@thelinuxexperiment it's nice you showed people the manual way, for hidden files and such, however ProtonUp allows folks to do all that with simple point and click, it installs different protons, luxtorpeda, boxtron, etc to make people's lives easier
4:45 In one of your previous videos you said that mainstream distros are sometimes not enough so we need gaming ones... Bit contradict, eh? EDITH: Are you or YT deleting my other comments?
A big problem with linux gaming is the lack of support for blizzard games. The classics like Starcraft, Starcraft 2, diablo, WoW, and Warcraft I, II, and III aren't really playable on linux without tons of know-how that could take you weeks to figure out, and may break in the next update.
This is great. Wish more Linux TH-camrs did this kind of user focused stuff and less elitist things. Not that that's bad. Just wish that there were more Nicks in the world.
I agree, most linux youtubers are just about "terminal this" and "window manager that", seeing more user focused videos with better production value would be great.
Gaming is one of the most elitist things there is. I have 3 Linux computers and none of them can play any games. Basically if you don't have a pretty new and powerful computer you can't play games.
Do what I did and follow in his footsteps. More videos means more chance of people seeing this information. My videos aren't anywhere near as high quality as Nick's but just like him I fact check and confirm while also stating the obsolete. Do it yourself. Not as hard as it sounds. Don't even need to edit but get used to constant takes.
Linux is where most of us are heading when Windows becomes a subscription as opposed to an operating system, so any instructional tips to help us get better familiar with it is definitely helpful.
@@userunknown1030People will need to drop windows in order for there to be enough backlash against the predatory practices of windows. I'm also finding it more difficult to switch than I'd like, but I'd rather deal with that than the spyware that is Windows 11.
@@IcedTearzR6 oh i get that but that is the reason most regular people wont ever switch from mac or windows until it is as flawless as it is with those two jump right in and have everything work for little to no effort linux will remain a glorified ms/dos and nothing more.
My compliments, Nick! I'm no newbe to Linux and gaming so I was mainly watching critically but you did an absolutely brilliant job explaining everything very clearly without cutting corners or generalizing too much. That's a huge accomplishment as this material can be a rabbit hole very quickly. Great work!!
I had tried a handful of times to switch from Windows to Linux over the past 20 or so years but always ran into some big hurdles with gaming, and had to switch back. It's not perfect, but the advances shown in this video are simply incredible! Thanks for putting all this together.
Something i've never seen people mentioning on videos, if you want to install a steam game on a secondary drive, that secondary drive must be formatted as a Linux format (ext4, etc). Games don't open if the drive is NTFS. I always forget about this.
I've been EXTREMELY hesitant to try any form of Linux, but after I hearing about Pop OS and watching a couple of TLE's videos, not to mention the direction Microsoft is continuing to take with Windows... I'm thinking that I'm sold on the idea of trying out Linux on a future PC build.
@@ozertayiz I think I'll pass, I'd rather not risk fucking up any my PC's parts by playing with a new OS like it was plug and play. Just 'upgrading' from one version of Windows to another has fucked anything from a PC's MOBO to it's GPU... I plan on having a 2nd PC in my setup sooo I'll wait.
@@spectralcanvasimages Pop OS IS plug and play though, even more so than Windows. It installs in a couple minutes and works out of the box. Simply changing OS will not cause any harm to components. They may have driver issues here or there depending on which one you select, but it won't cause them to "fuck up" as you say. Pop OS has the same limitations as Windows when it comes to hardware safety because that is all baked into the firmware of the devices and your MOBO, not the OS. For instance, you can change power limits on Nvidia GPUs with a simple command. But you absolutely cannot exceed the firmware limit. It will throw an error back and say that it's above the limit and refuse to listen. Just like Windows applications. If anything, you're much less likely to "fuck up hardware" on Linux because it does not install a ton of bloatware that tries to control different devices. It installs necessary drivers if pre-selected, or what drivers you want after install, and that's it. It has no power to do anything to your hardware that you don't tell it to do.
This is a super helpful guide to getting started. Easy to follow along and gets right to the point, which is getting us gaming on Linux. The amount of progress that has been made on the Linux gaming front is mind boggling. Proton, Heroic and DXVK are all projects that only got started a few years ago. I do believe that you can also get FSR going through Valve's Gamescope compositor, which is a really cool piece of code as well. It basically spoofs a virtual monitor inside a window, allowing you all manner of trickery, such as forcing borderless mode even in games that don't support such a feature. It's based on Wayland however, which can act a little funky with gaming at times.
Good coverage! I liked how you covered everything without telling anyone to pull up a terminal and start running commands. That is still what so many people assume they need to do to game on Linux thanks to a lot of older guides out there as well as new guides that that keep referring to it. Your approach should make it much more accessible to those gaming enthusiasts that will not pull up a terminal no matter what we tell them.
I have nothing but gratitude for the people who have created these tools to let us play Windows games on Linux. Although some games just won't run (Anti-cheat problems, etc.), I have been able to play some of my favorite games, and even the games I've wanted to play. Just a big, big thank you. 😀
Agreed. I think adding Proton/Vulkan support to Steam is the smartest thing Valve ever did. A lot of people, including casual gamers are going to switch to Linux soon, especially with Microsoft becoming increasingly invasive and crappy. By providing an emulation layer with their gaming platform, Steam is going to capture about 95% of those gamers, who would otherwise be looking all over the web for Wine settings for every single one of their Windows games.
Agreed! The scary part for me, was because the incompatibility with anti-cheat measures came from most (IIRC) of them installing kernel-level code to run. I understand WHY they do it, but I don't really trust a game developer and publisher to have my data security as a priority for them. If a company like Crowdstrike can make the mistake THEY did...why should I trust the game industry to do any better?
You're an angel. There aren't many tutorials out there as informative and easy to follow as this one. You just straight up told to my face that I shouldn't worry about the distribution, while I've been looking for months for a gaming one
Finally! I've been playing with the idea of switching to Linux for a while now. But every time I look in forums for starting points to begin my journey with Linux gaming, I quickly feel put off again and again. The sheer amount of abbreviations, technical terms and intricacies as well as the abundance of applications/software to choose from is staggering. It always gives me the impression that it would be better for me to stay away from Linux gaming (or from Linux in general) as a mere mortal. Thank you, Nick, for this Video!
@@kyledupont7711 I could run my small list of games on linux mint. It's not much but they all run flawlessly and I haven't run into any issues with any game so far. I could run Hogwarts Legacy, AoE2, Terraria, ARK, and many other older games...
These steps might seem unintuitive and cumbersome, but it used to be way worse until recently (for me at least). It's gotten a lot better and will continue to get better as pc gaming gravitates more towards linux. all we need to do is accelerate the inevitable by hopping on to the linux gaming train.
Yeah I remember first trying out Linux back in 2007. Steam had to be emulated using Wine, and getting the original Counter-Strike to run (albeit without sound) felt like an accomplishment. The attitude back then was "if you're a gamer, you *have* to dual boot, otherwise don't bother with Linux." Nowadays it's more "if you're a gamer, you'll only need to dual boot if you want to play certain games."
Brilliant! A Linux gaming guide after a long time. I mean from not just you, from any Linux TH-camr. A very good one - detailed and not scaring with complicated stuffs. This uptodate guide is gonna help many new users.
Thank you for this detailed tutorial video,gaming on Linux has improved at a gigantic pace in the last few years,it will improve even more in the long run,currently running Arch Linux with all of these tweaks applied and can say than in many cases games run better under Linux then under Windows.
This is wonderful. Just what I was searching for a long time. Short all-in-one presentation of "how to enter into linux gaming". Very informative and not confusing. Thanks.
Thank you, especially for a closer look on FSR integration. By the way, since you've mentioned GE and his exceptional effort, he has a distro of his own - Nobara, fully customized and optimised according to his view of doing gaming on linux. Maybe you'll find it interesting.
Nick is my favorite french man. I like his episodes more, than any french comedy along side with the valuable messages he delivers to the world. As always get that like button.
Thanks for the guide. I wished I had this earlier this year when I attempted switching over to Linux. I hope you can update this guide every 2 years or so. Linux is constantly changing and lots of guides I found were outdated and not applicable any more.
I played Genshin Impact on Linux (try at your own risk, anti cheat and all that) and it ran not only better than in windows but at better quality. I got so surprised when I saw that.
I highly recommend Nobara Linux for those that mainly use their system for gaming. It's based on Fedora, but has a ton of tweaks and the most important dependencies for gaming already installed. It's maintained by the same guy who makes the modded Proton version so it all works very well. I noticed less input lag as well as better Nvidia driver support.
yeah this is and many other things keep me from moving to linux. still got many hoops to jump through just to do basic things. i get some people like if that way but i am not one. it been around long enough to have worked out all these kinks but they haven't it a shame it really is.
great video! i think you should've mentioned ProtonUp-Qt, its a program that lets you automatically install or delete custom proton versions (like proton-ge, but also some others like proton tkg, boxtron, or luxtorpeda) without having to manually install them to your steam directory.
Thanks Nick! This is an excellent easy-to-follow beginners guide. I've attempted a deep dive into Linux gaming before, but quickly realised i wasn't experienced enough to start tweaking everything and that i should stick to the basics for now :D
I've been waiting for YOU specifically to make a guide about this. Great at explaining this stuff finally I have a video to send to my friends whenever they wanna do this👍🏼
I'm not really a gamer myself but I really like when this kind of thing happens to the Linux world. Hopefully one day more gamers will come to Linux so game devs gonna notice Linux and we don't have to use proton anymore. BTW you're one of those TH-camrs whom I give thumbs up before I even watch the full video I know it's gonna be good as always and you never disappoint me.
1 year old video but I am glad I stumbled on it. You outlined everything in a very concise manner. Using your video to try and get some of my peeps to at least make an attempt at running Linux. We're all desperately looking for a new home outside of Windows.
Gaming on Linux is finally getting there. Just one major hurdle left to overcome: anti-cheat. I'm confident that will be overcome as well though, eventually.
Awesome video as always! Exactly what the community needs in my opinion; Easy step by step guides for someone who's just starting out. I'm sure it'll help a lot of people out 👍
my God this video is so perfect! Thanks a lot for this detailed explanation, Nick! It'll certainly motivate more people to explore gaming on Linux, like me
A really fresh new way of presenting Linux Gaming. Feels really lightweight how you bring your content clear and well structured to the Audience. Especially for old Windows Veterans. Currently using Arch Linux on my Jailbroken Ps4. Hard to get through all of this configuration to start gaming. But so much improvement over the years with a great contributor community to make Linux enjoyable.
or if your sick of all the BS shortcuts they keep making so easy for us to hit on accident.. and/or if you want actual good performance from your games
Bro I had the same thought, I was wondering about switching to linux on my pc because of this AI hype. The one thing that is holding me back is how I will be able to play games and use programs as Im using on windows.
@@csiu5051 Actually I got all my stuff working, even my music software via wine and proton, it's all (mostly) seamless, aside from tinkering, which if you have to do someone else found the answer already probs. If they haven't then you just gotta ask on like reddit or a discord or something 🤷
Thank you very much. You are one of the best TH-camrs who talk about Linux. You helped a lot in spreading the general culture about Linux. I have been following your channel for two years. I am an Arab from Egypt and I enjoyed watching your videos and learning from them. Thank you very much I hope to provide more creativity ❤️❤️
Great and informative. The only thing holding me back is laziness really as I have a SteamDeck now and that is my Linux gaming machine. The control settings being integrated is a great boon.
This is EXACTLY what I'm looking for right now. I'm planning to retire an old Windows XP machine I use for some old favourite games and move them to a Linux box. Perfect 👌🏻
That's really nice, maybe a part 2 for multiplayer/anticheat games are needed but this video is THE tutorial everyone will send to someone until there's a huge change in Linux gaming. Thanks!
Unfortunately if it’s an anticheat issue there really isn’t anything you can do if the games anti cheat doesn’t support Linux or in the case the anticheat supports it but the developers decide not to configure it to be able to. At that point it’s up to the developers and not us and unfortunately a lot of developers are so out of the loop that they still have that stigma of most players who play on Linux only do it to hopefully circumvent the anti cheat to be able to cheat in games when that is far from the truth. Most cheaters use windows. Only like .1% of cheaters probably use Linux if that.
I really like your guides - this one and the recent guide on Gnome configuration are well structured and easy to follow, while still presenting a lot of detail. Please do more. Thanks!
I try to install Linux for gaming a month ago, and look what happens a month later!! Thanks a lot for the video, this will get me up and running for gaming on Linux
Great video, Nick. I've been playing in Linux for a month now, and my experience has been very pleasant (even using Nvidia). The vast majority of my Steam library runs flawlessly.
Very helpful video, thanks! Great to see all these options for Linux gaming and how easy it has become to play all these games. BTW, your latest steam deck video convinced me to pre-order one. Now I can't wait to get it 😁
Merci beaucoup pour cette vidéo. J'utilise sérieusement une distribution Linux depuis un mois seulement et votre chaîne m'a beaucoup aidé dans ma décision. Cela faisait un moment que je m'intéressait à Linux et je dois avouer que c'est seulement quand j'ai reçu ma Steam Deck que j'ai fait le plongeon, parce que c'était le gaming qui était le frein et la raison principale de rester sur Windows, hors la Steam Deck était la preuve pour moi que le gaming était devenue plus accessible sur Linux. Mais votre chaîne est une de celles qui m'a fait naître un intérêt grandissant et une fenêtre donnant une vue sur un autre chose que Windows, si je puis dire.
As soon as Windows 10 loses long-term support i am completely jumping ship for Ubuntu. I barely even use windows anymore anyway. The only reason i still have it installed is to play games on.
For those of you gaming on gnome and if you use nvidia. Download the nvidia-settings package, open it as sudo and navigate to X server display configuration, then click on which monitor will be your primary gaming monitor, check the boxes for Force full Composition Pipeline, Force Composition Pipeline, and if you have it Allow G-Sync on monitor not validated as G-Sync Compatible. This will get rid of screen tearing. Thank me later.
You didn't mention how to tell if a game isn't working because Steam is trying to run the Linux version of a game (e.g. Dead Island: Definitive Edition), which has been abandoned by the developers & no-longer works, and instead getting it to run the Windows version (via Proton). This wasn't at all obvious to me when I first started, and nearly put me off using Linux for games at all. (ProtonDB lists Dead Island as Platinum, which is rather misleading, and there is only one cryptic comment about the Linux version being broken - but nothing to say how to check if you're using that, nor how to change it.)
I'm tired of bloated windows that spy's on it's users. Just saw what they are doing with 11, with recall,and their AI. It's the final straw for me. So I'm taking the initiative and learning now before I'm forced to use 11.
This is the video I am going to show to new linux users. While it is simpler than other videos its good for beginners. I wish this video was out when I swapped from windows.
Looking forward to calling PC gamers master race, Linux gamers master race 😁👌. But seriously, gaming has been always an essential part part of home computing. Being unable to play favorite games was a huge game stopper for Linux adoption. Pun intended 😁😁😁. Thanks for the video 🙂👍!
@@TheLinuxEXP that's really true. Sometimes a problem can be solved on its own, while you're procrastinating 😉. Meanwhile I got into retro gaming thanks Linux ports.
They also really need to collaborate between lutris and heroic imo. Especially since heroic browses the store at least for gog and epic so far but they're planning more iirc
Heroic, Play on Linux, Steam (Proton) and Wine GE Custom literally enables access to 99.9% of my entire game library as well as many applications targeting Windows like MS Office 2010, ArtRage; Linux has become my daily driver because it can facilitate everything I do from leisure to productivity without having to log out and not because I'm a Windows or MS hater, but because Linux performs. Additionally, wheel (Linux) is far better than UAC (Windows) and this makes a difference when trying to correct system oddities and configuration. Awesome vid - absolutely accurate presentation!
Thanks for the video, Nick!! As for the "distro" part, I can suggest the following to beginners: 1. Garuda Linux KDE Dr4g0nized Gaming Edition = Arch-based Gaming Distro 2. Nobara = Fedora-based Gaming Distro 3. DraugerOS = Ubuntu-based Gaming Distro For "cracked" and old PC games, one can use Bottles for those as long you can familiarize yourself with using the application.
I'd like to try Nobara, however being Fedora based is a downside, I'm having a terrible experience with Fedora 35. I've been thinking to return to Linux Mint, but maybe I'll try DraugerOS first. Bottles is great, so much better than Lutris.
My fresh high end gaming PC (5800x3D, 6950XT) got Linux'd immediately and will never see a version of Windows. My first build to earn this. I've also got a gaming laptop that has never seen Windows. I wanted to Linux my "new" Core 2 Duo rig, but Linux gaming wasn't quite there yet. This content will be hecka useful for getting the most out of these rigs, and future machines of both high and low performance that will get Penguined. Thank you for this!
Been using Linux off and on for the past 20 yrs.. boy oh boy remember the days of trying to get games and stuff to work in vanilla wine..... LOOOL what a nightmare it was back then.. then Valve came along and man in the last decade everything has changed so much compared to the early/mid 2000s. in fact this is the first year I have been able to daily drive Linux (Arch BTW) for most this year.. think going on 9 months of daily driving with very little windows use.. excited to see where we go in the coming years! Great Video btw :)
About a month ago I decided to give Linux gaming another go. It had been about 10 years and all there was to game was Wine and front-ends like PlayOnLinux. I have been using Linux Mint and have had no real issues playing games intended for Windows. Valve really changed the way we play games. Proton really made it so much easier. Sure, you may need to tweak a game here and there but overall, nearly every game runs. I don't even think about Windows anymore. I think I may leave Windows in my past and just use Linux from now on. 😊
Didn't know about FSR. Pretty cool. For any fellas that are coming to this video in 2024, Nobara distro is awesome for gaming. I literally didn't have to do anything to start playing with expected performance.
Besides Linus I want to be very grateful to Richard Stallman who initiated the GNU operating system and packages that Linux is built upon. And he still to this day advocates freedom and open source software. He keeps tabs on Linux and other GNU users to make sure they adhere to his free open source policy that Linux is so famous and loved for. We love Linus and his jumpstart with Linux. Which today is a mere fraction of the original remaining code in modern Linux systems. There's barely any of the original code left as people have modified and added on top of it. But there's no telling where Linus Torvald would've gone or done without the initial GNU system and packages Richard started all the way back in the 80s. Richard was born in 1953 and I love his dedication to his work still living today and being improved thanks to such a large community.
Hopefully one day gaming on Linux is as easy as Windows. Has been looking to Linux quite long time, dual booted several times with different distro, but in the end I always go back to Windows. Despite being more familiar, it is also more user friendly. If I want to play a game, I want to access it without dealing with so many hassle. I have installed ARC once, the amount of work make me realized there are so many things happened backend of an OS. Its nice to learn new things but I think I want things just being ideal from the start.
For me Gaming on Linux as well as Windows-applications on Linux are Lutris. Add the game installer to Lutris Library as a Windows.exe, enable Lutris build of Wine and DXVK, and go. Worked for all games besides one, yet (That was Civilization 4 with it's annoying black screen bug) and even more important: For most Windows applications it's working, too! Only important tools that still are a PITA are Photoshop and CorelDraw .. Only thing I don't like about Lutris is the Steam integration, which has lack of a urgent feature that makes me not use it at all - they finally need to add support for multiple Steam accounts!
A real PC Gamer should be able to do this without any problems. For a casual PC user it might look a little overwhelming but if you take the time you will have a great time gaming on Linux
OMG! Thank you for this guide! I was having a hard time installing Epic Games Launcher on Lutris, Wine, and Bottles. Heroic Launcher made it much easier! Thank you bruh! 👍
Thank you very much! I'm using Linux Mint for a couple of months and it's much better than windows (for me). I thought it was not possible to install native steam games for windows on linux. Glad your video appeared for me in the recommended. I am very grateful for this information. Keep doing that work. I'm sure it will help many people who, like me, can no longer use windows...
im looking to take the leap am i going to regret it? linux mint cinnamon to me is unknown, so its a probable regret.. but i know *_FOR A FACT, windows 10 and 11 will be a dumpsterFIRE of spyware/bloat/MISERY_* ... anyway, should i?
I've been trapped by Windows for so long, because on my other channel I produced videos about a certain game that would never work on Linux, even though it runs on Linux (yeah, I know). But because I'm doing something very different now, and because I have the Studio version of DaVinci Resolve (which is native on Linux) I can still edit all my videos while enjoying all the good stuff, including gaming, that Linux has to offer. Your video may have been just what I needed to push me over the edge and delete Windows forever. And I just wanted you to know I appreciate you for that :)
Get 100$ credit for your own Linux and gaming server: www.linode.com/linuxexperiment
@thelinuxexperiment it's nice you showed people the manual way, for hidden files and such, however ProtonUp allows folks to do all that with simple point and click, it installs different protons, luxtorpeda, boxtron, etc to make people's lives easier
4:45 In one of your previous videos you said that mainstream distros are sometimes not enough so we need gaming ones... Bit contradict, eh? EDITH: Are you or YT deleting my other comments?
A big problem with linux gaming is the lack of support for blizzard games. The classics like Starcraft, Starcraft 2, diablo, WoW, and Warcraft I, II, and III aren't really playable on linux without tons of know-how that could take you weeks to figure out, and may break in the next update.
This is great. Wish more Linux TH-camrs did this kind of user focused stuff and less elitist things. Not that that's bad. Just wish that there were more Nicks in the world.
Hahaha thanks ;) Tutorials don't do super well on youtube, bur they're definitely needed!
I agree, most linux youtubers are just about "terminal this" and "window manager that", seeing more user focused videos with better production value would be great.
Check out this channel, lots of gaming related content and tutorials th-cam.com/channels/nqSp58K39q1kz7G3PyvA5g.html
Gaming is one of the most elitist things there is. I have 3 Linux computers and none of them can play any games. Basically if you don't have a pretty new and powerful computer you can't play games.
Do what I did and follow in his footsteps. More videos means more chance of people seeing this information. My videos aren't anywhere near as high quality as Nick's but just like him I fact check and confirm while also stating the obsolete. Do it yourself. Not as hard as it sounds. Don't even need to edit but get used to constant takes.
Linux is where most of us are heading when Windows becomes a subscription as opposed to an operating system, so any instructional tips to help us get better familiar with it is definitely helpful.
i still wouldn't use linux look at all the hoops you have to go through just to play a game lol.
@@userunknown1030 Looks way too easy for me. Is your IQ in the two digits or something?
@@userunknown1030People will need to drop windows in order for there to be enough backlash against the predatory practices of windows. I'm also finding it more difficult to switch than I'd like, but I'd rather deal with that than the spyware that is Windows 11.
@@userunknown1030u only have to do it once then u get to play the game forever
@@IcedTearzR6 oh i get that but that is the reason most regular people wont ever switch from mac or windows until it is as flawless as it is with those two jump right in and have everything work for little to no effort linux will remain a glorified ms/dos and nothing more.
My compliments, Nick! I'm no newbe to Linux and gaming so I was mainly watching critically but you did an absolutely brilliant job explaining everything very clearly without cutting corners or generalizing too much. That's a huge accomplishment as this material can be a rabbit hole very quickly. Great work!!
Thanks a lot 😊
yep I agree :)
@@TheLinuxEXP what linux distro is shown in this video
ProtonUp is also worth mentioning, which makes it incredible easy to update Proton GE versions in example.
I had tried a handful of times to switch from Windows to Linux over the past 20 or so years but always ran into some big hurdles with gaming, and had to switch back. It's not perfect, but the advances shown in this video are simply incredible! Thanks for putting all this together.
The last 2 years of Linux have vastly improved gaming wise
@@sean7221 modding is not possible on Linux
Something i've never seen people mentioning on videos, if you want to install a steam game on a secondary drive, that secondary drive must be formatted as a Linux format (ext4, etc). Games don't open if the drive is NTFS. I always forget about this.
your comment is underrated.
I've been EXTREMELY hesitant to try any form of Linux, but after I hearing about Pop OS and watching a couple of TLE's videos, not to mention the direction Microsoft is continuing to take with Windows... I'm thinking that I'm sold on the idea of trying out Linux on a future PC build.
Windows 11 telemetry and increased ad usage is going to be a nightmare.
No need to wait for a new pc, you can try even on a live USB without installing it.
@@ozertayiz I think I'll pass, I'd rather not risk fucking up any my PC's parts by playing with a new OS like it was plug and play. Just 'upgrading' from one version of Windows to another has fucked anything from a PC's MOBO to it's GPU... I plan on having a 2nd PC in my setup sooo I'll wait.
@@spectralcanvasimages Pop OS IS plug and play though, even more so than Windows. It installs in a couple minutes and works out of the box. Simply changing OS will not cause any harm to components. They may have driver issues here or there depending on which one you select, but it won't cause them to "fuck up" as you say. Pop OS has the same limitations as Windows when it comes to hardware safety because that is all baked into the firmware of the devices and your MOBO, not the OS. For instance, you can change power limits on Nvidia GPUs with a simple command. But you absolutely cannot exceed the firmware limit. It will throw an error back and say that it's above the limit and refuse to listen. Just like Windows applications.
If anything, you're much less likely to "fuck up hardware" on Linux because it does not install a ton of bloatware that tries to control different devices. It installs necessary drivers if pre-selected, or what drivers you want after install, and that's it. It has no power to do anything to your hardware that you don't tell it to do.
@@spectralcanvasimagesdual boot exists 💀
This is a super helpful guide to getting started. Easy to follow along and gets right to the point, which is getting us gaming on Linux. The amount of progress that has been made on the Linux gaming front is mind boggling. Proton, Heroic and DXVK are all projects that only got started a few years ago.
I do believe that you can also get FSR going through Valve's Gamescope compositor, which is a really cool piece of code as well. It basically spoofs a virtual monitor inside a window, allowing you all manner of trickery, such as forcing borderless mode even in games that don't support such a feature. It's based on Wayland however, which can act a little funky with gaming at times.
Good coverage! I liked how you covered everything without telling anyone to pull up a terminal and start running commands. That is still what so many people assume they need to do to game on Linux thanks to a lot of older guides out there as well as new guides that that keep referring to it. Your approach should make it much more accessible to those gaming enthusiasts that will not pull up a terminal no matter what we tell them.
I have nothing but gratitude for the people who have created these tools to let us play Windows games on Linux.
Although some games just won't run (Anti-cheat problems, etc.), I have been able to play some of my favorite games, and even the games I've wanted to play.
Just a big, big thank you. 😀
Yeah, the situation is pretty awesome right now!! I'm so grateful to the wine, dxvk and all other tool's developers for this!
Agreed. I think adding Proton/Vulkan support to Steam is the smartest thing Valve ever did. A lot of people, including casual gamers are going to switch to Linux soon, especially with Microsoft becoming increasingly invasive and crappy. By providing an emulation layer with their gaming platform, Steam is going to capture about 95% of those gamers, who would otherwise be looking all over the web for Wine settings for every single one of their Windows games.
Agreed!
The scary part for me, was because the incompatibility with anti-cheat measures came from most (IIRC) of them installing kernel-level code to run. I understand WHY they do it, but I don't really trust a game developer and publisher to have my data security as a priority for them. If a company like Crowdstrike can make the mistake THEY did...why should I trust the game industry to do any better?
You're an angel. There aren't many tutorials out there as informative and easy to follow as this one. You just straight up told to my face that I shouldn't worry about the distribution, while I've been looking for months for a gaming one
Finally! I've been playing with the idea of switching to Linux for a while now. But every time I look in forums for starting points to begin my journey with Linux gaming, I quickly feel put off again and again. The sheer amount of abbreviations, technical terms and intricacies as well as the abundance of applications/software to choose from is staggering. It always gives me the impression that it would be better for me to stay away from Linux gaming (or from Linux in general) as a mere mortal.
Thank you, Nick, for this Video!
You're welcome! I hope it helps!
Even after gaming on Linux for a full year, this video was super informative. Thanks a lot, man!
You're welcome!
Man, is it worth it ?
Yes !!!
@@henriquedelben
What is your take on gaming on Linux? I have a good 200 steam games I'm wondering if linux would be a problem to run them
@@kyledupont7711 I could run my small list of games on linux mint. It's not much but they all run flawlessly and I haven't run into any issues with any game so far. I could run Hogwarts Legacy, AoE2, Terraria, ARK, and many other older games...
These steps might seem unintuitive and cumbersome, but it used to be way worse until recently (for me at least). It's gotten a lot better and will continue to get better as pc gaming gravitates more towards linux. all we need to do is accelerate the inevitable by hopping on to the linux gaming train.
Yeah I remember first trying out Linux back in 2007. Steam had to be emulated using Wine, and getting the original Counter-Strike to run (albeit without sound) felt like an accomplishment. The attitude back then was "if you're a gamer, you *have* to dual boot, otherwise don't bother with Linux." Nowadays it's more "if you're a gamer, you'll only need to dual boot if you want to play certain games."
PC with Linux is still a PC. PC is hardware, not sofware.
Linux will never be mainstream
@@IsmailofeRegime certain games like the biggest franchise of all time in call of duty , fortnite, destiny, and so many more.
@@ghostlegit To be fair the problem with those games is the anti-cheat software used, not whether the games themselves can run using Proton.
Brilliant! A Linux gaming guide after a long time. I mean from not just you, from any Linux TH-camr. A very good one - detailed and not scaring with complicated stuffs. This uptodate guide is gonna help many new users.
I hope so!
Thank you for this detailed tutorial video,gaming on Linux has improved at a gigantic pace in the last few years,it will improve even more in the long run,currently running Arch Linux with all of these tweaks applied and can say than in many cases games run better under Linux then under Windows.
It's crazy how fast thongs are moving, yeah!
This is wonderful. Just what I was searching for a long time. Short all-in-one presentation of "how to enter into linux gaming". Very informative and not confusing. Thanks.
Thanks for this very informative video on gaming with Linux. Just switched from Win10 to Linux Mint and this was very helpful. Keep up the good work!
Glad it helped!
It's been a month since you've posted this. How has your experience been?
it's 4 months since you've posted this:
what's up with mint?:)
Thank you, especially for a closer look on FSR integration. By the way, since you've mentioned GE and his exceptional effort, he has a distro of his own - Nobara, fully customized and optimised according to his view of doing gaming on linux. Maybe you'll find it interesting.
6 yrs of Gaming on Linux, So happy i made the jump early. All my games worked early on so i was fortunate.
Nick is my favorite french man. I like his episodes more, than any french comedy along side with the valuable messages he delivers to the world. As always get that like button.
Thanks a lot, buddy!
Je savais pas qu'il est français
Overviews like this really help the newcomers with settling with Linux. Thank you!
This will be super useful for many. Also, I think Lutris needs a walkthrough all by itself with all the options it has.
Thanks for the guide. I wished I had this earlier this year when I attempted switching over to Linux. I hope you can update this guide every 2 years or so. Linux is constantly changing and lots of guides I found were outdated and not applicable any more.
Oh yeah, I'll redo it when things evolve!
I played Genshin Impact on Linux (try at your own risk, anti cheat and all that) and it ran not only better than in windows but at better quality. I got so surprised when I saw that.
I highly recommend Nobara Linux for those that mainly use their system for gaming. It's based on Fedora, but has a ton of tweaks and the most important dependencies for gaming already installed. It's maintained by the same guy who makes the modded Proton version so it all works very well. I noticed less input lag as well as better Nvidia driver support.
yeah this is and many other things keep me from moving to linux. still got many hoops to jump through just to do basic things. i get some people like if that way but i am not one. it been around long enough to have worked out all these kinks but they haven't it a shame it really is.
great video! i think you should've mentioned ProtonUp-Qt, its a program that lets you automatically install or delete custom proton versions (like proton-ge, but also some others like proton tkg, boxtron, or luxtorpeda) without having to manually install them to your steam directory.
Yes, ProtonUp-Qt makes managing ge-proton and other compatibility tools much easier.
Thanks Nick! This is an excellent easy-to-follow beginners guide. I've attempted a deep dive into Linux gaming before, but quickly realised i wasn't experienced enough to start tweaking everything and that i should stick to the basics for now :D
I've been waiting for YOU specifically to make a guide about this. Great at explaining this stuff finally I have a video to send to my friends whenever they wanna do this👍🏼
I'm not really a gamer myself but I really like when this kind of thing happens to the Linux world. Hopefully one day more gamers will come to Linux so game devs gonna notice Linux and we don't have to use proton anymore.
BTW you're one of those TH-camrs whom I give thumbs up before I even watch the full video I know it's gonna be good as always and you never disappoint me.
Thank you very much!
Thanks for making this video!! I've been looking for guides/tips for playing games outside of steam
You're welcome :) You should have everything you need with this video!
1 year old video but I am glad I stumbled on it. You outlined everything in a very concise manner. Using your video to try and get some of my peeps to at least make an attempt at running Linux. We're all desperately looking for a new home outside of Windows.
Gaming on Linux is finally getting there. Just one major hurdle left to overcome: anti-cheat. I'm confident that will be overcome as well though, eventually.
I'd suggest not supporting games with anti cheat or DRM. Although there are proton ge versions that support at least a few of them...
@@squidbeard492so you want Hackers to roam freely??
@@X_RayLT you mean they don't with anticheat?
Awesome video as always! Exactly what the community needs in my opinion;
Easy step by step guides for someone who's just starting out.
I'm sure it'll help a lot of people out 👍
I hope so!
my God this video is so perfect! Thanks a lot for this detailed explanation, Nick! It'll certainly motivate more people to explore gaming on Linux, like me
Glad it helps 😊
I believe even Linus can follow this guide.
A really fresh new way of presenting Linux Gaming. Feels really lightweight how you bring your content clear and well structured to the Audience. Especially for old Windows Veterans. Currently using Arch Linux on my Jailbroken Ps4. Hard to get through all of this configuration to start gaming. But so much improvement over the years with a great contributor community to make Linux enjoyable.
Like this comment if you're switching to Linux because Microsoft wants AI to watch everything you do.
The history tab in your browser "watches" everything you do. What a luddite you are.
or if your sick of all the BS shortcuts they keep making so easy for us to hit on accident.. and/or if you want actual good performance from your games
Bro I had the same thought, I was wondering about switching to linux on my pc because of this AI hype. The one thing that is holding me back is how I will be able to play games and use programs as Im using on windows.
@@csiu5051 Actually I got all my stuff working, even my music software via wine and proton, it's all (mostly) seamless, aside from tinkering, which if you have to do someone else found the answer already probs. If they haven't then you just gotta ask on like reddit or a discord or something 🤷
@@csiu5051 done for this exact reason. After more than 30 years with Microsoft, now I use Bazzite OS (by 1 month now)
Thank you very much. You are one of the best TH-camrs who talk about Linux. You helped a lot in spreading the general culture about Linux. I have been following your channel for two years. I am an Arab from Egypt and I enjoyed watching your videos and learning from them. Thank you very much I hope to provide more creativity ❤️❤️
Great and informative. The only thing holding me back is laziness really as I have a SteamDeck now and that is my Linux gaming machine. The control settings being integrated is a great boon.
This is EXACTLY what I'm looking for right now. I'm planning to retire an old Windows XP machine I use for some old favourite games and move them to a Linux box. Perfect 👌🏻
That's really nice, maybe a part 2 for multiplayer/anticheat games are needed but this video is THE tutorial everyone will send to someone until there's a huge change in Linux gaming. Thanks!
Unfortunately if it’s an anticheat issue there really isn’t anything you can do if the games anti cheat doesn’t support Linux or in the case the anticheat supports it but the developers decide not to configure it to be able to. At that point it’s up to the developers and not us and unfortunately a lot of developers are so out of the loop that they still have that stigma of most players who play on Linux only do it to hopefully circumvent the anti cheat to be able to cheat in games when that is far from the truth. Most cheaters use windows. Only like .1% of cheaters probably use Linux if that.
Epic Games has a launcher coming out for Linux with native EasyAntiCheat.
This is helpful! I am planning to dual boot my system with Linux Mint as my daily driver and Windows 10 for games that outright hates Linux.
I really like your guides - this one and the recent guide on Gnome configuration are well structured and easy to follow, while still presenting a lot of detail. Please do more. Thanks!
I try to install Linux for gaming a month ago, and look what happens a month later!! Thanks a lot for the video, this will get me up and running for gaming on Linux
Incredible video - didn't know about FSR until now. Just ran to my computer to try it out!
Nice! Have fun with it, it's super powerful!
Great video, Nick.
I've been playing in Linux for a month now, and my experience has been very pleasant (even using Nvidia). The vast majority of my Steam library runs flawlessly.
Thanks a lot! This is the best video I have ever seen to help new Linux users have fun gaming in their new OS.
You're welcome ;)
I am pretty experienced with Linux gaming, I did learn two things about enabling FSR though. This was a well put together video.
Very helpful video, thanks! Great to see all these options for Linux gaming and how easy it has become to play all these games. BTW, your latest steam deck video convinced me to pre-order one. Now I can't wait to get it 😁
It's amazing how fast it's progressed! Glad you liked the video 😁
Merci beaucoup pour cette vidéo. J'utilise sérieusement une distribution Linux depuis un mois seulement et votre chaîne m'a beaucoup aidé dans ma décision. Cela faisait un moment que je m'intéressait à Linux et je dois avouer que c'est seulement quand j'ai reçu ma Steam Deck que j'ai fait le plongeon, parce que c'était le gaming qui était le frein et la raison principale de rester sur Windows, hors la Steam Deck était la preuve pour moi que le gaming était devenue plus accessible sur Linux. Mais votre chaîne est une de celles qui m'a fait naître un intérêt grandissant et une fenêtre donnant une vue sur un autre chose que Windows, si je puis dire.
Content de pouvoir être utile!
As soon as Windows 10 loses long-term support i am completely jumping ship for Ubuntu. I barely even use windows anymore anyway. The only reason i still have it installed is to play games on.
For those of you gaming on gnome and if you use nvidia. Download the nvidia-settings package, open it as sudo and navigate to X server display configuration, then click on which monitor will be your primary gaming monitor, check the boxes for Force full Composition Pipeline, Force Composition Pipeline, and if you have it Allow G-Sync on monitor not validated as G-Sync Compatible. This will get rid of screen tearing. Thank me later.
Awesome video! I would also love a separate video on emulation someday, like Lutris, Retroarch or Highscore on GNOME
Thanks! I will definitely cover that later!
this is the best video i've seen in this topic. Everything explained in 20 min, thank you for this :)
You didn't mention how to tell if a game isn't working because Steam is trying to run the Linux version of a game (e.g. Dead Island: Definitive Edition), which has been abandoned by the developers & no-longer works, and instead getting it to run the Windows version (via Proton). This wasn't at all obvious to me when I first started, and nearly put me off using Linux for games at all. (ProtonDB lists Dead Island as Platinum, which is rather misleading, and there is only one cryptic comment about the Linux version being broken - but nothing to say how to check if you're using that, nor how to change it.)
Awesome. Simple but not trivial tutorial. You show options not force one, and said witch you user. Just perfect!
A video on emulation on Linux would be awesome!
I have so much problems with windows on my new built PC, your video might save me, i'll try gaming on linux for sure
I'm tired of bloated windows that spy's on it's users. Just saw what they are doing with 11, with recall,and their AI. It's the final straw for me. So I'm taking the initiative and learning now before I'm forced to use 11.
Windows=fragile,spyware,uselessmodules,uselessfeatures,bloatedfeatures,unoptimisedcodes,unstableupdaterelease,trashdefender,trashantimalwareservices,wait1week-1monthfor1securityupdate,waitsforuserstobeinfectedthenpretendtobethehero
This video convinced me to switch to Linux gaming. Thank you.
I completely removed Windows by now because I don't need it anymore
This is the video I am going to show to new linux users. While it is simpler than other videos its good for beginners. I wish this video was out when I swapped from windows.
Looking forward to calling PC gamers master race, Linux gamers master race 😁👌. But seriously, gaming has been always an essential part part of home computing. Being unable to play favorite games was a huge game stopper for Linux adoption. Pun intended 😁😁😁.
Thanks for the video 🙂👍!
Yeah, Gaming on Linux has progressed so much!
@@TheLinuxEXP that's really true. Sometimes a problem can be solved on its own, while you're procrastinating 😉. Meanwhile I got into retro gaming thanks Linux ports.
As linux non game User this was really useful info
Why not protonup-qt? That should be used instead of manually configuring wine and proton like you did with steam. Especially with heroic as well
They also really need to collaborate between lutris and heroic imo. Especially since heroic browses the store at least for gog and epic so far but they're planning more iirc
It should be integrated natively, yeah. I just wanted to avoid adding yet another tool to the list!
@@TheLinuxEXP still makes it a lot easier than that method imo XD
Heroic, Play on Linux, Steam (Proton) and Wine GE Custom literally enables access to 99.9% of my entire game library as well as many applications targeting Windows like MS Office 2010, ArtRage; Linux has become my daily driver because it can facilitate everything I do from leisure to productivity without having to log out and not because I'm a Windows or MS hater, but because Linux performs. Additionally, wheel (Linux) is far better than UAC (Windows) and this makes a difference when trying to correct system oddities and configuration.
Awesome vid - absolutely accurate presentation!
0:45 "so, strap on". Shouldn't that be "so, strap in"?
Might be, I'm not a native English speaker 😅
That guide is reaaally high quality! Thank you so much. Please keep that great works about linux. Your channel is very helpful.
riot games: 💀
Riot can suck my Linux
This is the only video that worked for me, and actually allowed me to install my games on steam. Thank you for all the tips!
Android ☠️ 0:05
Been playing on Linux more and more. Thanks for all the info and hard work nick! Keep it up
Thanks for the video, Nick!!
As for the "distro" part, I can suggest the following to beginners:
1. Garuda Linux KDE Dr4g0nized Gaming Edition = Arch-based Gaming Distro
2. Nobara = Fedora-based Gaming Distro
3. DraugerOS = Ubuntu-based Gaming Distro
For "cracked" and old PC games, one can use Bottles for those as long you can familiarize yourself with using the application.
I'd like to try Nobara, however being Fedora based is a downside, I'm having a terrible experience with Fedora 35. I've been thinking to return to Linux Mint, but maybe I'll try DraugerOS first. Bottles is great, so much better than Lutris.
Aaah, enfin un guide complet sur le sujet. \o/
Je ne m'y retrouvais pas avec Proton, Lutris, Steam etc.
C'est assez compliqué en surface, mais une fois qu'on s'y est mis, c'est plutôt facile!
I am new to Linux gaming and found this to be very helpful. I hope you do more on this subject for us newbies. Thanks!
My fresh high end gaming PC (5800x3D, 6950XT) got Linux'd immediately and will never see a version of Windows. My first build to earn this.
I've also got a gaming laptop that has never seen Windows. I wanted to Linux my "new" Core 2 Duo rig, but Linux gaming wasn't quite there yet.
This content will be hecka useful for getting the most out of these rigs, and future machines of both high and low performance that will get Penguined. Thank you for this!
I didn't know so much information of Linux gaming before! Thanks for organizing these info!
Glad you liked it!
Been using Linux off and on for the past 20 yrs.. boy oh boy remember the days of trying to get games and stuff to work in vanilla wine..... LOOOL what a nightmare it was back then.. then Valve came along and man in the last decade everything has changed so much compared to the early/mid 2000s. in fact this is the first year I have been able to daily drive Linux (Arch BTW) for most this year.. think going on 9 months of daily driving with very little windows use.. excited to see where we go in the coming years! Great Video btw :)
About a month ago I decided to give Linux gaming another go. It had been about 10 years and all there was to game was Wine and front-ends like PlayOnLinux. I have been using Linux Mint and have had no real issues playing games intended for Windows. Valve really changed the way we play games. Proton really made it so much easier. Sure, you may need to tweak a game here and there but overall, nearly every game runs. I don't even think about Windows anymore. I think I may leave Windows in my past and just use Linux from now on. 😊
Thank you for making this.
I'm setting up a gaming Linux PC this week.
Nice!
Didn't know about FSR. Pretty cool.
For any fellas that are coming to this video in 2024, Nobara distro is awesome for gaming. I literally didn't have to do anything to start playing with expected performance.
I like the way bro brings technical detail around....
The one video I didn't know I was desperately waiting for... but I was!
Thanks a LOT
Besides Linus I want to be very grateful to Richard Stallman who initiated the GNU operating system and packages that Linux is built upon.
And he still to this day advocates freedom and open source software. He keeps tabs on Linux and other GNU users to make sure they adhere to his free open source policy that Linux is so famous and loved for.
We love Linus and his jumpstart with Linux. Which today is a mere fraction of the original remaining code in modern Linux systems. There's barely any of the original code left as people have modified and added on top of it.
But there's no telling where Linus Torvald would've gone or done without the initial GNU system and packages Richard started all the way back in the 80s.
Richard was born in 1953 and I love his dedication to his work still living today and being improved thanks to such a large community.
Hopefully one day gaming on Linux is as easy as Windows. Has been looking to Linux quite long time, dual booted several times with different distro, but in the end I always go back to Windows. Despite being more familiar, it is also more user friendly. If I want to play a game, I want to access it without dealing with so many hassle.
I have installed ARC once, the amount of work make me realized there are so many things happened backend of an OS. Its nice to learn new things but I think I want things just being ideal from the start.
Through explaining Lutris, you have solved a 5+year Problem I have been trying to work around... Getting Star Trek Online to work on Linux...
Excellent video! Thanks for this. Now I can play my favorite game on Linux.
This is exactly what I needed to see! Been wanting to make the switch and now I can. Thank you so much!
For me Gaming on Linux as well as Windows-applications on Linux are Lutris. Add the game installer to Lutris Library as a Windows.exe, enable Lutris build of Wine and DXVK, and go. Worked for all games besides one, yet (That was Civilization 4 with it's annoying black screen bug) and even more important: For most Windows applications it's working, too! Only important tools that still are a PITA are Photoshop and CorelDraw ..
Only thing I don't like about Lutris is the Steam integration, which has lack of a urgent feature that makes me not use it at all - they finally need to add support for multiple Steam accounts!
A real PC Gamer should be able to do this without any problems. For a casual PC user it might look a little overwhelming but if you take the time you will have a great time gaming on Linux
I haven't used GNU/L for years. Thanks to you I have now a quick and full update
OMG! Thank you for this guide! I was having a hard time installing Epic Games Launcher on Lutris, Wine, and Bottles. Heroic Launcher made it much easier! Thank you bruh! 👍
This video is exactlty what I needed, concise and to the point. Thank you.
Deep dive. A lot of hard work to produce that, I appreciate it. Thanks Nick.
You're welcome 😊
Thank you very much! I'm using Linux Mint for a couple of months and it's much better than windows (for me). I thought it was not possible to install native steam games for windows on linux. Glad your video appeared for me in the recommended. I am very grateful for this information. Keep doing that work. I'm sure it will help many people who, like me, can no longer use windows...
im looking to take the leap
am i going to regret it? linux mint cinnamon to me is unknown, so its a probable regret..
but i know *_FOR A FACT, windows 10 and 11 will be a dumpsterFIRE of spyware/bloat/MISERY_*
... anyway, should i?
I've been trapped by Windows for so long, because on my other channel I produced videos about a certain game that would never work on Linux, even though it runs on Linux (yeah, I know). But because I'm doing something very different now, and because I have the Studio version of DaVinci Resolve (which is native on Linux) I can still edit all my videos while enjoying all the good stuff, including gaming, that Linux has to offer.
Your video may have been just what I needed to push me over the edge and delete Windows forever. And I just wanted you to know I appreciate you for that :)
I'm very nearly a Linux virgin. This was easy to keep up with and understand. Thank you for the great content. It's very helpful. 🍻
Gamescope is worth looking at. It handles image scaling and fsr for you. It's used a the default Window Manager for gaming mode in SteamOS.