Linux is now the best gaming system. : linux

[–] Aganim@lemmy.world 22 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (5 children)

Linux is now the best gaming system.

I'll just share how my latest bout with gaming on Linux looked like, compared to Windows.

Install Anno 1800 on Windows:

Start installation in Steam
Ubisoft Launcher installs
Anno 1800 starts
Enjoy the rest of my evening

Install Anno 1800 on Linux:

Install Anno 1800 in Steam
Research how to start game
Enable Proton compatibility layer
Game fails to start due to missing Ubisoft Launcher
Install Ubi launcher using method 'add installer as game, set compatibility layer, install and change executable for application executable'
Game fails to start due to missing Ubisoft Launcher
Try with different Proton versions, fail each time
Install Lutris and install Ubi launcher through that
Game fails to start due to missing Ubisoft Launcher
Give up for the evening

Next day:

Read up some more
Install Protontricks
Encounter weird errors when starting it
Try to find out what is going on
Suppress tendency to just say 'fuck it' and start Windows
Install Protontricks through Flatpack instead of system package, as the Flatpack version is slightly newer. Accept that this will result in a much larger installation due to not using system-provided libraries.
Add Ubi launcher through protontricks, ignoring out-of-date instructions on the Internet
Start game
Cry at slideshow performance
Give up for the evening

Next day:

Research possible causes of performance issues
Try multiple ways of enabling Nvidia GPU instead of integrated graphics
Fail each time
Turn off Secure Boot
Correct GPU now available
Better performance, although still not great
Feel no enjoyment anymore at getting it to run or while playing

As much as I want to like it, this experience makes me feel that Linux is not fully ready for the masses yet.

[–] TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 12 points 3 hours ago

Ubisoft isn't ready for the masses yet. Linux works just fine

[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

I'm not just willing to never play another ubisoft game, I'm eager to. The games that don't work are typically exploitative investment vehicles moreso than games.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Huh... I just installed and played Anno 1800 on my Bazzite PC a month or two ago with no issue whatsoever. Played great.

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 18 minutes ago

Yeah, the secret here is Bazzite honestly. If a game will run on Linux, then it'll run with minimal setup on Bazzite.

[–] Apocalypteroid@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Same. Bought a new gaming laptop sans OS with the intention of switching to Linux full time. After 3 weeks climbing the walls trying to get the thing to run properly, I submitted and installed windows. Everything is designed to work with windows, Linux is redesigned to run windows stuff, we are not the same. Once Linux has caught up I will make the leap, but today is not that day.

[–] AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 hours ago

I had a similar experience but when i installed lutris everything worked so in total it only took like 20 mins to get everything up and running. Tho i do have a huge bias because i started using linux first(more than 10 years ago) and only started playing pc games a few months ago. Also if its a proper game without 20 launchers its really easy to get working, usually works outa the box.

[–] IEatDaGoat@lemm.ee 94 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Let's not become delusional now. Linux as an overall operating system feels much better to use but only because we care to become tech savvy and to troubleshoot. There are so many headaches that come with Linux which makes it unattractive to most people.

We are probably not most people.

[–] Alaknar@lemm.ee 18 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Thank you for being the sane one.

I've recently stumbled upon a lot of people like whoever wrote the article, rampaging all over the place, going "Linux is more user-friendly than Windows", which is just an insane thing to say.

Linux is great, I love my Garuda to bits. But games are still optimised for Windows, we still need to use compatibility layers to get them running, and even though it's gotten MUCH easier these days, there's still a lot of titles that require tweaking/hacking. And some just refuse to run, period.

And then you have all the hardware compatibility issues that come with manufacturers just not supporting stuff. I can't turn my GPU's RGB off without Windows. I had to distro-hop to get the GPU drivers working correctly (it might be a "skill issue", but that just proves the point, I think). Even titles that are marked as Gold on ProtonDB sometimes crash or refuse to run randomly.

[–] nico198X@feddit.nl 4 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

do you have nvidia?

i'm going to push back on this a bit. gaming on Linux today is nothing less than a miracle story thanks to Vulkan, Valve and Wine. i can play AAA titles on launch and it just works, and often better than on windows.

gaming on Linux isn't like it was 10 years ago. i'd say for most users, it'd be perfectly fine on an easy to use distro.

some things will not work, because of companies that still oppose Linux, like Epic and Nvidia, making using those products difficult. but that isn't Linux's fault, it's theirs.

[–] Alaknar@lemm.ee 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

do you have nvidia?

AMD. The distro I had did something weird where I was getting around 10-15 FPS on the Desktop until I added the community repos and installed drivers from there. Everything was great until I realised that Steam stopped working at all and Heroic Launcher wouldn't launch any games. After hopping over to Garuda, everything is fine-ish. Every now and again I launch something like Hogwarts Legacy and just need to reboot because nothing loads after the disclaimers. Still haven't figured out how to launch Mafia DE. Etc., etc.

i’m going to push back on this a bit (...) gaming on Linux isn’t like it was 10 years ago

I'm not arguing that, I myself said that it's great today with things like Proton.

But saying that it's "better than on Windows" is just flat out insanity.

but that isn’t Linux’s fault, it’s theirs.

Average Joe doesn't care who's fault it is, just that he can't play his favourite game without issues or terminal hacking.

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[–] embed_me@programming.dev 11 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

If it is not the best, we will make it the best

[–] PlasticExistence@lemmy.world 10 points 11 hours ago

They will know our peaceful ways, by force if necessary

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 51 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Depends on what types of games you want to play. If you play a lot of competitive multiplayer games you're gonna have a bad time.

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 24 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

More people need to say that if you're going to want ring 0, I'm not going to give you my money.

[–] Dicska@lemmy.world 9 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

...which is a completely valid point if you don't mind not playing those games. But if you do want to play them (for example because back when you got to love them, they didn't have this), you have yourself a dilemma.

Unless you want to play against a shitload of cheaters every day (ruining the fun whenever you have 30 minutes to wind down), your game should have a decent enough AC to detect when someone loads a cheat, including the lowest level. And guess who doesn't have a problem with 3rd party programs accessing ring 0.

So there you have it, you either stop playing all multiplayer games (not even just competitive ones!) entirely, or stick with Windows and all the awful things that come with it. I've been wanting to switch to Linux for the past 20 years, have been playing various multiplayer games over the past 2 decades, and it was always either the AC or just the sheer incompatibility (especially in the earlier years). There was even a time when people could happily cheat on Linux and get away with it in Counter-Strike: Source, because VAC simply didn't work on Linux.

[–] imecth@fedia.io 11 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

So there you have it, you either stop playing all multiplayer games (not even just competitive ones!) entirely

There's plenty of multiplayer games that run just fine on linux. Including FPS games with perfectly functional anti cheat, it's just a select few which are unfortunately very popular that actively block linux. This is the part where you put your money where your mouth is and support the games that support the system you want to game on.

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[–] xavier666@lemm.ee 1 points 8 hours ago

Take 100 random gamers. How many of them will know what ring 0/kernel level anti-cheat even means? They don't care. They will happily accept whatever the publisher puts inside the game.

The only exception to this is Denuvo because it was affecting performance.

Disclaimer - I'm an ardent linux fan

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

How about popular sports games like:

Madden
FC 25
NHL 25
MLB The Show 25

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 7 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Then you're really gonna have a bad time trying to play them on Linux since at least half of those are not even on PC at all.

[–] Arcane2077@sh.itjust.works 2 points 8 hours ago (5 children)

Can someone recommend a distro that will be used exclusively for gaming?

I've not used Linux in like a decade and only know I dislike Ubuntu for reasons I can't remember (pretty sure it's apt fucking up my system related) I'm between Mint, PopOS, and Bazzite.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 hours ago

Bazzite 100%

[–] friend_of_satan@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Second vote for bazzite. It's been so great. It's my 8 year old son's first non-console experience and he's loving it.

I've had zero problems with it. The only thing I've had to do is select the proton launch option using an easy-to-find gui setting. Everything else has been normal steam GUI stuff.

It's also my first experience with an immutable distro, which has been interesting for me to learn about. Knowing about those details is completely unnecessary to run bazzite though.

[–] chaosmarine92@reddthat.com 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I can only speak to PopOS as that's what I chose when I switched last year. It's been mostly fine but there have definitely been pain points. If you use a hard drive other than your os install drive then you need to go to the steam website to get the installer and not use the one in the built in app store. Getting mods working for games has been incredibly annoying anytime I have to use protontricks.

Non gaming related I've had numerous issues trying to manage permissions for my hard drives. Not sure if this is a Pop issue or general Linux issue.

[–] imecth@fedia.io 1 points 1 hour ago

Getting mods working for games

Yeah mods can be quite troublesome.

If you use a hard drive other than your os install drive then you need to go to the steam website to get the installer and not use the one in the built in app store.

Sounds like a steam problem.

Non gaming related I've had numerous issues trying to manage permissions for my hard drives

Eh, i remember mounting being a bit troublesome a few years back, but current GNOME should take of that for you with very little input on your end. This brings us to PopOS 22 which is starting to get really old at this point, I'd consider moving away to something that's not left abandoned while they finish up Cosmic.

[–] greylinux@lemm.ee 4 points 4 hours ago

Coming from someone who gamed only on a steamdeck for a few years (i.e I have no other console or PC) and then switching to a desktop with a better GPU/CPU. I can't believe how easy Bazzite was to install use and get gaming. Simply amazing what this team is doing to make it easy for the average person to get gaming on Linux.

[–] Wildly_Utilize@infosec.pub 9 points 8 hours ago

Definitely bazzite

[–] Peasley@lemmy.world 27 points 16 hours ago (12 children)

The author lost me when they showed the terminal command to install Nvidia drivers on Debian. Yes, it's one sentence. That's still extremely daunting to the vast majority of computer users. It undermines the author's own thesis.

Linux is a better gaming OS for some (myself included) but there is still a small learning curve. It's nowhere near as bad as it's made out to be, but it's not nothing.

I'd have softened the title and focused on the ways Linux shines as a gaming OS: compatibility with older games (1990-2010 in my experience) that dont work on modern Windows, the ability to get more performace out of older hardware, consistent behavior, and a much more pleasant desktop experience.

Windows is a better choice for many people, but Linux is just as good for many and a better choice for some.

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Why do we treat people as if they're too stupid for this. This is nauseating.

[–] megane_kun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 9 hours ago

The author lost me when they showed the terminal command to install Nvidia drivers on Debian. Yes, it’s one sentence. That’s still extremely daunting to the vast majority of computer users. It undermines the author’s own thesis.

I think it's just a consequence of the variety of ways a Linux distro can present its options and settings. It's far easier—and arguably, safer—to share a command than to anticipate how to get to a certain option or setting.

Just as an aside, I had this exact same problem when a friend asked me to do something on my system. I ended up having to send them screenshots of what I'm looking at in order to direct me to where I need to be. All that trouble could have been avoided had they sent me a command to run on my terminal.

Is it better to have a utility that a user can just click? Yeah! Someone can write a utility program that can do just that, I guess. But then again, the problem now becomes how the user can make sure this utility program is in their system.

I guess it can be a bash script? The user can download the script and then make it usable. It's a few clicks in Dolphin and (Gnome) Files, probably the same in Thunar, but we're back to the same problem: the variety of ways a GUI can take to the same end.

I highly doubt that Linux users, at least the ones who value customization, will want to lose that customizability in order to make things easier for Windows refugees and pull more of them in.

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[–] MoonlightFox@lemmy.world 26 points 17 hours ago (6 children)

As a happy and satisfied Linux gamer I disagree.

Linux is the best OS overall, at least for me, but not the best for gaming for most people. Not yet.

Emulators Xenia (xbox 360 emulator) was not mentioned, because it is Windows only. There is no Xbox 360 emulator for Linux.

Game compatibility 80% are platinum or gold on ProtonDB https://www.protondb.com/

This is impressive, but you can't claim that a system that can't play up to 20% of game titles is better. Not to mention that some of the other titles might need some tinkering as well.

Conclusion Linux gaming is now a great and viable option for most people. But it still isn't better than Windows if you don't care about bloatware, security or privacy, and just use your machine exclusively for gaming.

Bonus: Linux is free, so you could maybe also get slightly better hardware by selecting it over Windows.

[–] Peasley@lemmy.world 7 points 11 hours ago

Until recently, the only Ps4 and Ps5 emulators were linux only.

This particular point cuts both ways and has for a while. Some emulators are Windows only, some (though likely fewer) are Linux only, and the vast majority are cross-platform

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