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.
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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