Linux gaming hasn’t just improved, it’s evolved.

[Abarbarian]

There has never been a better time to play games on Linux

It's thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic that I, like so many of you, have had to rapidly adjust to a life lived almost entirely at home.


It's not an ideal situation, but I've had some real consolation—there has never been a better time to play games on Linux.


Don't take my word for it. Check this out:

As well as all the information in the above article you can get a free copy of Total War: SHOGUN 2 from STEAM right now,

Total War: SHOGUN 2


Also G.O.G. is offering,

GOG is offering 27 free games to help you relax at home

Ok they may be oldies but some of them are really neat.

Epic Games Stores are giving away a free game every week in 2020. I wish I knew about this earlier as I missed out on Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun which runs very well on linux.

What's free on the Epic Games Store right now?

The Epic games offered are not to be sniffed at, Just Cause 4 and Assassin's Creed Syndicate are two I would have liked but sadly missed the chance.

Finally why not try out a dedicated os for gaming on linux,

Drauger OS Linux Aims to Bring Console Gaming Experience on the Desktop

Accord to the project’s website, “Drauger OS is a Linux desktop gaming operating system. It aims to provide a platform for gamers to use where they can get great performance without sacrificing their security. Furthermore, it aims to make it easy for anyone to game, whether they use a keyboard and mouse, or some sort of controller.”

They stress that Drauger OS is not for everyday use. As such, many of the productivity tools that most other distros come with are not in Drauger OS.

An what sort of post would this be if there was no mention of Arch linux. This is a great Arch based offering for gamers,

5 Reasons Why This Linux Gaming OS Is Great For Your Living Room

In a nutshell, GamerOS is an Arch Linux-based operating system that’s streamlined to do one thing very well: run Steam Big Picture. In fact, that’s all it does. There is no desktop environment. Your first boot places you directly into Steam Big Picture and that’s where you’ll live on GamerOS.

If the rain closes in and I find some spare time I will give this Gaming OS a try out as from reading the article it seems like it may be fun an that is what we all need in these troubled times.

Have fun stay safe.

 

[yuanyasmine]

"The biggest improvement of the past couple of years is how many games will run—and how easy it is to run them. That's largely thanks to Proton, an open-source compatibility layer funded by Valve and delivered by Codeweavers.

I would say the biggest improvement was dxvk. Proton just made it easy for everyone to use.

 

[Ian]

Some of those free EPIC Store games have been amazing.

Was reading about https://lutris.net/ the other day and how that can run the EPIC store (and GOG, Steam, etc...) on Linux. Not sure if that link would be of any interest to you @Abarbarian, but thought it might be.

 

[Abarbarian]

Some of those free EPIC Store games have been amazing.

Was reading about https://lutris.net/ the other day and how that can run the EPIC store (and GOG, Steam, etc...) on Linux. Not sure if that link would be of any interest to you @Abarbarian, but thought it might be.

Yeah I have been thinking off Lutris and also GameHub for a while now but have not had the time to fully investigate.I was sort of put of as I mistakenly thought you had to sign up and log in every time you used the platforms. However this is not the case though I guess most folk will use them that way.

Here is another good article on linux gaming today,

Gaming On Linux: All You Need To Know

This is an informative article on GameHub,

GameHub – A Gaming Platform To Put All Games Under One Roof

The GameHub home site is pretty informative too,


GAMEHUB HOME SITE

After reading your suggestion Ian I installed Lutris. Install was painless and it found my Steam Games the linux ones, and some installed Steam Windows games that i am running through their proton set up, and several locally installed games as well. The games I have tried running all played when starting through Lutris. The Steam games do not seem to want to close fully. That may be because I have not fully integrated Steam and Lutris yet.
I have a game called SIN Steam linux version which is pretty old and I have been struggling to get it to run well at 1900x1200 wide screen but running it through Lutris it works really well, so it looks as though Lutris has made some optimisations in the background.
I have also tried out the 2006 original PREY game and that is running superbly. I am a tad puzzled by this Prey game as it is not sold by Steam but I have added it to my Steam libray at some time, I guess to make it easy to open and play and keep track of. I could not find out where it is was on my Arch drive and then remembered that I had some Steam games installed on another drive. So I found Prey hidden in the Steam folder on this extra drive. So Lutris found a Windows game that is not a Steam game but was installed through Steam and it plays well on a linux rig. I have no idea where I got the game from or how I got it to work with linux, it is a real puzzle. As is the games history,

Playing Prey on Linux in 2018

Both of the locally installed games gnubg and gnome-mahjongg both start and stop with no problems.

I have a G.O.G. copy of Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun which I installed locally, not through G.O.G. Galaxy, on my separate drive and this was also found and runs ok. Neat game which I am having fun with.

I also have Steam copy of Dishonored2 installed which is a Windows game playing it through Lutris it ran very well indeed. Running through Lutris got rid of some small graphic problems. When I ran it through Steam Proton I noticed some sparkly artifacts almost all the time not enough to make the game unplayable or enjoyable but I did notice them in the background, Lutris seemed to have got rid of that.

Lutris it seems for me at the moment is a keeper. It has gathered together all my games in one handy icon. It has made some improvements to some games. Whats not to like about it.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I installed the Epic games client when I bought Borderlands 3 around September last year, here's my library, those greyed out are not installed. The only paid games here are Borderlands 3 and The Outer Limits. Epic not the best games client but it works.

 

[Abarbarian]

I installed the Epic games client when I bought Borderlands 3 around September last year, here's my library, those greyed out are not installed. The only paid games here are Borderlands 3 and The Outer Limits. Epic not the best games client but it works.

Are the greyed out games ones you have purchased and not installed ?

I am stuck with playing around with linux programs as I can not be bothered doing a Windows 7/10 new install after my W7 got borked by an official Microsoft update.
I knew I should have taken my own advice and made a backup,,, oh well spilt milk and all that.

P.S. nice to see you are still alive and kicking.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Are the greyed out games ones you have purchased and not installed ?

I should have mentioned it, in fact I think I did but I reckon some text was lost when I posted, but the only games I paid for were Borderlands 3 and The Outer Limits, all the rest were freebies.

P.S. nice to see you are still alive and kicking.

Why thank you squire, same to you, I don't have any immediate plans to shuffle off this mortal coil just yet but if the lurgey comes calling it will doubtless polish me off. Or I could get hit by an articulated lorry whilst taking my daily designated exercise.

 

[Abarbarian]

I had a brief look at GameHub but decided to concentrate on Lutris. I have managed to install a few games pretty easily so far. Some of them are Windows only games installed with the Wine runner or through Steam with their proton set up.Some are G.O.G. games downloaded and installed locally.
You can view your games by platform which the screen shots show or you can view the entire collection at once, this is my prefered way at the moment. I may change my mind if the collection gets too big. You can set the view order in various ways and I have it set to " Last Played ".

 

[Ian]

Looks good @Abarbarian - glad to see that Lutris is useful! The look reminds me of the "classic" Steam design from many years ago.

 

[Abarbarian]

I think this is the layout I will stick with for a while. Going to commit more SIN before tea.

 

[Abarbarian]

Half-Life: Alyx now available on Linux with Vulkan

Just like Valve said to us they would do so, Half-Life: Alyx is now available on Linux using the Vulkan graphics API. This arrives as part of a big update that went out today which also brings in modding tools and Steam Workshop support, it's going to be very fun to see what the community comes up with for Half-Life: Alyx.