As can be seen from the title, I had fun doing benchmarks using these 3 games, because they all have an internal benchmark that allows you to evaluate their performance. I did it for Windows 11, Arch Linux, EndevourOS and Manjaro all installed on my PC.
Performance is also good on the various Linux OSes I have used, and in one case they were even slightly better than Windows 11.
Well, let’s start with the technical specifications of my PC:
All 3 games ran at 1920x1080 resolution at the highest quality possible, but with AMD Fidelity Resolution and Ray Tracing turned off in all three games. V-Sync was disabled for these benchmarks. I used these settings on all 4 operating systems in the same way.
Here are the specifications of the various Linux operating systems I use:
I haven’t tried modding games outside of Minecraft(the process is the same as on Windows), but I know some people use Linux and they play modded Skyrim. I think it’s possible to mod these games, but a bit of a pain in the ass to set up compared to Windows, yeah.
Depends on the game and how you have to install the mods, I’ve really wanted to use the Tale of Two Wastelands mod again for Fallout 3/NV but it seems that the easiest solution on their forum is still to do the install on windows (either another machine or a VM) and copy over the data but I really can’t be bothered to go through that. However the main mods I use in both those games work quite well.
Yeah. It’s possible of course but it’s PITA right now.
I gave up doing Viva New Vegas and just installed JESawyer mod and xNVSE (which I just extract to my game folder and somehow works and idk why) - it’s has noticeable performance issue but fucc it.
I guess the reason why some mods are just a drag, drop and replace all files job is because such mods directly modify the game’s contents? As for the performance issue, perhaps try Wine-GE or Proton-GE
Yes, they are quite similar to each other, there are no big differences.
I would see it differently however. You can play with the same performance you have on Windows (or slightly lower, so much so that you ONLY notice it instrumentally, i.e. via benchmark) even on Linux without problems. There are still those who think that you can’t play on Linux, or that Windows is the only choice for gaming, well from what I have seen this is absolutely not the case. In short, long live Linux!
The only flaw at most is that modding on Linux can be a bit more complicated to do than on Windows (it always depends on what needs to be done), and in some cases on Linux it doesn’t work or you have to do several “turns” to do it work.
I think it’s important to note that OP chose Arch-based distros only, with EnOS and Arch being practically the same and Manjaro lagging a little bit behind in terms of updates.
Yes I think there have only been a few games I have not been able to eventually get running in my collection and often I will go back and retry them again from time to time with a different approach and more and more seem to work.
100% there are also some guides out there to help with this and a few tools that have been made for Linux to get them working in some cases.
Well, I’ve played various games, from Mass Effect saga to Baldur’s Gate 3 (all from steam), or even Starcraft 2 (with battle.net installed on lutris). I didn’t have any major problems, in fact they ran very well.
I haven’t tried modding on Linux, I don’t usually do it, but at the moment if I had to do it, I’d probably stick to Windows.
On Linux with The Sims 3 (steam version) I tried to enable the function of downloading packages from the The Sims 3 Exchange site via the game launcher (it is a function that allows you to download additional material and install it in the game), which on linux in the steam version does not work by default (even with the ea version it has problems, but perhaps it is easier to enable it). Unfortunately, although there is some guide on the matter, I was unable to make that functionality work. For the rest the game starts and works well even on Linux.
I doubt it’s proton problem, since it’s case specific (whenever explosion happened and especially explosion indoor). The mods I currently use can be used by simply drag and drop it to Data folder thankfully. I just need the JESawyer mod to work, I don’t need any other mod, but usually I at least mod to stabilize the game.
Not to cherry pick and isolate this statement, but they’re not completely wrong. I almost exclusively play cRPG games and some of the game I currently test (because they’re in early access) doesn’t work as well as it does in Windows.
The rule of thumb is, if you like to play new game Day 1 on Linux, prepare for rough experience.
Also yes, Modding. It’s not user friendly, like at all, at least on games I am playing right now (could be just my current distro).
yeah, game that doesn’t require modding is usually work out of the box with proton these days.
I remember a while ago that somebody here worry about how Native game for Linux would be reduced because proton got too good… It’s practically a reality now I think.
Dare I say 95% of the game is “Just work ™” on Linux via Proton. Thanks to Steam Deck, hopefully this continue and made Linux overall more preferable option if somebody got tired paying for overpriced adware OS.
I haven’t tried any particular titles, or at least the ones I’ve tried haven’t given me any major problems. When I install games on it, I always take a look at protondb.
Thanks to that I started Kerbal Space Program without going through the launcher for example, and the game works. For the rest, I installed, put the compatibility (usually proton experimental, but sometimes proton-ge 8.25) and started games without too many problems.
Yes, it’s true. However, we need to see if those who are new to Linux can follow them, because there is a risk that they will break something rather than fix it by trying to follow the guides. Usually you need to have gained some experience on Linux, to at least avoid causing trouble. XD
Well, I generally play full games, so out of Early Access.
Aside from Baldur’s Gate 3 which I’ve been playing since d1 on linux, all the other games I’ve played so far have been out for a while. The only new one I installed recently is Horizon Forbidden West, but I’d like to see how it goes (even though it’s already been patched several times).
I must say that if for the early access issue I can’t say why I didn’t try, it happened to me that some updates of a game gave me problems on Linux while not on Windows: for example the update to version 2.0 of Cyberpunk 2077 caused me problems with the controls (it was a known bug that had been encountered by other players, but I imagine all Windows users), so much so that it became unplayable on Linux, while with the same version on Windows I had no problems. At the next developer fix I was able to go back to playing CP2077 on Linux. Okay, but this can still happen.
Yes I do this and also check out Lutris scripts (I don’t use it, I just search the site and see what they have used in them to get the game running) and Winehq (although a lot of information on there is pretty old it can give a useful starting point).
True that, I’ve actually tried different approaches and not used some of these tools just because some of the guides can be quite confusing. I generally only mod games to either get better performance or QOL features that improve things like UI or controls. I like that there are a few cases like Deus Ex with the The Nameless Mod are actually nice and easy to install through Steam.
@smokey
It took a bit of time, but I figured out a nice way to mod fallout 4 on steam with mod organizer 2. It’s easy to backup, doesn’t mess up anything. You just need protontricks, a manifest file and a command line modification. If you guys interested I can write it down.
Another thing you can try is https://github.com/an0nfunc/ALHP with endeavour, it needs different compile flags for proton to be compatible with dx11 games, if you’re interested I can share it.
Or try some of the distros geared towards gaming/performance like cachy OS and garuda both are Arch based, also nobara which is based on fedora. I’d be surprised if they don’t offer some improvements or even put you over the windows numbers.
I don’t have patience for benchmarking, but I use eOS with alhp v3 and compiled proton-ge with the zen kernel and it does feel different.
