Its mostly there if your ready to dump your League addiction. Proton Db has guides for the games that don’t just work first try and most of the fixes are select a different launch option from a drop down in Steam.
Ironically, from what I understand (haven’t done direct comparisons myself), a lot of games written for windows run just as well or better on linux.
DOTA 2 is just noteworthy to me because it’s an exception to the “other than competitive games” exception. And while I can’t say for sure that no one is hacking on there, I have yet to see any blatant cases of it (though admittedly it might be difficult to tell in a game where it’s normal for some players to snowball significantly over others).
Ironically, from what I understand (haven’t done direct comparisons myself), a lot of games written for windows run just as well or better on linux.
Yes, Wine/Proton translates DirectX calls to Vulkan calls, and Vulkan is so efficient that native Windows games sometimes run better on Linux than they do on Windows.
I discovered that Helldivers 1 ran fine on Linux despite having an anti-cheat, because when the anti-cheat fails to launch the game just says “fuck it” and runs anyway. Though other games like PUBG refuse to run when their anti-cheat fails. I love PUBG but not so much that I’m willing to let some shady publisher from the other side of the world run unknown and unrestricted code at the lowest level of my home computer just to play it. That will never be a worthwhile trade.
Everyone will have a different experience based on their hardware, distro, and game preferences; But for me Linux has been a far less headache-inducing gaming platform than Windows literally for years at this point.
I have a gaming PC which I planned to setup a linux distro on for almost 2 years now. I just need to find the time to choose which distro, then debloat it, get the wifi, speakers, keyboard working, then install the required Nividia drivers, then optimize it and study wether OC its bios is worth it or no, then test optimal settings and compatibility, then compare my benchmark FPS results to similar ones on the internet, then open Steam and fucking game on brother lets go!
I had this mindset for about 2 decades, from when I first played around in OpenSUSE and Compiz back in 2005 up to 2024 when I finally switched because of Windows 10 being put out to pasture by Microsoft. But since I’m now in my early 40s and no longer play competitive games as I used to 15 years ago, I’ve had zero problems with Linux and gaming.
So I totally understand your mindset as I too once thought the same.
Problem with waiting is of course that developers don’t favor linux due to lack of people on linux playing game, so it’s a vicious circle:
not playing on linux because it’s not well supported by games
game devs not making games for linux because not enough players are there.
To be fair, I did find a few very early windows 98/XP’ish games or so hard to get going. There was a period where developers tailored the games very specifically for the OS. But they’re fairly rare.
One day, Linux will be ready for a no-headaches gaming PC. Genuinely looking forward to it.
Its mostly there if your ready to dump your League addiction. Proton Db has guides for the games that don’t just work first try and most of the fixes are select a different launch option from a drop down in Steam.
Though on that note, I started playing a lot of DOTA 2 on linux without issue.
It is native on Linux, just like most of Valve’s catalog, so it should run as well as running a Windows game on Windows.
Some games run worse natively on Linux, because they fall back to some badly optimized OpenGL renderer.
Ironically, from what I understand (haven’t done direct comparisons myself), a lot of games written for windows run just as well or better on linux.
DOTA 2 is just noteworthy to me because it’s an exception to the “other than competitive games” exception. And while I can’t say for sure that no one is hacking on there, I have yet to see any blatant cases of it (though admittedly it might be difficult to tell in a game where it’s normal for some players to snowball significantly over others).
Yes, Wine/Proton translates DirectX calls to Vulkan calls, and Vulkan is so efficient that native Windows games sometimes run better on Linux than they do on Windows.
I’m deeply sorry for your loss.
Except games with shitty anti-cheat like Battlefield. Those are just unplayable.
Good.
I discovered that Helldivers 1 ran fine on Linux despite having an anti-cheat, because when the anti-cheat fails to launch the game just says “fuck it” and runs anyway. Though other games like PUBG refuse to run when their anti-cheat fails. I love PUBG but not so much that I’m willing to let some shady publisher from the other side of the world run unknown and unrestricted code at the lowest level of my home computer just to play it. That will never be a worthwhile trade.
already is for me!
Everyone will have a different experience based on their hardware, distro, and game preferences; But for me Linux has been a far less headache-inducing gaming platform than Windows literally for years at this point.
Yup
I have a gaming PC which I planned to setup a linux distro on for almost 2 years now. I just need to find the time to choose which distro, then debloat it, get the wifi, speakers, keyboard working, then install the required Nividia drivers, then optimize it and study wether OC its bios is worth it or no, then test optimal settings and compatibility, then compare my benchmark FPS results to similar ones on the internet, then open Steam and fucking game on brother lets go!
Easy as that!
That day is today.
I had this mindset for about 2 decades, from when I first played around in OpenSUSE and Compiz back in 2005 up to 2024 when I finally switched because of Windows 10 being put out to pasture by Microsoft. But since I’m now in my early 40s and no longer play competitive games as I used to 15 years ago, I’ve had zero problems with Linux and gaming.
So I totally understand your mindset as I too once thought the same.
Problem with waiting is of course that developers don’t favor linux due to lack of people on linux playing game, so it’s a vicious circle:
I hope you enjoy linux when you’re ready.
I switched in my 20s when I stopped caring about competitive games, and I’m always surprised at how little effort it is to do the things I want to do.
To be fair, I did find a few very early windows 98/XP’ish games or so hard to get going. There was a period where developers tailored the games very specifically for the OS. But they’re fairly rare.
That’s tricky on Windows too, and generally you need a compatibility layer anyway (e.g. dosbox).
This post accurately described my life. High five brother.
Hell yeah! ✋