3 ms·

I won't buy a non-native Linux game that's not on steam. The steam Linux stuff "just works", I don't need to mess around with wine/wintricks/proton or different

by doix 3y ago

I won't buy a non-native Linux game that's not on steam. The steam Linux stuff "just works", I don't need to mess around with wine/wintricks/proton or different wrappers like lutris. If the developers have a native Linux version that I can buy directly from their site, I might do that as well to show my support (but still buy it on steam since it's just too convenient).

badsectoracula 3y ago
I am on Linux and i vastly prefer DRM-free stores as i keep my own offline backups of games (and other software) i buy. As a result i have almost 1000 games from GOG, Zoom Platform and other non-Steam places. In my experience 99% of the games work out of the box with wine-staging, DXVK and VKD3D-Proton (which works with wine-staging just fine). No need to mess around with anything, just install wine-string, install DXVK and VKD3D-Proton and you are ready to run pretty much everything with "wine installername.exe" or "wine gamebinary.exe". I never had to use winetricks, lutris or anything of the sort. I also play games on Steam and even got a Steam Deck (on which i also play games i got outside from Steam), so it isn't like i am Valve-free, but you certainly do not have to tie yourself on Steam if you are gaming on Linux nor your experience will be any worse.
- andrewmcwatters 3y ago
  Yeah, I also buy direct from developers or from DRM-free digital distribution before I buy from Steam, and I’ve had similarly good experiences.
- dleslie 3y ago
  > In my experience 99% of the games work out of the box with wine-staging, DXVK and VKD3D-Proton (which works with wine-staging just fine). No need to mess around with anything, just install wine-string, install DXVK and VKD3D-Proton and you are ready to run pretty much everything with "wine installername.exe" or "wine gamebinary.exe". That sounds like a fair bit of domain-specific knowledge driven steps that could quickly got awry and lead a novice deep into frustration. Compared to... Clicking the Play button in the Steam launcher, ideally from your Steam Deck. It's miles apart.
  - badsectoracula 3y ago
    It is OS-specific (not domain specific, i just know Linux) knowledge indeed but i'd assume someone who sticks with Linux, comments on HN and would prefer to use DRM-free games (and software) wouldn't have an issue installing a couple of programs. And really, also having Windows knowledge, aside from installing wine-staging, the process for getting DXVK and VKD3D-Proton working is similar to what you'd do on Windows to get buggy games to work (in fact some people do use DXVK with Windows[0]). It isn't something i'd recommend to some random gamer (though judging from what i've seen people do with their Steam Decks i wouldn't underestimate gamers' technical abilities). [0] like, say, me :-P. In 2020 i used Windows as my main OS after trying to switch to Linux as my main OS in 2018 but having some issues with games, but then i ended up having some visual glitches in a game that were fixed by throwing in DXVK. At that point i thought that this might actually be a sign that gaming on Linux now works fine - and indeed it did and since then i've being using it as my practically only OS because i can both work and game on it without feeling like i'm missing anything.
    - di4na 3y ago
      You do realise that for most people they do not get buggy games to run. If it is buggy, they play something else. There is a wide enough offer for this strategy to work really well. Being driven to install tools to get it to run is an exceptional behaviour and a lot of hassle for anyone, windows or Linux. Nearly noone does that.
      - johnnyanmac 3y ago
        Never stopped Bethesda. Heck, they get free labor out of fans fixing their bugs.
      - badsectoracula 3y ago
        > You do realise that for most people they do not get buggy games to run. I don't know what most people do as i am not most people, but i already addressed my expectations and assumptions on the first paragraph of the comment you replied to.
  - 3y ago
- kristofferg 3y ago
  99% seems high. Ime. its closer to 70%.
- 29athrowaway 3y ago
  Before Proton, I used to run games using plain Wine. You had to go to WineHQ, look at the open issues and workarounds, and often troubleshoot issues yourself. Lutris made the process a bit easier and then Proton made it absurdly easier. The problem with Proton is that Steam Input is not well implemented.
- doix 3y ago
  This is not my experience at all, I recently had to go through this dance to get D4 working. The latest versions of those things in the arch repositories don't/didn't work. Needed to get some older specific version, so now you can't use your package manager (since you can't have multiple versions). Then you need to mess around with paths and configs so that the correct versions are used. I very quickly gave up and just used Lutris, copied someones settings/versions from Reddit and it worked, but I wasn't too happy. I _really_ wanted to try Diablo4, so I put up with it, but normally my patience for such things is pretty low. I am not averse to messing around with things, I've got a pretty good idea of how things work in Linux. I've written my own .so files to fix bugs in closed source software using LD_PRELOAD. I just don't want to deal with that when gaming. There's more to Steam than just the pre-configured proton. Their controller support stuff is top notch and so is the stream link/stream stuff. Not using steam would definitely make my experience worse.

by doix 3y ago

badsectoracula 3y ago

I am on Linux and i vastly prefer DRM-free stores as i keep my own offline backups of games (and other software) i buy. As a result i have almost 1000 games from GOG, Zoom Platform and other non-Steam places. In my experience 99% of the games work out of the box with wine-staging, DXVK and VKD3D-Proton (which works with wine-staging just fine). No need to mess around with anything, just install wine-string, install DXVK and VKD3D-Proton and you are ready to run pretty much everything with "wine installername.exe" or "wine gamebinary.exe". I never had to use winetricks, lutris or anything of the sort. I also play games on Steam and even got a Steam Deck (on which i also play games i got outside from Steam), so it isn't like i am Valve-free, but you certainly do not have to tie yourself on Steam if you are gaming on Linux nor your experience will be any worse.

andrewmcwatters 3y ago
Yeah, I also buy direct from developers or from DRM-free digital distribution before I buy from Steam, and I’ve had similarly good experiences.
dleslie 3y ago
> In my experience 99% of the games work out of the box with wine-staging, DXVK and VKD3D-Proton (which works with wine-staging just fine). No need to mess around with anything, just install wine-string, install DXVK and VKD3D-Proton and you are ready to run pretty much everything with "wine installername.exe" or "wine gamebinary.exe". That sounds like a fair bit of domain-specific knowledge driven steps that could quickly got awry and lead a novice deep into frustration. Compared to... Clicking the Play button in the Steam launcher, ideally from your Steam Deck. It's miles apart.
- badsectoracula 3y ago
  It is OS-specific (not domain specific, i just know Linux) knowledge indeed but i'd assume someone who sticks with Linux, comments on HN and would prefer to use DRM-free games (and software) wouldn't have an issue installing a couple of programs. And really, also having Windows knowledge, aside from installing wine-staging, the process for getting DXVK and VKD3D-Proton working is similar to what you'd do on Windows to get buggy games to work (in fact some people do use DXVK with Windows[0]). It isn't something i'd recommend to some random gamer (though judging from what i've seen people do with their Steam Decks i wouldn't underestimate gamers' technical abilities). [0] like, say, me :-P. In 2020 i used Windows as my main OS after trying to switch to Linux as my main OS in 2018 but having some issues with games, but then i ended up having some visual glitches in a game that were fixed by throwing in DXVK. At that point i thought that this might actually be a sign that gaming on Linux now works fine - and indeed it did and since then i've being using it as my practically only OS because i can both work and game on it without feeling like i'm missing anything.
  - di4na 3y ago
    You do realise that for most people they do not get buggy games to run. If it is buggy, they play something else. There is a wide enough offer for this strategy to work really well. Being driven to install tools to get it to run is an exceptional behaviour and a lot of hassle for anyone, windows or Linux. Nearly noone does that.
    - johnnyanmac 3y ago
      Never stopped Bethesda. Heck, they get free labor out of fans fixing their bugs.
    - badsectoracula 3y ago
      > You do realise that for most people they do not get buggy games to run. I don't know what most people do as i am not most people, but i already addressed my expectations and assumptions on the first paragraph of the comment you replied to.
- 3y ago
kristofferg 3y ago
99% seems high. Ime. its closer to 70%.
29athrowaway 3y ago
Before Proton, I used to run games using plain Wine. You had to go to WineHQ, look at the open issues and workarounds, and often troubleshoot issues yourself. Lutris made the process a bit easier and then Proton made it absurdly easier. The problem with Proton is that Steam Input is not well implemented.
doix 3y ago
This is not my experience at all, I recently had to go through this dance to get D4 working. The latest versions of those things in the arch repositories don't/didn't work. Needed to get some older specific version, so now you can't use your package manager (since you can't have multiple versions). Then you need to mess around with paths and configs so that the correct versions are used. I very quickly gave up and just used Lutris, copied someones settings/versions from Reddit and it worked, but I wasn't too happy. I _really_ wanted to try Diablo4, so I put up with it, but normally my patience for such things is pretty low. I am not averse to messing around with things, I've got a pretty good idea of how things work in Linux. I've written my own .so files to fix bugs in closed source software using LD_PRELOAD. I just don't want to deal with that when gaming. There's more to Steam than just the pre-configured proton. Their controller support stuff is top notch and so is the stream link/stream stuff. Not using steam would definitely make my experience worse.