Full time Linux user and gamer?

[Aquinus]

The luck has more to do with how good the implementation of DX on Vulkan is now... I have heard good things though.

DXVK is pretty solid right now, not going to lie. It's probably a good time too because DXVK is pretty feature complete and it looks like it's about to go into maintenance mode.
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=DXVK-Possible-Maintenance-Mode

Steam's Proton uses it and outside of that, it's the reason why I can play D3 or StarCraft 2 again.

Edit: What's even better is that Philip Rebohle has started contributing to VKD3D to translate DX12 and with DXVK 1.5, D9VK was merged in to handle DX9. So that's DX9, 10, and 11 support through DXVK.

 

[R-T-B]

Elite Dangerous aparently even works now, which is what has me switching over. Nice.

 

[Aquinus]

Elite Dangerous aparently even works now, which is what has me switching over. Nice.

It wasn't when I tried a few months ago. I got the launcher to open and the application to begin starting, but that was all. I'm totally going to figure out if that's true right now.

Edit: It still doesn't work for me, but I've also fiddled with the game a lot in order to try to get it to start. I might need to wipe the WINE config for it and try again.

 

[R-T-B]

It wasn't when I tried a few months ago. I got the launcher to open and the application to begin starting, but that was all. I'm totally going to figure out if that's true right now.

Edit: It still doesn't work for me, but I've also fiddled with the game a lot in order to try to get it to start. I might need to wipe the WINE config for it and try again.

I had it working months ago too but there were issues on planet surfaces. My only guess is something with your distros config... keep in mind the launcher is a .net mixed code nightmare and needs a lot of hackery via winetricks.

I also may have used proton, will find out shortly.

 

[lexluthermiester]

The luck has more to do with how good the implementation of DX on Vulkan is now... I have heard good things though.

Oh, I get you now! Can't remember where, but I've read the same thing.

 

[R-T-B]

Hey lookie it's a desktop:

I know some of you will say "ewww, KDE!" but honestly, it's not bad anymore (yes, it used to be awful). They've fixed it up a ton and I like it now. Gnome went to trash, anyways.

That's me fighting with a wine emerge in the background. Still a lot to do... I haven't even got steam on yet and it's Sunday. Dem source based installs...

 

[lexluthermiester]

I know some of you will say "ewww, KDE!"

Why? I like KDE. Never had a problem with it. Of course I'm one of those open minded types who look at different GUI's and thinks there is always someone who will like one or another and that's cool, to each there own. I personally lean toward XFCE, but I can happily use any of them.

 

[R-T-B]

Why? I like KDE. Never had a problem with it. Of course I'm one of those open minded types who look at different GUI's and thinks there is always someone who will like one of another and that's cool, to each there own. I personally lean toward XFCE, but I can happily use any of them.

KDE was much more bloated in the past. Sure, it had a lot of cool functions, but i couldn't use it until recently.

Just my opinion. I love what it is now.

 

[eidairaman1]

KDE was much more bloated in the past. Sure, it had a lot of cool functions, but i couldn't use it until recently.

Just my opinion. I love what it is now.

It was debloated compared to xfce.

I may start using a distro myself or reactOS or arcaos

 

[Solaris17]

I know some of you will say "ewww, KDE!"

nah bro, I like KDE. always use it with my suse installs.

 

[R-T-B]

It was debloated compared to xfce.

I may start using a distro myself or reactOS or arcaos

Yeah, can't deny xfce is superfast, but with an 8-core, I figured I could run something a tad bit heavier.

 

[lexluthermiester]

KDE was much more bloated in the past.

Guess I never noticed. I've always had beefier machines to run Linux on.

 

[R-T-B]

I mean the last time I properly ran it was KDE 4 (not even plasma) so I may be out of date by like, a decade too.

 

[Deleted member 6693]

Can Proton run on any Linux distro? Or is there a "favorite" distro to use with Proton?

 

[Aquinus]

Can Proton run on any Linux distro? Or is there a "favorite" distro to use with Proton?

Really just any distro that can run Steam. I've always used Ubuntu because most things just support it. Granted you need to makes sure that you have all of the vulkan libraries installed, but that's about it.

 

[Deleted member 6693]

I'll try ReactOS, although it is not Linux and still in alpha (the wiki says it has been in development since 1996, looooong alpha period )

 

[Aquinus]

I'll try ReactOS, although it is not Linux and still in alpha (the wiki says it has been in development since 1996, looooong alpha period )

You can, but just keep in mind that it's intended to be a replacement for Windows and is kind of behind the curve in a lot of respects. I'm surprised that they're still pushing it forward.

This is the way I look at ReactOS. It's kind of like those smartphones that were trying to be both a phone and a tablet, but ended up doing neither well. If I'm going to be brutally honest, you're better off just going with well-supported Linux distro or just using Windows.

 

[birdie]

I am curious to know if anyone considers themselves more than just a light gamer and also a full time linux user. I can't seem to make the full time jump because too many games that I *might* play rely on .NET. I know Steam is pushing their new wrapper but still...

I've been a full time Linux user for over 20 years now but I game exclusively in Windows.

Even when native games are available for Linux they still don't feel/play like they feel/play in Windows for some reasons. I can't quite explain that but the feeling is there. Either it's down to latency, mouse sensitivity or something else.

Also, the number of triple-A games for Linux is just abysmally low and while Proton/Wine/DXVK exist, they incur quite a hefty performance loss and many games still don't work any in shape or form under them.

Proper performance/hardware monitoring and under/overclocking on Linux are just not there and most likely never will be.

Lastly, under Windows you have Fraps/HWiNFO64/MSI Afterburner/etc. and they just work. On Linux you don't have anything which can show an FPS counter in all games and I don't even want to talk about GPU/CPU use HUD. There's just nothing.

And don't get me started on everything else which is either broken, missing or doesn't work.

 

[Aquinus]

Also, the number of triple-A games for Linux is just abysmally low and while Proton/Wine/DXVK exist, they incur quite a hefty performance loss and many games still don't work any in shape or form under them.

Depends on the game. DOOM has almost native performance for me and I'll happily take a performance hit so I don't need to run Windows.

Proper performance/hardware monitoring and under/overclocking on Linux are just not there and most likely never will be.

Tell that to radeontop, lm-sensors and overclocking via pp_od_clk_voltage with amdgpu. Only thing that's faky is altering voltages on my particular Vega 64, a problem that not many other people seem to have I might add. Otherwise, it works just fine and I have no problem using a terminal to do these things and I have a bash script for applying my overclock.

Lastly, under Windows you have Fraps/HWiNFO64/MSI Afterburner/etc. and they just work. On Linux you don't have anything which can show an FPS counter in all games and I don't even want to talk about GPU/CPU use HUD. There's just nothing.

Not having an overlay from something like FRAPS really had zero impact on me choosing to not use Windows, but to each their own.

And don't get me started on everything else which is either broken, missing or doesn't work.

Sure. It's definitely not perfect but that's not the point. It's good enough where I was able to ditch Windows and not look back. Granted, I don't spend most of my time on my machine playing games, so gaming performance has always been a secondary concern for me. I used to dual boot with WIndows for the same reason and I cut my losses when a botched Windows 10 upgrade (for a second time,) caused Linux to not boot either because the NTFS partition on my RAID-5 didn't like getting mounted after an unclean shutdown and fixing that took WAY longer than it should have.

Since then I made the active decision to exclusively use Linux regardless of the gaming experience and that was the price I was willing to pay to cast off the shackles of WIndows. That's a cost that some people aren't willing to pay, but to me it's worth it. Now it's one OS for everything I do and to me, that's worth it. I'll be the first to admit that it's not for everyone and that my case is the exception, not the rule.

With that said, I dev in Linux and I run Ubuntu 18.04 on my work laptop as well, there is always that. So it's not like I'm an average user.

 

[birdie]

What's extremely annoying about Linux fans is that they will always weasel their way into saying that Linux is decent despite numerous showstoppers. And this shat, called "radeontop, lm-sensors and overclocking via pp_od_clk_voltage with amdgpu ... a bash script for applying my overclock" - 99.9% of people will just look at you in utter awe and tell you to <swear> off. In Windows you just install and play. In Linux you have to break your neck reaching half the usability and applicability and you also have to devote long hours into sorting everything out.

I don't know how much your time costs but considering that a Windows license (Windows 8 Pro) can be bought for as little as $10 from eBay, I'd say that using Linux is just not worth it unless gaming for you is playing a small number of carefully selected games for the rest of your life.

And to this day I haven't heard one half-decent argument against using Windows. Spying/tracking? FFS, there are multiple Windows utilities which will erase all spying entirely. Also, how many of you, privacy related geeks, don't use a smartphone or any cell phone for that matter since cellular operators are known to be tracking you all the time? What about numerous social network accounts you're using like Google, Facebook, Twitter and others which follow you on the net? OK, you don't have any of that and you are such an anti-geek, you only have a landline. What about all your friends who don't give a damn about privacy and who have your number in their contacts?

I'm sorry if I've come off rude. It wasn't my intent - I just wanted to be straightforward, honest and blunt.

 

[R-T-B]

Even when native games are available for Linux they still don't feel/play like they feel/play in Windows for some reasons. I can't quite explain that but the feeling is there. Either it's down to latency, mouse sensitivity or something else.

vkdx has really changed things IMO. I'd have agreed with you even a year ago. It's amazing what I am experiencing right now, it's a near equal experience when it works (and it usually does).

I'm presently running the windows version of Ark as an example because it runs better than the OpenGL linux native build, lol.

I will post some benches shortly.

In Windows you just install and play. In Linux you have to break your neck reaching half the usability and applicability and you also have to devote long hours into sorting everything out.

If I care'd, I'd not have choose Gentoo.

That said, I'm sure it could be fixed to be as idiot ready in the OC department if someone devoted enough time. Some have already tried, but they are missing the point a bit, IMO.

Either way, I got OC working with a simple x flag on nvidia. Haven't set it yet, but it's there. Fan speed control in another tab, too. Just in the driver. Too bad it doesn't support wayland, but that's on nvidia:

There are multiple Windows utilities which will erase all spying entirely

Yeah, kinda more like. The traffic still talks, it depends on host file edits. I just like an OS that does what I want, ethically speaking. Novel idea, I know.

 

[Aquinus]

What's extremely annoying about Linux fans is that they will always weasel their way into saying that Linux is decent despite numerous showstoppers. And this shat, called "radeontop, lm-sensors and overclocking via pp_od_clk_voltage with amdgpu ... a bash script for applying my overclock" - 99.9% of people will just look at you in utter awe and tell you to <swear> off. In Windows you just install and play. In Linux you have to break your neck reaching half the usability and applicability and you also have to devote long hours into sorting everything out.

Sure, but that's not where I'm coming from. As I said:

I'll be the first to admit that it's not for everyone and that my case is the exception, not the rule.

And to this day I haven't heard one half-decent argument against using Windows.

You mean other than automated upgrades bricking my installation twice before I jumped ship? I didn't have an issue with Windows 10 most of the time, it's just when I did that the consequences were huge.

Yeah, kinda more like. The traffic still talks, it depends on host file edits. I just like an OS that does what I want, ethically speaking. Novel idea, I know.

This. It's actually part of the reason why I use AMD for GPUs as well. I also like being able to make my machine behave exactly the way I want it to, but I'm weird like that.

 

[eidairaman1]

You can, but just keep in mind that it's intended to be a replacement for Windows and is kind of behind the curve in a lot of respects. I'm surprised that they're still pushing it forward.

This is the way I look at ReactOS. It's kind of like those smartphones that were trying to be both a phone and a tablet, but ended up doing neither well. If I'm going to be brutally honest, you're better off just going with well-supported Linux distro or just using Windows.

Windows 10 and 8 come to mind for that

Sure, but that's not where I'm coming from. As I said:



You mean other than automated upgrades bricking my installation twice before I jumped ship? I didn't have an issue with Windows 10 most of the time, it's just when I did that the consequences were huge.

This. It's actually part of the reason why I use AMD for GPUs as well. I also like being able to make my machine behave exactly the way I want it to, but I'm weird like that.

I noticed firmware updates are coming through WUD, thats another sin ms has committed

 

[Aquinus]

I noticed firmware updates are coming through WUD, thats another sin ms has committed

Nah. I get firmware updates just from `sudo apt upgrade`'ing my machine. Honestly, firmware updates aren't bad. What's "bad" (depending on how you look at it,) is how Intel's can harm performance to patch vulnerabilities. That's not a firmware or MS problem, that's an Intel problem.

 

[eidairaman1]

Nah. I get firmware updates just from `sudo apt upgrade`'ing my machine. Honestly, firmware updates aren't bad. What's "bad" (depending on how you look at it,) is how Intel's can harm performance to patch vulnerabilities. That's not a firmware or MS problem, that's an Intel problem.

The last firmware update for a notebook of mine forced w10 into S mode which i didnt know about till i couldnt open a pdf reader.

W7 or Linux for me since They wont fix W10.