These steps should be applicable to all modern Linux distributions, as well as the Steam Deck. In cases where you need to install additional software, consult your specific distribution's documentation for how to do so.

Playing in windowed mode

Gamescope is the simplest way to force Cars to run in a window on Linux, only requiring it to be installed and your Steam launch options modified.

• Ubuntu >=22.10: Make sure the universe repository is enabled, then apt install gamescope
• Ubuntu 22.04: Enable this repository, then apt install gamescope
• SteamOS 3 (Steam Deck): Preinstalled, no extra steps needed

To enable gamescope, simply add it to your Steam launch options, tweaking the options appropriately to match your preferred resolution. Some example configurations for common resolutions and 4:3 aspect ratios are as follows: 768p: gamescope -W 1024 -H 768 %command% 1080p: gamescope -W 1440 -H 1080 %command% 1440p: gamescope -W 1920 -H 1440 %command%

On future launches of the game, it will now open in a window at the size you specified. If you want to choose your own resolution, simply replace the numbers in the launch options; the number after -W is the width in pixels, and the number after -H is the height in pixels. Gamescope has many more options that can be added as well, which you can get a list of by running gamescope --help in a terminal.

Run timer

LiveSplit does not have a native Linux version, and getting it working in Wine can be fairly tricky. One simple alternative is the obs-livesplit-one plugin for OBS, which adds LiveSplit One as a source you can add to any OBS scene. It can use split files and layout files from the Windows version of LiveSplit, and hotkeys can be configured in OBS settings. Additionally, if you add multiple instances of LiveSplit One, each can be assigned separate hotkeys. To install the plugin, make sure you have a recent version of OBS Studio installed and follow the instructions on the linked GitHub page.