1y ago

State of gaming on linux?

I used linux in the past, both privately and work-related, but the last time was over 10 years ago, so I'm a bit out of touch. I am in need of a new PC, but it'll be a good year before I have the funds, so for now I am making due with an i5 7500 and a gtx 1660. I do have 32 GB so there's that. I finally feel confident enough to make the permanent switch to linux from windows as all of the programs I use are either available on linux or have a good/better equivalent. The only thing I fear will hold me back is games. I know Steam has Proton now which will run most games, but how does it compare? The games I play most are Skyrim (heavily modded) , RDR2, Witcher 3, Transport fever, Civilization, Crusader kings 3 and Cities Skylines (uninstalled atm waiting for 2). I'm on the fence to either wait until I can afford a new PC and dual boot or make the switch now and deal with a few gaming problems. Thing is, what kind of problems may I expect? Anyone able and knowledgeable to give me some advice?

EDIT: Wow, those are a lot of replies; thank you everyone! You really helped me. I will make the switch sooner rather than later.

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158 comments

It depends. Do you play stuff with kernel level anticheat? If no, then the current state of Linux gaming is, by and large as good as, and occasionally better than, Windows - even on games that don't run natively.
Proton is astounding, and the state of Wine is amazing compared to 10 years ago (and it wasn't bad then). Get Bottles or Play on Linux going, plus Steam, and there's very little you can't do…
Except kernel level anticheat.
(To be 100% transparent, there are other issues. I have a couple games I can't get to run reliability, but they're all obscure edge cases. But like 90% of stuff without anticheat just works at this point.)
Edit: proofreading
- EAC works in Proton, as long as the developer takes the time to configure it right.
  
  Isn't it even more or less just a checkbox for them (game developers) to enable? That's what I read when I first heard about it getting Linux compatibility, but maybe it was hyperbole.
  
  Its not exactly a checkbox. Basically, the developer has to choose the right version of the EAC library to include in their build. Older versions didn't support Linux. And with the new library versions there is the "with Linux support" and "without Linux support" varients.
  Some games still build with the older version for compatibility reasons, some will stick with the older version for spite reasons. Some games update to the new version but use the non-linux-support new version.
- To be fair I could not even get Valorant running on Windows. Anti cheat like that is complete and utter bs and will make me never play any game with it. Just like I don't buy a game until they remove Denuvo.
  
  I wouldn't buy a game that uses Denuvo even if I was running Windows. That stuff's basically malware.
- I haven't used proton recently because I replaced my Linux laptop with a Windows one (changed jobs, didn't need it anymore). But when I did play games with Proton a lot, around 2020, I sometimes had issues with cutscenes not showing at all. Just black screens for cutscenes on some games. Did that get fixed?
  
  This can usually be fixed by using GE-Proton.

158 comments