Today marks 6 years since Valve decided to change everything, especially for Linux fans, with the announcement of Steam Play Proton. Thanks to it, the Steam Deck and Desktop Linux gaming have continued to thrive.
I just built my first gaming PC, which is the first gaming rig I’ve owned in 20 years. I did so because I could install all the games I wanted to play on Linux. I haven’t installed Windows and do not plan to.
I still have Windows installed (1.5tb for Linux and 0.5tb for Windows) but I use it like once every few months. The only games I have installed there are Fortnite and FiveM (RP mod for GTA 5). Even VR works great on Linux, aside from the issues that SteamVR itself has on all operating systems.
Oh what’s your Linux setup for VR? I thought it was very janky still? Once I get my storage server set up I was planing on moving fully to windows except for a small drive for VR titlea.
First of all, I use a Valve Index, which has native Linux support. The HTC Vive does too and wireless headsets like the Quest can be used with ALVR.
I currently have to use X11 for VR but the next GNOME version (47) will have VR working with Wayland too. I think on KDE VR already works on Wayland.
You also need something like CoreCTRL to manually set your GPU profile to “high”, otherwise performance will be shit.
Other than that, it’s just install and start SteamVR and start the game.
There’s also an older version of SteamVR specifically for Linux (you can use it by switching to the beta version with the fitting name) but then your VR games have to run in Proton 5 and some games don’t work on that Proton version. I recommend just using the latest SteamVR version.
I got a Quest 3 that I use with a USB-c cable. Price is great but having to fiddle around with video compression settings on top of all other VR settings has proven to be a bit tedious. I’m still trying to figure out what pcvr headset to go for that won’t complete drain my bank account (there’s probably tons of used ones out there).
Glad to hear VR is possible and getting better on Linux though!
I understand having to fiddle with the compression settings can be annoying (I did that for my brother who has a Quest 2) but it’s also something you only have to do once. And you can do a lot of trial and error without knowing exactly what the settings do. Quest 2 is probably best bang for your buck but you can get a used HTC Vive for around the same price. Advantage of the HTC Vive is that it just works with Linux and you don’t need a Facebook account but disadvantage is that it’s not that good. I had one too before I bought the Vive. While the resolution was pretty low, it was fine but the controllers really suck.
Yeah the issue is I wouldn’t want to compromise quality too much. But I might just start saving up now for whatever valve is cooking up next :) Another issue with using a quest is that you have to run the occulus app (when wired), eating up some of that sweet precious VRAM.
I really hope another headset from Valve is coming, specifically because of eye tracking. The oculus app is only needed if you’re not using ALVR. It’s also not available on Linux, which is why ALVR is the only option there.
Have you tried Envision/Monado on your Index? I have a Vive Pro and the performance is significantly better, albeit you lose controller rebinding feature and OpenVR (games which require SteamVR) compatibility is meh
I have, actually and it’s great. I only used it for things like racing games (I also have a USB steering wheel with force feedback) because it doesn’t show you the borders of your play space (yet). The thing is just that I installed Envision from the AUR back then and it just worked and now that I’m on Fedora, I used distrobox to install it from the AUR again. When I try to build a profile tho, it tells me that dependencies are missing that simply aren’t in the package manager or the AUR. That’s why I currently don’t have Monado working. I’d really like to get it working again tho. Wish it just had a Flatpak.
It’s a shame DRM leasing doesn’t work for flatpak but maybe it will in the future. I tried the AppImage but it’s the same issue, I can’t build a profile because the dependencies are missing.
I recently tried installing Linux next to Windows in order to begin the transition, but my system has Intel Rapid Storage and Linux doesn’t like that. Someday I hope to find a solution or get another drive to move off the data so I can disable RST.
Just asking, my old laptop too has RST, but no problems with Linux. (Granted, the manufacturer’s website states I should install only 8GBs of RAM max and once I used 16GB in it, and had some strange… memory related issues sometimes… with 12, there’s no problem. Tho this wasn’t a Linux problem, my laptop just hanged after booting into anything. (Linux, Windows, memtest, anything, really))
I honestly don’t know. Just that I tried to install Mint and it booted from USB just fine, but gave an error when I tried to run the installer. I don’t recall the error message anymore but when I googled it, the problem was RST being enabled. I (dumbly) disabled it and rebooted into Windows only to find a drive missing. Thought I lost it but after re-enabling and rebooting a couple of times it came back.
I decided not to play until I could move that data and then reformat the drive without RST.
@Kraven_the_Hunter
If you like to tinker: Out of my head, you can disable RST, but windows must be started after disabling it in safe mode for the next boot, this will disable the RST driver and let windows correct this. Restart windows normally afterwards. Then linux should find your disk.
Disclaimer: This is out of my head and might not work. Have a restoreable backup of your data. Please consult the search engine of your choice for some further information.
I just built my first gaming PC, which is the first gaming rig I’ve owned in 20 years. I did so because I could install all the games I wanted to play on Linux. I haven’t installed Windows and do not plan to.
I still have Windows installed (1.5tb for Linux and 0.5tb for Windows) but I use it like once every few months. The only games I have installed there are Fortnite and FiveM (RP mod for GTA 5). Even VR works great on Linux, aside from the issues that SteamVR itself has on all operating systems.
Oh what’s your Linux setup for VR? I thought it was very janky still? Once I get my storage server set up I was planing on moving fully to windows except for a small drive for VR titlea.
First of all, I use a Valve Index, which has native Linux support. The HTC Vive does too and wireless headsets like the Quest can be used with ALVR.
I currently have to use X11 for VR but the next GNOME version (47) will have VR working with Wayland too. I think on KDE VR already works on Wayland.
You also need something like CoreCTRL to manually set your GPU profile to “high”, otherwise performance will be shit.
Other than that, it’s just install and start SteamVR and start the game.
There’s also an older version of SteamVR specifically for Linux (you can use it by switching to the beta version with the fitting name) but then your VR games have to run in Proton 5 and some games don’t work on that Proton version. I recommend just using the latest SteamVR version.
I got a Quest 3 that I use with a USB-c cable. Price is great but having to fiddle around with video compression settings on top of all other VR settings has proven to be a bit tedious. I’m still trying to figure out what pcvr headset to go for that won’t complete drain my bank account (there’s probably tons of used ones out there).
Glad to hear VR is possible and getting better on Linux though!
I understand having to fiddle with the compression settings can be annoying (I did that for my brother who has a Quest 2) but it’s also something you only have to do once. And you can do a lot of trial and error without knowing exactly what the settings do. Quest 2 is probably best bang for your buck but you can get a used HTC Vive for around the same price. Advantage of the HTC Vive is that it just works with Linux and you don’t need a Facebook account but disadvantage is that it’s not that good. I had one too before I bought the Vive. While the resolution was pretty low, it was fine but the controllers really suck.
Yeah the issue is I wouldn’t want to compromise quality too much. But I might just start saving up now for whatever valve is cooking up next :) Another issue with using a quest is that you have to run the occulus app (when wired), eating up some of that sweet precious VRAM.
I really hope another headset from Valve is coming, specifically because of eye tracking. The oculus app is only needed if you’re not using ALVR. It’s also not available on Linux, which is why ALVR is the only option there.
Have you tried Envision/Monado on your Index? I have a Vive Pro and the performance is significantly better, albeit you lose controller rebinding feature and OpenVR (games which require SteamVR) compatibility is meh
I have, actually and it’s great. I only used it for things like racing games (I also have a USB steering wheel with force feedback) because it doesn’t show you the borders of your play space (yet). The thing is just that I installed Envision from the AUR back then and it just worked and now that I’m on Fedora, I used distrobox to install it from the AUR again. When I try to build a profile tho, it tells me that dependencies are missing that simply aren’t in the package manager or the AUR. That’s why I currently don’t have Monado working. I’d really like to get it working again tho. Wish it just had a Flatpak.
Flatpak doesn’t support DRM leasing so software can’t access the displays of the headset. Envision is also available as an AppImage: https://gitlab.com/gabmus/envision/-/pipelines?ref=main&status=success
It’s a shame DRM leasing doesn’t work for flatpak but maybe it will in the future. I tried the AppImage but it’s the same issue, I can’t build a profile because the dependencies are missing.
Are you interested in receiving assistance with your issue?
I recently tried installing Linux next to Windows in order to begin the transition, but my system has Intel Rapid Storage and Linux doesn’t like that. Someday I hope to find a solution or get another drive to move off the data so I can disable RST.
what’s the problem using RST with Linux?
Just asking, my old laptop too has RST, but no problems with Linux. (Granted, the manufacturer’s website states I should install only 8GBs of RAM max and once I used 16GB in it, and had some strange… memory related issues sometimes… with 12, there’s no problem. Tho this wasn’t a Linux problem, my laptop just hanged after booting into anything. (Linux, Windows, memtest, anything, really))
I honestly don’t know. Just that I tried to install Mint and it booted from USB just fine, but gave an error when I tried to run the installer. I don’t recall the error message anymore but when I googled it, the problem was RST being enabled. I (dumbly) disabled it and rebooted into Windows only to find a drive missing. Thought I lost it but after re-enabling and rebooting a couple of times it came back.
I decided not to play until I could move that data and then reformat the drive without RST.
@Kraven_the_Hunter
If you like to tinker: Out of my head, you can disable RST, but windows must be started after disabling it in safe mode for the next boot, this will disable the RST driver and let windows correct this. Restart windows normally afterwards. Then linux should find your disk.
Disclaimer: This is out of my head and might not work. Have a restoreable backup of your data. Please consult the search engine of your choice for some further information.
@Fisch @linux_gaming
Hmm, I’ll have to look into this.