Hacker News Reader

Comment by butz | Hacker News Reader

Thanks to Valve Linux is single OS on my home computer. Most of the games from my medium sized Steam library are working, and few that does not work today, will probably be fixed in the future. Need to mention that I do not play new AAA titles or multiplayer games, but I enjoy older games, and some of those are broken on modern versions of Windows.

View on HN

Single player gaming, indie gaming, and retro gaming are all gaming niches where I'd say that a smooth Linux experience with widespread support is 'already there'.

It's really only the (crucial) segment of big, trendy multiplayer titles where support is still really hit-and-miss. If gaming is essential to your social network, Linux may not be ready for you to entirely switch over.

But if you're someone whose social hobbies lie elsewhere who enjoys solo gaming, there are way more excellent Linux games ready for you to enjoy than there is time for you to play them.

> It's really only the (crucial) segment of big, trendy multiplayer titles where support is still really hit-and-miss.

I was disappointed when post-purchase Psyonix dropped official Linux support for Rocket League. However, the Proton support has been rock solid, and I'm yet to encounter any crashes, even after updates. The Linux binaries occasionally had regressions after an update.

Yes, the only reason I keep a windows install around at all is for MW2, Tarkov and Hunt: Showdown with the boys.

From memory, Valve has also been supporting anti-cheat providers to port to Linux (or perhaps I have misunderstood and they will also run under Proton?), so there’s always a chance this will be solved in the next couple of years. The Steam Deck has been a great catalyst for that within Valve, it seems.

I think some publishers are reluctant because on Windows, those anti-cheat systems involve out-and-out rootkits, so allowing Proton support for them is seen as a relaxation of their 'security'— the Linux ports of those systems are userspace only, Proton and Wine don't have that kind of kernel access anyway, etc.

I think if, over time, it looks like those fears are unfounded and there are few practical problems with anti-cheat for competitive games on Linux, then probably some currently-hesitant publishers will relent and enable their games on Linux. But only time will tell, I suppose.

Afaik what I have seen with the steam deck the problems come mainly from old title that are probably not a priority or big new titles with anticheat or denuvo

I played all of cyberpunk shortly after release on a 3950x and 3060ti on Steam+Proton+Ubuntu with very little problems. It did get very laggy in busy areas on occasion, but that was the exception not the rule. Obviously newer hardware helped, but it seemed Valve hurt the gaming experience less than CD Project Red did!

Not really a gamer. Cyberpunk is probably my high water mark at 90 hours. It's so nice to not to have to make major concessions to run Linux.

Valve you have earned a customer with me.

That's really impressive, considering Cyberpunk had so many issues even on officially-supported platforms

Yeah same here, it was sort of satisfying watching all my nvidia/windows buddies whine about bugs while it seemed to run buttery smooth on my amd/linux machine after they all shilled windows/nvidia "ok man good luck gaming on that setup, i hope it works out". It did lol, i gained frames!

For a while Elden Ring ran better on Linux, due to game-specific patches on DXVK that fixed the stuttering seen on Windows.

I really wish they would take some time to make their VR hardware work properly on Linux. Right now it is pretty much just that holding me back. It is sad that they are the company that gives a shit about Linux gaming and the only one that has a working VR headset for Linux, but only barely.

Same, I got interested in trying it a couple years back and steam's support for games is what made it seem so accessible. I enjoy a mix of smaller games and AAA gaming but even it's AAA game support is impressive, I can play a good chunk of the CoD games and have been playing the recent battlefield and battlefront games with no issues. I've also been playing RDR2, GTA, DOOM, Borderlands, Cyberpunk, Shadow of War, Apex Legends, and many more with only a couple issues every once in a while, which is a tradeoff I'm willing to make. The only games I miss are Fortnite, Dead by daylight, and Rainbow 6 Siege, which I end up playing with friends using Nvidia Streaming.

I guess I struggle to understand why Linux and Windows are always pitted against each other. At this point, they're both good for different things and dual booting is relatively easy. Storage is cheap and Linux is small. I've been dual booting for the last 5 years and I'm totally happy. I use Windows for gaming/media and Linux for development. I wish everyone would stop trying to fight this war as if only one operating system is allowed to exist.

I had good luck even with newer titles. Right now I'm playing Red Dead Redemption 2, and it works like a charm, out of the box. Same flow as in Windows, even.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com