General LInux gaming question(s)

[coder123]

Hey guys I was wondering if the majority of you guys do gaming via wine or natively? I have a friend who got into using mint before I did with a rig he built. (I was still using Ubuntu at the time) But unfortunately he switched back to windows because not all his steam games were natively supported.

Also to those of you who do gaming via wine do really get the full performance out of your hardware through wine? (Are you able to play games at ultra settings when you use wine?)

In fact I'd like to make a poll out of this for curiosity.

[English Invader]

I found that Mint had a number of shortcomings with gaming; especially with Wine. I also found that a lot of Wine programs, open source games and emulators would have issues after coming out of full screen mode like system crashes and screwed up resolution, but someone on another forum said he didn't have these problems so it may just be my graphics card (Radeon HD 5450 with open source driver).

When I switched back to Ubuntu all these issues disappeared. I think one of the best things that came from my experiment with Mint was this forum. I prefer it to the Ubuntu one.

[Alley Cat]

The problem I had with Ubuntu was that it wanted to uninstall my Nvidia drivers when I tried to install Wine. This happened in the Ubuntu-based versions of Mint as well. That's what brought me to the Debian edition which I'm actually glad for!

[coder123]

The only issue ive encountered in Mint is games not natively supported or some driver issues. I use the nouveau driver and can play TF2, DOTA, OpenArena, Nexuiz, and other games fine. Though i have yet to get Mount and Blade Warband running right. I tried using Wine and it only works well with older games BUT not all games run right or will even start. Linux gaming isnt quite there yet and i think Windows 10 and DX12 are gonna hurt it more. Im hoping Win10 is good so i can game on an OS i like.

What do you windows 10 hurt it "more"? Do you mean that since the windows 8 support for Linux gaming has grown but if windows 10 turns out to be a good OS Linux gaming will go back to being as supported as it was before windows 8? If so, I sadly find that hard argue but I hope it won't be the case. (I hope support for Linux gaming continues to grow regardless of windows 10)

The issue I'm facing that I forgot to mention in the head post is how to deal with the release of watch dogs 2 next summer. Let me explain. I've never been much a computer gammer. I've always done console. I went from N64 to Xbox to Xbox 360 but with this new generation I'm trying to stop altogether because I prefer the PS4 over Xbox One by a land side but I never got into the playstation games/franchises. This past year I decided to try watch dogs and loved it. (IMO it was that last great release for the 360) Since the sequel will be released only for windows and the next gen consoles I guess my only option is to play it via windows. My pc gammer friend convinced me to get the xbox 360 controller for windows because that was the only reason I was into console gaming. I don't like using the keyboard for gaming because I can't move as quick with my hands. It seems like the best option is to dual-boot but I don't want dual-boot just for gaming since I don't plan on doing it that much. Reason being is because I don't feel I can afford the time anymore. My pc gammer friend also turned me onto Skyrim and I got for the 360 but unlike my younger self (elementary school age) I don't want to take the time to go through the exploration that the game requires. (Although watch dogs and skyrim are both open world games skyrim is much more of an open world game than watch dogs because watch dogs doesn't require nearly as much exploration) I understand the drive to playing games like skyrim. It forces you figure stuff out. IMO I'd rather use that brain power for more realistic/practical things like coding) Now granted sometimes I'll feel such an urge to play skyrim that I won't care about that but the majority of the time that's how I feel.

Sorry to do that storytelling but it relates to why I made this thread. I have a gaming rig but I'd rather put linux on it than windows (even over dual-booting) Because aside from windows being slower than Linux (which could be fixed using an SSD) I have moral reasons why I'd rather not use windows.

[English Invader]

Sorry to do that storytelling but it relates to why I made this thread. I have a gaming rig but I'd rather put linux on it than windows (even over dual-booting) Because aside from windows being slower than Linux (which could be fixed using an SSD) I have moral reasons why I'd rather not use windows.

If your motives are moral, then you should stick to your guns because the only way software developers will get the message is if more people use Linux.

[coder123]

Sorry to do that storytelling but it relates to why I made this thread. I have a gaming rig but I'd rather put linux on it than windows (even over dual-booting) Because aside from windows being slower than Linux (which could be fixed using an SSD) I have moral reasons why I'd rather not use windows.

If your motives are moral, then you should stick to your guns because the only way software developers will get the message is if more people use Linux.

Agreed. I just wish more people outside of our Linux community realized that. (pc gamers that is)

[Dragunov]

I'm using Linux mint 17.2 Rafaela. I just downloaded Nexuiz, and wish to play it natively, however, I can't get it to go full screen. Is there any way to do this? Sorry for the stupid question, I'm still quite the Linux n00b.

Oh, btw, I'm using Cinnamon.

[ModernEpicurean]

I have chosen the first answer because I have a very good experience with gaming on Mint, if only because I use NVIDIA card and most of the games which I currently play or replay have native versions (XCOM, Divinity: Original Sin EE, Dreamfall Chapters, Bioshock Infinite). I don't have any moral qualms with using wine to run a few older games like Civ IV (in this case especially because newer games from Firaxis have Linux ports), I nag the developers of the newer products to go native

[English Invader]

I found that Mint had a number of shortcomings with gaming; especially with Wine. I also found that a lot of Wine programs, open source games and emulators would have issues after coming out of full screen mode like system crashes and screwed up resolution, but someone on another forum said he didn't have these problems so it may just be my graphics card (Radeon HD 5450 with open source driver).

When I switched back to Ubuntu all these issues disappeared. I think one of the best things that came from my experiment with Mint was this forum. I prefer it to the Ubuntu one.

Almost a year later and I've discovered the joys of Play on Linux. Happily playing GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas in 100% full screen glory on Linux Mint 17.2 with the same HD 5450 and open source driver.

[PublicLewdness]

My answer wasn't really on the list so i'll explain. Not all of my games run on Linux natively. I own around 500 games and about 1/5 have native Linux versions. I stopped dual booting though. I realized I would never get away from Windows if I continued to do so. I also don't like having to use Wine. So what I try to do is to beat the games I have on Linux and by the time I finish that 100ish games there will be more of my collection that has been ported. So far it is working for me.

[Pentarctagon]

I use wine for Planetside 2 and Warframe. Both I have had to set to minimum for almost all settings. I don't know if it's because I'm setting something up wrong or what, but Windows 7 with a Nvidia GTX 670 can run Warframe at most settings maxed, whereas the GTX 780 Ti through wine (staging, with CSMT) can barely manage to keep the fps decent without all but two of the settings either minimal or off entirely.

Everything else has a native Linux version though, and those run great.

[thobin]

I very rarely will buy a game that will not run natively on Linux, that said very few games that I have that refuse to work with Linux. For the most part I have had pretty good luck getting all my non native games to run and run well, most with very little effort.

It would have to be a really big game that I had been waiting for, for me to even consider purchasing a non native Direct X 10 windows only game. I still have windows on a separate drive with no dual grub boot (I can hit F12 the maybe once every other month that I use Windows). I'm just done being forced to use Windows for anything, no game is worth that.

With the amount of great Indy games on Steam the excuse for Windows gets smaller every day.

TA

[sphyrth]

Not that I'm able to run my games natively. But I'm running games that are native to Linux. But I was already into FOSS cross-platform games before I made my switch from Windows.