Selecting Game to auto-launch through CLI

[schneider-technology]

Hey, I'm new to gamescope and came across your tool - it works great if I just want to launch things over big picture mode, but I have troubles just starting games through the CLI with your tool, as far as I understand it - this should be possible.

Thanks!

[dillacorn]

smtty launches a gamescope session and applies a profile.

As of smtty v10.0, launching a specific game from a TTY is somewhat supported: you can pick a game by name in the terminal (smtty scans your Steam library), and smtty will auto-launch it once Steam Big Picture is up. Steam still has to be the middle-man (it’s required for Steam games and the overlay), but this makes the TTY workflow way simpler.

Update with:
smtty-update

Caveat: this is still Steam-driven. If you’re trying to avoid Steam Big Picture entirely in a bare TTY, you’re mostly out of luck. Steam + overlay wants to live in a single TTY, and trying to bring up Steam/overlay from another TTY tends to crash gamescope in my experience.

If you want no Big Picture and the normal desktop overlay, that’s not a TTY flow. Launch from your desktop Steam client using:
smtty -P
Then start the game normally from Steam. This limitation isn’t smtty’s fault, it’s just how Steam/overlay behaves.

Other ways to launch a specific game (Steam is still the launcher):

• Make a game always use a specific smtty profile (Steam Launch Options):
  smtty -c "<profile-name>" -P -- %command%

Example:
smtty -c "my-profile" -P -- %command%

• CLI launch by AppID:

  • Native Steam:
    smtty -c "<profile-name>" -P -- steam -applaunch <APPID>

  • Steam Flatpak:
    smtty -c "<profile-name>" -P -- flatpak run com.valvesoftware.Steam -applaunch <APPID>

Alternate forms:

• Native:
  smtty -c "<profile-name>" -P -- steam "steam://rungameid/<APPID>"

• Flatpak:
  smtty -c "<profile-name>" -P -- flatpak run com.valvesoftware.Steam "steam://rungameid/<APPID>"

Launching without Steam involved at all is only realistic for DRM-free games or manual Proton/Wine runs, and that’s out of scope for smtty right now.

[schneider-technology]

Thanks for the very detailed answer! Big picture mode is ok, it's surprisingly snappy.

This works very well - thank you very much! My only nitpick is, that Big Picture Mode is not launching the game directly for some reason, it does work if you launch the game with by steam directly. So this works:

smtty -S -c "cusasp" -P -- steam -applaunch 730 -tenfoot

but this doesn't:

smtty -S -c "cusasp" -- steam -applaunch 730

But overall I'm very happy. Gamescope is amazing. And thank you very much for your work!!

[dillacorn]

hey updated my reply - I kind of achieved what you're requesting with a caveat.. pushed an update for "smtty" - v10.0

[schneider-technology]

Oh, thanks and good timing! I would also recommend adding a -v option for putting out the current version :)

[dillacorn]

added the smtty -v command - thank you!