Gaming
 

I am a windows user, and quite recently I have become intrigued in the world of hacking, coding, developing, etc... I am new, still finding my way around this new world, but I feel I should start first by making the switch to Linux. I have seen what it has to offer and I'm pretty psyched to switch, but there is one thing. I am an avid gamer and I'm looking for the best distro that would be the most compatible with the games I play. I'm not looking for a distribution that COMES with games, I am looking for one that would support games like Battlefield 3, CS:S, and Source Games to their fullest potential without being unstable. I have a very powerful machine; AMD 965, nVidia 580, 8gb of ram (you get the point) and I am looking to use it for what I built it for. I know ubuntu is the first place I should look for beginning with Linux, but I have heard some bugs when running games. I know this is a n00by question, but I would be very thankful if someone could point me in the right direction. Thanks

Ok, what I know is that most games don't have a Linux version. So the usuall way to play them is to install WINE. There are sometimes issues with running Windows software on WINE and these issues are usually a common problem regardless of which distro you use.

You would probably be better off installing Ubuntu (or your distro of choice) as a dual boot with Windows and simply continue to use Windows for gaming. This is merely my view though and other users here may have a different view. :)

There is also packages like PlayOnLinux and Crossover that are specifically intended to help you to play Windows games on Linux. It would be a good idea to read their respective faq pages at their websites. That should give you some reasonable ideas about how best to proceed! ;)

Agree with glue. I still use my Win7 desktop for gaming, and I use Virtualbox to run linux for everything else. You get the best of both worlds :)

Quite a few windows games run on WINE. You can always check the WINEHQ to see what games have been rated to run under WINE-

http://appdb.winehq.org/

There is normally a performance hit from running things under WINE (it wont be as fast as under windows in most cases).

There is no reason to look at ubuntu over other distros. WINE (and play on linux/crossover for that matter) is runable on most (all that I know of) linux distros.

If you want to get the max performance from games under WINE, or native games either, ubuntu actually has drawbacks. Its always running desktop effects 'stock', and desktop effects have been know to cause a huge performance hit.

You know what that sounds like a great idea. I guess I had a brain fart or something, I don't know why I didn't think of that before >.<

Unfortantly linux isnt that far into the gaming world just yet. but that doesnt mean thats not hope. projects like winehq improve every single day. but are not yet at the point were a new game like BF3 when its out will work out of the box, itll take a month or two to get the bugs weeded etc etc

One bit of interesting news for linux and gaming is the implentation of DX11/10 into linux itself. its not yet complete, but they have discovered how to do it. so theres a bright future for games and linux.

Unfortantly for now, your best bet is to have arrays of hard disks, or 2-3 hard disks and run multibooting linux and windows, or ofcourse, run windows with linux in a VM environment

Thats what i do. because windows still holds the gaming platform hill

Though. if your willing, Wine does support a vary large variety of games. if your willing to do some reading, do some tweaking. and get the games working, you wont be dissapointed. and its kinda fun getting em going, and learning. well for me at least

But as i said, it will involve some, sometimes extremely heavy tweaking and text editing

But as for games such as CS:S and tf2 and most generic valve games. most run out of the box using Wine or Playonlinux. and have great support on linux

Its games like BF3 etc that you will have problems with

Anyway cut a long story short. if your after out of the box gaming. stick with windows but dont loose your eye on linux. linux is fun, especially when you build things yourself. and getting apps / DE's working is a good accomplishment and you feel that way

And with all the opensource developement. linux isnt that far away from high grade gaming. games like Savage 2, Tremour and Nexuiz are all linux native and now ET: Close Quarters Combat is in alpha. which looks fairly impressive.

Eventually linux will have alot of mainstream support

All in all your probably skimming this long post i made. Id suggest ubuntu or mint as your out of the box distro's to give linux your first try

But if you want easy tweaking with lots of documentation and guides to get you through. give archlinux a shot

Good luck to you and your linux adventures

The problem is that high performance, graphics intensive, interactive software like gaming is not really suited to running in an emmulated or interpreted environment.
I'd blame the game developers for not making Linux versions available except that I understand fully why it's not really viable for them. Most Linux users choose Linux because it's a great platform for getting work done. Whereas the majority of gamers simply use Windows. (or dedicated gaming consoles.).
So the market for Linux versions of games just isn't large enough to warrant the cost of commercial development. :(

Well you definatly have a point there but part of the reason that linux doesnt have the large game market is the fact that linux doesnt have the tools to run modern games natively. basically, linux is like going back to windows 2000 gaming wise in graphic's and features for gaming. they have only recently achieved HD Lighting in a game called Close Quaters Combat. and phew companys employed some nice features for UT2004. and ofcourse Quake wars. but if you look at linux QW and windows. theres a massive drop in graphics

Like. even if it has a small market of actual gamers. fact is the tools to run todays modern games arent available, if they were available. maybe not the "large retail" companys. but small game companys would probably feel more inclined to cater to linux. since the port wouldnt be as bad. its still extremely hard to port a game to linux. but you wouldnt have to redo the entire graphical display

Thats why i said keep an eye out. because recently it was announced at phoronix and proven that Gallium3D has achieved native directx 11 and soon opengl 4, as you said. high graphical performance isnt suited to emulated environements/layers, but if the layers arent calling on emulated graphics. and capable of calling on native graphics you will see better performance and more games even in wine . nedalone Linux native ports

Its already been discussed multiple times and proven. that wine does perform better in opengl games. and games that provide an opengl mode, because wine isnt calling on emulated D3D. its calling on native opengl, so the performance increases tenfolds

So. to end this lengthy post. Once gallium3D and wayland introduce the new X servers. and DX11. and opengl 4, the chances of big titles been ported to linux are extremely high and the market has a great chance to increase. it all depends on when gallium3D get this feature out there. and stable, because with windows 8, who knows how far off DX12 is from microsoft.

Also theres been myths left and right about steam releasing a native linux client. and some games native to linux within there client. since they recently ( well i think its been a phew years now ) release a mac client

So its highly like they will release a linux steam client. at a time when there game developement is in a peaceful stage. and if DX11 is native. well you can imagine how many games can be ported

And think of it this way. with big titles , dx11 native, and gaming support? who the heck would want windows anymore, linux is free lol.