Gaming on Linux - With Wendell from Level1Techs!

Guys, please stay on topic and lets stay away from OT open source / OS discussions, this is a Linux gaming thread. - Thank you.

Gaming on Linux - With Wendell from Level1Techs!
Linus Tech Tips
Published on Jul 22, 2018
Windows collects so much user data these days! How can you get your game on while controlling how much privacy you give up? Linux to the rescue! Featuring Wendell from Level1Techs!

Spoiler: More Linux Gaming Resources

https://www.youtube.com/user/teksyndi...

Learn more about gaming on Linux over at the Level1Techs blog: https://level1techs.com/article/gamin...

More Linux gaming resources:
Lutris: http://geni.us/OOU0Sa
DXVK: http://geni.us/gPuIBiB
Looking Glass Website: http://geni.us/YUT4E
Looking Glass Github: http://geni.us/ZEVU

Discuss on the forum: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/...

 

Given privacy concerns, particularly in light of the recent Red Shell spyware fiasco, my front-line go-to is Pi-Hole. While it was originally made to run on Raspbian on a Raspberry Pi, it runs perfectly well in a small Devuan or Debian VirtualBox VM. I'm using it right now while posting this.

Here are my quick and dirty notes for setting it up:

1CPU, 512MB RAM, 4G Disk, NAT

Devuan netinst ISO
Guided, whole disk, single partition
Software selection: nothing but SSH server and standard system utilities

/etc/default/grub change GRUB_TIMEOUT to 1, run update-grub

Change /etc/network/interface to use static IP address:

Code:

allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet static
  address 10.0.2.202/24
  gateway 10.0.2.2
  dns-nameservers 192.168.1.202
  dns-search rgo.gweep.net

Reboot and test

Forward ports 53/UDP, 22/TCP and 80/TCP to the guest

apt install curl

curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net >pi-hole.sh
chmod +x pi-hole.sh
./pi-hole.sh
reboot

 

I should have noted: change the VM host's DNS server(s) to 127.0.0.1.

 

Level1 Visits Linus Tech Tips: The Start of Gaming on Linux (Vloggish)
Level1Techs
Published on Jul 22, 2018
Linus' video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsgI1...
Companion Article:
https://level1techs.com/article/gamin...

 

#GamingOnLinux
Linux Gaming: Natively (part 1 of 4)
Level1Linux
Published on Jul 25, 2018
This is part one of our companion coverage with LTT on Gaming on Linux. First, let's talk about Native Gaming in Linux (and how far we've come. And how far we've got to go).

This is the first, of a 4 part series, that's a comprehensive look at the tech we showed off recently in the LTT collab video

Spoiler: Details...

Article & Discussion:
https://level1techs.com/article/gamin...

Discuss This Video:
https://level1techs.com/video/linux-g...

#GamingOnLinux

 

What to do if I have a laptop?
And what's the best distro for this matter?

 

Yeah, sorry, I don't do UNIX / Linux support here, I just help out with tuning Windows / gaming laptops for newbies.

There are sites that specialize in helping newbies with Linux, and distro forums are full of helpful people that are current on that distro.

I can recommend a dozen distro's, all for various reasons, but lets say that self-discovery is the way of UNIX / Linux. We all bear the slings and arrows of outrageous " fortune", and learn as we go.

Let the "Force" guide you.

Or find the latest Redhat, Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint, etc distro and go for it!

You will have problems, guranteed, and you will find solutions - maybe even solutions that work - you will probably need new Wifi or BT hardware in the form of supported USB dongles - or new internal cards, or you will be cursed with everything working perfectly the first time...beware - this is to lull you into a false sense of mastery...

Do some googling using your laptop model and "linux", see what pops up, and learn to skim and read fast.

I can also recommend using Virtualbox or VMware player instead of installing bootable Linux on your laptop, much easier and quicker, plus you can run multiple hosts under VM's depending on how much memory you have to network them together for networking learning. It's a quick way to build up a library of distro's and instances dedicated to particular tasks - db, web, development, etc.

It helps to have a nice big SSD to load the VM's to / from as well.

The more distro's you install, the more of the same distro you configure with different packages, the more languages you install and learn to program, the broader your knowledge will become, and the quicker you will realize you have a lot to learn.

Let us know what you find out.

 

Sounds like a hell of a long ride.
I asked because of curiosity and it seems like something do-able near future.
Anyway thanks for the quick rep!

 

Yeah, I'd love to help, but I get caught up in it with work and like to not do it in my down time. But, I do like to help, so I'll likely contribute from time to time on Linux stuff. I just can't commit to the kind of time and continuity it would take to really help, so you need to find someone local to assist in person - or do it on your own.

When I started in 1978 there was noone else around, except in Australia...

 

Linux distro and gaming is still not a set in stone solution. I prefer Linux Mint distro's but that is me and my needs.

 

If your laptop has an easy to remove bootable drive and you don't mind spending a small bit of cash, it might be a nice timesaver to purchase a second drive, swap them and try to install Linux Mint or Ubuntu on this 2nd drive. Note, turning off secure boot, if you have it, before installation will help.

This way you can keep your current setup, and try Linux out on the other drive... Swap one or the other without losing and re-setting up a system.

 

I wouldn't mind using Linux (and I'm already using a bunch of other free software like Libre Office, etc), but the caveat for me today (Still) is use of 3d Studio Max under Linux, video editing software and various games.

Now, its probably highly accurate that Linux and support for Windows software improved vastly recently (and I've been monitoring developments in that area), but I'm still concerned about various software compatibility and whether I'd be able to use all their features.

Blender is a great free option vs Max, but its UI is ridiculous in comparison and VERY hard to adjust to.

 

Gaming is not an issue here. I have too much that can be done in Windows that Linux software packages will not allow or make substantially harder to accomplish.

 

I keep the guest virtual machines around for this very reason. I don't predict it will be a 100% Windows free world, but I am finding that those type of solutions grow less and less Windows dependent every day.

 

Linux Gaming: DXVK, Wine, and Lutris (Part 2 of 4)
Level1Linux
Published on Aug 16, 2018
Written Guide: https://level1techs.com/article/gamin...
Linux Gaming Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

 

and now the word is Valve was secretly funding DXVK and are rolling out their own wine distro now.

 

bash

It's a "Reality-based game" where you learn how things work on Linux and eventually win big prizes, like a job and a career in the field of Linux!!

 

Here is a small handful of decent linux native games. This list is skimming over a quite bit.

Hammer Watch
Don't Starve
Borderlands 2
Battle Block Theatre
Bioshock Infinite
Bro Force
Ark Survival
Bastion
The binding of Isaac
Brutal Legend
Cities Skylines
Euro Truck simulator
American Truck Simulator
Darwinia
Most all Valve Games, HL, Portal, Dota, L4D, TF
Dirt Rally
Escape Goat
Fez
Full Throttle Remaster
Hand of Fate
Grime Fandango Remastered
Hotline Miami 1 and 2
Icewind Dale
Iron Fisticle/Cryptical
Invisible Inc
Kingdom Lands/New Lands
Legends of Dungeon
Legend of Grimrock
Laura Croft Go
Life is Strange
Mad Max
Doom 3
Mark Of the ninja
Metro 2033 / Last Light
Shadow of Mordor
Mount and Blade war Band
Natural Selection
Nuclear Throne
OddWorld New and Tasty
Organ Trail
Overlord
Payday 2
Postal 2
PsychoNaughts
Project Zomboid
Retro City Rampage
Rocket League
Saints Row The Third
The Long Dark
Satellite Reign Uplink
Serious Sam series
Shadow Warrior
Shadow Run
Civilization V
Sheltered
Sir You Are Being hunted
Skulls of Shogun
SOMA
Penumbra series
The Talos Principle
Torchlight 2
Hyper Light Drifter
Trine
Transistor
Turok
Victor Vran
Wasteland series
The Witcher 2
XCOM
Ziggurat
insurgency

 

Steam For Linux Adds 1000 Perfectly Playable Windows Games In Under A Week
Jason Evangelho, Aug 27, 2018, 08:12am
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasone...e-windows-games-in-under-a-week/#65611ded55ae

"...That's an increase of almost 20% practically overnight, and it's guaranteed to climb higher as the Linux community continues testing the enormous library of Windows games on their favorite Linux distributions..."

Valve has whitelisted only 27 games, but many more are perfectly playable.SPCR.NETLIFY.COM/

Level1 News September 5 2018: Presenting the iPhone Excess
10:38 - Steam For Linux Adds 1000 Perfectly Playable Windows Games In Under A Week
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-4-2018-freethebeerbots.822640/#post-10790699

 

<snip>
While I think this is a good thing over all, I think I'll stick with Windows for the foreseeable future. Mainly because I'm a career UNIX/Linux sysadmin and frankly I don't want to be a career UNIX/Linux sysadmin when I come home from work every day.

 

I'm cynical. I once asked RMS straight out which was the better product: a GPL program that doesn't work or a proprietary program that does work. His answer: the GPL program because it has a license that respects the users' rights, and the fact that the program doesn't work is irrelevant. FLOSS will never "get there" until idologues like RMS who hold licenses above functionality and usability die out.

The Linux kernel itself has done well in large part because Linus Torvalds isn't an ideologue. The rest of the software stack? That's hit or miss.

 

A large number of open projects end up abandoned over time; where commercial software with a large base may continue well past its prime.

The real right answer is to use the right tool for the job using cost/benefit analysis, regardless of origin of any software package.

 

Depends on whether or not a given project develops a self-sustaining community or ends up abandoned. Most small projects eventually end up in the abandoned category.

Except... the entire point of GNU is derivative. The goal of the core projects, Hurd and the GNU OS, is to create a replacement for UNIX. Not something new. Not something better. Something entirely derivative of UNIX. Because RMS doesn't like the System V and BSD licenses.

Except when it isn't.

 

Agreed. And, if you notice, I didn't say anything contrary to what you've written here. Assuming a cost/benefit analysis has been done, I will always suggest to someone use the best tool that fills your needs. PERIOD. If it's a proprietary or commercial product great. If it is an open source one great. Shutting down one solution or another based on dogmatic reasons on either side limits one's choices.

Mixed bag. There has been some good and bad open source solutions in these areas. For example, for Windows based development - I still find value in the paid versions of Visual Studio and other commercial based developer tools. However, I do need to disclose a bias for the commercial solutions for professional reasons.

 

No, he didn't have to. He chose to. And what RMS chose was the path of the moral crusade. Contrast this with Eric S. Raymond (ESR) and Linus Torvalds who chose paths of practical advocacy instead of religious fanaticism.

I could go on but I'd just be rehashing what others have already more eloquently described.

 

Agreed. That's the way I see most current Linux distributions. In the 1990s Linux was largely a free substitute for a 1980s Sun UNIX Workstation. Today they've largely cloned a 1990s Sun UNIX Workstation. In that goal they have succeed. I don't know how useful that is for a lot of people at home. Outside of MacOS, UNIX typically doesn't get single user mode right the way DOS and IBM PC Compatibles did.

Microsoft really has the unenviable job of getting their O/S to run on top of so many different combinations of PC hardware compared with say Apple or Linux. Not to mention all of the backwards compatibility with DOS and win32. I don't envy how they do it. Although they have help from all of the hardware markers. Whereas we still struggle with hardware on Linux in 2018. That is unless you get a Thinkpad that is similar to what Linux kernel developers use, then the out of the box HW experience is often pretty good.

 

With the caveat that the first thing I did with a 1980's Sun UNIX Workstation was to build and install the GNU toolchain. The second thing I did with a 1980's Sun UNIX Workstation was to build and install the rest of the GNU userspace. And the *third* thing I did with a 1980's Sun UNIX Workstation was not to install anything GNU but rather to build and install MIT X11.

Did I mention I'm a career UNIX sysadmin?

Apple didn't get single-user UNIX right. That was NeXT. Apple acquired NeXT to get NeXTStep because they were going nowhere with Copland. Steve Jobs was part of the package. And then starting with 10.7 they wrecked it by a) turning it into iPad and b) abandoning quality control in favor of trying to keep macOS and iOS releases concurrent. macOS 10.13 is so buggy awful and incomplete that when it comes time to replace my MacBook Pro at work (probably next summer) I'm getting something with Windows 10. Because Windows 10 makes a better UNIX desktop than Macintosh. That's how poorly I think of Macintosh *and* the state of Linux desktops.

 

Guys, can we please stop the OT discussion of OS's, and please get back to the topic of Linux Gaming, the topic of the thread.

I deleted my posts that contributed to this OT discussion, and updated the OP:

Guys, please stay on topic and lets stay away from OT open source / OS discussions, this is a Linux gaming thread. - Thank you.

 

@hmscott
I've been pretty lucky with Steam games under Linux. OpenGL and Vulkan have just worked for me with my Eurocom Tornado F5 (MSI 16L13) or my desktop PC. For me it was just as smooth an experience as Wendell portrays in his videos in this thread. I was expecting to have to fiddle, hack, or deal with broken sound, broken controller settings, X11, etc. A little over a year into it, and its been as smooth as a console (PS3, PS4) or Windows PC**. Color me impressed!

+ I first tried SteamOS over a year ago just to see what the baseline experience with a smooth setup was like. The OS was Debian based but realize this is for building set top boxes with a console-like UI. You login to the O/S with your steam account rather than a local account like a normal distro (out of the box). You can run desktop programs but it's a weird way to run a Linux desktop distro unless you're only interested in games because you login to the desktop by default with Steam accounts. All proprietary drivers (GPU and WiFi) were installed out of the box. I didn't have a Steam controller but I had the Xbox One wired controller, which ran OK. Though I switched back to keyboard+mouse after a month and didn't look back. Ran this for 2 months. No issues.

+ I tried Debian testing next. Either Pantheon or Xfce DE. Ran this for over a year. No issues with Steam or Steam games. No once. Even old DOS games in DOSbox work well.

+ I tried Pop!_OS 18.04 for about a month. It's based on Ubuntu LTS, installs proprietary drivers (GPU and WiFi) out of the box along with a customized Gnome 3 theme pack (by System76). Same Linux gaming experience for me as Debian except it's the first time I've ran Gnome in a long time. Last time I used Gnome was when Gnome 2 walked the earth. (ignoring SteamOS).

+ I tried Ubuntu 18.04 LTS next, just to compare with Debian testing and SteamOS. On this for 1 week. I'm using the proprietary drivers (GPU and WiFi). Valve officially supports SteamOS and Ubuntu so I wanted to see what this is like. I'm running Unity DE just to see what it's like (somehow I avoided Unity until now). Gaming on Ubuntu has been fall-off-the-chair simple but to be honest I've mostly been running Hitman so far. I just bought Shadowrun.

+ A couple comments on Vulkan. Comparing OpenGL with Vulkan on Hitman 2016 under Linux. Vulkan has a couple glitches or bugs were the water in rivers (Paris & Bangkok) don't render but it does not affect game play. It's not like water doesn't render period as the water on beaches and in fountains is displayed. It's just the rivers. Vulkan maybe gets a few more FPS but visually OpenGL might be a tiny amount prettier. Overall performance is on par with Windows 10 Pro. I'm impressed!

Where to go next? I'd like to try Arch and Fedora next but so far I've been spoiled by the fall-of-the-chair ease of use it has been so far running the Steam client and Steam games have been on Debian and Debian-derived O/Ss, lol! I've used Arch and Fedora on the desktop before have a lot of experience with those but I wanted to make my first venture into Linux gaming (since Doom and Quake) as easy as possible with supported platforms just so I'd have a baseline to start from. For Fedora I'll look into negativo17 repos nvidia and steam or rpmfusion for nvidia. I've been using Linux since 1996 so take that into account as YMMV.


**Actually -- if we're keeping score -- and why shouldn't we since this is a gaming thread -- I've had more NVIDIA problems under Windows 8.1 Pro or 10 Pro (vs Debian Linux) with FPS drops in half (60 to 30) with Hitman, requiring 2 times I think where I had to temporarily drop down a release with NVIDIA drivers or NVIDIA control panel or GFE under Windows. So with my limited testing, gaming under Linux has been less of a hassle than Windows. Ha!

 

Yes!, thanks for that detailed info, glad it works out well for you

 

HFS and HFS+ filesystems were (and still are) an eyesore. May they die a fiery death.

How they still idolize him is beyond me. Jobs excelled as a marketer, not in technical merit. Hype is real.

This is the beauty of having well supported hardware on Linux. Related, I did recommend this exact model for a new Linux user who wanted Linux gaming with minimal fuss, having owned one before and setting a similar build for a client thereafter. No issues to date. Virtually everything works with bare minimum effort. That laptop is a thing of beauty.

Pop!_OS wins especially in scenarios where you do not dual boot. They stripped out grub, and with systemd-boot, the OS boot times are wickedly fast. For these who dual boot and require the flexibility that grub offers, such as CSM booting, Pop!_OS may not be their thing.

For Fedora, you only need either repository. Do not mix them. Stick to Negativo's repo. For one, if you use the likes of FFmpeg, the repo's build has all the NVENC enhancements built in for you, so no more fiddling around with custom builds.

When you have well supported hardware, this is often the case. At the moment, a well set up Linux box is basically fire and forget. If it works, it just works. And the OS stays out of your way, no update will mess up with your gaming with unsolicited reboots.

This is correct. Some titles, such as Mad Max (using the beta vulkan branch) are objectively smoother on Linux than on Windows. Feral interactive know their stuff

Some thoughts on the future as far as NVIDIA is concerned:

Past laurels seem to have blinded NVIDIA on Linux, particularly with how they handle the eventual transition to Wayland (as a display server protocol and compositors based on it), and in hardware-accelerated decoding for HTPCs, as explained below:

NVIDIA's proprietary drivers are okay for what they do under X, but in Wayland, its' a clusterf*ck. Something they can fix by stopping the reinvention of the wheel.
The same also applies aptly to how they handle accelerated video decoding (via VDPAU, which is dead in terms of extensibility, and is now replaced by NVDEC, a new API that adds to the high developer burden incurred in maintaining several open source projects, see below).
Adopting existing standards, such as VAAPI, and exposing all capabilities through it (without the need for a mostly broken GL wrapper) would go a long way towards standardization. As we speak, even the Kodi guys are pissed off as its' only NVIDIA that can't handle high-depth HEVC and VP-x decoding on Linux...yet.

TL-DR: NVIDIA may have the best performing hardware around, but their open hostility to open standards does not bode well for the future. It's worrying, and its' only with hope that they'll see sense and make amends.

 

Caution: Playing 'Overwatch' On Linux May Get You Banned [Updated]
Sep 14, 2018, 03:43am
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasone...tch-on-linux-may-get-you-banned/#35068452259b

"Some Linux gamers playing Blizzard's Overwatch are on the receiving end of the ban hammer today, and it's suspected that DXVK -- a compatibility tool that hooks into WINE to translate DirectX 11 to Linux-compatible graphics API Vulkan -- may be the the source of the problem, albeit not maliciously.

This is an issue worth highlighting because gaming on Linux has become much more visible in the mainstream press, and a lot of people frustrated with Windows are contemplating the switch. This visibility was propelled by Valve's recent introduction of "Proton," an addition to Steam Play that allows thousands of Windows games to be installed and played directly from the Steam for Linux client.

Prominent YouTubers like Linus have also highlighted gaming on Linux recently, thanks in part to the expertise of Linux guru Wendell from Level1Techs.

Spoiler: All's well that ends well...

As first reported by Phoronix, these Overwatch players have been enjoying the game trouble-free on Linux for quite some time. Something changed in the last 24 hours. This Reddit post details the reasoning behind the ban:

• Account Action: Account Closure - Overwatch Account Offense: Unauthorized Cheat Programs ("hacks")
• Recent activity on this account shows the use of an unauthorized cheat program, also known as a "hack", which harms the intended player experience.

It appears to be a permanent account closure, not just a temporary ban.

In a matter of hours since the post was published on Reddit, several other gamers have chimed in with stories of their accounts being banned as well.

It's worth noting that Blizzard does not have a policy of banning gamers simply for playing any of their titles on Linux. Blizzard states via their community forum that "playing on Linux or even a Mac while on an emulated Windows environment is not bannable. Since the game isn’t actually designed for those operating systems, we can’t guarantee stability however. You may see performance problems depending upon your setup. We at Blizzard can’t support it directly, but there are a number of players who play without issue on these sorts of configurations. Good luck with it at any rate!"

The initial theory was that the "async" option in DXVK, which reduces stuttering as the shader cache is built up, might be to blame and could be falsely detected as a hack resulting in an auto-ban. However, other users explain they're not using the "async" option and were banned today.

DXVK is an option that's available after installing games via Lutris, a popular option for Linux gamers with titles not present on Steam.

If this has already happened to you, politely reach out to Blizzard support and explain the situation. But just to be safe, if you're enjoying Overwatch on Linux, you may want to take a break until this is resolved or explained.

I've reached out to several PR contacts at Blizzard for an official comment or explanation, and will keep you posted below.

UPDATE 1: The Redditor who originally posted this issue has received the following response from Blizzard support:

"Sorry to hear that your account has been banned! I'm going to escalate your ticket so our team can take a closer look, and hopefully overturn the ban and give you some feedback so we can avoid this happening to other Linux users."

UPDATE 2: Another user has reported a response from Blizzard support which simply linked him to Overwatch usage terms and the Battle.net EULA. The Blizzard support representative informed him that his case was closed and they would not respond to further requests.

UPDATE 3: Blizzard PR responded to my email this morning and will investigate further with their dev team. They promised an update by the end of the business day.

FINAL UPDATE: True to its word, Blizzard's dev team looked into the issue and responded. They informed me that "all the bans have been overturned," and comments on the original Reddit thread seem to back that up. When asked what caused the bans in the first place, Blizzard PR explained that they're unable to share in-depth details about bans. All's well that ends well? I also put Blizzard's anti-cheat team in touch with the lead developer of DXVK, so hopefully this can be avoided in the future."

 

Linux Gaming FINALLY Doesn't SUCK!
Linus Tech Tips
Published on Sep 22, 2018

 

RE: Linux Gaming FINALLY Doesn't SUCK! | The Linux Gamer
The Linux Gamer
Published on Sep 24, 2018

Spoiler: Click to See Video

Great resource: https://spcr.netlify.com/
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton#getting-started-with-proton-from-steam-play
Watch the original video from Linus Tech Tips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWJUp...

CheffBryan 2 hours ago
"LTT's video that you're responding to is why I tried Linux yet again. Been trying on and off for years, and gaming was always the biggest issue I had. Thankfully, things have become SO much better for people who know little, but have the will to learn (aka: me)."

tetsucabra55 1 6 hours ago
"I made the switch to Linux about a month ago and I will never.look back"

Arthur Braad Doktor 2 days ago
"I think linus did a good video on proton, maybe he ain't the linux genius that some of us are, but that is also the reason why his video will hit more windows users than a video by "The Linux Gamer". We should all be glad that he made it, normal people on windows don't see the small number of mistakes in his video."