I’m glad to see this community picking up, the old sub is probably the community I’ll miss the most from Reddit.

How about a discussion topic? Native Linux games!

Gaming on Linux has absolutely never been better. I’ve been using Linux for 6+ years now, and I’ve been daily driving it since Proton first launched. I don’t even check ProtonDB anymore, I just buy games and they work. It’s amazing. However, it feels like native games almost always have an extra step, forcing Proton.

A lot of people predicted this when Proton launched, but the moment it got really bad for me is when I switched to Wayland. Native games that used to work under X11 suddenly stopped working never to be fixed, but the Windows version with Proton continued to work just fine.

I skimmed through the native Linux games in my library to get examples. In all of these cases, forcing Proton fixed the problem. The only two games with functional Linux ports that came to mind are Stardew Valley and Zachtronics Solitaire Collection.

  • CrossCode – Controller didn’t work.
  • N++ – Crashes on startup.
  • NeoDash – Controller didn’t work.
  • Bioshock Infinite – Awful performance, possibly still broken because of 2k launcher thing?
  • Hexologic – Game breaking level bug in Linux port.
  • DiRT Rally – Awful performance.
  • Drawer – Crashes on startup.
  • Super Meat Boy – Last level runs too fast and the game breaks.
  • I also remember having trouble with DiRT 4 and one of the Tomb Raider games, but I can’t remember what was happening.

It’s gotten to the point where if I experience a single issue with a native game, I just immediately force Proton instead of wasting time troubleshooting, and that strategy hasn’t failed me yet.

So, here are some discussion questions. You don’t have to answer all (or any) of these if you have a more interesting thought to add!

  1. What do you think of the state of native Linux games? Has your experience been different from mine?

  2. More and more developers are choosing to officially support Proton rather than maintain a native Linux version. This is resulting in a better experience in the short-term, but will that have consequences in the long run?

  3. In the above cases, the community seems more accepting of indie developers going this route due to their more limited resources. Do you agree with that, or do you treat these cases the same as larger studios doing the same?

  4. Do you think this will change in the future? Linux market share is slowly but surely ticking up. Do you think there’s a threshold where studios start putting effort into native ports again, or will Proton be the way forward indefinitely?

EDIT: Formatting improvements

  • ZaemzEnglish
    3•1 year ago

    I’ve had this situation as well with a couple of games. Total War Warhammer 3 can’t be played online (or it’s not cross-platform, which would be weird) and XCOM 2 didn’t handle modding all that well using the native client.

    There are a few other games I’ve attempted but I can’t remember all of them.

    Graveyard Keeper has a native client but it can’t use hardware driven cursors and its display resolution gets out of whack (on ultrawide, admittedly). The game doesn’t have native ultrawide support, to be fair, but the scaling at least works correctly using Proton.

    Loop Hero has a native Linux version and it works perfectly.

    Oh yeah, speaking of Zachtronics, Last Call BBS is native and also works flawlessly.

    1. The versions of games compiled for Linux work about… hmmm… maybe in a 60:40 split? Oftentimes I do find myself almost immediately switching the game’s compatibility mode to use Proton on Steam if I have any issues.

    2. I think both Proton and Wine receiving much, much more developer support lately is going to be a net good, longterm. Many developers don’t have the “cognitive capacity” or time to dedicate to creating a version that runs on Linux without a compatibility layer. That’s especially true for those using game engines that typically have poor support and tooling for Linux in the first place.

    This is just a thought, maybe the effort being expended upon Proton/Wine will ultimately lead to solutions for compatibility issues that work without the use of “emulating” (for lack of a better work off the toppa my head) the whole Windows experience, replacing DLLs and whatnot.

    1. I’m more okay with indie devs just relying on Proton, for sure. I don’t give a “pass” to large studios that don’t at least expend some effort to get the game to build and run on Linux without the use of Proton or other compatibility tools. With that said, I also understand that AAA projects have many hundreds, possibly a thousand people or more, having some part in the development process. It’s not reasonable to assume that every person working on the game can have knowledge of or maintain that every aspect of their work is compatible with both Windows and Linux.

    I prolly have more to day but my thumbs are tired lol.