I’m glad to see this community picking up, the old sub is probably the community I’ll miss the most from Reddit.
How about a discussion topic? Native Linux games!
Gaming on Linux has absolutely never been better. I’ve been using Linux for 6+ years now, and I’ve been daily driving it since Proton first launched. I don’t even check ProtonDB anymore, I just buy games and they work. It’s amazing. However, it feels like native games almost always have an extra step, forcing Proton.
A lot of people predicted this when Proton launched, but the moment it got really bad for me is when I switched to Wayland. Native games that used to work under X11 suddenly stopped working never to be fixed, but the Windows version with Proton continued to work just fine.
I skimmed through the native Linux games in my library to get examples. In all of these cases, forcing Proton fixed the problem. The only two games with functional Linux ports that came to mind are Stardew Valley and Zachtronics Solitaire Collection.
- CrossCode – Controller didn’t work.
- N++ – Crashes on startup.
- NeoDash – Controller didn’t work.
- Bioshock Infinite – Awful performance, possibly still broken because of 2k launcher thing?
- Hexologic – Game breaking level bug in Linux port.
- DiRT Rally – Awful performance.
- Drawer – Crashes on startup.
- Super Meat Boy – Last level runs too fast and the game breaks.
- I also remember having trouble with DiRT 4 and one of the Tomb Raider games, but I can’t remember what was happening.
It’s gotten to the point where if I experience a single issue with a native game, I just immediately force Proton instead of wasting time troubleshooting, and that strategy hasn’t failed me yet.
So, here are some discussion questions. You don’t have to answer all (or any) of these if you have a more interesting thought to add!
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What do you think of the state of native Linux games? Has your experience been different from mine?
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More and more developers are choosing to officially support Proton rather than maintain a native Linux version. This is resulting in a better experience in the short-term, but will that have consequences in the long run?
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In the above cases, the community seems more accepting of indie developers going this route due to their more limited resources. Do you agree with that, or do you treat these cases the same as larger studios doing the same?
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Do you think this will change in the future? Linux market share is slowly but surely ticking up. Do you think there’s a threshold where studios start putting effort into native ports again, or will Proton be the way forward indefinitely?
EDIT: Formatting improvements
I have seen native versions tank as the default distro setups change over the years. As weird as it sounds it feels more reliable to use the windows version under proton/wine. Often game modding communities stick to the windows version.
Once M$ inevitably introduces Windows Cloud with subscriptions and the lowest tier being ad supported with anti-adblock and a registration fee, then Linux will become the preferred experience native or otherwise.
For the time being though wine and proton are good enough. I have been doing all my gaming on the steam deck and there haven’t been any games that make me feel like it’s a lesser experience in any way. The few games I have any difficulty running tend to be shitty games with micro transactions and kernel anticheat that doesn’t even prevent cheaters. Several can be made to work anyways. You can even install poorly made games and mods using the case folding toggle in ext4 that steam deck does have access to.
I am admittedly still waiting for someone to tell me that Wayland incompatibilities are a thing of the past…