Linux gaming

[pianopraze]

I ran across this short video, and for some reason  ( ) I thought of this thread.  Apologies if you disagree.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/A3Sog281tZw

I 1000% agree!

That’s what Linux feels like now. 

I’m running a Windows game on a different operating system that was crashing all the time on Windows.

It’s only crashed 3 times. And only the game crashed, not the OS. Amazing.

I think i was having more crashes per hour on Windows than I’ve had in a week of playing it on Linux.

[FlyingClayDisk]

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Keep us posted.... I'm kvetching vicariously through you, by the way... 

"Kvetching" - Now there's a word I don't see very often!!!

I wondered if that was like "Verklempt"...and it kinda' is, sorta'. 
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I was happy on Win11 until Microsoft did an update that basically bricks my machine. I have to then do clean install and can only use Win11 one month until Microsoft overrides my "do not update setting" and updates and re-bricks my machine.

I’m documenting my real world experience trying to use Linux for gaming the real games I love.

So many of the Linux Gaming videos and articles are written by Linux experts and they brag about how good it is.  I’m documenting what happens when an average user tries.  Honestly documenting the good, bad and ugly.

I’m not cherry picking games to make Linux look good or bad, just documenting getting the games I actually play running on Linux.

sorry I don’t know anything about phones and my programming experience is BASIC  on TRs 80’S and commodore Vic 20s.

I've been 'wading' through your experience with LINUX here with much interest.  I'm not sure if my interest is limited to the enjoyment of NOT having gone through this experience myself, or if it is also a learning experience.  I do have a couple questions for you, but I'll get to those in a moment.  First, I wanted to tell you of my (dated) LINUX experience.

Back during the Windows XP days I picked up a copy of SUSI LINUX (which was a Novell product).  My goal was to learn something about LINUX before I waded into the downloading of tarballs (or whatever they're called) from the web.  Yes, it was a paid version, but my hopes were that it would be a good starting place to do some basic skills development.  I created a dual-boot box running XP and SUSI LINUX.  The good news was, everything about both the install and the operation went stunningly well, not a single error.  Bootup was tragically slow to get to the decision point of choosing XP or LINUX, but once I selected LINUX my machine turned into a lightning bolt (for back then).  I never really had any issues with LINUX, but I didn't really learn much.  Installing new programs, the one thing I wanted to learn, I was never able to figure out (no idea where they installed to after I installed them, they just vanished).

Fast forward to the WIN 7 days.  Everyone kept telling me I needed to get Ubuntu LINUX.  Had a couple laptops running WIN 7, so I decided to push Ubuntu on one of them just to check it out.  Again, perfect install, not even a single error.  On this machine I'd blown out Windows completely and was just running Ubuntu.  The machine was still a mechanical HDD, but it booted as fast as a SSD (like "Wow!").  Worked really well for business applications, and as long as I stayed in the 'recommended programs' area I could download and install new stuff.  However, whenever I ventured outside of the Ubuntu recommended programs...POOF!  (crickets)  They'd install 'successfully', and just vanish (no icon, nothing in any menu or directory I could find...just nothing...deep space).  I've asked dozens of people to explain where these programs go, and how to find them, but I have yet to have someone give me a "coherent" response that a human could actually try.  People from Mars, maybe, but not Earthlings.

I am not a gamer, so games aren't really my thing.  But I do have lots of fairly complex computing needs, and this is where some of the programs I refer to come into play.  My programming background is BASIC and FORTRAN (old guy, I know).  I never really learned Visual BASIC (probably a mistake).  But specifically as it relates to LINUX, I never learned UNIX programming (which LINUX is a derivative of, as I understand it).

So, to me, LINUX is this mystical thing.  I can make it work, and it works surprisingly well for basic Windows type stuff.  But when I want to venture off the beaten path and install some obscure program, I can only install and troubleshoot it using Windows.  (Did I mention I hate Windows...AND MicroSHAFT???)  I would love nothing better than to find something OTHER than windows just for the sake of flipping off Billy Gates and his empire.  I don't care how much money it costs.  The only thing worse than Windows is MAC (so, I'm not EVEN going to go there!).  Anyway, that's my story.

Now, if you've made it this far (without falling asleep), I have a couple questions for you...

1. In reading from page 1 on this thread, you've mentioned "eating crayons" a number of different times.  What do you mean by this?  Is this some LINUX lingo, or is this just some description you use?  I know LINUX has some weird terms like "tarballs", etc. so I wasn't sure if 'eating crayons' is some LINUX process.

2. I'll ask you the same question I've asked others...  How do you find things in LINUX?  How do you even understand what the different directories mean?  Where do programs go when you install them?  And lastly, how do you access a program once you've gotten it installed?  Also, how do you make an icon show up for an installed program so you can launch it again in the future?

Thanks!  Oh, and I'll enjoy reading more about your travails in LINUX.  Maybe I'll even learn something.  I'm not much for eating crayons though.  I swore those off in favor of the mint flavored school paste they had in 2nd grade.  That stuff rocked; glue sticks suck!

Enjoy!

[pianopraze]

1. It’s joke derived from Twitter, I believe more specifically the people giving wall-street headaches by having "diamond hands" buying poor performing stocks such as AMC and GameStop and holding them against wall-street mechinizations making money against the way the system was rigged. Meaning your crazy, but sort of crazy with some perpose/intention/intelligence.

Ex. I think do xyz, but don’t take my advice because I eat crayons.

2. Dolphin. It is a file explorer just like on windows and Mac.

Now if it’s program is using wine, it creates a whole set of faux windows folders and pretends it’s in windows.

I will create a very poor quality, quick YouTube video and upload it:



first I show where files go, then I show where that is actually located on hd, then show default location on hd for applications.

[pianopraze]

UPDATE

About halfway through Dragon Age 2.

About a dozen crashes to desktop on Dragon Age Origins. I don’t think any crashes on the expansion Dragon Age Awakening. I was getting more crashes per day on windows than the entire 80-90ish hours it took me to get through the entire game and expansion on Linux.

I didn’t have Dragon Age 2 on GOG so had to instal from Steam. It installed and instantly worked perfect - didn’t change anything from settings above. Don't think I’ve had a single crash so far - knock on wood.

I’ve been keeping Nobara Linux updated whenever I see an update. It’s working flawlessly though it throws a weird error as it loads but it doesn’t seem to affect anything. Just another random Linux weirdness. 

I've had zero crashes surfing the web or using any other programs. Unless you’re using supper high rez games with mods Linux seems more stable and usable than Windows now for light computing.

My system is a gaming rig. 2080ti, intel 9700k, 64gigs ram, 1tb Samsung evo hd. But by today’s standard dated and underpowered so any new decent system probably going to run Linux fine.  Seems snappier than Windows 10. About same as 11.

With windows trying to close off people being able to use win 11 bypassing secure boot (for systems that don’t have necessary hardware), and all the stupid things they are adding like taking screenshots and uploading them to Microsoft all the time… Linux is now a solid alternative.

I would not say that a couple years ago. Had to constantly use command line and was a pain in the rear. Not had to open command line a single time this time around with Nobara.

I’d finally recommend this for all users. 



Seems I’m not only one who feels this about Nobara Linux. Here is something is just found from Zdnet

Forget Windows 11: Nobara Linux is the OS for everyoneIf you've soured on Windows 11 and are looking for something that's more secure, reliable, customizable, and can serve as your gaming console, Nobara Linux might be it…

As I said earlier, Nobara isn't just for gamers. After using this Linux distribution for a while, it's quite clear that anyone (no matter the experience) could hop onto this desktop operating system and feel right at home...

Just a quick note. He is factually incorrect when he says you can only run Linux games on Steam. I covered in post above how to go into settings on Steam and click to be able to run windows games. Mileage may vary as DAO got to a point and quit on Steam and had to run GOG version, but Dragon age 2 from Steam working perfect.


So yeah. Nobara is best version I’ve used and I’m loving it.

[pianopraze]

Sooo… Dragon age inquisition installed and ran perfect but I’m too burnt out on it. Also controller won’t work with the game in Linux.

i tried some other games with limited success. Lutris is not as easy as all these videos display.

A couple install and played fine but I could not launch the game from "my games" in lutris. So when you click on the game icon and launch it doesn’t work. Had to figure out how to manually set lutris to find the actual launcher. Confusing but I muddled through.

dragging and dropping a game on lutris almost never works like the videos show, at least with the windows games. I have to manually instal in lutris and point it manually to the game download to get it to install. 

on the plus side it does play fallout 4 better than windows. I had a section in the mechanist quest where windows just would crash every time and could not get past.  Fallout 4 much more stable on Linux. 

if lutris has an installer for a game it works easily. Otherwise you have to dance around and figure things out. Frustrating, but better than to run it manually with wine…. Sooooooo….

… mixed bag.

still haven’t had to use command line. Oddly I was having to use command line on windows more than Linux now…