Gaming on Linux and stuff

One of the reasons I have not completely moved off of Microsoft Windows is that I have a huge game library (in steam and others).

Gaming on various Linux distributions has improved immensely.  And Steam has implemented their own version of "WINE" which works very well to play many of the non-native games on Linux.  (Btw, I capitalize linux as a sort of giant mass of linux-based operating systems).  Not only that I can get two of my favorite games running on Linux using WINE, WineTricks and PlayOnLinux without breaking a sweat.

There are, however, several other games I play that require additional third party apps, mods, etc. that are difficult to get working under WINE or Steam.  And for those  hold outs, which also happen  to be games I enjoy playing, I keep Windows around.  Some of the Civilization games, Skyrim, and a few others just do not work well under WINE or Steam on Linux.

It is torture everytime I need to boot into Windows.  While Windows continues to improve, the UI is still rough.  Sounds funny I know, I mean people have often complained in the past about Linux UIs, Linux font-rendering, etc.  But honestly Windows is a terrible mix of old and new and font rendering has regressed on Windows to a point where it hurts my eyes just to look at them, all scrappy and rough.  Linux font rendering is mesmerizingly good now.  I could just stare at these words I am typing all day long.  Truthfully I think Linux has surpassed both Windows and Mac OS X in that regard.

I am a Gnome fan.  I mean, I tweak it a lot but I prefer the GTK3, Gnome-based UI over KDE.  But even QT/KDE is amazing and is also very flexible.  That is actually why I prefer Gnome, it is a little less flexible in some ways, whereas KDE you can mess with to your hearts content.  I prefer the simplicity of Gnome (he says hypocritcally while installing extensions and changing the desktop look).  The irony is also this:  when I mess with Gnome I end up creating a very Windows 10-looking task bar with no desktop so to speak, while when I use KDE I tend to make it look identical to Mac OS X in layout and functionality!

So, while I give kudos to Microsoft and Apple for their work in the desktop UI, I prefer to see them implemented on Linux.  :D  Funny.

In addition, Microsoft has seen the advantages of Linux as well and have begun embracing it.  Two of the best products Microsoft has put out run perfectly fine on Linux:  .Net and Visual Studio Code.  That is a pretty bold move by Microsoft.  Also, Microsoft is working on the next generation of Windows which will finally remove Win32 dependencies and run Win32-dependent apps in a... virtual machine.  I imagine they will clean house and CMD.EXE will be completely replaced by PowerShell or some new implementation.  In fact they are moving there now with the new "Windows Terminal" which does not concern itself with the back end... it could be the old style CMD interface, powershell, or even bash.

In all honesty, I think Windows has a brighter future, at this point, than Mac OS X.  I feel like Microsoft really is (albeit very slowly) trying to move to something better than what they have, while Apple just rejiggers and modifies UI elements.  So kudos again to Microsoft.  I will probably continue to keep Windows simply because I am an OS enthusiast, plus I am fascinated in how Windows will evolve.  HOWEVER... Microsoft has said one thing and done another several times in the past, only to let down their expectant customer base.  Vista had great promise but in the end they removed several HUGE features.  The folding notebook hardware and OS/UI for that... they came out with it over a decade ago but never delivered (although now it looks like they just might in a year or so).  So while I am excited about all the talk regarding Windows...  I am only about 40% confident that they will actually do what they are saying.  :(

Meanwhile, if you are looking for an alternative that works, look at Linux.  It has software for musicians, film editors, office work, software development, realtime-embedded, etc.  It has EVERYTHING.  Seriously.  The only argument one might have against it is that it might not have Application X from Mac OS X, or Application Y from Windows, but it WILL have an alternative.  Whether or not you can use the alternative is up to you.

Anyway.  Have a happy Easter!

OpenSUSE?

I have never been a fan of openSUSE, simply because I always ran into some kind of problem during install or post install trying to configure and run my preferred applications.

But I am a hopper so I cycle around and from time to time I get back to those distros I could not previously use, and I try again.

I am also growing stir crazy from the whole corona virus mess... working at home for weeks.  So I actually took a day off for sanity and played with linux and am doing some programming as well.

First I attempted to install openSUSE using GeckoLinux, which is basically a bunch of openSuse "spins."  It failed miserably and I could be heard yelling "A HA! OPENSUSE NEVER WORKS!"  But instead I downloaded the official Tumbleweed distro and tried again.

It worked!  Flawlessly, at that.  I even got NVidia drivers installed and working first try.  It DID take a little research though.

Part of my "test" for every distro is to be able to install and play two of my favorite games:  Star Stable Online and Diablo 3.  Now, Steam is important too... but these two are "guages" to me.  If I can get them up and running in WINE on linux, I am golden.  SSO installed easily, and Diablo seems to have installed as well, just downloading all the data now.  I will try the games once Diablo load finishes.

Otherwise, I installed Thunderbird, some fonts, a couple of GTK themes, installed Dash To Panel, Arc Menu and a few other extensions.  All working.  Looking pretty good actually.

Gnome is a little behind, but I can live with that, especially since some of my preferred extensions are not working on the latest version of Gnome.  So, while performance might suffer a little, it evens out.

Performance-wise, SUSE seems to be a little memory hungry in the sense that it definitely does a lot of in memory caching.  That is not necessarily bad, just an observation that my cache bar in my memory monitor fills the graph.

So far so good!  First time I've ever been OK with openSUSE and because of that I think I will try to stick with it for at least a week or two.  It will be interesting to see how smoothly updating occurs.

Anyway, hope you are staying safe and sound!

The difference between an everyday use monitor and a gaming monitor...

So I went 1440p awhile back.  I purchased an inexpensive Samsung monitor that supposedly had 5ms gtg.  Sounded pretty good to me.

When I hopped into one of my staple games, I immediately noticed the "skippiness" of the game play.  Hiccups, stutters, etc.  I assumed it was the fact that I was playing 1440p not 1080p that was causing the issue, that my graphics card just could not handle it.

WOW.

I had been thinking about it for awhile but everywhere I read said that my previous (and my very new) graphics card can handle 1440p flawlessly if not effortlessly.

Last week I pulled the trigger on a new 1440p monitor, an HP 27xq, which was rated as a decent gaming monitor.  1ms gtg, freesync, etc.

Got it today, plugged it in and even though I have not yet figured out how to get it to > 60 refresh rate, when I play my "staple" game mentioned at the beginning of this post, it was FLAWLESSLY SMOOTH!!  I have been torturing myself for over a year for no good reason.

Listen, if you are thinking of buying a 1440p monitor, please do not skimp.  Go for a gaming monitor if you game.  It was literally night and day.

Now I just need to find a happy medium with its settings.  The blacks are black but the whites are nigh on blinding me.  Even so, small price to play for getting back the fun in gaming with no stuttering and skipping.

That is all.

Gaming on Linux

I stayed home yesterday, feeling sick, and today I went to work but had to leave early.  So now I am on my computer and was thinking about gaming on Linux-based operating systems.

There are a good number of native, linux-based games that have been produced over the years; but most people think of gaming as something else:  PC and Console games.

When I use PC, I mean a personal computer running Windows 7, 8 or 10.  Let's face it, the vast quantity of games are produced specifically with Windows in mind, and windows users play them.

Some linux users will dual boot Windows and Linux specifically for that reason.  I am not much of a "dual booter" and prefer to dedicate my hardware to one OS.  Because of that I do not have ready access to a large chunk of my Steam library, or a bunch of the games I own on CD that were meant for Windows (and a few for the Mac).

For mainstream gaming the options are few.  You can try to run them through WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) which ties windows libraries to native functions, allowing Windows games to play on linux.  This works well for some games, but not for all.  The other option is when a game developer actually releases a version built to run on linux.  Because the linux user base is minimal in comparison to Windows users, game companies focus on where they can achieve the biggest bang for their buck.

I do both.  I run games through WINE and native, I even run some STEAM games in WINE and some native.   The games I am able to get working through WINE run well, some games used to work and have stopped working with updates, which is sad.  It is possible they will work again some day.  Some games, however, are nigh on impossible to get working in this manner.  Anyway, here is a short list of games I am able to play on linux:

Vampire the Masquerade:  Bloodlines
Portal 2
Bioshock Infinite
Borderlands 2
Cities:  Skyliness
Saints Row IV
Civilization V
Civilization VI (with some issues)
Tomb Raider
Torchlight
Torchlight II
Skyrim
Bejeweled

...and a number of others...  That was just a sampling of the ones I actually play from time to time, there are many more in my library.

I look forward to the day when more game developers pay consideration to linux-based operating systems as a viable and worthy platform.  Linux has a lot to offer, and many people have this view of linux like it is a scary, command-line-driven monster.

Not the case... people need to give it a shot!  They may find they not only like it, but prefer it.

Games I've Been Playing Recently

This is a fluff post.  Nothing to really see here, but here are the games I have played the most, recently:

1. Diablo III
2. Civilization VI
3. Civilization V
4. Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
5. Bioshock 2: Remastered

I surprised myself by reinstalling VTM:B and playing it.  This is an OLD game.  While the graphics are not great, the storyline, music and other aspects of the game are so good that as an overall package it is still a great game to play.  There are still active mods out there too:

Unoffical Patch (by Wesp - which everything else is based on)
Pen and Paper (decent - re-enables histories, changes game play a bit)
Camarilla Edition (Good, changes a lot about the game, makes it more challenging)
Clan Quest (excellent mod - uses Camarilla Edition)
Antitribu (a little rough around the edges - alternate clans)

There are also lots of skin mods out there as well to try and help beautify the game... hard to do that but hey, can't fault folks for trying!