gaming on Linux

[lilpaladin1]

The only troubles I've been having with Linux gaming is my Valve Index just refuses to connect to my computer properly and it's really annoying. Like I have my old Windows 11 partition for stuff like that but I really don't want to reboot into Windows and deal with all of that crap going on with needing to tell steam not to download everything again because my internal games drive is connected to both Windows and my Arch install.

Which is weird cause like it should just work, but I just can't seem to get either of my controllers and one of my base stations to connect to my computer and it's driving me crazy and I really don't want to use Windows more than I need to.

[Weasel]

Yeah, VR seems to be a place where Linux is still a pain in the butt, I'm going to guess because of the combination of very hardware-specific drivers and a comparatively small userbase.

And heck, it doesn't always work perfectly on Windows either, my Vive Pro has started acting like an extended desktop for some reason (which Steam VR notices, but seems unable to fix), which will sometimes result in the headset just going all red forever as something switches focus to said desktop and (I assume) it's trying to display itself.

[Raven]

I used to use EndeavourOS but for a while now, pretty much all Arch-based distributions have had a problem where they just ignore all keyboard input after I hit a volume key. Only way to get keyboard back is to reboot. So I've been using Windows 10 for a bit (regrettably) but my machine doesn't support 11. I'll give Bazzite a try, I hope it works better!

[dogbold_system]

I've been using a Raspberry Pi as my daily driver for about, what, maybe 7 years now? So, basically, I've only tried stuff that works natively under 64-bit Linux ARM (i.e. AArch64, deffo not to be confused with Arch Linux). And most of what I have installed can be found via Flathub's games section. So far I've just used RPiOS, though I may get around to trying other distros made for Pi.

how do you use a raspberry pi as a daily driver? don't you feel the low spec?

[Southpaw]

Site logged me out as I tried posting this so I lost it, hell

I've likely brought it up in the Linux thread but I use a Thinkcentre thin client as a sort of emubox connected to a TV and used strictly with a controller running Pegasus Frontend. It took a lot of tweaking to get it exactly the way I wanted for style and ease of use, and while I'm no developer, I can generally figure out issues regarding it by poking around enough. It's an ultra-fast menu for picking platforms and games, which then launches other programs to run them. I don't know how to make themes from scratch but there's plenty that are available already.

It might not be a perfectly clean experience, but it's industrially functional x3


As for the rest of Linux gaming in general on my main PC, between Steam and Lutris, I've been pretty blown away. Gaming has absolutely not been a compromise for me, nearly everything I want to try works perfectly fine except a few rare, highly obscure old PC games. But there's also so many old PC games that work easier on Linux than in Windows ironically enough.
The Thinkcentre runs CachyOS and my main PC runs Nobara.

[dogbold_system]

...and used strictly with a controller running Pegasus Frontend. It took a lot of...

have you considered ES-DE? it has some very nice themes by default, and has a bunch of support for metadata that can't be understated, and it has really good shuffle functionality to boot

[Berto, un huargo]

how do you use a raspberry pi as a daily driver? don't you feel the low spec?

Not when most of the computer hardware that I'd been using beforehand had been older x86 laptops that family members had upgraded from, from which I wiped Windows and installed Linux. That in itself was normally enough to give the laptop enough of a speed boost.

The Pi 3 was still too slow and with too little RAM, but the Pi 4 actually was about on par with the laptops I had at the time -- and 4GB RAM was actually quite workable (though I had to watch the number of browser tabs I had open), with 8GB RAM even moreso at the time. The Pi 5 is even better; the system and programs boot up super quick, even on a microSD card.

And none of what I've been using has been overclocked.

Granted, my needs are fairly basic:

• browsing,
• word processing,
• MicroPython programming via Thonny,
• pixel art making in (previously) Pixelorama and (currently) Libresprite,
• chiptune tracker sequencing via Furnace,
• and currently learning video editing in Kdenlive.

To play SuperTuxKart on full graphical settings on a Pi 5, I do have to put the internal resolution super-low, like 512*288 (20% of my 2560x1440 screen) for the most involved maps -- but, I mean, I played games on 3DS with a resolution of 400x240. I can deal with it.

[MetalPetal]

Ever since I started using Linux Mint as my daily desktop, it's made me a lot more aware and a lot more appreciative of developers who make Linux versions of games. I will certainly never release a game made myself again that doesn't run native on it.

[Tiro]

When I started at my latest job (Software Engineering) in 2018 they gave me an Ubuntu laptop which was also the first time I had used Linux. Since then I've added dual-boot to both my personal laptop and desktop (PopOS on both) and rarely boot into Win10 now.

Like others in this thread I've found Steam and Proton really easy to use, most of the games I play work perfectly well, but then I'm also not super interested in the kind of games which I see seem to struggle with support such as those with anti-cheat for in-game currencies / loot boxes ("surprise mechanics").

I've tried using Lutris a bit, and contributed to the installer script for Red Alert 2 / Yuri's Revenge there. But I still don't really have my head around WINE. I also started following a couple of indie game projects, and I've been considering applying to help them out particularly with Linux support. For the indie games that are using Unreal Engine / Unity / Godot I could at the very least try building for Linux

[Weasel]

A few months ago we updated my partner's PC, and I decided to turn the old one into a living room games PC. We have Steam Link set up (just using the app on our Android TV), but between the input delay, propensity to crash Steam and having controller issues when the streaming PC's Steam runs under Flatpak I'd rather have a lower spec rig run games directly.

So after replacing the previous GPU's thermal paste (no wonder it was prone to crashing, I had to chisel the old stuff off) I used the old PC and our left-over SSDs to clobber together a Bazzite rig; I had initially intended to use Steam OS directly, but it turns out it expects an NVMe drive to install to, so second choice it is.

Some minor setup complications later (for some reason the interface ran in software by default, so I had to sloooooowly dig through settings to turn GPU acceleration on. And I had to switch to desktop mode to add a second drive to Steam, for some reason Big Picture mode has issues there) and it's all up and running like a treat!

Re: using a Pi as your daily driver, I got a Pi400 as a Christmas present a few years ago and it makes for a pretty decent emergency tool! Raspbian runs very smoothly on it, it can do basic work stuff fine (I mean, many of us grew up using much weaker machines!), the only issues I remember having were a 60Hz display refresh limit and you really don't want to play videos above 1080p. I even did some basic messing about with Godot, it worked a treat.

[Southpaw]

I finally got Steam to launch on Fedora Asahi Remix today, and tried Team Fortress 2 and Squeakross in it. Pretty choppy but that's because Fedora cannot fully utilize the M1's capabilities. Neat that it works at all though because MacOS doesn't even let me install those!

[JarylGaren]

question:

what controller (if you use one) do y'all prefer when playing games?
I kinda swap between the Xbox Series X controller and the Dualshock 4 controller. the Xbox controller largely because more games just come with its button labels, but I kinda feel like the Dualshock feels a bit better? That, and I prefer its button labels, so when games support those, I try to use the Dualshock too.

[Weasel]

A Series S for most games (mouse&keyboard for first person games), and a Haute leverless for fighting games, because I can't play those with a stick to save my life.

[Sugar Meowth]

My partner and I both have 8bitdos. I've got the one with the SNES-style concave buttons that also has handles more like a Playstation controller that's pretty much ideal as an all-purpose controller. Partner has the Super Famicom styled one with no handles, though he still prefers some ancient logitech gamepad that feels terrible to me.

I'm an old man who never owned an XBox in his life, and my brain refuses to parse the ABXY layout as anything other than the Nintendo arrangement. Whenever games let me I switch to PS icons just so it's clear to everyone what button is what.

Also using a Hauteboard for fighting games though I started using the 8bitdo since my partner had a stick and it was the only way we'd both be able to play at first.

As a kid I used to wear out so many cheap gamepads until I bought a playstation 2 to USB adapter and only really stopped using it because it was pre-DirectInput and eventually things stopped detecting it properly half the time.