this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2023
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Linux Gaming
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This should get cited every time there's a "I'm waiting to switch until Linux 'gets there' for gaming" post.
They are only sampling ten paaticular games. If they included all games or even just games that run poorly then it would be far behind. I use Linux on my desktop but will still boot into windows rather than fussing with it.
When was the last time you tried "fussing with it"? I've been gaming on Linux for over a year now, and it's been incredibly seamless. The only game that gave me any trouble at all was Assetto Corsa (the first).
Edit: and I did get it running. I won't lie, it was a PITA. And it ran, and I played it for maybe 30 mins. :)
Not everyone has the same repertoire of games and not every game will run natively on linux. Depending on your flavour, messing with a compatibility layer can be fussy for some people and depending on your choice of games, your ratio of native/near-native:compromise:does not work will vary. It can't be "it works for me so it should work for thee".
Of course -- but that works the other way as well. It doesn't mean Linux gaming is lacking somehow if your library happens to be filled with the few remaining problem cases.
My point is simply that, by and large, it's ready and seamless, and things like Protondb support this.
A couple months ago I tried Age of Empire 4 and more recently Baulders gate 3 (which works great on my steam deck).
Yeah, I've played both with no issues as well. Curiously, BG3 ran better for me with DX vs Vulkan, but iirc the devs said the Vulkan build had issues at first.
Are you saying you had issues with them? If so, would you mind sharing your specs? BG3 in particular has a Gold rating on Protondb, but even AOE4 is Silver.
Yes, I had issues. I have a 3080 and some recent generation i5, 32gb ram. I'm sure I just need some configuration for my video card or something. It just takes about 5 seconds to boot into windows with nvme sticks. Every game works perfectly every time. I can't be bothered.
Got it. I suspect it's something related to nvidia tbh. Their Linux support leaves a lot to be desired. Valve's (and many other's) work on Steam Deck or Steam Deck adjacent stuff has made the AMD world a lot more Linux friendly as a result. I'm on an all-AMD system (Ryzen 5 7600X, RX 6600XT) which is probably why I've had a very smooth time.
But totally understand not wanting to waste time with it if Windows is still working fine. I think that will be harder to do, however, as MS continues to move down the path of OS as a service.
The Batman Games are the only ones I've had a problem with so far.
A few years of linux and the game becomes finding stuff that doesn't work and making it work. Once you get it working you don't bother using it, because it's more fun to go find the next thing that doesn't work and figure out how to make it work.
Ha ha... Yeah... I've noticed this too. Human psychology is weird.
I don't even check protondb anymore. If it's a single player game with no anticheats involved, I know it'll work.
The only reason I still have a windows Partition, is due to the lack of HDR support on Linux.
Is HDR just so amazing that it's worth the hassle of using windows though? Games get shinier all the time, it's not really exciting to me anymore. Give it a year and it'll be in anyway, and people will be on to the next randomnhotness that they can't possibly live without that somehow they were fine without the year previous.
If you're using an actual HDR capable display, HDR is pretty amazing. I know it's weird reading about it online, but the lighting seems so much more "real" when you're playing games on HDR. You actually have to "see it to believe it" as you can't see it from screenshots or from people taking pictures of their displays.
Windows 11 actually has a calibration tool similar to the ones at the console so you can get good HDR on Windows.
I see so many people struggling to get HDR working even on Windows I wonder if it's really worth the trouble
i think it's mostly due to how prevalent fake hdr monitors are
most people don't understand it's essentially impossible to get hdr without an OLED/microLED or MAYBE VA and keep buying into marketing bullshit, which leads them to having pretty shitty experiences
It's not even implemented well in very many monitors. I think a lot of people just turn it in cause it's supposed to be "better" even if it doesn't make much of an actual difference.
I occasionally do, but mostly if I'm intending to play it on my Steam Deck and it's marked as unsupported or untested. That's still pretty rare though.
With proton and all the work value (and others) put into it, we're at the point where it's weird if something doesn't work on Linux.
That... is what I've been trying to say all afternoon but never quite got there. Thanks.
Valve*
10 game benchmarks hardly are an argument when only 1 in 7 games on Steam are Linux compatible.
Proton runs the Windows version of games on Linux, including games using DX12. They don't have to be marked Linux compatible. That just means those can run without Proton (Linux native binaries).
Those shown in the video are using Proton (e.g. there is no Linux build of RDR2).
Waiting for a native port of playnite.
Is the dev even considering supporting Linux?
From the dev on disc when someone asked about smart tv support: