Cross-compatibility

In general, a good way to test your mod for cross-compatibility is to have playtesters on various platforms, to see how it performs and to look for oddities.

Another valid option is to develop entirely on a platform other than Windows. This is especially the case for Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, and even NixOS using a runtime, as a few examples.

Use the console to look for filename errors, and correct them as usual.

Wine and Derivatives

UNIX users in general have a tool called Wine that allows users to run Windows games on UNIX. This includes macOS, since that is based on UNIX to some capacity.

A fork of Wine exclusive to Linux users is Proton, which is also available to Steam Deck users as SteamOS is based off of Arch Linux. This provides special enhancements to make games work better.

Unfortunately, both of these tools aren't native, which is what this page is for.

When playtesting on anything UNIX-based, including the Steam Deck, preferably use a native build instead of Wine and/or Proton. This ensures that filenames and other features work correctly and errors can be found more easily. Development purely on either of these, especially on Linux, is also a valid option if you want to ensure cross-compatibility.