How does Proton/Steam Play fare for Intel integrated graphics?

[L7vanmatre]

My laptop has it, but most games it can't seem to run, while others seem to report being able to do so. I'm wondering if it's just bad/little support for my integrated graphics (specifically, Intel HD 4400), a bad setup of Proton on my end, or something among the lines of that.

I'm not sure if I should post here or at "Intel Graphics Cards", so, sorry if I should have posted there.

But I *can* run games like Geometry Dash, and Dark Souls 1 starts up, but ingame has a black screen. Most other games just start up then die.

Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon by the way.


The reason why I ask is because my main PC can handle gaming, and I want to switch to Linux on it, but I want good gaming support first, is all.

[L7vanmatre]

Originally posted by Rogue:

I don't think the Intel HD 4400 supports Vulkan. So for any games that leverage Vulkan-based DXVK to translate DirectX 10 or DirectX 11, you will need to use OpenGL-based wined3d instead.

Ohhhhhh.

Whyyyy did I not think of that. Ugh. The 4th gen Intel stuff was made before Vulkan was released. Sorry, I feel stupid now, haha.

Originally posted by Rogue:

Add this environment variable to the game's launch options:

PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%

Or rename user_settings.sample.py to user_settings.py and add the env variable there.

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton#runtime-config-options

Thank you! I'll try this!

[L7vanmatre]

Originally posted by Rogue:

One more thing, Linux Mint 18.3 is based on Ubuntu 16.04, you might want to upgrade to Linux Mint 19 which is based on Ubuntu 18.04. You will benefit from having newer versions of Mesa, LLVM, and the kernel. You can also add the Padoka Stable PPA to get the newer versions of Mesa and LLVM.

Yeah, I read something like that in another place. Been wondering on whether or not I should though, since I've also read "it might be best if you're on older hardware that you stay on Mint 18.3". 6GB of RAM, and Intel 4th gen i5 on a laptop-grade CPU. I know it's a bit dated, so I've been a bit scared of upgrading because of that.

But if I do upgrade, should I do 19 or 19.1, do you know?

Originally posted by Rogue:

Add this environment variable to the game's launch options:

PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%

Or rename user_settings.sample.py to user_settings.py and add the env variable there.

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton#runtime-config-options

I have a question actually. What's the significance of %command%?

[Aoi Blue]

Because Intel has been tuning their graphics chips and Mesa Stack for Vulkan since before Vulkan was even released, all chips that can use Vulkan actually perform relatively good with it (when you compare it to how they perform in OpenGL).

Don't expect miracles, and since it's still a rather immature translation layer, DXVK will still run slower than native Window. This is not to mention that you are still using an under-powered integrated GPU that is designed for efficiency, not speed.

That said, it will probably perform much better than the WineD3D stack, more than enough difference to be substantial.

[L7vanmatre]

Originally posted by Aoi Blue:

Because Intel has been tuning their graphics chips and Mesa Stack for Vulkan since before Vulkan was even released, all chips that can use Vulkan actually perform relatively good with it (when you compare it to how they perform in OpenGL).

Don't expect miracles, and since it's still a rather immature translation layer, DXVK will still run slower than native Window. This is not to mention that you are still using an under-powered integrated GPU that is designed for efficiency, not speed.

That said, it will probably perform much better than the WineD3D stack, more than enough difference to be substantial.

I'm not really going for any sort of performance, just stability and actually working properly (up to what's at speed with others, anyway). It doesn't on this, which is why I ask if it's something I did or something out of my control. I want to mainly use Linux on my main PC but lack of game support is the last thing holding me back, which is why I'm watching Proton. So if most of the games I tried (MGSV, Yakuza 0, Mabinogi, etc.) actually would work on my main PC, I'd definitely be happy and just might switch. "Might" because of games with EAC like Paladins and Watch Dogs 2, which counts in the "game support" I mentioned earlier.

I assume VMs aren't that performance friendly as well.

[L7vanmatre]

Originally posted by Rogue:

Originally posted by L7vanmatre:

Yeah, I read something like that in another place. Been wondering on whether or not I should though, since I've also read "it might be best if you're on older hardware that you stay on Mint 18.3". 6GB of RAM, and Intel 4th gen i5 on a laptop-grade CPU. I know it's a bit dated, so I've been a bit scared of upgrading because of that.

But if I do upgrade, should I do 19 or 19.1, do you know?

I would upgrade to the latest version. Don't worry about the system requirements, when they say "older" they really mean it. Here are the system requirements for Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon:

• 1GB RAM (2GB recommended for a comfortable usage).
  
• 15GB of disk space (20GB recommended).
  
• 1024×768 resolution (on lower resolutions, press ALT to drag windows with the mouse if they don’t fit in the screen).

Taken from: https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3597

Ahhh, I see. Alright, thanks!

Originally posted by Rogue:

Originally posted by Rogue:

I have a question actually. What's the significance of %command%?

It allows you to set an environment variable in the Steam launch options.

https://superuser.com/questions/954041/how-to-set-an-environment-variable-for-an-specific-game-on-steam-for-linux#980437

Ah, not sure what an environment variable is, but I might understand later. Been dealing with stuff today, but thanks for your responses!

[Aoi Blue]

For VMs, with with the VirtGL stack, or better yet SR-IO/V you can actually get half-decent performance.

SR-IO/V is supported by all Rx series cards, all Vega Series cards and some cards before that. On the nVidia side it is physically supported starting at the GTX 800 series, but vendor locked to only run on Quatro cards. I've heard there is a way around the vendor-lock, though.

It still performs better running Windows being the guest OS, rather than Linux being the Guest OS.

[L7vanmatre]

Originally posted by Aoi Blue:

For VMs, with with the VirtGL stack, or better yet SR-IO/V you can actually get half-decent performance.

Unfortunately I have no idea what that is, but I'll try to keep it in mind.

Originally posted by Aoi Blue:

SR-IO/V is supported by all Rx series cards, all Vega Series cards and some cards before that. On the nVidia side it is physically supported starting at the GTX 800 series, but vendor locked to only run on Quatro cards. I've heard there is a way around the vendor-lock, though.

I see. I'm considering getting something from the new AMD GPU lineup. Might be a good idea to get one then?

Originally posted by Aoi Blue:

It still performs better running Windows being the guest OS, rather than Linux being the Guest OS.

Sorry if I sound stupid, but what exactly do you mean by "guest OS"? The OS in a VM?

[Aoi Blue]

Originally posted by L7vanmatre:

Originally posted by Aoi Blue:

It still performs better running Windows being the guest OS, rather than Linux being the Guest OS.

Sorry if I sound stupid, but what exactly do you mean by "guest OS"? The OS in a VM?

Yeah, it's just what it sounds like it runs as a "Guest" on the OS that is the "Host".

You might want to search more information about VMs. Please note that anything more than about a year old won't contain information on the latest technology. Both VirtGL and SR-VIO are very new. SR-VIO has been around a bit longer, but mostly only in VM Compute servers.

SR-VIO is simply put where the resources on a single GPU are physically divided between several guest Operating Systems. This is Single Root - Virtual Input/Output.

nVidia mentioned they were going to make the RTX 2000 series have drivers capable of SR-VIO but they aren't exactly ones to keep their promises. There is also a known workaround. However, I generally see things like vendor lockdowns in a sour light.

It is clear that the "RTX LIghting" is yet another vendor lockdown feature. It may require CUDA but that's all. It likely would run on a GTX 790, as that is what nVidia first started developing the technology on.