Nearly 90% of Windows Games Now Run on Linux • Hacker News Board

Re: Nearly 90% of Windows Games Now Run on Linux

#231

Post by pjmlp » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 3:09 PM UTC

Tajnymag wrote: post #224

pjmlp wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was the idea with UWP and Windows 10X, but folks really want that backwards compatibility.

Well, yes, but APIs aside, as long as the developers and users have the choice, they won't choose a new backwards incompatible solution if when they can stay with their old solution. Look at Apple Macs, all went from x86 to arm, breaking software and fixing incompatibilities later. Users had no choice but to use m1 macOS if they wanted a new device.

And leave software behind, hence why many postpone their acquisition until the hardware dies.

Re: Nearly 90% of Windows Games Now Run on Linux

#232

Post by commiepatrol » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 3:14 PM UTC

But do they work well, that's the question. I don't really care about the subject much but from reading some posts in the past games play like shit on Linux and Mac because they're not optimized for it with ~90% of the market being Windows.

Re: Nearly 90% of Windows Games Now Run on Linux

#233

Post by wernsey » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 3:34 PM UTC

I see a lot of mention of ProtonDB in this thread, so I thought I'd take a look at which of my favourite games are supported.

Unfortunately, when I try to open it, it gives me a NS_ERROR_UNKNOWN_HOST when it tries to download the page's .js and CSS from a head.protondb.pages.dev domain.

I tried to add that to my /etc/hosts file, but then I got an error about a certificate.

Most strange, and the only clue I found online was this YouTube video[1] that suggests accessing it through Tor...

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DY3snvH9Xc

Re: Nearly 90% of Windows Games Now Run on Linux

#234

Post by wtallis » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 4:07 PM UTC

dontlaugh wrote: post #209

wtallis wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The right tradeoff for compression ratio can change with just a few years of technological progress, or even quicker if it's a half-assed port from console to a high-end PC. There are similar issues for a game's decision of how many threads to spawn based on the CPU's core count. The developer's assumptions may not have been right to begin with, and even if they were, they're not likely to stay right for long.

Exactly. Guaranteed SSDs and a spare CPU core have made compression almost always faster.

Being able to rely on fast storage makes compression less necessary for performance reasons. But the higher price/GB of SSDs mean users have a stronger preference for games to keep the install size under control.

Re: Nearly 90% of Windows Games Now Run on Linux

#235

Post by ikbr » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 4:12 PM UTC

aquir wrote: post #185

I wish we could have Proton on MacOS...that would be awesome!

https://www.codeweavers.com/crossover

Re: Nearly 90% of Windows Games Now Run on Linux

#236

Post by drbytes » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 4:18 PM UTC

Cachyos here, it just works. I can even do all my .net dev on here without issue and let of some steam on overwatch

Re: Nearly 90% of Windows Games Now Run on Linux

#237

Post by TimBurman » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 4:29 PM UTC

geuis wrote: post #55

I have a pc I built when the 2080 TI came out. How is Linux support for the supporting drivers for those cards today? The machine is still more than powerful enough for my needs but I haven't used it in a couple years because Windows really is just complete garbage. I'd like to be able to take advantage of new to moderately old hardware without dealing with Windows.

I've been running a 2080 TI with AMD 5600x on Linux Mint Cinnamon for three months 24/7 with no graphics issues. Previously ran the proprietary nvidia-driver-550 but now use the nouveau open source drivers. There are five choices for Nvida drivers either open source, closed or open kernal (up to 570/580 now). This was a complete switch off Windows 10, which I've only had to boot twice in three months, to transfer some data.

Every game I've tried on Linux was either gold or platinum on ProtonDB and ran fine so far. WINE worked for running a couple non-game apps. Lutris is another way to run programs but I haven't needed it yet.

Definitely try it if you have a machine sitting there. There is so much support for Linux and Mint on the web it was easy to answer any questions I had setting things up.

Re: Nearly 90% of Windows Games Now Run on Linux

#238

Post by amarant » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 4:45 PM UTC

Zambyte wrote: post #229

amarant wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too recall having issues with the anti-cheat last I tried (years ago at this point). How did those issues get fixed? Did they abandon the anti cheat, or does the anti cheat now work under proton?

Rocket League never had issues with anti-cheat. I have been actively playing it since before they stopped shipping a native version.

What? They use Easy Anti Cheat, which is one of those nasty kernel level anti cheats. Even ignoring my personal experience with the issue, a kernel level anti cheat built for windows seems quite unlikely to not have any issues whatsoever on Linux...

Do you only play offline or something?

Re: Nearly 90% of Windows Games Now Run on Linux

#239

Post by oreally » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 5:02 PM UTC

tmtvl wrote: post #223

oreally wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep posting. Comments like yours bring balance to the linux ideologue that everything's all fine and dandy. We need some truth in this. The last thing we should want is to have an innocent, how-to-pay-rent-on-his-mind, game dev develop for linux thinking it's good only to find out there's a ton more bugs to solve (and having no help for solving them) for 0.01% of his customer base.

I have a collection in my Steam library labelled 'Broken', where I group games which didn't run when I tried them. So far it contains 6 games of the 656 I own.

Yea and my steam library ust works on windows. Don't even need to have a collection for what's not working.

Re: Nearly 90% of Windows Games Now Run on Linux

#240

Post by dontlaugh » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 5:56 PM UTC

wtallis wrote: post #234

dontlaugh wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Guaranteed SSDs and a spare CPU core have made compression almost always faster.

Being able to rely on fast storage makes compression less necessary for performance reasons. But the higher price/GB of SSDs mean users have a stronger preference for games to keep the install size under control.

There was a time when console games would avoid disc seeks at all costs, even duplicating uncompressed assets. Compression can easily interfere with laying data out in blocks to read sequentially.

That’s not a problem with SSDs and most machines have more cores or even dedicated hardware decoders. Of course it’s also more worthwhile to compress since SSD storage is comparatively more expensive.