Just a basic thing I have found with Linux Gaming.

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

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Ok, I have been running Windows and Linux on my machines for a few years now. Not multibooting, but each system has a different O/S.

Anyway, I finally made the switch not too long ago, and I was using a Windows PC for the odd program that I could not find on Linux that I use a lot in Windows, but now, I have finally fully crossed over because I now do nothing that actually needs windows, and everything works great on Linux for me.

One thing I have noticed however, and that is, that a couple of the games that I do love playing, have sometimes got a small issue with them. One of them for example is WarHammer Dawn of War, DC and SS, in that they can often crash with a Scar Error? -A fix for thaty can be to lower the quality of the Audio a smidge and sure, that helps greatly, but I have not had any such issues under Linux, and I have tried my best to get it to fail but it simply does not.
One small downer with Linux, is that the speed of the loading of games and the levels/data etc is very slow compared to Windows, and yet, when I am working with masses of files, its way quicker in Linux... So swings and round abouts I suppose?

Either way, I am now free of Windows. Microsoft has Windows 11 to thank for that. Its simply getting too invasive, and demanding too much control of my PC.
 
I sure will...

I dont play THAT many games anymore as I have Physical and mental issues.

I mostly play games that require no hands to play... My fingers are messed up so I cant use a controler but Im ok with Mouse and keys.

All the games that I have on Steam ( and its a ridiculous amount ) all seem to play just fine under Steam, and yes that uses PROTON.


Many games, but not all, seem to play better under Linux... Loading times are not as quick, but the game play seems nicer.

I have also gone back to ATI for the Graphics on my main PC. The laptops are still nVidia. One of my older Laptops only has a GTX460 and thats just started to be a pain as I have to use an older Driver, but then it updates itself automatically and then it stops working... I think thats why I dumped NV and went ATI, but my cards are all more up to date and so I wont have that issue, but still...
 
AMD cards generally work better, it’s true.

I find smoothness on Linux is much better, but I don’t play AAA titles anymore really.
 
I do not miss AAA games and games like BF6 bore me because it looks like the same game they've been making since BF3. There is so much to play I was fine on my Mac when I had a stage of playing Mac before they went ARM and I had to ditch it...

But yeah it's just nowhere near what it needs to be, until companies support it properly with drivers, you're forever in terminal with a headache.
 
FatRakoon said:
I sure will...

I dont play THAT many games anymore as I have Physical and mental issues.

I mostly play games that require no hands to play... My fingers are messed up so I cant use a controler but Im ok with Mouse and keys.

All the games that I have on Steam ( and its a ridiculous amount ) all seem to play just fine under Steam, and yes that uses PROTON.


Many games, but not all, seem to play better under Linux... Loading times are not as quick, but the game play seems nicer.

I have also gone back to ATI for the Graphics on my main PC. The laptops are still nVidia. One of my older Laptops only has a GTX460 and thats just started to be a pain as I have to use an older Driver, but then it updates itself automatically and then it stops working... I think thats why I dumped NV and went ATI, but my cards are all more up to date and so I wont have that issue, but still...
Click to expand...

I've found games load faster on Linux, except shader caching (bleurgh).

I've run both NV on RPM fusion and AMD on upstream official, been good (except battling nouveau). Everything feels super snappy on Linux.

Can I ask, are your games on a separate drive? Connection speed? Is it GPT and Btrfs?

PS. You should be able to prevent your drivers from updating, when does that happen, kernel updates, or a sudo upgrade command?
 
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Ok, maybe it is the shader caching... I often see things like Updating the Vulcan shaders and so that might actually be it, or that sort ofd thing anyway.

Games on Seperate drive?
Oh absolutely, I have always had at least 2 drives for all my compurters since way before SSDs were a thing.

I do remember using 36GB Raptors for C: and a seagate for D:

My main Windows PC, has a 240SSD ( C: Windows and System ) and 2x4TB Hitchi Blacks for D: ( Apps & Games ) and E: ( Music / Media ) and a Seagate 2TB for F: ( This contains junk, but also my Home folders.

My Linux PCs all have a 240GB for / and a 2TB for /home plus my main Laptop and Linux Desktop actually both have the SSD for / and a HD for /home, but also a third HD for /home/data

This extra /home/data also contains my extra Steam Folder with my games on as well as some other junk.

For what its worth, I did chuck a 500MB SSD into it for a giggle and just moved a few games over on to it, and the ONLY difference it made, was that I had to also download the Proton files again for those games. but it did not make any real difference in the loading times. so that would also point to the shader taking a while.
 
FatRakoon said:
Ok, maybe it is the shader caching... I often see things like Updating the Vulcan shaders and so that might actually be it, or that sort ofd thing anyway.

Games on Seperate drive?
Oh absolutely, I have always had at least 2 drives for all my compurters since way before SSDs were a thing.

I do remember using 36GB Raptors for C: and a seagate for D:

My main Windows PC, has a 240SSD ( C: Windows and System ) and 2x4TB Hitchi Blacks for D: ( Apps & Games ) and E: ( Music / Media ) and a Seagate 2TB for F: ( This contains junk, but also my Home folders.

My Linux PCs all have a 240GB for / and a 2TB for /home plus my main Laptop and Linux Desktop actually both have the SSD for / and a HD for /home, but also a third HD for /home/data

This extra /home/data also contains my extra Steam Folder with my games on as well as some other junk.

For what its worth, I did chuck a 500MB SSD into it for a giggle and just moved a few games over on to it, and the ONLY difference it made, was that I had to also download the Proton files again for those games. but it did not make any real difference in the loading times. so that would also point to the shader taking a while.
Click to expand...

Yes shaders shouldn't be every time, but it is annoying. i didn't catch the partitioning scheme and file system you're using for your game drive, but it sounds like at least some of it is NTFS, if that's the case the extra downloads will be because Linux is case sensitive - it's grabbing the 'right' files because launching.

You'll likely find best performance with a drive that has GPT and Ext4/Btrfs. I'm still using NTFS and MBR on a 1tb WD black though, and gaming is great on it.

I'm hoping you'll find once you have the requisite files and caches, games load at least as fast. If not, it's worth exploring options, maybe start with the above, as some distros really don't like windows partitions as I mentioned.
 
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Sorry if I was not clear.

No, my Linux machines are all now GTP / etx4 and one its Btrfs amd I think that is because one of the laptops I am trying out has Garuda on it ( I am usually liking Mint and I seem to be undecided on MATE or Cinnamon. Purely because of tiny little things like the files search and the displaying of picture as icons or fonts etc that MATE has that Cinnamon does not seem to have? plus I have the Mate themed beautifully and Cinnamon has very limited themes that are frankly a bit poo - Just looking and yeah, I m on MATE right now. )

And yes, its only when I first load of the game... all other times its like a bullet, so I am sure its down to simply loading and doing the shading struff.
Oh, and another thing I have noticed... The games I am on about are STEAM games... Steam is not loaded on startup, and so it needs to load STEAM as well as the game right... So, it does htat plus the shading, but, if I stop playing, save where I am in the game, and then quit... I leave steam in... If I jump back into the game, it onbly reloads the game, but the shading is near instant and the game goes right in, very very quickly. To be fair Windows also did that, and from memory... I am trying to think... Did the nVidia card do this? Im not sure it did... I will go and have a play on the PileDriver and see, cos thats now got the nVidia card from this one.
 
The Nvidia card won't need to load vulkan shaders, that's the difference you're seeing. And yes it sounds like your loading steam, vulkan shaders and the renamed files. You should find after first launch, especially once steam is running (should keep running until you close it, even after closing a game) loading is very quick.
 
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