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.
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Original /r/linux_gaming pengwing by uoou.
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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.
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.
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.
I don't think you need to be super flexible with Multiplayer as long as they aren't competitive games. Here's some multiplayer games I've played flawlessly in the last 12 months: Baldur's Gate III, Webfishing, Deep Rock Galactic, Atlyss and Stardew Valley. It really depends on the genre I think.
Yes.
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.
I'm playing Hogwarts Legacy and needed to tune one system setting to fix occasional crashes. That's it, and that's the most trouble I've had in a few years.
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.
Pewdiepie apparently confirms that it is, atleast according to his latest video and his comment in the comment section.
Could you link them? That would give a massive boost in getting more people to sign up for Linux.
For example: https://phtn.app/post/lemmy.ml/26299109
There are a couple of other posts, you'll find them quickly if you search for Pewdiepie.
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.
What about flipping the question. Making modern games available on more platforms?
Pretty much, yeah. Only thing not 100% yet are some of the more obscure peripherals. Example: Eye and head tracking. While sticks can and do work in Linux, it would be nice if VKB, Virpil, etc had native Linux calibration tools.
This illustration is triggering me
Get VR working without having to compile from source and it will be
VR is not mainstream gaming.
VR is a minority of a minority of a minority of gaming.
In addition to what others have said... It is?
I can plug in my index, open steam, and run VR games, just fine.
With how long VR has been around, I can still count on one hand the number of people I know that have an entry level Quest, let alone good VR gear. For that reason, I dunno if I'd include VR in the definition of mainstream.
Its not mainstream. probably never be mainstream... Just like 3d TVs.
Its a rich mans hobby.
the only reason the quest is "cheap" in comparison is because its facebook and when it comes to facebook.. you will always be the product. Its sold to you "cheap" compared to others, because they make that back and more on harvesting and selling the data they collect from you using it.
overwhelming majority of gamers use gaming to escape and relax. Jumping around a room exhausting yourself is kind of the antithesis to that.
Steam VR mostly works. It's one of the areas that takes a massive stinky performance hit, and there is no motion smoothing yet (somehow), but it does work. I've put thousands of hours into vrchat in it, played through all of Alyx, etc. all on Linux.
I recently switched my VR PC from Windows to Bazzite. No compiling necessary.
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.
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.
Not until they implement 3D Settings page in the Nvidia control panel, and improve upon HDR support. Do those two things, and I will finally stop having to dual boot.
Edit: And yes anticheat needs to be sorted as well, as others have pointed out.
That's nvidia's proprietary software, only nvidia can add stuff to it.
As for anti-cheat, kernel level anti cheat is not going to happen on Linux, nor should it (or continue being used in Windows)
And fix issues with anticheat.
Not yet, in order to be ready for mainstream gaming, the gaming experience has to be smooth (As in easy to install, Mod & patch)
Doesn't actually matter with the way Windows performs, these days.
What will itsfoss.com say? I'm on the edge of my seat
Yes
An article similar to this is posted by itsfoss every week.
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.
Great article and also outlines why I'm not switching today. I already have to deal with plenty of shit during my work hours, gaming is a way for me to relax and wind down. I don't want to think or deal with a sub optimal gaming experience, to then have to bug fix in my spare time.
You can say all the negative stuff you want about Windows, but it does run games well. The moment I can expect to have the same experience on Linux, I will switch, it's that simple.
From the article
gaming on Linux has come a long way in the past few years, and I can confidently say that Linux is ready for mainstream gaming in 2025.
So the writer concludes it works
Honestly this is already my daily experience with Windows : having to figure out why my controller doesn't work on a small selection of games when it's in wireless mode, having to install a third-party patch to run a game in an exotic definition, fix a game not launching on the right monitor even though it's set as main display, installing a mod just to bring controller support to a game that lacks it, etc etc. and I could go on all day. Personally my Windows gaming experience has been sub-par for years now, looking forward to switching (again) later this year.
I was having some issues when I updated to Nobara 41 as Hell Divers 2 failed to load in the textures. So it still has hiccups.
Hell Divers 2 has had a rocky relationship with Linux from the get go. Hopefully, as Linux gains market share, game studios start to include Linux testing.