Malf on 26/4/2023 at 09:04
I finally conceded defeat last night and reverted back to Windows after trying to run Linux as my main gaming platform.
There were just too many things that didn't work, or worked-ish; or things that would be easy on Windows / Mac requiring arcane command line knowledge to resolve.
Here's a brief list of things that didn't work or were a pain in the ass to get working that just work out of the box on Windows:
Graphics card drivers and control panels - nVidia have a GUI control panel, but poor drivers (that can be updated) whereas AMD have well supported drivers that don't have a GUI control panel and can't be updated unless your distribution maintainer updates them.
Sound - I have a Sennheiser GSX1000 external USB soundcard, that for a while, worked absolutely fine on Linux. But when I updated my other hardware, it stopped working, even through operating system re-installs. It would start up muted through a command line mixer that I would have to invoke every time and unmute, and the ring control just wouldn't work properly. If I started the GUI-based Linux sound mixer software to try and fix it, it would blart white noise, then mute again, necessitating another trip to the command line mixer. And it just wouldn't reliably see my desired microphone at all.
Fan Control - even if Linux somehow recognises your cooling devices, it relies on you designing your own fan response curves. Windows does this automatically. Also, Windows recognises the nifty little TFT screen on my AIO cooler, and shows what temperature my CPU is running at as well as other info I can customise.
Steam - For the most part, Steam works, but to get it to recognise other drives connected to your system, you HAVE to know how to edit /etc/fstab. And even then, occasionally Steam would forget where your library folders were, because it runs as a FlatPack, a kind of sandbox environment. This also prevents it from launching with the OS. Oh, and GOG Galaxy / EGS / Origin / whatever shitheap UBI are currently peddling just don't run at all, and require third-party software in order to get access to your libraries.
Dead Space - While my new system components dramatically improved the framerate of the game, it started crashing at exactly the same point every time I fired it up, complaining about graphics card drivers being outdated... which as noted above, I couldn't update because my distribution's developers embed the drivers in the kernel.
Ray Tracing - I told myself for the longest time that I didn't care about this, but now I've got a beast of a card that can actually do it reasonably well, yeah, it's nice to have. Unless developers explicitly make ray tracing work using Vulkan instead of DirectX 12, ray tracing just doesn't work on Linux.
Freesync / GSync - Again, because of the absence of decent, GUI driven control panels, this is either hard to get working, or simply doesn't (as seems to be the case for Freesync).
HDR - I have two ace new NZXT monitors that support HDR. Linux doesn't.
Keyboard and Mouse controls - I use a Wooting 2 HE keyboard and a Razer Naga Trinity mouse. If I wanted to confiure them to use them in Linux, I'd have to attach them to a WIndows machine to save the config to them, as there's no software that allows you to configure them on Linux.
For the Steam Deck and indie gaming which isn't too demanding, Linux is a fine choice. And hopefully, thanks to the Deck, long-term, more software and hardware developers will start seriously supporting it.
But I can't, in good conscience, recommend it as the main platform for serious gaming.
I absolutely love it for work though!
Malf on 26/4/2023 at 09:23
...and I'm carrying your bones & gear around in my inventory hoping for a shrine of Vi :p
Mr.Duck on 28/4/2023 at 07:12
I am currently bouncing between...
* X-Com: UFO Defense w/ OpenXCom Mod (PC) - It's great to be retaking this classic again. Bring on the pain, you alien bastards!
* Pizza Tower (PC) - Mamma-fucking-mia...what a trip this is. The (better than) Wario platformer sequel we needed!
* Borderlands 2: GotY (PC) - FINALLY hoping to play it from start to finish with ALL DLCs.
* Dome Keeper (PC) - 2D Minecraft meets Defender. I'm digging it (ah, ah, ah!).
* Thief Gold w/TFix Patch (PC) - I'm streaming this game for some friends to see me ghost it up (and reload a lot more). Ah, game's still as great as I remember. <3
* Nioh Remastered (PS5) - Whupping samurai ass as a white-bread Irish lad. Good (and challenging) times.
* Metal Gear Solid Collection: Peacewalker (PS3) - Call me silly, but I want to play and finish this one to be fully immersed when I play, and finally, finish MGS V: The Phantom Pain.
Not gonna lie, I feel like installing an extra game or two. I'm a fickle fucker.
henke on 28/4/2023 at 16:41
Malf, good Linux-woes write-up! :thumb: Glad to have you back in CIVILIZED SOCIETY where you can play co-op with your buddies without any hassle. :cheeky:
Anyway, I finished Subnautica. Yeah, this game is really dang good. The story does a good job of not only keeping you hooked once grinding for better equipment looses its charm, but also resolving into a really cool ending. This game just does so much right. The vehicles are so much fun to maneouver, especially the Prawn and the Cyclops.
henke on 29/4/2023 at 20:42
Thirith suggested we should play some Don't Star Together and then he absconded! Just straight up ABSCONDED! So me, Malf, Jesh, and Sulphur played it for a while. Apparently none of us read the title properly because we DID starve and turn into ghosts on like day 3. Second attempt, we made it to day 9 (tho Sulph was a ghost by day 2). It's a tricky game! Fun though, I hope we play some more. If we do I'm gonna try REALLY HARD not to starve. Promise.
Thirith on 29/4/2023 at 21:07
Mwahaha. My plan worked out - everyone starved but me! Yeah, I couldn't make today, but I should be around next Saturday, should anyone want to starve, fall or swat.
Mr.Duck on 30/4/2023 at 05:17
I'd love to play DST with you, guys. <3
Mr.Duck on 30/4/2023 at 05:20
Quote Posted by henke
Malf, good Linux-woes write-up! :thumb: Glad to have you back in CIVILIZED SOCIETY where you can play co-op with your buddies without any hassle. :cheeky:
Anyway, I finished Subnautica. Yeah, this game is really dang good. The story does a good job of not only keeping you hooked once grinding for better equipment looses its charm, but also resolving into a really cool ending. This game just does so much right. The vehicles are so much fun to maneouver, especially the Prawn and the Cyclops.
I LOVED Subnautica. Even the
Reaper Leviathans, whom, to be quite fair, I turned into sushi after building the
prawn suit with some extra upgrades. Mwahahahaha!
Thirith on 1/5/2023 at 07:53
While I'm enjoying Grimrock well enough, I'm not sure I'm enjoying it enough to finish it this time around. There are aspects that simply don't do that much for me.
For one, I don't find the combat system particularly interesting to play, which in a game where combat makes up a large part isn't exactly ideal. It's this weird combination of really hard (many of the enemies hit hard, and it's easy to die) and laughably easy (once you've got the hang of it and the environment permits it, you can run circles around the enemies), neither of which makes for particularly interesting combat gameplay.
For another, the game's systems aren't altogether clear and consistent. There's one bit relatively early on where you're supposed to throw something into a teleport field that only pops into existence briefly. Fair enough, but the game knows different kinds of throwing without telling you that they do different things. Which meant I spent ten minutes getting my throw just right and then giving up and checking out forums, where I found out that a normal throw doesn't work and you have to do an attack throw.
I'll definitely continue, but chances are that if I run into another couple of frustrating bits like this where I'm doing the right thing but not quite in the right way and the game barely gives me any useful feedback as to what I'm doing wrong I'll decide that I don't need to finish this game after all. It's not like I haven't got other games I could play.
Renault on 1/5/2023 at 21:18
I finally finished Subnautica over the weekend. What a ride, I think that's going on the all time list. In less than a month, it managed to creep on to my Steam top 10 for hours played. Really great experience overall, and I'm glad I stuck with it after a rough start.
Even though I really enjoyed the game quite a bit, it wasn't without some frustration. They really don't hold your hand at all, and there were several instances of just being completely lost and not sure what to do next. One time I missed picking up a PDA in one of the underwater abandoned bases, and it stopped me from progressing in the game (turns out the PDA was in a locker, mostly out of view, very easy thing to miss). Also, near the end, I was trying to get into the final area, but I needed a "blue card" which had not appeared or even been mentioned in the game so far. Further investigation revealed that it was in the Thermal Plant, a building I hadn't found yet, and that only had one vague reference in the game, in a memo buried deep within my PDA. Sheesh. There was also a time when I traveled through one of the warp points (and back), only to find on my return that my Prawn had sunk into the floor and was now unreachable and unrecoverable. Along with everything in the Prawn's storage and all it's upgrades. Ahem.
These are minor gripes though, and these things never really deterred me from playing further. But now after 70 hours, I need a break. Oh but wait, look, Subnautica Below Zero just went on sale...
