How are people coping with games that just won’t run on Linux (aside from leaving them behind)? Do you dual boot Windows? Virtualize? What’s your strategy for this?
This will be extremely rare for me since I don’t play a lot of competitive stuff, but I’d love to find a solution. I have a large library, and it’s bound to happen from time to time.
I use Proton Experimental to play my games and they all work without exception. I’m in my late 30s, so I no longer play competitive games that have a kernel rootkit, I mean kernel anti-cheat.
Basically, Linux gaming is like this: If you want to play competitive games with anti-cheat, stay or play in Windows. For all other games, play in Linux.
Are you me? I used to play some online multiplayer games, but switching to linux (some 3 years ago?) and being less competitive came hand in hand. Now I enjoy single players only (with sprinkle of Path of Exile and World of Tanks (well, not really anymore)) and can’t understand why should I even consider going back to those toxic waters of competitive play… Am I officially old?
Haha. we’re officially old. I was an extremely competitive gamer back then. I played Quake 3, UT 99, Tribes 2, America’s Army, etc. I was even in a Tribes 2 squad and we basically practiced for tournaments every day.
But now that life is stressful enough with the responsibilities I have, I just can’t play competitive games anymore. I just want to enjoy the story. I no longer have the stamina and the reflex for competitive games anymore.
This has generally been my experience as well. The sole exception: Distant Worlds. I’ve never, ever gotten it to run with any version of Proton.
I don’t buy games that won’t run on linux.
aside from leaving them behind
Thats asking for an empty comment section.
This is the way
this rarely happens, but when i run into a game that doesn’t work i - check protondb.com to see if someone else has already found a solution. trying different proton versions can sometimes help as well
The PCGamingWiki is also another good resource especially for older or more obscure games. Most fixes are Windows specific but they can be used on Linux. For example here is the page for Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit where it links fan patches and an open source engine recreation.
If someone is really desperate there’s always the option of searching GitHub issue pages like dxvk to see if it has been documented, if there is a temporary fix, if a fix is on the way, or if it’s going to remain a constant issue (ex. FiveM).
Absolutely this. It is becoming increasingly rare to find a game that doesn’t work in linux (excluding stupid copy protection/anti-cheat implementations). We haven’t reached the works-out-of-the-box stage but the combination of proton-ge/wine-ge with lutris or heroic provides a solid alternative to games not on steam.
aside from leaving them behind
Why are we conforming to fit the software’s needs instead of vice-versa? Fuck the devs who can’t be assed to make it work for proton at the least. This isn’t my job, I’m not being paid to use software that goes against my values. There’s tens of thousands of games out there and I’m gonna let myself get so hung up on the few hundred that don’t work that i just go back to m$?
Fuck. That. They deserve to get left behind. No piece of media is worth compronising on my values to consume.
First things first: This hasn’t happened to me in ages. I even stopped looking at ProtonDB. Stuff just runs.
However, if a game I buy really wouldn’t run on Linux, I would just refund it (if possible) and play something else. I have a pile of shame that could fill a hundred lifetimes, I really don’t need to play this one particular game.
Dual boot, although I usually prefer to drop it rather than go to the trouble.
I wouldn’t recommend virtualization, not only do you lose performance when you need it most, but (depending on the devices and system) setting everything up properly can be very tedious.
I have a dual boot partition, but honestly the games that don’t run are so few and far between that I really don’t bother…
It’s like if you bought a Playstation, how do you play Xbox games? Unless it’s really worth it, you just don’t.
I switched fully to Linux on my main gaming PC about 18 months ago. Honestly Proton has become so good that I really haven’t had to dual-boot Windows or run a VM or anything. I even bought a licence for CrossOver when I first switched but ended up not needing it.
For the few games that really won’t run (after trying what I find in ProtonDB and PCGW) I really do either A) wait for fixes, or B) just leave them behind. With a library of like 2500 games it’s not hard to find something else to play.
These are the only games I recall not working at all for me:
- Beyond Good & Evil (GOG) - Might be fixed now
- Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (Steam) - Might be fixed now
- Dauntless (EGS) - Broken due to Easy Anti-Cheat
It’s nice to meet someone with a bigger pile of shame than mine. How do you pick the next game to play from that pile? And do you still add games to it? :)
When I had to worry about that,I dual-booted. It’s the simplest solution. I don’t really play multiplayer PC games anyway, and multiplayer anti-cheat is 90%+ of the reason games won’t run on Linux nowadays with the advancements made to Proton, so I don’t really have that problem anymore and I haven’t had any Windows on my system in a few years.
I used to have a second partition with Windows for such cases, but over time I just stopped bothering with those games.
Now I just refund if it doesn’t work and move on in my to-play list.
I still have a Windows VM for some applications and for doing firmware updates but I never bothered to set it up for playing games.
Mostly same here, but (I have an SSD with W10 on it. I haven’t booted into my Windows drive since 2023. I only had a a few games installed on that drive, but it was also useful for the rare instance that I needed to some some propriety configuration utility.
I do without.
no way am I bothering with installing windows, in a VM or elsewhere.
My solution is “have a large game collection, and move on to the next game”. The odd bad game will likely get better in a future version of Wine. Proton 9-something even picked up support for some of the fussier Japanese VNs (but not well enough for IMHHW, alas).
Then there’s the ones that actively block Linux and will ban you if you actually manage to get it to work (*cough* Destiny 2 *cough*)
When somebody tells you “fuck off, I don’t want your business”, believe them.
Oh, believe me, I do
Everything I want to play that doesn’t work on Linux is available on GeForce Now.
I still have some games that I can only run on my PS3, but I don’t really use it much.
Dualbooting is the easiest, IMO.
I had a shrunk down windows partition and a tiny portion of HDD space to install the couple games that only worked on windows.
I’ve since nuked both partitions, as some of the games now do work on Linux, and the rest were no longer enough to actually make be boot into windows to play.