.xex file
3. Right click the file > copy file location
4. Go back to Steam > xenia canary > gear icon > properties
5. Under "Launch options", paste the file location from your clipboard
6. Finally, rename the name of this non-Steam game to whatever your game is called

You can now return to game mode / SteamOS

Game Compatibility / Why isn't X working in the game?

See: https://github.com/xenia-project/game-compatibility

Helpful Tips and Tricks

Fullscreen / Issue: game starts in background

Add --fullscreen (two dashes) to the end of your launch options options to put the game into the background. Using the fullscreen option will allow SteamOS's gamemode to grab the right window. You can also set the fullscreen option in the Xenia configuration file.

Custom resolution/scaling

I haven't figure out how to scale the game right with Xenia, Steam launch options, or in-game, so there will always be a black bar at the bottom. I suggest using in-game 16:9 with a screen letterbox of full. Using "normal" for the in-game resolution should show the same result.

Game artwork!

Use the artwork plugin "SteamGridDB" using DeckyLoader to easily load nice artwork for this. This plugin then adds an option to the gear / options area of a given game.