"Having to deal with pre-shader work" that you mentioned is a good thing. Without it, games will stutter more. And you always have the option to skip it or disable it entirely.
But otherwise, it's a classic delimma:
Yeah this is so hard
I wonder where zoom platform and itch.io fit into this
Gog games does not have it. But it works fine.
Yes, a lot of games work fine without precompiled shaders. Others, like Apex Legends or Rocket League, are a complete mess (at least for the first few minutes of gameplay - it used to be much worse but DXVK 2.0 helped a lot with this). You've probably just only tried the games that work fine.
Have you tried with the newer Mesas (like in SteamOS 3.5)? Apparently it shouldn't be a problem anymore with the new shader compiler.
Steam personally, I respect GOG offering DRM-free games, but steam does so much good for the Linux community that they've earned my loyalty.
Also Steam lets developers offer their games DRM free, most developers just want DRM if it's an option. Here's a list of DRM free games on Steam.
Don't you still need to use the Steam client to install those games? I've never seen an option on the website to download the game files directly like GOG does.
Yes, but once the game files are downloaded you can run the game without opening steam or copy the game folder to other machines.
For example I copied my Caves of Qud install onto a thumb drive, and that lets me play at work.
Is game on Steam? Steam.
Is game not on Steam? Game does not exist.
Life is easy.
I own most of my games on GOG these days. I still lease my games on Steam on occasion, because I do love the ecosystem and that my spouse can play my games easily.
But now I’m thinking of the end game. One day after Gabe steps away from Valve and appoints his replacement, that replacement will also need to step away. Eventually, Steam will go public, and their vision will change.
For now though I’m not too worried about Steam, but it does make me reconsider where I buy my games from. Ever since Ubisoft had that server shutdown notice a few years ago that would have rendered some of my digital DLC for my physical disc of Splinter Cell Blacklist on Wii U unplayable, I’m now very cautious about ownership of all my media.
Same, I like the guarantee of when I buy something, I own it. Years down the line if something happens to some servers outside of my control, assuming I keep the content on a hard drive somewhere, I’ll still have it.
🏴☠️
Gog doesn't force gog galaxy on games that don't need it and offers standalone installers.
GOG
Just the hability to have my entire collection in a backup disk I can keep in my drawer, to install and play with no need for an internet connection makes all the difference.
Bonus: no DRM
for convenience 90% Steam. But, some gog games works OOTB with Heroic
Lutris because it handles both and more.
Prefer Heroic's interface on Steam Deck, or at least last I compared.
Also, why use Steam on Lutris on Steam Deck, when Steam Deck is already showing all your Steam games? Control install locations or something?
For anything not Steam, Lutris.
GOG for offline games, Steam games that are online multiplayer or can benefit from cloud saves.
How do you get gog games to work? Is it all set up or do you need to do something like look for Linux games or set as non steam game or etc?
Heroic for gog games. They run wine so that’s what you pick most of the time. Download the latest win and proton stuff in heroic.
steam for new games gog for my old favourites
Tough one. I care a lot about game preservation, so I naturally tend to gravitate towards GOG, however I've had trouble getting a few too many games running, while the Steam versions "just work" (with the same version of Proton, etc).
I really tend to make sure that I'm not going to have any issues with the GOG version before buying it nowadays, otherwise I'll get the Steam version.
How do you make sure that your gog games will run before buying them compare to just being safe and getting the steam version?
Protondb reports is the only "surefire" way I've found tbh, since this is the kind of detail that gets included.
I've chosen Steam because I already had most games there before knowing about gog.
However I feel like I'll end up regretting that decision one day 😨
Are there any good tools for incorporating third party games into Steam, like what Steam ROM Manager does for emulators?
Lutris, I'd say. You can login in Lutris to gog, and it pulls all your games, so you can choose. Since they are already identified, you can choose specific lutris installation scripts for them. Then it's about as simple as right click on the lutris game - add Steam shortcut.
Bottles lets you easily add games installed in it to your steam library
I choose gog
On the one hand, no DRM and competition pushes me towards GOG. On the other hand, my Steam Deck pushes me to Steam. Yes, Heroic Launcher is amazing for Linux gaming, but I've encountered a few games that didn't behave right. Dragon Age: Origin is the biggest offender with the DLC just not activating out of the box on GOG.
Even with heroic?
I switched to GOG for a while when the shovelware on Steam became way too prevalent. I preferred GOG's more curated storefront and migrated most of my library over whenever there was a sale. But now the situation has flipped. Steam has gotten pretty good at burying the shovelware while GOG's front page is often filled with anime porn games.
So rather than set up Heroic I just pick up any games I'm missing from Steam on the cheap when I can. It's a shame because I used to really like GOG Galaxy.
I prefer Steam. It has an official Linux client. I use Steam Remote Play quite often, either to play remotely myself, or have someone join my local co-op game.
Valve also pays for Linux devs to help make Linux gaming better:
Griffais says the company is also directly paying more than 100 open-source developers to work on the Proton compatibility layer, the Mesa graphics driver, and Vulkan, among other tasks like Steam for Linux and Chromebooks.
This is interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Pre-Shaders are the real Deal thats why i bought Cyberpunk twice.
It ran but stutters were hurting the Performance to much.
For many Games its no problem.
Do gog games stutter? I don’t recall having that happen to me.
It only happened if shaders were generated.
On PC (Linux). I prioritise Steam.
But if the game is much cheaper in other launchers that can be used with Lutris. Like Epic. That doesn't stop me from getting it there instead.
I just go with what's cheapest, I have a massive library on both.
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