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Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features

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581–590 of 694 posts

Re: Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features

#581

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: modding with MO2/vortex I had a similar problem in that installing them on linux isn't super straightforward, and then once I did get them installed when I launched the game through them like I used to do on windows the performance was abysmal. I decided to tackle the problem myself and so I wrote this: https://github.com/mfinelli/modctl . It's a mod manager that I wrote specifically for linux. It's not really re…

I know that running Vortex is a pain but I never ran into any problems once it was installed. I did this back in 2022. I don't want to discourage you, but what's wrong with helping MO2 and Vortex get ported to Linux?

That's a fair question! When I was on windows I never actually used Vortex, I only gave it a try on Linux when I had problems with MO2. But being an Electron app it's very unappealing to me. As for MO2, well, I don't really know C++ and wouldn't even know where to begin contributing even if I did... just for starters there's the whole question of how the virtual filesystem that MO2 does would work if it were native linux. In any case I know Go and wanted to implement some things that I didn't like how MO2 worked (eg tracking the version of additional mod files instead of just the main one). Plus new stuff like making a portable mod bundle that you can either backup or move to a new machine. Plus I generally like a CLI workflow :)

Re: Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features

#582

Given the current momentum, it feels like (to me) the adage of “Windows is for Games” is going by the wayside. If you look at Steam, and OSs like Bazzite it’s clear the consumer-side is finally shoring up. But that aside, from an economic incentive, game providers (for example Amazon Luna), don’t want to be paying the licenses for running Windows machines for Video Game Streaming on Demand. In fact, at my time there…

> the adage of “Windows is for Games” is going by the wayside.

This is the last major reason for anyone to use Windows nowadays, with the exception of legacy applications.

Windows' days are numbered.

Re: Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features

#583

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know that running Vortex is a pain but I never ran into any problems once it was installed. I did this back in 2022. I don't want to discourage you, but what's wrong with helping MO2 and Vortex get ported to Linux?

MO2 works fine on Linux! It’s a bit slow to start but I found it very usable, a bit less polished than Vortex maybe but it absolutely gets the job done and I got my head around it inside of an hour.

I'm familiar with MO2 from when I used windows, but I had a hard time getting it working on Linux. First problem was getting it installed. I found https://github.com/sonic2kk/steamtinkerlaunch which is supposed to let you install it into each game's wine/proton prefix which worked, but when I then tried to launch the game it would run with absolute terribile performance (like even just the title screen would lag and stutter...)

How did you install it? Maybe with a different method it would work for me better (even though now I'll probably just stick with my own tool I'm still curious)

Re: Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features

#584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't most monitors ship with DisplayPort cables? All of mine have. HDMI is more popular with TVs/home theater systems.

Outside of the ones built into laptops, all my "monitors" for the last decade have been TVs, just because they tend to be cheaper at a "price to size" level. None of them ever seem to have DisplayPort.

Yeah TVs typically don't have DP, because extra HDMI ports are usually more valuable in a home theater setting. Game consoles, receivers, video players all have HDMI and don't have DisplayPort, meanwhile every graphics card and laptop usually supports both, so having an extra HDMI port ends up being more versatile.

Re: Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features

#585

Show me the numbers. Show me an identical gaming PC running Windows 11 and then Linux, and show not just FPS - but things like frametime pacing, latency, etc. This NTSync stuff is very impressive, but I haven't seen a lot of end-to-end numbers versus Windows. The last comparisons I saw showed pretty much every distribution on the order of 5-30% behind Windows, varying on the game. And Nvidia GPU support was still not…

I actually got better FPS in CS2 using Linux

Re: Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features

#586

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re-reading that, "most" might be too strong a word - "many" would be more accurate. A few recent examples of games I've tried: - Borderlands 4 was basically unplayable on my hardware (9800 X3D, 3080 TI) - though I didn't care enough to try and fix it. - Dune Awakening was decent, but noticeably less performant, stuttery, etc. Probably fixable with some settings tweaks and other stuff, but the experience was markedly…

"Many" is definitely more in line with what I'd expect, yeah :) Sounds like most of your issues are multi-monitor & windowing related, which isn't surprising. Games make a lot of assumptions based on how Windows's one-and-only window manager operates, stuff like windowing message and focus event sequences, effects of various windowing states on window sizes and chrome and mouse cursor behavior, and so on. Linux WMs d…

Ah wow I see you did work for Code Weavers. You guys are rock stars!

Once upon a time I was a paying customer (like in the early early aughts). Glad to see them still doing their thing.

Re: Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features

#587
post #559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You let the people run their own servers and kick cheaters. That's one solution which has actively been taken away over the years.

People just want to click Play and get dropped in a game, not have to mess with servers.

Modern games should have:

- Quickplay

- Server / Game / Match finder

- LFG - for a more detailed search

Each of these has a different use case, and a single user may make use of all of them (I include myself here). Not everyone wants to just click "play", it's very dependent on the type of game.

Helldivers 2, for example, implements the first two. Destiny/Destiny 2 has mostly the first one. Destiny on Xbox has a XBL-provided LFG functionality (but prior to that external sites were used). You really needed LFG for finding a raid group.

Re: Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features

#588

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Linux needs a few things before it will be ready for mass consumer adoption. 1. An equivalent of kernel level anti-cheats. Cheating really sucks. It ruins online games. Kernel level anti-cheats aren't perfect, but they're much better than user-space or server-side anti-cheats. Maybe in the future AI solves this, but inherence-based anti-cheats are likely going to be a cat-and-mouse game. Valve have stated the…

> 1. An equivalent of kernel level anti-cheats. Ultimately, you can’t trust the user computer unless you go for the secure boot things backed by a hardware key. I’m sure there are multiple ways to bypass anti-cheats on Windows. > 2. Immutability[…] It's distributing games to 12 different distros with a hundreds different configurations and a thousand customisations Does it really matter? You can always ship a statica…

I've been intrigued by the possibility of statically compiled games for Linux but I don't think they're the more compatible option. For typical games and players, the game needs to cooperate and interact with the window system. Even setting aside the X11 vs. Wayland issue, AFAIK neither have promised to maintain compatibility for static binaries.

Re: Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features

#590

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently had my faith shattered with I saw someone lock onto an ally through a wall in a kill cam, and I haven't played sense. Blatant cheaters are bad in some ways, but subtle cheat are far worse imo.

There's no reason that kind of client behavior can't be detected server side.

Detect the mouse moving in a "non-human way"? If it were that easy there'd be no hackers. And even if it where, what about wall hacks?
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