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GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

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Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#241

Post by hayleox »

JohnFen wrote: post #222

I'm genuinely confused about all this. Can someone help me out? I've been buying and playing games from GOG on Linux for a very long time with no need for GOG Galaxy -- which is a thing I know nothing about. Since this announcement, I've been trying to figure out why I'd need it. It seems like it's just a convenience application and social connection point (leaderboards, etc.). In which case, it's not something of in…

It's just a convenience app, but it's a pretty nice one. When I moved my main PC from Windows to Linux, I was definitely sad to lose the ecosystem of nice launcher apps (GOG Galaxy but also others like Playnite, Launchbox, etc). The dream for me is to have all my games in one cohesive library, and that's what these sorts of apps offer. On Linux I use Lutris for this and it's fine enough, but I'll definitely be taking a look at Galaxy when it comes to Linux.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#242

Post by hedora »

pjmlp wrote: post #173
emsign wrote: post #14

I'm very hopeful that Linux gaming will save the open PC desktop despite big tech is coming to destroy it. Or at least keep PCs alive for another decade. Gamers are still a huge factor as hardware customers. GOG creating a Linux launcher and Steam Box with SteamOS coming out soon should benefit PC users in general not just gamers since Microslop sees Windows like a social experiment where they can test AI on unsuspec…

There is nothing to save as long as it relies on game studios using Windows workstations, coding in Visual Studio and targeting DirectX. The goal has to be to make native Linux attractive, so that they actually bother to create native executables, using Vulkan and co. Until then it is no different from playing arcade games with MAME on Linux.

I don't see what the problem is with game studios buying Windows licenses.

Sure, the platform is enshittified spyware, but that only impacts the game devs on their work machines (which are probably locked down to protect secret IP anyway). Microsoft has basically lost control over their own platform at this point. The game studios have been refusing to migrate to new APIs until after they're working well in Wine.

If the rest of us can run something decent at home, that's a > 99% solution to the problem.

Put another way, for a long time, you needed to buy an SGI workstation or whatever to make assets for PC games. That didn't hold the DOS ecosystem back.

As for the ABI:

The Linux kernel has started adding syscalls to enable native-like execution of Windows binaries, and game devs are testing with Linux at launch. In the worst case, these are only used by Wine. In the best case, some good ideas from the Windows kernel will be exposed to regular Linux user-land.

I don't see how it really matters if the binaries are targeting libc, musl, or an opensource win32 / win64 layer. It's free software regardless. End-users are getting better backward compatibility under Linux than Microsoft is supporting under Windows. That one victory goes a long way towards winning the entire war.

On top of that, Linux is starting to show better framerates than Windows in the same hardware. It's not 100% of the time, but it's enough that you should run the game in both places if you really care to get that extra few percent out of the hardware.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#243

Post by LooseMarmoset »

While you're waiting for a GoG native client, I can whole-heartedly recommend:

Heroic Game Launcher: https://heroicgameslauncher.com/

RPM/Deb/Flatpack/TGZ/AppImage for Linux

DMG for MacOS Intel/M1+

EXE for Windows

Heroic supports GoG, Amazon Luna, and the Epic Game stores.

Heroic even streamlines the app updates so you don't have to figure that out.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#244

Post by red-iron-pine »

orbital-decay wrote: post #109
emsign wrote: post #14

I'm very hopeful that Linux gaming will save the open PC desktop despite big tech is coming to destroy it. Or at least keep PCs alive for another decade. Gamers are still a huge factor as hardware customers. GOG creating a Linux launcher and Steam Box with SteamOS coming out soon should benefit PC users in general not just gamers since Microslop sees Windows like a social experiment where they can test AI on unsuspec…

Most gamers don't give a shit about openness. A much more likely outcome is "big tech" following the numbers and slowly making Linux unusable by using EEE or any other tactic under the pretense of usefulness.

but they do care about AI slop and owning their own system.

a lot of FOSS is an abstraction but even the rubes can realize that they're being spied on, that Big Tech wants to be Big Brother, and is enshittifying their experience to that end.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#245

Post by tracker1 »

hbn wrote: post #209
the_af wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steam with Proton is simply incredible. And now it doesn't even split games in "Linux" vs "Windows"; it simply assumes all games run on Linux. And they mostly do! Though to be fair I had to tweak a couple to make them run, and Space Marine II absolutely refuses to play past the cutscene, but most other games "just work".

God I hope Valve gets serious with Steam OS and it becomes a competitive target for PC games. They're making amazing progress with the Steam Deck, and I'm so ready to be free from Windows.

Is there something wrong with the many distros that make Steam a really easy install, or in the box? I mean Bazzite literally has a FS Steam option in the box for installers that's pretty close to the Steam OS experience with broader hardware support.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#246

Post by drvdevd »

JohnFen wrote: post #222

I'm genuinely confused about all this. Can someone help me out? I've been buying and playing games from GOG on Linux for a very long time with no need for GOG Galaxy -- which is a thing I know nothing about. Since this announcement, I've been trying to figure out why I'd need it. It seems like it's just a convenience application and social connection point (leaderboards, etc.). In which case, it's not something of in…

also I believe it helps you track save games. I have multiple Linux boxes I play GOG games on using Heroic launcher and save game tracking is a big issue (maybe there's a way to do this with Heroic, idk). But I think Galaxy would help here.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#247

Post by aleph_minus_one »

bastardoperator wrote: post #216
orbital-decay wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most gamers don't give a shit about openness. A much more likely outcome is "big tech" following the numbers and slowly making Linux unusable by using EEE or any other tactic under the pretense of usefulness.

Until it fully supports multiplayer which doesn't seem to be a thing for any major game or studio, it's a nothingburger for the majority of people.

Multiplayer games is only some specific sub-scene of PC gaming.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#248

Post by dimas_codes »

red-iron-pine wrote: post #236
canpan wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steam developing proton was what made it possible for me to change fully. No dual boot or anything needed. It's great. Funnily I also run GoG games through steam proton.. But looking forward to the GoG client working!

WINE crawled so that Proton could run. Like even in 2014 WINE worked well enough for most games for me. Proton just made it utterly effortless, and lets me run AAA games like RDR2 and CP2077.

I would say that WINE did 90% of what had to be done, then Proton came and did another 90% so now we are 99% there.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#249

Post by Rebelgecko »

zombot wrote: post #154
tmtvl wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GNU/Linux gamers are always decrying GOG, saying they won't buy stuff from them because Galaxy doesn't run on GNU/Linux, now we're getting people saying GOG porting Galaxy to GNU/Linux is bad!? By Taranis, GOG just can't get a break, can they?

How is GNU/Linux different from Linux?

Stallman preferred nomenclature

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#250

Post by giancarlostoro »

emsign wrote: post #14

I'm very hopeful that Linux gaming will save the open PC desktop despite big tech is coming to destroy it. Or at least keep PCs alive for another decade. Gamers are still a huge factor as hardware customers. GOG creating a Linux launcher and Steam Box with SteamOS coming out soon should benefit PC users in general not just gamers since Microslop sees Windows like a social experiment where they can test AI on unsuspec…

I also feel like this is an insane opportunity for companies who previously did not offer Linux native clients to start doing so and see some of a hike in sales specifically coming from the Linux crowd. I would absolutely pay good money for high quality Linux compatible software, after all, its not free as in free beer. I am still surprised most Linux Distros haven't changed their package managers to allow for selling of proprietary solutions directly, fully opt-in by default of course. I think maybe Ubuntu did? I don't know that Arch ever has. I think its a wasted opportunity to fund Linux distros by taking a small cut (probably not 30%) from commercial products directly on those app repositories.
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