Probably, but Tom's a handsome fellow. I'd be more interested in source ports, though.

I agree. And I don't know how you got your numbers, but those are already incredibly impressive considering Linux gaming market share is something like 2% on a good day on Steam.

The thing is, currently almost all native Linux versions of games are inferior to their Windows versions.

I do it this way - I prioritise buying a game if it has a Linux native version, but I will play it through Wine due to a better experience. This is what I am loathe to do in 2024, but as Wine/Proton catapults Linux gaming from obscurity and the adoption rate increases, I think in 5 years or so we will see a trend towards native Linux gaming.

Or not. I'm not sure. Wine/Proton is just so damn good already.

False, Wine Is Not an Emulator...

You will need to give a lot of examples to prove that.

This won’t happen while Valve is the major actor in video games distribution.

---

In this context, who really cares about the difference between an emulator and an API translation layer? In both cases hardware resources are wasted (admittedly WINE wastes a lot less resources than an emulator would).

I wouldn't take these things too literally (which seems to be the case nauseatingly often on these forums). We are not going to sit down and go through 1000+ Windows games with Linux ports. But we can however address the big ones that most people play, and are well known that we might have played.

Pretty much all Feral ports run worse than their Windows versions, have missing features or are buggier and glitchier. With one notable exception (which happens to be one of the greatest games of all time) - XCOM 2. Of course, ask me how many Linux native Feral ports are on GOG ;) and that should tell you how much effort is put into native Linux gaming by devs and publishers. And even XCOM2 has a myriad of problems on Linux - some might happen on Windows too, some not, some only on Linux. It varies. Yet, I consider it to be an amazing port with excellent performance and almost full parity. Almost.

Also, usually anything that's ported to using OpenGL from DirectX9+ will suffer, it seems. XCOM EU/EW for example is inferior, with stuttering, glitches and difficulty with modding. No AA, washed out colours, blurry textures, on top of bug fix and balance patches not achieving parity with Windows versions and so on. The list goes on.

Pillars of Eternity, despite using Unity, the all-mighty awesome cross-platform engine that makes everything multi-platform by the touch of a magic button, is missing a bunch of stuff, pretty similar to OpenGL ports I mentioned earlier. Bugs, glitches, and smaller things like no visible capes (how dare they!) and worse graphics due to no AA and often pixelation on NPCs/PCs. Nevermind the fact that there are Windows patches only, funnily enough after years Obsidian released one but only on Steam of course. Le sigh.

Bioshock Infinite has atrocious performance issues on Linux native version.

Apart from the latest Tomb Raider game, all the other ports are terribad.

I could go on for quite a while, but there are some positives too, like indie games. Stardew Valley, Starbound, Factorio, no doubt about that!

But here's the problem - if you lose features or performance or just latest bugfixes and balance patches (because less priority for Linux native versions), why would you choose the inferior version if it's possible with the press of a button to play the superior one? Why punish yourself sadistically?

This goes without saying, but if you want gaming client's functionality, then GOG fails spectacularly for Linux gamers, even more. If you're used to things like (cross or not)multiplayer, cloud saves, auto-updates, achievements, then good luck with that. Just another reason to use Wine.

People also find excellent utilities for the Wine/DXVK/Vulkan side of things on Linux. I don't think I'd manage without MangoHUD and some others, which I would lose if I went with the Linux native version.

TLDR - If there was a comparable experience between Linux native gaming and Wine/Proton gaming, I would jump right into it. Won't be doing that in 2024 though, apart from maybe a few select indie games.

You need to explain this a bit more. I believe Valve is in direct opposition to Microsoft when it comes to walled gardens and gaming. Consider it a hedge for the future for them. At the very least, I don't see them hindering Linux native gaming?

I think it would be great if games like the Metro series and Tomb Raider, which already have Linux builds, provided those on GOG too.

Perhaps I'm coloring outside the lines, but in the case of most DOS games, there's no difference, and I can provide better than GOG thanks to forks such as Staging.

Some native versions require a bit of fiddling (if they do LD_PRELOAD things on their own), but generally it works.


Without Valive's money I doubt there would be any Linux gaming left at this point except a very small number of open source games.

Thanks for the examples, as they help me understand why my experience is the opposite of yours. Outside of the vague "anything that's ported to using OpenGL from DirectX9+", the only game in this list I tried is Pillars of Eternity. Indeed its lack of visible cloaks and anti-aliasing problems were exactly what I had in mind when I asked for examples ;)

About the Feral ports, I thought these were not even available from GOG, did I miss some? Same for Bioshock Infinite and the Tomb Raider games, as far as I know only Windows builds are sold here. If you play DRMed games, that would explain why we do not have access to the same pool of games, and in part why we do not have the same experience with native vs. "emulated"/translated.

I don’t. Never did. Never will.

You were writing about native Linux gaming, and Valve is openly hostile to that. They would rather have all Linux gaming rely on Proton (not WINE), and so transitively on Steam.

Valve is against Microsoft’s walled garden, but all in favour of Valve’s walled garden ;)

Usually a simple --dlsym command at the end is enough for some reason. Most of the natives games I've tried mangohud worked just fine.
It's quite simple to edit the desktop icon with a text editor and do it just if the game needs it.
I can only talk about my experience with Dirt Rally but on Linux the game was buttery smooth compared to Windows and it "feels" a bit lower latency on the input. I can't say about max fps since in both cases I run the game locked at 60.

That's probably because those games use OpenGL.

https://github.com/flightlessmango/MangoHud?tab=readme-ov-file#opengl

Admittedly, I wrote a lot, but I feel like I tackled most of your points already so I won't repeat myself. I stand by my TLDR.
I still don't see how Valve is harmed by native Linux gaming advancing...? If anything, they would welcome it. Considering they released a Linux handheld, have a native client, and are basically by themselves supporting development and advancing Linux gaming in many areas, not just in Windows to Linux protocols.

I think you're confused about walled gardens - it requires a non-optional component to it, for financial gain. Like Apple with its App Store taking a cut and allowing purchasing apps only through them. Or in gaming, Microsoft with UWP and its store and the Game Pass. They seem to have gone through considerable lengths to prevent it even running in Linux through Wine. Valve on the other hand, has a bunch of free open-source, optional utilities that you don't even need. How exactly that is a walled garden is beyond me. Maybe you will enlighten us.

Oh cool, I didn't know that. Have to try it out.

Same, I think. I mean, they definitely have mountains of readily spendable cash floating around, and I'm not saying they are altruistically supporting Linux devs and Linux gaming, but damn. Single-handedly supporting the DXVK dev, and contributing to loads of others. Epic's meagre donation to Lutris seems like a joke by comparison.

And we reap the benefits. I will continue to use Valve for my benefit. Mwaahahah. Without contributing. Mwaahahah.

Please don’t try to school me on a topic I’ve worked on for more than a decade,

What civilised and completely not rude discussion, about video games, and walled gardens which you still seem confused about. Please educate me, Mr "I've worked on this for more than a decade yet seem wrong about most things I say".

You seem touchy. I don't get your attitude. Is it related to your project? Bad day?

In any case, I don't have much interest in talking to someone so rude. Hm. Have a nice day I guess.