Linux gaming often requires tinkering if there is no native port of the game, and that is unlikely to change in the near future or ever. If you are not the tinkerer type you should keep a Windows partition for games. I’ve been playing exclusively on Linux for the last two years and almost always the bigger AA games require some adjustment and “Googling” But if it is the cost of my freedom and system that I enjoy to use everyday then I accept it.
I just bought a new NVME SSD as I need to reinstall Windows anyway. I am seriously considering at least dual booting Windows and Linux or just going full Linux at once. You guys in here and the Linux community on Lemmy show me that it is possible to escape Windows without too much trouble, even for a Linux newb like me.
Okay, I am not a complete newb, I have set up a few Raspberry Pis and do run a unRAID server, but I have never seriously used Linux as a daily driver on my desktop or laptop.
I am using single GPU VFIO passthrough and it’s good enough to game on, especially if you also pin your CPU threads in the VM. You will lose a little bit of performance but if you really need that extra power you can just switch to bare metal Windows using dual boot
If you don’t want the full bloated Windows I can recommend that you check out ReviOS
Interesting, never heard of ReviOS before. Is there a list of changes they’ve made? I looked thru their site and couldn’t see any such details their docs. I’d like to know what sets it apart from the likes of Tiny11 and Ghost Spectre Superlite etc.
I also considered using Tiny11 and Ghost Spectre but ended up with Revi because I don’t really trust Tiny11 or Ghost Spectre. It’s super easy for a malicious actor to include malware in those redistributed ISOs.
Of course the same thing can be said about Revi but Revi also offers the option to run their Playbook on a regular install of Windows. Or you could make your own custom Windows Playbook with Ameliorated.
Then there is also AtlasOS which, like Revi, is made using Ameliorated. I chose Revi because they had MS store and Windows defender still working and I like their custom tool. But according to Atlas developers, Windows Defender will be coming back in the next release.
In the end I guess what it comes down to is who you trust. The safest bet would be to debloat Windows yourself.
Using QEMU/Virt-Manager you can just create a new VM and instead of creating a virtual disk you just input the path to your drive manually. In my case it’s mounted at /dev/sdb
This will pass your full drive to the VM and Windows will just boot up like magic
Edit: If you already have a Windows VM I would assume you could just edit it and change from virtual drive to your full Windows drive instead. I don’t think you have to make a new one
Man thats great. Im not a devoted player but from time to time I just buy a game to have some fun. Last ones were Hellblade and Witcher 3. Also In thinkng of starting a new build from scratch so I might just jump into Linux and leave Windows behind for good. What is the ideal Linux flavour for gaming? Ubuntu? Mint? Whats it like with gpu drivers and what not?
If you have AMD GPU, it “just works” with pretty much any Linux distribution since the driver is included with the kernel.
If you have an NVIDIA GPU, you need to install the drivers from your distribution’s package manager. That’s usually pretty easy, at AFAIK Ubuntu and Mint detect it and prompt you to install them.
Once it’s installed, just update your system like normal and you’ll always have the latest drivers.
ideal Linux flavour
It doesn’t really matter, just pick something you like. If you’re using Steam, it’s basically the same experience regardless of the distro.
So pick something relatively popular so you have better options if you run into an issue. I recommend Mint, but plenty of others work well.
They work in general, especially if the games have no anticheat or 3rd party launchers. As an example, Sonys PC ports work very well on linux/proton. Linux gaming is great nowadays.
On launch day, 70/30 chance in favor. For example, Baldurs Gate 3 is working perfectly and it just came out. Some newer games may require Proton fixes that can take a couple days to roll out though.
The only time I’ve experienced a AAA game not working at launch or shortly after launch is when the developer explicitly goes out of the way to block usage on Linux.
Are you using the Steam version or the Rockstar version? Because the former should just work OOTB (unless something has changed recently). The latter can be a pain to get working.
I expected Civilization VI to run fine, and… it did. although anti-aliasing decided not to work.
It has a native version and sometimes they are missing features/performance. Try forcing Proton.
while Win 11 is basically “don’t worry, it’ll run!”
That hasn’t been my experience at all, even with gaming. But YMMV.
Can you list the issues because I don’t have problems with these titles on linux. Maybe fedora issues, they are notorious for not fixing issues. That’s why nobara was born
Technically you can, but anytime the shaders need to update it’ll download the full shader cache back to the boot drive so there’s a lot of back and forth
No its Just that at some point disk speed provides marginal improvments for most games, especialy since most games were designed with hdd drivers in mind . And sd vs ssd in steam deck are at that point. There are exceptions to that, but they are pretty rare ( alghtough i cant remember one right now but i know i watched one comparison where nvme disk provided actual reasonable benefit compared to sata so i imagine its even bigger with sd card ). So unless you play very specific game a lot that you know benefits from fast disk speed then it dosent really matter that much.
I used Linux before Steam came to Linux, those were the good old days where every game required tinkering in WINE. I actually didn’t have a Steam account until it came to Linux, and then I played only a handful of Linux-native games (Rocket League was one of them).
When Proton came to Steam, a whole new world opened up, and now I can basically assume a game will work and I’ll be right more often than not.
So from my perspective, it wasn’t a rocky start at all, but a gradual widening of my gaming library. I’ve since played a ton more games, so I’ve rewarded Steam for the effort.
I spent ages thinking that I’d found a title that didn’t work, getting barely double-digit frame rates in the 3D hub area.
And about two months later I realised that what I’d actually done was lock the laptop into low power mode with the CPU and GPU being way underclocked and locked to that regardless of load. One metaphorical switch flip later, 60+ fps.
Dropping by to throw some more praise onto the pile for Nobara Linux - it's my current distro and I have an AMD RX 6700 as well. All the games in my Steam library work great, including Baldur's Gate 3 (no tweaks necessary other than enabling the latest GE-Proton version). Unfortunately I haven't played any of the games you listed; my preferences lean mostly towards RPGs like Elden Ring, Path of Exile, Guild Wars 2, Valheim (with mods!), Enderal and so on.
Not the one you have been asking, but you can eigher install Lutris, and then install GW2 from there, or download it on Steam. Those are 2 fairly straightforward ways. If you have an ArenaNet account (rather than an account binded to Steam), but still want to use Steam as your launcher - just write “-provider Portal” in launch options.
It’s runs really well, actually. I don’t have any solid numbers because I wasn’t really into that side of it, but I had a fairly large base going, about 20 hours past endgame (no where near a megabase, though) and no performance issues.
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