State of gaming on linux?
I used linux in the past, both privately and work-related, but the last time was over 10 years ago, so I'm a bit out of touch. I am in need of a new PC, but it'll be a good year before I have the funds, so for now I am making due with an i5 7500 and a gtx 1660. I do have 32 GB so there's that. I finally feel confident enough to make the permanent switch to linux from windows as all of the programs I use are either available on linux or have a good/better equivalent. The only thing I fear will hold me back is games. I know Steam has Proton now which will run most games, but how does it compare? The games I play most are Skyrim (heavily modded) , RDR2, Witcher 3, Transport fever, Civilization, Crusader kings 3 and Cities Skylines (uninstalled atm waiting for 2). I'm on the fence to either wait until I can afford a new PC and dual boot or make the switch now and deal with a few gaming problems. Thing is, what kind of problems may I expect? Anyone able and knowledgeable to give me some advice?
EDIT: Wow, those are a lot of replies; thank you everyone! You really helped me. I will make the switch sooner rather than later.
Have you heard of ProtonDB? It rates the current state of games and recommended fixes.
Gaming on Linux has improved a lot over the years. It's typically only multiplayer games with Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) that you'll run into major issues with. Mod managers frequently require a fair amount of extra work and reading but I think a lot of Bethesda games have easy work arounds and documentation.
Thanks, I didn't know about ProtonDB. I never play multiplayer so that won't be a problem.
If you never play multiplayer, you're probably fine. Though the only issue with that is triple A games not letting Anti-Cheats work on Linux for whatever reason.
Other then that, you'll only run into issues when modding Skyrim for the most part. Here's a github page with a step-by-step guide on how to do it; although, far as I can tell it's four years old and might be obsolete.
There's also this post in the Steam Community forums which is two years old at the earliest.
For Skyrim I've had pretty good luck with just adding Vortex mod manager as a non steam game, running it with Proton and using mods that way
Just to add to your comment, steamtinkerlaunch is a compatibility tool that allows you to install any mod manager through a GUI. Pretty handy.
One other website I'd check out if you are getting into any obscure/older games that might not have a lot of comments on ProtonDB is the PCGamingWiki. Lots of fixes are listed there
@CorrodedCranium
> Mod managers frequently require a fair amount of extra work and reading
That's one complaint I *do* have sense switching to linux, I wish that there was a linux version of vortex (or MO2 or what have you) so that modding can be made relatively simple for more than just a few games that have easy workarounds
I could be wrong but I think there are Lutris install scripts that help with that