Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

OpenMandriva Is Sort Of Trying To Make It Easier To Game On Linux

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • OpenMandriva Is Sort Of Trying To Make It Easier To Game On Linux

    Phoronix: OpenMandriva Is Sort Of Trying To Make It Easier To Game On Linux

    The developers working on OpenMandriva are trying to make it easier for Linux users to run the latest games...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    Well in my experience in trying to dump Windows for a full time use of Linux, I need all my stuff working. I tried the Virtual Machine route and though I could get away with using PCIe Passthrough until I realized I need a second graphics card. So here's what I do to game on Linux.

    Step 1: Is it already native on Linux? You have a 25% chance of finding the game working native on Linux. Just a matter of downloading Steam and installing the game.

    Step 2: If not try Wine. Wine has to be the stupidest software I've ever seen developed. Nothing works like it. Going to go off on a tangent here but the official release is 1.6.2 which is old and slow. The latest greatest Wine is 1.7.x which isn't a big deal, you just get the latest PPA and install it. Except that version sucks too, because it doesn't have all the latest patches and fixes. Wine-Staging has all the latest and greatest stuff like CSMT and bug fixes, but you might as well install PlayOnLinux to get it. Even still, Wine-Staging doesn't include Gallium-Nine which gives a better speed boost over CSMT. Why so much nonsense over Wine?

    Step 3: If you haven't got it working in Wine or decided to format your drive clean, you're essentially SOL. Dual boot Windows or try to use PCIe Passthrough which works except not with Nvidia graphic cards. Some reason Nvidia drivers shut down when it detects this. So it's either done with AMD or Intel. But you need two graphic cards for this and a second monitor as well, or at least a way to switch between two graphic cards outputting video. BTW if one is a weak graphics and the other is stronger, then your experience is going to vary.

    Comment


    • #3
      I've zero problems either with native games from Steam or with Playonlinux.-

      I remember that I once thought Photoshop to not work well with wine, until I've tried playonlinux. Since years now I have CS6 working perfectly.

      Comment


      • #4
        Nice writeup Dukenukemx.

        Wine Staging in POL doesn't include Gallium Nine but Archlinux has an AUR package that does:

        https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/w...ng-d3dadapter/

        According to Wine devs, Gallium Nine isn't the ideal technology and is very limited because it really only works well with Radeon cards supported only by FOSS drivers, but only about 17% of Linux gamers have an AMD card and only half of those users use the FOSS Radeon drivers because they've learned to spend their money more wisely and buy Nvidia. G9 might work with Nouveau as well but from what I've read, the performance is extremely poor. So those using Catalyst, Intel, or Nvidia cannot/won't use it. CSMT is a better solution from a code architectural standpoint and supports all graphics drivers.

        https://www.gamingonlinux.com/upload...aphicsCard.png

        As far as virtualization goes...GPU passthrough is cool technology. My current hardware doesn't support IOMMU but I may look at it closer with my next PC build. From what I understand, you don't need two actual physical graphics cards...most people just have one graphics card and one integrated GPU (perhaps an APU) and they just pass the actual physical card into the VM. Nvidia can also be used but you have to tell the hypervisor to hide it's identity from the Nvidia driver; I've read of people able to pass Maxwell cards into a VM but Radeon is easier. You also don't have to have a second monitor either. Some people connect their second graphics cards to the same monitor then use Turbo/TigerVNC to display the graphics or change the video input (if the monitor supports that). I imagine Steam In-Home Streaming could also possibly work to forward the VM display to the main screen and possibly work better for gaming than VNC.

        Lastly, I'd like to also mention that the free VMware Player now has a fairly solid emulated graphics driver, even for systems without passthrough capabilities. It supports DirectX 10 with Windows 10 guests on Linux hosts with OpenGL 3.3 compliant hardware and drivers. I've played some modern D3D 10 games on it in Linux, such as GTA 5 and GRID 2. The Windows guest itself can also be free with the trial version of Windows 10 Enterprise or Windows Tech Preview. GPU passthrough is a superior option but this method can work for hardware that isn't equipped with IOMMU and the graphics performance isn't far off from native--probably around 75% (give or take).

        You can see an example I recorded a few days ago here:

        Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
        Last edited by Xaero_Vincent; 21 September 2015, 04:35 AM. Reason: I hope this doesn't become a duplicate post as the first attempt failed with "unapproved".

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Xaero_Vincent View Post
          Nice writeup Dukenukemx.

          Wine Staging in POL doesn't include Gallium Nine but Archlinux has an AUR package that does:
          Currently wine does not compile with gcc >= 5 which is being shipped with arch. For gcc 4 you have to install another gcc aur package which actually do not work for me.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Kemosabe View Post

            Currently wine does not compile with gcc >= 5 which is being shipped with arch. For gcc 4 you have to install another gcc aur package which actually do not work for me.
            64bit wine does not compile with gcc5, but you may as well disable 64bit binaries as literally nothing requires them.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by magika View Post
              64bit wine does not compile with gcc5, but you may as well disable 64bit binaries as literally nothing requires them.
              Not true. Eg. Wolfenstein: The New Order / The Old Blood is 64-bit only.

              Comment


              • #8
                Instructions for installing WINE games I understand, but instructions to make installing Steam games easier? Really? Installing Steam is one or two clicks on most popular Linux distros these days. After that, installing any game through Steam is essentially the same as it is on Windows, basically 2 or 3 clicks.

                Comment


                • #9
                  According the Tek Linux guys they tried to use PCIe Passthrough with Nvidia and the drivers just shuts down and it's deliberate. So think twice about owning Nvidia hardware.

                  Want to see the hardware behind this? Check out Part 1:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIlhLnTc6UsFull Article and How-To at level1techs https://forum.level1...

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    There were some dirty tricks guides how to convert classic nvidia card to Quadro one with which passthrough is running, i dunno if it is still possible.

                    If is here someone with 2 GPU setup, i want to hear, how big pain in the as it is, especially with dual boot - what about Windows 7, Hackingtosh, even Xp - i still have them for old game - with some tunning (easy to comparion with usual linux magic - just unofficial sata drivers and other second hand drivers and GPT driver for non booting HDD) - running with Broadwell well, Nvidia still support G9xxx in XP.
                    Last edited by ruthan; 21 September 2015, 01:33 PM.

                    Comment

                    Working...
                    X