Comment by alkonaut | Hacker News Reader

Comment by alkonaut | Hacker News Reader

Gaming still isn’t ok on desktop Linux. Drivers can be 10% less performant or game-specific drivers arrive a month after the game. That’s enough to need a windows partition.

If one means “I can play 90% of games” or “I can play games at 90% the performance” or “I can play games but no recent multiplayer AAA titles” etc. then yes it’s a viable platform. But you need a big bag of ifs.

While there is great progress bringing gaming to Linux, it’s more and more looking like it’s going to make the bulk of games better while the biggest titles get even further from parity.

Reasons include

1) to play a AAA title you need a specific graphics driver built for the game where nVidia and AMD have made fixes and optimizations for the specific game. On windows this driver is obviously released in tandem with the game

2) An anticheat for a multiplayer FPS these days is a kernel level driver or more and more resembling a root kit. Not only are these not existing on Linux half of the time, the same type of person who prefers Linux usually doesn’t approve of these things being on their systems either.

So: gaming on Linux has advanced in the broad middle of games. Lots of titles now play “ok”. But is gaming on Linux really any closer to being a windows replacement if the biggest titles are still completely windows exclusive?

Everything here about gaming on Linux was also true of macOS in the past. For some AAA games this can still be true--e.g. some games have macOS versions that come out later than the Windows one?

One thing that's very clear is that gaming on macOS is very much better than it used to be. Any game that wants to be big will run on macOS, this part didn't used to be true. Windows still has the lion's market share of gaming but macOS has enough to be relevant, and even more mindshare.

We are currently in the days of Linux being a 2nd class platform for games. This is improving and will keep improving. Gaming on Linux is the best it's ever been. Not only is the freedom/openness of Linux good for gamers it's also good for game publishers in the abstract or long run--no third party that makes arbitrary rules.

So, we really have a choice here, we can say this is how it is and resign to it and use the platform of least resistance, or we can vote with our feet, dollars, and effort, and use something that can be be better. I'm not judging, I've used and continue to use multiple OSes, as it is certainly true that no single one can do everything you want.

As I'm writing this, I realize that I also use Android rather than iOS, not because it's better but because it's closer to being free-er. Linux has come a long way. Linux on desktop used to be as obscure as the phone OS/platforms that are not iOS or Android.

Thanks for making me rethink things through. I'll still use multiple OSes but with a clear commitment about which I use for what. And I'll reconsider my choice of phone platform. Maybe it's not unreasonable to use two--a phone and a small tablet?

I used to, 25 years ago, do “game AI” for Nintendo games, and I still enjoy having strong Chess and Go programs to play, but I have mostly fallen out of spending much time on games.

A few things have changed that: having an Oculus and an Oculus 2, and also getting Apple’s Arcade Games as part of the Apple meta family bundle. I now find myself spending 1 to 2 hours a week very much enjoying games. It is good to be back.

I've got 18 titles that I've played on Linux in the last 3 weeks since I left Windows. 11 in steam, some are via proton and some have native clients, the other 7 are installed via Lutris/Wine.

I've noticed performance problems in 1, an MMO that is notoriously unoptimized; I had performance problems with it on Windows, too.

I have a 2080 and I'm not pushing ultra high settings, so YMMV, but so far, so good over here. I do not see myself going back to Windows anytime soon.

After all, they won't support my "ancient" i7, so I'm not the one who ended this relationship.

I think the disconnect in the debate here is that many Linux users would happily tweak a little bit or give up 5-10fps in order to run Linux.

So when they say “no problem” it could mean that it runs at 100% the windows perf, or 90%. (Or even above in some cases, although more rarely). They wouldn’t know and most wouldn’t care. It runs fast enough because they see other positives with using Linux (freedom, cost, control, integrity, whatever).

But for users who really dislike Linux the problem is much more nuanced. I’m no big windows fan either - but I’ll pick the platform with the 10% higher FPS any day. With a 2080/3080/3090 one pays pretty good money for those last 10% perf after all.

I was going to give a nod towards what you're saying in my post but I decided against it. I was a competitive FPS player in the late 90s and early 2000s. Quake 2, Quake 3, and Rocket Arena 3. If I was still a competitive FPS player, I would remain on Windows and it wouldn't even be a question.

edit/ Also, by a stroke of luck, my 2080 is a developer card and I got it for free from a colleague with ties to NVIDIA. If I was still on a GTX 980, I may be singing an entirely different song right now.

AAA titles like Battlefield 2042? Recent AAA titles became so low quality and uninspired that I mostly skip them.

The true AAA titles made by indie developers come surprisingly often with Linux support.

And there is always Stadia and Geforce Now.

Then again, I am not the Hardcore gamer I used to be in the golden days...

Indeed AAA titles like 2042. And indeed zero people need to switch to Windows for 2042.

I still play BF4 and it’s still a great game - but even that 7 year old title is of course impossible (as far as I know) to play on Linux.

I loved BF4! It is a great game.

I did not try it myself but it is saved to run flawless[0] on Linux, but there is trouble with Origin, which can be fixed, but I guess that's a bit of bending the rules. Assuming you want the version where a non tech savy person can use a Linux desktop.

[0]https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iI...

bf4 and bf1 run great on latest proton on arch with an amd gpu

Your point 2 is what actually terrifies me. If Steam tries to push rootkits on my Linux machine, I'll uninstall it immediately and will be heartbroken.

Hopefully they make all the "anti-cheat" software optional though. Here's to hoping.

They could and should make it optional. But obviously when switched off one could only play in single player mode.

That's completely fine by me.

What would be even better is if the anti-cheats on Linux are not rootkits at all but I am pretty sure the AAA companies won't put that much attention to detail. To them Linux is just another sales funnel.

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