Impossible, I’ve had Linux users swear to me that gaming on Linux is now perfect and even better than on Windows!
Its not perfect, but its really damn good.
Just takes a little patience and research, mostly to find out if the type of games you generally play use invasive anticheat/drm or not, since those are the most likely to not run.
but I wont say protons perfect. I’ve had a few games with issues, some big, some small… All usually get fixed with time, though, and now those games run great.
But in the interest of laying it all bare, I will say the 1 enduring issue I have is how janky it is to get Vortex to work for modding games, specifically Skyrim and Fallout 4… but thats less a proton/linux issue, as it is a Vortex issue. Big strides would be made with a linux version, but Vortex is just jank in general, even on windows.
And To be clear, I say its jank. Not impossible. I modded the shit out of my Fallout 4 install just last night. but to do it I have to launch the game with STL, use that to launch vortex, the use vortex to launch F4SE.
edit I just discovered Mo2 linux installer, and oh my god its so much easier…can even download direct from nexus with the vortex download button.
I have actually only had one singular issue with gaming in the last year (time frame. Not 2024) and that is fixed by restarting the game
I’ve had people tell me that they experience better performance running games on Linux through Proton compared to running them natively on Windows. A while back, I decided to try Windows for the first time since 2002 on actual hardware. With TF2, I encountered significantly more crashes & lag compared to running it on my Arch install…
This seems to be the Windows/Linux yinyang in gaming.
If you go through the effort (or non-effort. It really seems to be luck-based) of getting a gaming rig working in linux, 99% of the time it is simply better at everything, crashes less, etc. The 1% can require hours or more of troubleshooting.
Windows runs slower and worse than linux, and arguably less stable. But you boot up, click play, and (largely) it just plays.
That’s also my recent experience with Ubuntu on a gaming laptop. Every single step of the way gives me trouble, but when I manage to run something in the linux side, boy does it run well. So I’ve got this nice “todo” since I already blew my only free day on it last weekend.
A friend of a friend tried daily driving Ubuntu recently & had a few problems (some of which were gaming related). They eventually switched to Linux Mint and pretty much most of their problems seemed to disappear…
Interesting. I wish I could bring myself to like mint. I’ve typecast myself as an ubuntu-head ever since I went full “Elder Price” with the CDs back at my first dev gig.
I’ve never used mint myself, but I’ve heard good things about it. Last time I used Ubuntu on actual hardware was around 2008 I think. For the most part I’ve been using either Arch, Debian or Fedora…
It usually goes like this:
- in certain games, with certain (usually low-medium) settings, without raytracing, with proprietary drivers if nvidia
If you’re getting crashes and lag on TF2, that’s your pc. Do you have to hand crank it or something?
I have to wait for the vacuum tubes to warm up when i turn it on
See I only got lag & crashes on windows, when on my Arch install I had/have no problems whatsoever. I haven’t used windows since 2002 & don’t really plan on doing so any time soon, the install was just to quickly see what windows 10 was like compared to Linux…
I can echo this. My games do have better performance running on pop_os rather than Windows.
Having problems with games sometimes is better than having less problems with games at the cost of your system being bloated, slow and designed in such a way that when it breaks you can’t do anything about it besides sfc /scannow and when that doesn’t work as usual, a complete os reinstall. Linux saves me time but that’s only because it’s possible to have the skill to fix all the random issues you run into, unlike with Windows.
Meh. I definitely had issues getting bg3 working well on Linux.
Eventually I switched to windows and it was a nightmare of different and worse issues.
Back to Linux, found a fix. Sweet.
Wish I could play games on Linux, but for some fucking reason I can’t figure out my gaming laptop with Nvidia 1660ti will not work properly with most games. If I ever can afford a new computer I’m probably going with AMD instead tbh.
Optimus? Because Optimus is an absolute bastard. It’s improved and I’ve had some luck, but it’s painful.
what distro are you using? I never had any issues on my nvidia build with nobara
What’s the output of
nvidia-smi? If it’s a newer laptop you might need to add a machine owner key so that secureboot will allow the required dynamic kernel modules to load. In debian the module will be signed with thedkmssigning key, adding it as a MOK is fairly simple. https://wiki.debian.org/SecureBoot#Making_DKMS_modules_signing_by_DKMS_signing_key_usable_with_the_secure_boot*Try disabling secureboot first, if things start working re-enable it and follow the advice above.
While it’s great that your helping them …
This answer is exactly WHY Linux isn’t desktop/gamer ready yet. At least for the masses.
This answer makes me think back to when I started using Linux and I posted on IRC that my wifi wasn’t working. Somebody then gave me source code and a makefile and walked me through recompiling the drivers and installing them and it worked.
Linux users online can be the most helpful people around.
Oh absolutely.
Good advice? In a meme thread? It’s more likely than you think.
If your game run terribly on Wayland, try running in on X11, and vice-versa.
I know this is quite unprompted, but did you install correct video drivers? You gotta install proprietary nvidia drivers and its 32-bit libraries instead of nouveau
I mean, Lutris, Protonup-qt and Winetricks get the job done pretty easily and fast once you learn how to use them.
I like to imagine someone saying the top part out right before they start a round of a game then immediately transition to the bottom.
This meme would be so relatable if I had any friends.
Friends are overrated, comrade!
Friends are capitalistic propaganda to make you easier to manipulate and control into working long hours so that some guy called “CEO” can show off all of his green pieces of paper to his friends /s
Average linux user
all his friends left because he kept rambling about linux
i thought this was about game development for a second and was confused as to why you wouldn’t be able to do that on linux
Plus their computer is probably still running proprietary firmware
Anyone playing Outer Worlds, the Spacers Choice Edition? Suuuper annoying issues, I might actually install it on Windows instead
Edit:
Flawless on Windows, general performance seems to be a tad better, too.Which is great to see, because that means it’s not the game itself, and that maybe Wine/Proton will be able to fix these issues
It’s just metacommentary on the illusion of choice from corporations. Stay the course comrade
you sure it’s not just the Spacers Choise edition? AFAIK that version of the game is (or at least was? I dunno) pretty broken on all platforms.
Well, yes. Which is why I mentioned the Spacers Choice edition.
It doesn’t seem to have the same specific issues on Windows though, apart from generally performng worse than anyone would expect it to.
So I reckon I’ll just try and see for myself if that’s true. Because the problems many Linux users (me included) seem to have according to ProtonDB make the game borderline unplayable.
Sometimes not even borderline.
Break free of proprietary friends ^^
I definitely won’t be installing windows 11, so I’ll join soon
All my friends are Open Source if you know what I mean
Many people commit to them and they fork off to others?
Well it’s getting better, and fast imo. When I started using Linux some 4 years ago I could barely play anything in my library. If the game had online functionality in any way, chances were it didn’t run. That has gotten a lot better imo but Proton is still not where it needs to be. But things change and from what I, as a consumer, can see it seems like the biggest problem now are invasive Anti-Cheats rather than anything fundamentally breaking the games.
Edit: but yeah, it sucks when shit ain’t working and the small fraction of stuff not working is still a bit much to swallow
I prefer co op games anyway so there is no reason to be forced to opt into an anti cheat game but here we are.
for me it’s mostly because i specifically messed something up
I’ve built my current gaming pc in april of 2022, installed ubuntu and really haven’t had any issues that weren’t solved by 5 minutes of googling
During last gamenight with the friends we decided to play halo infinite. We all had a good laugh that the two on windows were the only ones crashing
I would not let that live down tbh
Did they play the cracked version or the Steam version?
It was the pvp multiplayer that’s free, so the steam version.
i often play gta online with two friends who use windows. they have crashes, sounds disappearing, issues joining sessions and they keep falling through ground. on mint my only problem is no cursor in social club. my framerate is not great though, 80 - 100 vs on windows it stays above 120. except for the random massive lag spikes.
It’s hilarious to me that I have to jump through so many hoops to get my old games working on windows when they run almost out of the box on Linux, but on the flip side with all the launchers and shit built into AAA games today it’s a hassle to get them set up on Linux. Like once I do get them set up they work great. But lutris, proton versions, winetricks, etc to get them working is an activity
Many games might actually be DRM free without you realizing. Look them up on PC Gaming Wiki, and maybe you’ll like what you see.
With some games it’s as simple as launching them directly from the executable to circumvent annoying launchers and accounts.
Something most people probably don’t even think of doing anymore, and why would they. But it never hurts to try.
Oh yeah the older games work great on Linux, either with drm gone as you described or a no-cd or something. The windows issues with old games I was referencing mostly stem from old graphics driver requirements (things like dgvoodoo), compatibility mode, having more CPU cores than a game can handle, etc, but I’ve found very little of those issues on Linux.
On Linux I was referring to having to run like the EA launcher, Ubisoft launcher, rockstar launcher, etc for modern games. They are so finicky and such a hassle to set up, and because they are electron apps with custom code, so basically web browsers with embedded drm. You have to get the right combination of winetricks and proton versions to make them work without issue. I don’t blame Linux at all, I blame the stupid launchers and overwhelming drm
Me playing The Finals too, the other two crashing before the match and I was more like ‘I’m just hoping that I don’t get banned for playing on linux’
Haven’t run into a game yet that doesn’t run on Linux when using Proton. 👌
The only games that give me any trouble are some Japanese VNs, which can be absolutely cursed for some reason. Like, massive tech juggernauts like Cyberpunk are click and play, but I’ve spent hours getting books-with-PNGs working.
That’s because their code quality is usually an absolute dumpster fire that only works if Wine exactly replicates obscure Windows bugs.
Genshin Impact, anticheat thibjs you’re cheating, blocked until fixed. Happens every update.
Genshin works by now lol
Good luck!
My problem is that I enjoy specific multiplayer games. League, Val, Finals. Those are the three right now and riot specifically seems a tad disinterested in Linux. Sadge.
League is owned by Tencent who is specifically interested in using the software for the benefit of the Chinese government as is mandatory for them. They don’t want you using an OS with actual security. Heck, they don’t even want you to see a skin or splash art that hasn’t been approved by their government!
The anti cheat in league is literally a rootkit.
When it came out there was an outcry and their statement was basically “okay okay, so its a rootkit. But guys, you can trust us! We’re totally not going to do anything nefarious with it!”
I can’t believe people still play that shit.
You mean Vanguard, which was announced but isn’t actually in the game yet. Their plan is to add it late February or early March. We don’t actually know any details about the implementation except that it won’t be used in the macOS version.
I thought it was going to be added this 24th, I was playing this week a lot as a “last goodbye” for that reason
There are a couple, but I’m spoiled for choice with great games so the convenience of being able to run something on my Steam Deck means that the few that don’t run just drop to the bottom of the backlog. Proton is really a brilliant feat of engineering.
the one i am the most sad about is magicka 1 - great game but getting it to run on linux is (as far as i’ve found so far) pretty much impossible.
Won’t claim that it runs all that great on windows either though - getting through a chapter without crashing is rarer than i’d like it to be…
I recently heard about this. I used to play it. I searched on the steam discussion page and there is a fan patch that fixes all the crashes. It is on github. I found it for you. Try this. https://github.com/pj1234678/MagickaFix
was aware of it but it sadly doesn’t run on linux (at least not after me doing trial and error for 4 hours) and i felt the comparison to the unmodded one on windows fairer under these circumstances - thanks for trying to help though :)
I’ve run into many, the latest being Rising Storm 2. Its development has been suspended and the EAC is a version that doesn’t work with Linux, so you can’t play on any servers except the ones that allow hackers. There’s also the issues with performance in Squad on Linux. Starship Troopers: Extermination also runs better on Windows. That’s just the ones I’ve had an issue with in the past month.
That being said, I’m still not willing to go back to Windows, even to play these games.
Haven’t run into a game yet that doesn’t run on Windows.
Without the need to fiddle with any settings. It is all just click and play.
Same experience on Linux for me. Install Steam, install Proton, set it to be default for all games. Click and play. 🙂👍 Not really “fiddling”. It’s a one-time thing that I equate to just installing Steam. Very good experience.
Maybe i bricked something in my machine somewhere when messing with drivers for machine learning cuda support. But I often have games that are ‘supported’ through proton but fail to launch or even crash my PC. Metro exodus & deep rock to name a few. Other games do run great. But still things like steam big picture being laggy is annoying.
yeh that’ll probably be it tbf… the cuda drivers are specifically for scientific computing and are pretty rubbish for anything else unfortunately… even amd ones are like that :(
however a way i found around it is to just push my gpu compute envs to docker and voila (also avoids the pain of installing the drivers cos nvidia actually provides a cuda docker image) :D
That’s actually a good tip. Even though I don’t use CUDA and never have.
I mean, some games do not work. Because they do not work on Windows as well. Looking at you, ksp 2 🤦♂️
It’s such a shame about KSP 2. I was so hyped when I saw it was announced, then it all turned to shiz.
Destiny 2 still won’t work, and Simracing is still a no go.
That just means you can’t buy 12 dlc to unlock the seasons, dungeons, raids, and whatever the hell else they’re paywalling. Destiny got enshittified.
I recommend warframe as a destiny alternative. But Beware! if you like the game you may sink thousands of hours into it
Ha, jokes on you, already Legend rank 3. ~I have no life.~
The simracing part is a real bummer. That’s the only reason I’m still on Win.
As a novice, how does one use proton, and can I install StarCraft 2
You install it from within Steam,
or using flatpak if you’re installing Steam via flatpak[Proton on flatpak has reached EOL, try installing via Steam instead]. Then in settings you set it so every game uses the Proton compatibility layer, or whatever it’s called. You don’t have to do it per game, it’s a global setting (as well as a setting for each game if you prefer).I can’t answer for a specific game though, you’d have to simply try it out or check a database which has info on games that can run using Proton. I don’t know the site from memory.
For me it’s mostly games that work for everyone else on Linux.
Are you saying you haven’t been able to get it to work?
GtaV on Steam just doesn’t start since years and on multiple computers. Same for others who generally are considered good on proton.
Online game… Hm, anti cheat kicking in? Any error messages, GUI or in console?
Sadly no, offline games, steam only tells me on cli it shut them down
deleted by creator
Most of the games not running today would run perfectly if they did not have some bullshit anti-cheat implemented (Easy Anti-Cheat is I think the worst offender here).
Source: personal experience checking ProtonDB for games I want to play
Unfortunately there’s a cheating plague right now. It’s never been easier to cheat. It’s a huge problem in any competitive shooter. If you want your game to be successful, you need decent anti cheat.
I can’t blame the devs for using a plug and play solution.
I understand developers needs for decent Anti-Cheat and I am not faulting them for using Anti-Cheat systems in general.
But Kernel level Anti-Cheats should not exist. No application should ever have this level of access over your entire PC. You have no idea what these Anti-Cheats are doing, you have no idea what data they are collecting and sending to whom and you have no idea what kind of security flaws they introduce. For all you know every password you type on your computer is shared with the companies using Kernel Level Anti-Cheat. Your PC might as well have no password anymore. If someone finds an exploit for Easy Anti-Cheat (or any of the other dozen Kernel level Anti-Cheats out there) and deploys a Virus over it then your best bet is turning religious because praying for divine intervention would be more effective than any Anti-Virus software.
Has that literally ever happened with kernal level anti-cheats?
Battlebit Remastered ran fine with EZ anti-cheat through steam on Mint 21.3, with no exra steps required, just this week. Did something get fixed, or was I just lucky?
iirc Easy-Anticheat has a sort of “Lite” mode that also runs on Linux, enabling it makes the games work with Proton but iirc degrades the Anticheat capabilities on those Systems. Because the Linux Anticheat isn’t as effective (and because it’s an Opt-In) most games don’t use it.
Talking a lot out of my ass here but I think that’s how it was explained back when they made that change.
Huh? Easy Anti-Cheat is the one that actually works for me on Linux.
The Finals works on Linux!
In other news, I got a message saying I was banned from The Finals for playing on Linux.
That’s gotta be rectifiable somehow. Did you contact some sort of support?
It said I could reach out to support but I was hopping off and it didn’t give me any links or anything actionable in the message. So I guess I can go hunt down the support info and complain.
If I don’t get unbanned, oh well. I guess I won’t play that game anymore. Its not like I spent any money on it and my time invested in about an hour at this point.
That ban also pop up on your steam account? Because if it does that can screw you in other games if they have community servers.
Anti cheat and Linux is why I can’t use Linux. I already have 2 games impossible to play on Linux.
BDO,EFT FYI
I was banned from The Finals for playing on Linux
How is that not illegal?
I know that’s a turn-of-phrase but it’s their game so they can do what they want.
It probably trips some EAC flag because it realizes something is “amiss”. Id guess going through proton might behave a little differently and they think you are cheating or installing hacked dlls or something so they ban.
I know when other games have caught a wave of Linux users in bans they reverse them in time.
If someone buys a product from you, you shouln’t be able to deny them from using it based on arbitrary criteria without a refund.
Don’t worry, they refunded his $0 for the free game.
Oh, it’s free? Then never mind.
Well, civil rights lawyers have been pretty busy lately trying to stop the slide into facism, so they haven’t gotten around to making our choice of OS a protected class.
Seriously though, why would it be illegal? It’s their game, so they get to be assholes and decide who gets to play it with them. I don’t think that’s ever going to change, and I’m not sure it should. We do the same thing in the Fediverse, deciding who gets to use the instances we control.
I would say claiming that a game supports a certain operating system and then banning players for playing it on the system is false advertising, especially if the game is paid.
The game is listed as not supporting SteamOS (Arguably the most popular linux distro for gaming right now) and incorporating drm that does not work on Linux, this is far from false advertising as I can see it. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2073850/THE_FINALS/
Battlebit Remastered T_T
It runs amazingly on linux, I have about 40 hours on the official release, and about 200on the beta all linux.
I tried like 6 Proton versions when there was that F2P weekend and it was impossible even to get the anticheat installer to work on Ubuntu 22.04.
IDK what I was doing wrong.
Ubuntu, there is your answer.
On a serious note, are you sure you had the anticheat runtimes installed?
This right here. I’ve spent a few hours troubleshooting why I can’t play Hell Let Loose, which also uses EAC, even though it should support Linux. Turned out, that you need to specifically search for (in your Library) and install “Proton EasyAntiCheat Runtime”, which is a separate game that for some reason didn’t get installed when you install the game.
I suppose it’s going to be the same with Battlebit, because I’m sure I played it on Linux and had 0 issues.
When you switch proton versions, it might be a good idea to delete the prefix directory. I find that helps.
Then there’s Lin-ux, or Line-ux, I don’t know how you say it,
or how you install it, or use it, or play it,
or how you download it, or what programs run,
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
but Lin-ux, or Line-ux, don’t look like much fun.
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
