how's linux gaming?

[Mathwhiz]

what are your thoughts on gaming with the penguin? preferred distro? is it a "windows killer"?

[Omega]

It can game just fine. With the added benefit of not constantly being harrased by Windows.

Only thing of note is agressive kernel-level anti-cheat common in the most popular multiplayer titles, it may prevent certain games from running. But this mostly affects the likes of Fortnite and Call of Duty.

[luciferous]

Even if a game can't run on Linux, you can likely run it in a Windows VM

[sandokanski]

It's fine. It looks like this:

> You awaken in a dimly lit **ROOM**. The air hangs heavy with the scent of dust and something vaguely metallic. A single **TORCH** flickers weakly on the north wall, casting long, dancing shadows.

> To the **NORTH**, a crumbling **ARCHWAY** seems to lead further into the unknown. To the **EAST**, you can make out the faint outline of a **WOODEN DOOR**. The **SOUTH** wall is solid and unyielding. To the **WEST**, the room ends abruptly in a pile of **RUBBLE**.

> You feel a dull ache in your digital core. Your primary directive circuits are functioning, but a faint static clings to your data streams.

> What do you do?

> Options:
> LOOK
> INVENTORY
> NORTH
> EAST
> WEST
> SOUTH
> EXAMINE TORCH

[Omega]

Originally posted by luciferous:

Even if a game can't run on Linux, you can likely run it in a Windows VM

You can't, unless you GPU passthrough, which is very difficult to set up.

[AbedsBrother]

Originally posted by Mathwhiz:

what are your thoughts on gaming with the penguin? preferred distro? is it a "windows killer"?

1 - better than it's ever been, literally. Still not as good as Windows b/c Linux still has issues w/ anti-cheat compatibility.
2 - Mint. Or, if you're a more advanced user, Arch KDE.
3 - depends on your use case. It can be, esp. for casual users - internet browsing (Firefox & Brave), documents & spreadsheets (Libre office), photo editing (G.I.M.P.), video recording (OBS) & editing (Da Vinci Resolve), single-player games. If your computer habits check all those boxes, yes, Linux can be a "windows killer." If you use pro-level software, like anything by Adobe, well, good luck getting the software to run, you'll need it. If you want to play Fortnite, you're SOL. So it really depends on what you use your PC for.

[KalGimpa]

flippin awesome

been windows free for 3 years

proton is getting better and better

fortunately i have not been caught up with the mmo anticheat problem

even when there is a little hiccup, i have been able to find a way to play all of my games

that includes gog and others by adding them through steam and using proton

[Electric Cupcake]

https://www.protondb.com/

Almost always plays better than in Windoze. In cases where it doesn't work in Linux, it's because the developers deliberately sabotaged it and want to deny themselves sales (♥♥♥♥ you, R*)

[A&A]

It's mostly good.

[luciferous]

Originally posted by Omega:

Originally posted by luciferous:

Even if a game can't run on Linux, you can likely run it in a Windows VM

You can't, unless you GPU passthrough, which is very difficult to set up.

A pain to set up, sure. But I wouldn't call it "very difficult" when there's step by step guides one google search away. Most of the work has already been laid out by people more clever than you or me.

[AmaiAmai]

Originally posted by Mathwhiz:

what are your thoughts on gaming with the penguin? preferred distro? is it a "windows killer"?

No unless you know what you are doing.

It's always worth trying, but if you run into an issue good luck. That's because some hardware, like laptops contain proprietary switches that need to be supported in order for you to do things like GPU passthrough or fully access the GPU's capabilities.

I was going to talk about the technicality of it , but no one cares.

[HIVEmind]

the older the computer the better it is for linux

[sandokanski]

Originally posted by Omega:

Originally posted by luciferous:

Even if a game can't run on Linux, you can likely run it in a Windows VM

You can't, unless you GPU passthrough, which is very difficult to set up.

That was not hard at all, compared to making something install and boot on my PC. Windows wouldn't do it. Even most Linux distributions wouldn't do it.

[HypersleepyNaputunia]

Couple games wont play because anticheat
League of legends cant play
Most other games work
Less fps in tekken 7 than win for me

[Haruspex]

95% of the time, it's fantastic, especially if you have an AMD GPU. Most games work about the same as on Windows. Some games run a little better than on Windows. If you like to play older games, running them on Linux via Proton often works better with less hassle than on modern Windows.

4.5% of the time, it might require a little bit of tinkering and fiddling to get things working. Maybe a different version of Proton, or maybe you need to use Protontricks to install some Windows DLL or runtime thing. If you have a little patience and can Google things and follow instructions, you won't have any problems.

That remaining 0.5% of the time though, whether it be due to some incompatible anti-cheat for a multiplayer title, or just a game that doesn't yet play well on Proton, it can occasionally have you crawling back to Windows. It's for this reason that I keep both Linux and Windows machines available. However Proton is constantly being developed, and the ultimate goal is for 100% of all games on Steam to work, so maybe one day we won't need Windows at all.

[Chaosolous]

I've been using Linux Mint Cinnamon since ~January.

I haven't had any games not work.

Some games work a lot better.

Some require a bit of tinkering (nothing difficult, basically just chose an option from a drop down menu) to get working, but they work.

Modding is... well you have to do it manually in a lot of cases, so that sucks, but otherwise, gaming on Linux is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ great.

http://www.ProtonDB.com to check the Linux status of Steam games. You can sign in with your Steam account and get a summary of your entire library if you want, to see what games you own and how they stack up on Linux.

Out of my 200+ games, only the ones with strict anti-cheat don't work, which is like 3 or 4 games that I don't play anymore anyway, even before switching to Linux.

Emulation is fine too, if you do any of that.

AMD is friendlier with Linux than Nvidia, so keep that in mind. I use Nvidia and haven't had issues, but you definitely can.

Your Distro of choice also affects your gaming experience on Linux as well. Depending on your hardware, you may want to use one Distro over another.