The Dink Network

I find DinkHD runs great on Steam Deck without much hassle. I wanted to say I made some guide about running it alongside Martridge in the Martridge thread, but it was actually for YeOldeDink: https://www.dinknetwork.com/forum.cgi?MID=212186#212187https://www.dinknetwork.com/forum.cgi?MID=212186#212187

DinkHD is pretty easy to get running too, although now that I think about it, I don't think Martridge can launch DMODs on the Steam Deck with it...

Here's the basic idea on how to get it running:
1. Switch the Deck to Desktop mode
2. Download the DinkHD.exe
3. Use 7zip to Unarchive it somewhere (or PeaZip should work too I think?) - the DinkHD.exe installer is an NSIS installer, which is just an self installing LZMA archive that 7zip can handle natively!
4. After unarchiving it, open Steam while still in Desktop mode and choose to "Add a Non Steam Game", be sure to use Proton for compatibility and etc.
5. After adding the game in Steam, while still in Desktop mode, you can go to its properties, and in the General settings you can set Launch options, you can add "-game <PATH_TO_DMOD>" to the launch options to launch a specific DMOD
6. Switch the Deck back to Deck/Game(?) mode, and you should be able to just launch DinkHD without issue

EDIT: Hmm, I'll have to look into if I can get Martridge to launch an game exe through Proton while the Deck is in Game mode... I know shortcuts to steam games use an URI that's something like this: "steam://rungameid/1030300" but does that work with Non-steam games?...

EDIT2: I ran some quick tests on Windows and apparently it is technically possible to launch a non-steam application through steam with arguments. Basically, I have to check if the target launch application starts with "steam://" and do some specific stuff before launching a new process...

else if (exePath.StartsWith("steam://")) {
    // have to respect "steam://run/<id>//<args>/" URI format to launch something through steam with arguments....
    // slashes have to be escaped with %2F
    string argumentsEscaped = arguments.Replace("/", "%2F");
    pinfo.FileName = exePath + "//" + argumentsEscaped + "/";
    pinfo.Arguments = "";
    pinfo.UseShellExecute = true;
    pinfo.Verb = "open";
} else {              

I think this should work on the Deck too, but I'll have to check...

I'll start working on the necessary changes to get everything working in Martridge, and add the guides for setting up Dink for the Steam Deck in the Martridge documentation website too!

I have some other minor UI tweaks to do to make sure it looks and works properly on the Steam Deck, but I suppose I should have a new version ready in a couple of weeks!

Cheers @liquid141 for inspiring me hehe