Gaming on Linux?

[Joseph Stalin]

Codex, I have been contemplating switching from Windows to Linux, due to various reasons. Manjaro, to be concrete. How much will my gaming hobby suffer due to such a choice? I'm asking those who have recent experience.

 

[Catacombs]

Many games are Windows-only, and getting Wine to work with most of them can be a pain in the ass. There are some newer games available on Linux, just don't count on any of the AAA ones.

I'd suggest you dual boot: Windows for gaming, Linux for everything else. On Linux, you'll need to pay a little more attention to the GPU driver.

 

[Joseph Stalin]

Many games are Windows-only, and getting Wine to work with most of them can be a pain in the ass. There are some newer games available on Linux, just don't count on any of the AAA ones.

I'd suggest you dual boot: Windows for gaming, Linux for everything else. On Linux, you'll need to pay a little more attention to the GPU driver.

Doesn't Proton solve most of the issues, or is it a meme?

 

[Catacombs]

Many games are Windows-only, and getting Wine to work with most of them can be a pain in the ass. There are some newer games available on Linux, just don't count on any of the AAA ones.

I'd suggest you dual boot: Windows for gaming, Linux for everything else. On Linux, you'll need to pay a little more attention to the GPU driver.

Doesn't Proton solve most of the issues, or is it a meme?

I don't have experience using Proton. Though, it'll likely work well if you use a more "mainstream" distro like Ubuntu. I'm not sure what issues you'll encounter using an Arch-based distro like Manjaro.

I gave up gaming on Linux and just installed Windows on one SSD and Linux on another and jump between the two, depending on what I'm doing.

 

[Ontopoly]

Dual boot is the way to go. Don't fall for the linux fanboys who try to convince you that proton is a good solution. Most of these people switched to linux because they hate windows (either because privacy or resource hogging) so they are biased and get really invested in linux, to the point where they'll just say "This is fine" no matter what.

Many of them will show you this image:

https://imgur.com/a/FqRjbSh

But notice how the percentages don't add up to 100%? One game is placed in multiple stages of how good it runs. Misleading numbers. People hate windows so much that they are willing to look more favorably on the competition.

 

[garren]

Most steam games should "just work" with the integrated proton, though you'll probably run into issues with some games. If you need to install battle.net then use the lutris client with this script. You can also try to just download a windows installer file (gog games for example) and run that through wine and install normally (just use the default install location), with many games that also can work, don't be scared if the installer throws a few errors your way, the game usually installed just fine and you just need to navigate to the right folder and run the game. Or use a lutris script if that's available.

That all being said, you will run into problems at some point, and it can be hairpullingly frustrating to solve some problems if you're new to linux. (in my experience anyway, it gets easier the more you use it, lol)

But give it a try, the only way to see if this works for you is to try it out anyways.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

How much will my gaming hobby suffer due to such a choice?

Not so much, as far as modern gaming goes I had troubles only with MK11 which needed custom Proton Glorius Eggroll build to even run and still, mutliplayer and story mode are unavailable and it's all because of retarded DRM.

There are games that gave me better experience on Linux like Fallout 4 (couldn't fixed geam being locked at windows mode on Win10, on Manjaro is perfect) plus there are benefits for AMD card users - OpenGL-based emulators runs much efficient on my rig (like Yuzu or Citra).

 

[Eisen]

Currently on Linux here, honestly, i only play old games and works good for it.
New games(especially online ones) might suffer from shitty DRM and anticheat.

 

[Palikka]

I've been using Manjaro for a year now. Played Monster Hunter World, Nier Tomato, They Are Billions, Terraria, Noita and some roguelikes.
Games will run worse on linux and you do have to jump through some hoops to get stuff running. Whether or not that is an issue for you depends on how allergic you are to performance hiccups (and how powerful your computer is to take the hit).
DRM can be a hit or miss, some work some might not. All the games I have tried have worked (maybe 20 games in total)
What I have heard the online games with heavy anti-cheat stuff is a no-go.

I aint changing back.

Dual booting can be.. sketchy. I would suggest choosing only one of the two, or doing like Catacombs and jumping between two SSDs.

 

[Nano]

Don't use Manjaro. Unless it majorly changed since I used it last year, it can be a mess for gaming. If you really hate Win10 use Ubuntu or an Ubuntu-based distro, those are the distros most supported by game developers.

 

[OSK]

Codex, I have been contemplating switching from Windows to Linux, due to various reasons. Manjaro, to be concrete.

How much Linux experience do you have? Any particular reason for Manjaro? I tend to suggest Ubuntu or an Ubuntu derivative for new Linux users. Ubuntu's main goal is ease-of-use. It has a large, newbie-friendly community and provides proprietary software (like drivers) out-of-the-box. Any time you run into a problem, you can easily search "Ubuntu" plus your problem and find solutions. I will admit my own bias though, and say that every machine I own is running Debian or a Debian derivative. I will say, you should make sure to know the difference between a rolling-release distro and a stable release distro. I strongly suggest the latter for a newer Linux user.

How much will my gaming hobby suffer due to such a choice? I'm asking those who have recent experience.

It mostly depends on your game choice and how much you're willing to tinker/learn. Older games that run in DosBox or ScummVM are just as easy and just as likely to work as they do on Windows. Emulating consoles is typically fine as well. Older Windows games tend to actually run better through Wine than they do on Windows 10. Newer games will likely work, but may require a bit of finagling to get working depending on what technologies the games are made with. The games that you'll most likely have problems with are newer DX12 games (they'll probably work eventually) and games that use aggressive DRM and/or client-side anti-cheats. Those are usually multiplayer shooters like Fortnite and such. I wouldn't be optimistic on those games ever working unless the companies behind them change.

The absolute easiest way to game on Linux is to use Steam. Valve is putting a lot of work into making Linux gaming as easy as possible. You flip some settings on in the Steam settings, and download and play the games. That said, there's no guarantee the games will work or work flawlessly without some tinkering. Battle Brothers works perfectly for me right out of the box. I just install and play. Underrail worked out of the box, but had some serious performance problems. I was able to resolve them by using ProtonTricks to install a specific version of .NET and now it runs flawlessly. Disco Elysium ran with some minor performance problems, but that might just be my old rig and not Linux specifically.

The next easiest way is to probably use Lutris. Lutris is a gaming client that can connect to various storefronts like Steam and GOG or install from discs. But it's main purpose is to aid in the installation and running of games. It uses community developed scripts to install and configure the game to run on your system. I use this exclusively for non-Steam games.

As far as performance, it depends on the game. Linux builds by competent developers tend to perform better on Linux rather than on Windows. Unfortunately, those kinds of developers are rather rare. A lot of the native Linux games are done by third-party porting houses and the performance won't be as good as on Windows. Games running through some compatibility layer (Wine or Proton) usually have a performance hit as well, but they can sometimes run better than on Windows if they are using Vulkan rather than DirectX and running on AMD hardware. You can find more specific benchmarking online, like at https://flightlessmango.com.

Many games are Windows-only, and getting Wine to work with most of them can be a pain in the ass.

I'd suggest you dual boot: Windows for gaming, Linux for everything else.

You're right in that some games can be challenging to get running, especially if it's a more obscure game. Sometimes you have to mess with WineTricks or ProtonTricks, custom Proton builds and such. I wouldn't suggest it to someone who doesn't want to tinker around a bit. Dual booting is a great way to start, and ensures you can always play whatever games you want. The more familiar you get with Linux, the easier it is dealing with problems that may crop up.

On Linux, you'll need to pay a little more attention to the GPU driver.

With AMD (or Intel), you'll have no problems. It's Nvidia that can be problematic, especially on a rolling-release distro.

Dual booting can be.. sketchy. I would suggest choosing only one of the two, or doing like Catacombs and jumping between two SSDs.

That's mostly Windows being selfish and assuming it's the only OS on the drive, but yeah, separate drives can mitigate that.

 

[Luka-boy]

Not gonna enter any debates here. Just my experience as an IT guy who switched to Manjaro over two years ago because I enjoy the freedom to tinker with my OS however I want and also have fun fixing whatever mess my tinkering (and very rarely the rolling releases) caused.

I game a lot and fortunately the majority of games I play either have a native Linux version or run out of the box flawlessly using Proton/Lutris/Wine. In those cases performance is perfect or barely noticeably worse than in Windows and I could swear in some cases better than in Windows. For me that's normally the case in let's say 75% of the games I play.

Then you have games that require some tweaking. I put into this category things like switching to a specific Proton version or tweaks that only require copypasting a couple of commands in the Terminal, or moving the location of a file or two and afterwards the game runs either perfectly fine or with minor annoyances. By minor annoyances I mean things like not being able to Alt-Tab, some or all cutscenes not working or having a specific key or combination or key makes the game freak out or crash (Like F10 making DCS crash for whatever reason). Stuff like that. That's about one in ten games for me.

Older games generally work fine, but in my experience games using ddraw tend to experience quirks, like Diablo's menu showing a black screen even if the rest of the game runs perfectly preventing me from comfortably creating my character in some mods.

Then you will have games that simply run like shit or don't run at all and you're SoL because there's currently no way to make them work normally in Linux. You will run into those and people who claim otherwise is lying.

Oh, also most multiplayer games using anti-cheat software will not run. In my case it was a blessing because I don't like most of those (and the ones I like like War Thunder or Warframe either have a native Linux version or run perfectly fine) and it's the perfect excuse to reject my friends/girlfriend/co-workers when they ask me to play Fortnite/CoD/etc with them. It's way more diplomatic saying a truthful "Sorry, my computer can't run that" than an also truthful "Sorry, I don't play shitty games"

So yeah, that's my experience. I'm a happy gamer but I might be just lucky with my choice of games and I already had quite a bit of experience with Linux already when I switched to it as my OS for my personal devices. A Linux newbie who is into multiplayer FPS and F2P games might find the experience horrible.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I only use linux, basically every game that doesn't require a rootkit anticheat works fine.

 

[Catacombs]

For me that's normally the case in let's say 75% of the games I play.

I only use linux, basically every game that doesn't require a rootkit anticheat works fine.

To both of you: Which games? Mostly as a benchmark.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

For me that's normally the case in let's say 75% of the games I play.

I only use linux, basically every game that doesn't require a rootkit anticheat works fine.

To both of you: Which games? Mostly as a benchmark.

I play a lot of new games and AAA crap. Only game I had trouble with recently was Horizon zero dawn and apparently it works already. Probably going to redownload it tonight come to think of it.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Older games generally work fine, but in my experience games using ddraw tend to experience quirks, like Diablo's menu showing a black screen even if the rest of the game runs perfectly preventing me from comfortably creating my character in some mods.

Try dgvoodoo2 using its dx11 version with dxvk.
http://dege.freeweb.hu/
Fixes most issues I have with older games.

 

[Luka-boy]

To both of you: Which games? Mostly as a benchmark.

Well I obviously won't list all the games I've played these past two and a half years, but here's some of the games I played this year:

Yakuza 0 - Ran flawlessly
Hearts of Iron 4 - Native
Europa Universalis IV - Native
TROUBLESHOOTER: Abandoned Children - Required switching to a specific Proton version or it would make horrible screeching sounds constantly, ran flawlessly after that
ATOM RPG - Native
Warframe - Required installing a specific fan-mantained version of Proton, ran perfectly fine afterwards
War Thunder - Native
Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition - Native
Field of Gory 2 - Required editing a file or it wouldn't even start, then ran flawlessly
XCOM: Chimera Squad - Ran flawlessly
DCS World - Required installing some dependencies. Runs perfectly including head-tracking and joystick but pressing F10 makes the game crash.
Warhammer Total War 2 - Native
Battle Brothers - Runs flawlessly
STAR WARS: Empire at War (with mods) - Freaks out if I play in 4K and performance can be bad sometimes, but it might be because of the mods
Daggerfall Unity - Native
Steel Panthers Main Battle Tank - Runs perfectly fine
Realms of the Precursors - Native
X-Piratez - Ran flawlessly

I'm forgetting a few ones for sure, but it should be a decent enough sample.

Older games generally work fine, but in my experience games using ddraw tend to experience quirks, like Diablo's menu showing a black screen even if the rest of the game runs perfectly preventing me from comfortably creating my character in some mods.

Try dgvoodoo2 using its dx11 version with dxvk.
http://dege.freeweb.hu/
Fixes most issues I have with older games.

Thanks, I'll check it out

 

[Catacombs]

I'm forgetting a few ones for sure, but it should be a decent enough sample.

It is. Thanks!

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

I'm not that recent, but I will say that most games I play run fine or require minimal tinkering. For most major engines, you might have to screw around with things a bit to get things running, I recall this is an issue with RPGmaker and Adventure Game Studio games. Unity and Unreal Engine games, I've had various problems, but I don't use Proton, so they probably have a better success rate with those.
However, if you use any non-gaming software you might want to check if there's an alternative you like for Linux, or if it works in Wine. Having a good success with gaming is one thing, having to use software you don't like because the one you do doesn't work is another.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

For me that's normally the case in let's say 75% of the games I play.

I only use linux, basically every game that doesn't require a rootkit anticheat works fine.

To both of you: Which games? Mostly as a benchmark.

I play a lot of new games and AAA crap. Only game I had trouble with recently was Horizon zero dawn and apparently it works already. Probably going to redownload it tonight come to think of it.

 

[Joseph Stalin]

To answer questions posted before:

1. I wanted to choose Manjaro since, supposedly, they have a sub-distro focused solely on gaming compatibility, and for some instinctual reason I harbour a dislike towards Ubuntu. Don't know why, it's just in my bones.
2. So far the feedback has been, overall, very positive, for which I am immensely grateful.

One more question, though - is MODDING more troublesome on Linux?

 

[Nano]

One more question, though - is MODDING more troublesome on Linux?

Dude, everything is more troublesome on Linux. It's the reality of an OS that has less than 2% market share.

 

[Biscotti]

Dual booted for a while, then ditched Windows completely about 6 months ago when I noticed I never had to switch to it anyway. With Proton and Lutris any retard can get pretty much anything running these days, but I'm not gonna pretend it's a 1:1 replacement for Windows.
Games with anti cheat don't like compatibility layers, and while there's work being done to circumvent that, those are still out of the question for now. Then there's just the odd case of a game simply refusing to run properly, but I have yet to run into one.

One more question, though - is MODDING more troublesome on Linux?

Not really. In case of dragging and dropping files it's literally identical to what you'd do on Windows. If you have to deal with .exe installers and such, you'll need a very basic understanding of wine to run the installer with a wine prefix.
The only thing that is really a pain to set up is anything that uses address editing, like Cheat Engine for example.

 

[OSK]

I wanted to choose Manjaro since, supposedly, they have a sub-distro focused solely on gaming compatibility, and for some instinctual reason I harbour a dislike towards Ubuntu. Don't know why, it's just in my bones.

What's the sub-distro? If it's some boutique distro, I would adamantly suggest not using it. Those tend to have short life-spans. Looking at Manjaro's site (https://manjaro.org/features/usercases/gamers/) it doesn't look like Manjaro itself is doing anything special. I have zero personal experience with Manjaro, but from what I understand it's billed as an easy-to-use version of Arch. It's a rolling-release on a week delay that's supposed to help alleviate problems with running bleeding-edge software. Ignoring all the political reasons for me to hate Manjaro, I can't, in good conscience, suggest it to a beginner. I see it as more of an intermediate distro. If someone here with Manjaro experience has opinions, I'd defer to them, but some of the things I've read don't seem very optimistic: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gami...ould_we_recommend_manjaro_as_a_user_friendly/

Ubuntu is definitely the most mainstream distro. It's incredibly user-friendly and it's the distro native Linux games actively target and support (though with increasing popularity containerization such as Snap, Flatpak and Steam's Pressure Vessel this might change in the future). There are definitely valid complaints against Ubuntu within the Linux community, but they are absolutely trivial compared to what you're used to on Windows. If you're absolutely against using Ubuntu, I'd suggest one of it's derivatives. I personally use Pop!_OS which I'd argue is more gamer friendly than Ubuntu, but it uses the standard GNOME desktop environment (and is difficult to change) which would be a big departure from what you're used to on Windows. I frequently see Linux Mint suggested for Windows users because it's supposed to be an easier transition. There are other great distros like OpenSUSE and Fedora, but they have a strong focus on free and open source software (FOSS) that creates a few extra hurdles for absolute beginners.

Are you familiar with virtual machines? My suggestion to you is to download and try out a bunch of distros in a virtual machine. Download Manjaro, Linux Mint, Ubuntu and anything else that looks interesting. Play around with them. Make sure the non-gaming software you need either works or that you can find alternatives. Unfortunately, gaming in a virtual machine is shit, so you won't be able to get a good feel for gaming that way. Once you find one you like try dual-booting. I think it's important to keep your Windows installation so you can still fallback on it if you have trouble running something in Linux. It's how I started when gaming was terrible on Linux. Hopefully, you'll find yourself booting into Windows less and less as you gain more experience and Linux gaming continues to mature. The biggest thing that will kill your Linux experience and drive you back to Windows is if you dive in too deep, too early and get overly frustrated.

One more question, though - is MODDING more troublesome on Linux?

I don't have a whole lot of experience here, but I think it largely depends on the game. If it's just dropping files into folders, it's no problem. It just might be a little tricky finding the correct folders if you're unfamiliar with Linux, but you can find the answers online easily. If it requires an installer, it's a little trickier. You might be able to find Lutris scripts (like those for Diablo here: https://lutris.net/games/diablo/), but you might have to fuck with Wine a bit. There's a native version of Vortex Mod Manager in the works, but in the meantime it runs great in Wine. Largely, it sounds like modding works, but it might be more challenging than what you're used to on Windows.

 

[Mexi]

You can download a Linux terminal off of the Windows store and use a WSL2 or whatever it's called to run Linux. Can I ask why you even need Linux? Linux is fucking garbage. I wouldn't use it at all, but with how code is and large datasets, you need it to run anything. I use a WSL2 or whatever, but I think I'm going to need to go the dual boot route because of the security issues I'm running into. There is only a small error, but it works really fucking well. Only fucking reason I have that abortion on my computer is because the school's super computer sucks at installing anything. You need all the sudo codes, and the team working the server are so paranoid about it. Anyways, I wouldn't ever recommend it to anyone. Linux is a fucking dumpsterfire.