Gaming on Linux

Lutris

Lutris is a gaming platform that allows you to install, configure, and launch games from one place. It supports a wide range of games, including those from GOG, Steam and Humble.

sudo pacman -S --needed lutris

Heroic Games Launcher

Heroic Games Launcher is an open-source alternative to the Epic Games Launcher. It allows you to install, configure, and launch games from the Epic Games Store.

yay -S --needed heroic-games-launcher-bin

Steam

Steam is a digital distribution platform that allows you to buy, download, and play games on Linux. It is the most popular gaming platform on Linux and supports a wide range of games.

sudo pacman -S --needed steam linux-steam-integration steam-native-runtime

Wine (Wine Is Not an Emulator)

Wine is a compatibility layer that allows you to run Windows applications on Linux. It is not an emulator but rather a translation layer that converts Windows API calls into POSIX calls on-the-fly. This allows you to run Windows applications on Linux without the need for a virtual machine or dual-booting.

sudo pacman -S --needed wine-staging winetricks wine-gecko wine-mono mono vkd3d lib32-vkd3d wine-gecko

Configuring Wine for x64:

winecfg

Configuring Wine for x86:

Enable these environment variables in your shell:

export WINEARCH=win32
export WINEPREFIX=~/.wine32

And create the directory:

mkdir -p ~/.wine32/drive_c

winecfg

Winetricks

Winetricks is a script that can be used to install various libraries and dependencies required by Windows applications to run on Linux.

winetricks

Install dependencies in one go:

winetricks corefonts lucida droid consolas allcodecs dxvk dotnet40 d3dx9_43

Proton

Proton is a compatibility layer that allows you to run Windows games on Linux. It is a fork of Wine with additional patches and tools to make it easier to run games on Linux.

Proton Manager

Install ProtonUp-QT from AUR repository

yay -S --needed protonup-qt

Install Protontricks from AUR repository

A simple wrapper that does winetricks things for Proton-enabled games.

yay -S --needed protontricks

Install ProtonUp CLI

ProtonUp-RS from AUR repository:

wget https://github.com/auyer/Protonup-rs/releases/latest/download/protonup-rs-linux-amd64.tar.gz -O - | tar -xz && zenity --password | sudo -S mv protonup-rs /usr/bin/

ProtonUp-NG from AUR repository:

yay -S --needed protonup-ng-git

ProtonUp-NG using Python

pip3 install protonup-ng

Uninstall ProtonUp-NG using Python:

pip3 uninstall protonup-ng

Add these lines to your shell configuration file:

export PATH=$PATH:~/.local/bin
source .zshrc

Check Protonup version installed

pip list | grep protonup

Before opening Steam, set your installation directory:

protonup -d "~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d/"

Update to the latest version

protonup

List available versions

protonup --releases

Install a specific version

protonup -t 6.5-GE-2

List existing installations

protonup -l

Remove existing installations

protonup -r 6.5-GE-2

Download Proton-GE without installing it

protonup --download

ESync - Helps Game Overhead

Check to see if Esync is enabled (most distributions do by default)

ulimit -Hn

If the output is higher than 500,000, then ESYNC is enabled. If the returning value is lower or equal to 500,000, then ESYNC is disabled. You will have to enable it manually. Change the following files:

sudo vim /etc/systemd/system.conf

DefaultLimitNOFILE=524288

sudo gedit /etc/security/limits.conf

<username> hard nofile 524288
<username> soft nofile 524288

GameMode

GameMode is a daemon/lib combo for Linux that allows games to request a set of optimizations to be temporarily applied to the host OS.

sudo pacman -S --needed gamemode lib32-gamemode

Goverlay

Goverlay is a graphical tool to manage Linux system settings for gaming. It allows you to configure various settings such as CPU governor, I/O scheduler, and GPU overclocking.

yay -S --needed goverlay-bin

Replay Sorcery

Replay is a tool that allows you to record and replay your games on Linux. It supports various formats such as MP4, WebM, and GIF.

yay -S --needed replay-sorcery

Gamescope

Gamescope is a compositor that allows you to run games in a separate X server with a custom resolution and refresh rate. This can help improve performance and reduce input lag in games.

sudo pacman -S --needed gamescope

MangoHud

MangoHud is a heads-up display (HUD) for Linux that allows you to monitor FPS, CPU and GPU usage, and other performance metrics while gaming.

sudo pacman -S --needed mangohud lib32-mangohud

Last modified: 15 August 2024