this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2025
176 points (93.6% liked)

Linux Gaming

16442 readers
594 users here now

Discussions and news about gaming on the GNU/Linux family of operating systems (including the Steam Deck). Potentially a $HOME away from home for disgruntled /r/linux_gaming denizens of the redditarian demesne.

This page can be subscribed to via RSS.

Original /r/linux_gaming pengwing by uoou.

Resources

WWW:

Discord:

IRC:

Matrix:

Telegram:

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] MTK@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Why is the penguin holding it like that??

[–] Matombo@feddit.org 2 points 10 hours ago

because the pinguin is the linux gaming pc handing you the controler

[–] mr2meows@pawb.social 6 points 1 day ago

maybe its ai slop

[–] nocteb@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Have you tried to play with one without thumbs?

[–] MTK@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago

I will test this theory and report back

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 9 points 1 day ago

This illustration is triggering me

[–] flop_leash_973@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Gamers on Linux have minimal setup overhead.*

*as long as you stick with Steam. Anything else means going to Lutris, Heroic Games Launcher, etc which is far more hit or miss.

Added the missing qualifier to one of the articles bullet points for them.

[–] MeaanBeaan@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In my experience running non-steam games through steam with proton is the best way to play those games too. The only time I've ever had to use lutris was when I had to install some DLC for a GOG application on the same prefix as the game because it had a separate exe installer for that DLC. I haven't been able to figure out a way to do that through steam. But once I got that done I just ran the game through steam and it worked perfectly. The heroic games launcher gets suggested a lot too but I literally have never been able to get it to work for a single game.

[–] flop_leash_973@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

With Heroic for what its worth, I have had some luck on difficult games going into the settings for the troublesome game, going to the "other" tab and ticking the box for "Use Steam Runtime".

[–] MidsizedSedan@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

What about flipping the question. Making modern games available on more platforms?

[–] wabafee@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago
[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 77 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The majority of problems Linux has with gaming are intentional decisions on the part of the studios at this point.

I keep what I think is a pretty healthy gaming diet, which tends to steer me away from the megacorporate shit and into smaller studios and indies, and games just tend to run.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 25 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Even AAA games are fine, as long as they don't have intrusive anticheat. If you're after SP, non-VR gaming, Linux is ready today. If you want VR, you need to be more flexible with headsets. If you want MP, you need to be really flexible since devs intentionally block Linux for whatever reason.

[–] Don_alForno@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Meh. Most games, I'd say. Couldn't get Cyberpunk 2077 to run on Mint.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I can install and play pretty much any single player game I want, even new releases, and I am confident I will be able to play it with no significant/noticable issue... and on the offchance there is one, it will most assuredly be fixed within a couple days with a proton update.. and honestly its been like 2 years since that last happened to me.

The only time I even have to think about installing a game, and thus have to check protondb, is when I want to install an MMO or Multiplayer game...and a shocking amount of those work, too. Just not all of them, because of invasive anticheat.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] DerArzt@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

At this point Linux and Windows are more like Xbox and PlayStation back in the the 2000's, except Linux has a compatibility layer to allow it to run a lot of Windows games.

[–] sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip 25 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I've been gaming soley on linux since 2020 or 2021.

Yeah, its definitely ready now, most straggler games are basically massively overproduced and massively MTX exploitative team based shooters using kernel level anti cheat that are designed for children with mom's credit card.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago

An article similar to this is posted by itsfoss every week.

[–] meldrik@lemmy.wtf 45 points 2 days ago
[–] MITM0@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not yet, in order to be ready for mainstream gaming, the gaming experience has to be smooth (As in easy to install, Mod & patch)

[–] Don_alForno@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

It's smoother than Windows gaming was when I started Windows gaming (win 95).

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

For reference, to play Warcraft 1 multiplayer you joined a chatroom on Battle.net and the chat channel gave everyone a ~~terminal~~ MS-DOS command that you had to copy/paste into the terminal. If anybody had any network more complicated than computer -> modem then it would fail. If anyone failed to connect your game would crash. I was gaming like this at around 10 years old.

Obviously, comparing 2025 Linux to '90s Windows isn't exactly fair... but gamers are not incapable of dealing with complexity.

Sure, don't tell your 8 year old cousin to swap from Windows to Linux. But if you're a smart high school student then you can learn. Like anything, it'll take some getting used to and you'll have to deal with frustrations but knowing how to use Linux and, probably more importantly, how to research and solve problems is well worth the effort.

[–] Don_alForno@feddit.org 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Oh yeah. I remember watching my older brother try to set up that kind of connection. I was never allowed under threat of capital punishment to touch anything of course. Good times.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Haha, yes. It was trying times.

But, if you're reading this, you're probably already more than qualified enough to use Linux for gaming. Obviously you're going to have to learn things but it is very much worth it. Also, the desktop environments look much better imo.

[–] muhyb@programming.dev 14 points 1 day ago (7 children)

I've been gaming on Linux exclusively for 5 years now. I have waited for some games to run better but it's been generally great for me.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Doesn't actually matter with the way Windows performs, these days.

[–] Lexam@lemmy.world 31 points 2 days ago (9 children)

I have no problem playing games on Linux. Currently playing Baldur's Gate 3. Only thing I had to was turn on compatibility in the steam settings.

[–] NegativeLookBehind@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago

Ugh, that's too much work. I'm going back to Winblows

load more comments (8 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›