The trick is defining games you want to play as games that run on Linux.
this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2024
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Very often, these days, this boils down to:
The game uses an anti cheat / anti piracy system which does support linux and proton, but the devs or management of the game decided against clicking a few boxes which would enable that support.
Ey, the linux kernel is open source. Perhaps support can be added by some third party?
But realistically, kernel level anti cheat doesn't really stop cheaters. But it grants third parties access to your pc's contents. Perhaps if more users switch to linux it might become a userbase worth marketing to. That is, if that's not users who run linux because they can't afford a windows license
See my other post: Linux supporting ACs have existed for 3 years.
The functionality to support them already exists, the market share is arguably already there, and the cost to game dev teams to enable these already existing linux AC functionality is in many cases literally 0. They're already paying to license Battleye or EAC or Denuvo, and all they have to do is request usage of a feature that already exists, that they are already paying for, but just not using.
Also, as you seem to agree, the vast, vast majority of cheats/hacks/trainers are made for and used by Windows users despite ACs having kernel level access in Windows.
Ye, some people just want to game and not care. Windows can do that, linux can't. And the market share is nowhere near what it needs to be to be a viable option.
Maybe for a small studio that can pick up the crumbs of the market, but no major studio benefits much from supporting linux
My out of the box set up process for getting a Steam Deck playing games was significantly simpler and less time consuming than with a Windows PC.
So linux absolutely can 'just game', even more straightforwardly than a Windows machine.
As for not being viable... you're saying that checking a few boxes in a your dev panel to make it so your next build supports approximately 5% of the market that you previously did not... that this has no major benefits ...
I mean... 5% more potential marketshare availability isn't major, but for approximately 0 additional cost seems, this seems like a no brainer, obvious benefit to me.
The ACs and Proton handle working on linux.
Proton is not paid for or developed by these studios.
Thats the magic of Proton, it functionally ports everything designed for Windows automatically, at no cost to the game studio.
The ACs already include linux/proton compatibility in their agreements with the game studios... they don't need to pay them more for supporting it.
This isn't like the game studios have to 'port' a game to linux, like the immense cost of porting a console game to PC, back before most game engines just had an 'export to whatever architecture' functionality.
This is 'We can choose to increase our potential player base by about 5%, for essentially 0 expenditure, but nah, fuck that, who wants a free buff to sales?'
If you can "just game" then you wouldn't need a database just to check if your game might run at all
The point I am making is not that linux can perfectly run every game. Obviously it cannot.
The point I am making is that for many popular online games, the only reason that this is the case is because many game studios just don't bother to click a few options, which would cost them basically nothing.
... Anyway on a Steam Deck its super simple, the compatibility grade is just right there in the screen for looking at and potentially buying the game, simple color codes.
... Compared to a Windows PC where you'll need to check your hardware specs against the min and optimal specs and basically just guess how well you can run it.
Steam Decks, like consoles, all have the same hardware, so its a unified experience, simplified.
Anyone who has played PC games on Windows knows that you're probably gonna have to do research to figure out how to build or upgrade your rig to be able to play any given game at the fidelity and frame rate you want, which is significantly more time consuming, complex and disparate than looking at a single, built-in-to-your-gaming-device color grade that lets you know what to expect in 2 seconds.
Personally, I can't tell you how many times I've bought a PC game for Windows and oh oops, turns out the min specs are functionally unplayable, turns out the advertised graphics at a stated hardware level was false advertising, etc, etc.
Meanwhile, almost everything in my Steam Library works on a Steam Deck, with the most major exceptions being online multiplayer games that just refuse to enable their Anti Cheat to allow the game to run.
I wish it was that simple. Checking that box does not alleviate the extra work supporting an entire extra platform. One of such is doing to testing to give you that ez pz steam deck stat.
Also, those pc specs not working for you? That's a you problem, learn how to use a pc or join the console peasants
Linux Copium, if it was like that go be Mr Hacker Man and toggle that undocumented switch so it works.
I mean, its not undocumented.
Easy Anti Cheat: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/09/epic-games-announce-full-easy-anti-cheat-for-linux-including-wine-a-proton/
Battleye: https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/4145017/view/3104663180636096966
All of these common anti cheat developers have stated, 3 years ago, that their systems work on linux/proton, and that all a game dev team has to do is ask them to enable such functionality.
Its just that the game devs/management, in many cases, do not do this.
...Even if one was capable of breaching a corporate network, compromising enough accounts or privilege escalating yourself to the point that you could remotely navigate through their intranet, build a version of the game, both server and client side, which supported linux/proton, test this, and then push it to release...
Well for starters you would almost certainly be caught and go to jail for 10 to 20 years, and also this patch would immediately be undone once discovered.
We're talking about online multiplayer games here.
It's not a single player game where you can almost always find some kind of cracked version and run it offline in a VM or through Wine or something... and usually you don't even need to resort to cracks for single player games anyway as legitimately purchased games now mostly work fine via proton.
Its when most of the game is reliant on a server architecture, you know, files not on your computer?
This is gonna sound like trolling but don’t let your dreams be dreams. You believe you can achieve parity were it not for the chains of existence. I literally want to see this
Its not that I believe I can achieve parity.
Its that giant corporations already have access to technical parity, and choose not to have it, use it, distribute it, despite this choice being essentially costless at worst, and profit improving at best, as it would expand their games to work in a small, but growing share of platforms.
We are, as ever, at their utterly spiteful and incompetent whim.
It is really simple: I just don't want to play a game if it doesn't run on Linux.
No need to use bad software on my computer just to play a game :)
I don't have time to play games anyway...
Haha cope!