Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020
This is currently the latest release of Flight Simulator from Microsoft, which has been made for Windows only.
Running Flight Simulator
Flight Simulator has been able to run with Proton (Proton-GE (opens in a new tab) works best for me, especially as it fixes problems with certain addons not working. These guides are written for running MSFS with Proton-GE), which means the only way to run this game would be to buy it on Steam (opens in a new tab) as the Microsoft Store does not work on Linux.
Do NOT change Proton versions (check here for more
information as to why this may not be necessary anymore) or Verify Game
Integrity once you have downloaded the entire game from the simulator without
following the guide below as this can cause you to lose
everything you have downloaded/installed for the simulator!
Configuring
Some tinkering may also be required to run this game. You can find other people's fixes on ProtonDB (opens in a new tab) if you run into problems launching the game.
Launch options (opens in a new tab) may be needed for this game to start. This one below is what works for me:
-FastLaunchEven if this launch option is not required, this would be useful as it skips the intro video at the beginning.
Installing Addons
Most of the time, installing addons should be pretty straight forward, unless there is an installer involved.
The addons bought from the store in-game should be able to be installed easily and work out of the box.
Drag and Drop Installations
Some addons, most commonly freeware where you download it outside of Flight Simulator, are a simple drag and drop
into the Community Folder, which is stored in compdata (folder to store Wine/Proton configs/data for each game) >
1250410 (Flight Simulator's game ID on Steam).
For example, this is the directory to the Community Folder if Flight Simulator is installed in the default location:
~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/1250410/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft Flight Simulator/Packages/Community/The equivalent version of this on Windows is:
C:\users\steamuser\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\Packages\Community\Executable Installers
Dealing with developer's installers is usually requires more tinkering and therefore you may need more advanced knowledge on Windows and Linux (alongside the Desktop Environment you're using)!
If you buy addons directly from a developer, it will be likely that you will be given an installer that is an executable. These installers cannot be directly run with Wine as this will not use with Wine prefix for Flight Simulator.
The easiest way to deal with these installer is to use Protontricks, where you can follow the guide here on how to use it.
Updating Proton
These instructions may be unnecessary now. Test this first on another game
first to check if your system will not delete the compdata for MSFS, or just
make a copy of the entire compdata for MSFS and check if that gets deleted.
Deactivating Addons
First, make sure to deactivate all of your addons that you have installed if these need to be done manually before being uninstalled.
Once this is done, up the uninstaller to uninstall all your addons, as you will need to reinstall them after Proton has been updated. This can be done by running this command in the terminal:
protontricks -c "wine uninstaller" 1250410Backup Flight Simulator compdata
Find the compdata folder for Flight Simulator (1250410) and rename and add bak to the folder name, this will look
like 1250410.bak. The compdata folder can be found by right-clicking Flight Simulator on Steam -> Manage -> Browse
local files, then go up two directories, and you should see compdata there.
Update Proton Version
In Steam, right-click on Flight Simulator -> Properties -> Compatability, then change the version of Proton to your own choice.
Run the game, and you can just close the game once you see the login screen.
Move old files to new version
In your compdata folder, move the folder for Flight Simulator in AppData the backup you made earlier, to the new folder that was created.
This can be done with one command (edit the directory to your compdata if it's not the same)
mv ~/.steam/root/steamapps/compatdata/1250410.bak/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft\ Flight\ Simulator/ ~/.steam/root/steamapps/compatdata/1250410/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft\ Flight\ Simulator/You should now be able to run Flight Simulator without needing to download the entire game again. You will have to install all of your addons that you uninstalled earlier again though.