More Push is Needed
Linux ports of PC games in the 1990’s are sold separately from the Windows version and the absence of digital distribution made Linux ports relatively more expensive. Increased costs and the difficulty of reaching more customers may have largely contributed to the withdrawal of id Software from Linux gaming and the demise of Loki Software.
The availability of Steam on Linux attracted game developers such as Aspyr Media, Feral Interactive, and Virtual Programming to bring more high quality games on Linux. Game genres not available on Linux before can now be enjoyed without having to use WINE.
Cross-platform game engines such as Unreal Engine and Unity also made it more viable for independent game developers to bring their games on Linux. Independent game developers really helped in growing the game library of Linux.
Though Linux gaming has greatly improved compared to what it was in February 2013, there are still things that need to be addressed to make Linux more attractive to PC gamers.
Use a better API
As mentioned earlier, the API heavily affects game performance. Some games perform poorly on Linux because most game developers are very familiar with DirectX but not with OpenGL. Croteam, Feral Interactive, and Valve are already adopting Vulkan and we hope other well-known game developers such as DICE (developer of Battlefield series) and Rockstar North (developer of Grand Theft Auto series) would do the same.
Vulkan improves performance by 47% and 35% in Serious Sam 3: BFE and The Talos Principle, respectively. In Mad Max which has a Linux-exclusive implementation of Vulkan, the performance improvement is 12 – 14%. Those figures are promising especially when you consider that Vulkan was initially released on February 16, 2016 . Performance parity between Linux and Windows can be expected once developers start natively developing their games using Vulkan.
Simultaneous release on Linux and Windows
There is usually a gap between the Windows release date and Linux release date of a game. When Steam on Linux was still new, AAA games on Windows usually took about 2 to 3 years before getting released on Linux. It has improved a lot and now only takes about a year and sometimes even less than 6 months. Some games get same day release such as XCOM 2 and Dying Light but they are still rare. Improving it would definitely entice more gamers to adopt Linux.
More aggressive marketing by Valve
Even if you are on Linux, the Steam Store website and the Steam application still show games that are not available on Linux. The homepage does not even mention that Steam supports Linux. You have to go to the ABOUT section to know that Steam supports Linux.
Here are the improvements Valve Corporation could implement to better inform gamers that they can play games on Linux: a) Put a clickable Tux (penguin mascot of Linux) icon of noticeable size in the upper portion of the Steam Store website’s homepage. b) In Linux, the STORE tab of the Steam application should show by default only Linux games for easier browsing. c) In Windows, the STORE tab of the Steam application should show occasional promotions about Linux gaming. It could be something like “Top 10 Linux Games of 2017” d) Half Life 3 or a Valve-developed game that has a simultaneous release on Linux and Windows.
Improve support for AMD Radeon
The RX 580 and R9 Fury benchmarks by Phoronix pictured below show the big gap in performance between Mesa (open source driver) and AMDGPU-PRO (proprietary driver). Mesa comes with the Linux distribution and its development is community-driven while AMDGPU-PRO is downloaded from AMD’s website.
RELATED: Radeon RX 480 Review Redux – The Power of Mesa Radeon Mesa Game Compatibility List
In terms of performance, Mesa is currently the preferred GPU driver of Linux gamers using AMD Radeon GPU’s. However, newly released games usually do not support Radeon GPU’s running on Mesa. AMDGPU-PRO has better game support but the downside is the much lower performance compared to Mesa. Addressing the shortcomings of AMDGPU-PRO and Mesa will help in increasing the number of Linux gamers using AMD Radeon GPU’s.
Make Steam a pre-installed application
Installing Steam in Ubuntu MATE is easy and can be done without having to mess around with the Terminal (a.k.a command line interface).
However, most newbies will not be outright familiar on how to install applications in Linux. The simple solution would be to make Steam a pre-installed application in popular Linux distributions such as Ubuntu (and its official flavors), Mint, and Manjaro. Popular free applications such as Libre Office, VLC Media Player, and GIMP come pre-installed with most Linux distributions and we don’t think applying the same concept to Steam is a hard thing to do.
GOG Galaxy on Linux
Steam is the largest and most popular game distribution platform but buying a game on Steam does not grant ownership of the game. Instead, rights to play the game on one PC at a time is given to the Steam account holder. Some people do not like that and prefer to buy games at GOG wherein games are sold without DRM (digital rights management) which means you can install the game on your PC or multiple PC’s and be able to play it without having to connect to the internet for game validation.
GOG Galaxy works in a similar way with Steam but it is completely optional. GOG started selling Linux games in August 2014 and GOG Galaxy was released in May 2015 . It’s weird that up to now there is still no GOG Galaxy on Linux. Even without GOG Galaxy, installing GOG Linux games is easy and done through a GUI but some relatively old games such as The Witcher 2 require some dependencies to be installed manually through the Terminal. GOG Galaxy takes care of the installation of dependencies and it would be nice to have on Linux.
6 Comments
I would definitely try Linux for the next review or thingy and i don’t know when. but in philippines, linux is not much popular Operating System. so i’ll give it a chance to it. also it’s nice to see this kind of article and gave me some thoughts. -Thana Abemari
I think in the conclusion you are referring to Linux as a choice for people who either do not have money or do now want to spend money on the OS. I think that is very very wrong! Otherwise a good roundup.
Good article until you said using Linux was about saving money on an OS. Linux is an alternative OS, but also an alternative solution to modern computing, one that is infinitely malleable to my needs, especially when compared to the alternatives. I would pay for Linux (and in fact do by donating to open projects and even bought Linux in the late 90s when it was sold in stores). There is also an aspect of freedom from large companies data mining and controlling our choices.
Linux is Libre, and in a sense it is free as in cost, but that is hardly the biggest draw
Hi Matt,
Thanks for taking the time to read our article. We never said or implied that using Linux is just about saving money. We just said that those who are on a tight budget or those who DO NOT WANT to spend big for an OS finally have a choice. There is a difference between “do not want to spend” and “cannot afford”. We even cited 2 examples why someone would use Linux instead of Windows.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/350584/microsoft-admits-it-was-too-aggressive-about-windows-10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWASNajSdpg&feature=youtu.be&t=520
Regards,
Nah mate, your wording is way off. You might have something different in your head but the way it has come out is not indicative of that.
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