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8 out of the 10 current most popular Steam games support Linux

By - | Views: 36,672
What a time to be alive and be a Linux gamer! Not too long ago I would have though this would have been impossible.

Steam top 10 as of this article
- Dota 2
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- Team Fortress 2
- ARK: Survival Evolved
- Football Manager 2016
- Total War™: WARHAMMER® - Supposed to be coming to Linux/SteamOS
- Sid Meier's Civilization V
- Garry's Mod
- Grand Theft Auto V - Not on Linux/SteamOS
- Hearts of Iron IV - Day 1 Linux/SteamOS release today!

So, only one out of the ten current most popular games will probably never see a Linux release. That's an amazing bit of progress. I truly think it's amazing how far we have come as a platform. From the small trickle when Steam first released, to having some of the most popular Steam games on PC right now.

This again shows the importance of day-1 releases for our platform, as Hearts of Iron IV has shot right up into the top ten. It's not just enough to get the games, we need timely releases to prevent the cycle of people feeling they need to boot into Windows.

Top 50
Also, out of the top 50, 26 currently have Linux support with a couple more confirmed to be on their way to Linux. So even though we are still a tiny platform, we have over half of the top 50 most popular games on Steam with that number set to increase soon.

Remember when you feel gloomy about how things are looking, that this is a very healthy indicator right now.

We have a lot to look forward to this year and I can't wait to see how next year goes.

Here's to a continuing trend of getting awesome games! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Editorial, Steam
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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33 comments
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ElectricPrism Jun 6, 2016
Quoting: EikeOf course, that's a biased top ten. League of Legends e. g. would be in there if it would be on Steam. But it's still great.

Works fine for me using Steam Overlay and WINE.

Here you go. You may need to modify this before adding it to your Steam Library if you're not using Arch.
League Of Legends Wine

More Info Here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wine#WINEPREFIX 

# Install Wine Group
sudo pacman -S wine_gecko wine-staging winetricks

# Create Wine Prefix
env WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.LeagueOfLegends_XP32 WINEARCH=win32 wineboot -u

# Run Wine CFG and check for XP and Staging CMST fixes under "Staging" Tab
env WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.LeagueOfLegends_XP32 winecfg

# Go to LOL Prefix
cd ~/.LeagueOfLegends_XP32

# Download Installer

** North America **
wget http://l3cdn.riotgames.com/Installer/SingleFileInstall/LeagueOfLegendsBaseNA.exe

** Europe West **
wget http://l3cdn.riotgames.com/Installer/SingleFileInstall/LeagueOfLegendsBaseEUW.exe

** Europe Nordic and East **
wget http://l3cdn.riotgames.com/Installer/SingleFileInstall/LeagueOfLegendsBaseEUNE.exe

# Launch League Of Legends Installer
env WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.LeagueOfLegends_XP32 wine $HOME/.LeagueOfLegends_XP32/LeagueOfLegendsBaseNA.exe

# To Launch League Of Legends
env WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.LeagueOfLegends_XP32 wine "$HOME/.LeagueOfLegends_XP32/drive_c/LeagueOfLegends/LeagueOfLegends.exe"


Obviously it's not a native fix, but if your CPU isn't the bottleneck it runs ARAM just fine and other modes at least on Skylake for sure.


Last edited by ElectricPrism on 6 June 2016 at 9:57 pm UTC
GustyGhost Jun 6, 2016
Quoting: Beamboom
Quoting: KimyrielleI am still waiting for my Linux MMO, though. :D

Have you tried Ryzom? It's quite alright, in my opinion. At least to scratch that mmorpg itch.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/373720/

I had to drop that game because they describe their subscription system so vaguely and ambiguously that I didn't want to sink any time into a game that I might later find needs a subscription to do <X critical feature>... but if you subscribe you can never return to being free to play on that account. I just can't bring myself to care about a game that seems so hell-bent on deceiving me.
sarmad Jun 6, 2016
Quoting: maodzedunUntil the terrible performance difference is fixed, they can port the entire Steam library to Linux and it still won't matter. Drivers with equal performance to Windows. Not close, not acceptable, not almost - equal. And getting rid of OpenGL like yesterday. Until there is performance parity between Windows and Linux, nothing else matter. Still, that's a lot of progress compared to 4-5 years ago, I'll give you that.

nVidia drivers are already at equal performance to Windows, and has even surpassed it in some benchmarks. The bad performance you see is from games not optimized for OpenGL. And we already have a replacement for OpenGL with drivers also surpassing Windows in performance. So, the platform itself is ready, we just need game developers to target it.
Guest Jun 6, 2016
Quoting: tuubi
Quoting: maodzedunUntil the terrible performance difference is fixed, they can port the entire Steam library to Linux and it still won't matter.
You mean it won't matter to so called hardcore gamers, but it will matter to those of us who won't consider gaming on Windows at all. As long as there's plenty to play, with acceptable performance on reasonable hardware, I don't really care how it runs on other platforms.

Besides, there's no shortage of games on Linux for those of us who don't have the time or the budget for every single hit game out there. And the future looks bright through my penguin-shaped eyewear. Time (and Vulkan) will level the playing field, and everyone shall live happily ever after.

Most games aren’t that bad performance wise, sure there is some improvements needed but they tend to get worked on as the game gets patched. Look at some of the recent Feral ports, they have been 40 -50% down on windows and yet within a few months it will be down to 20 - 30% .. which for games that run 90fps on good hardware still gives you a decent 50 -60fps with most things cranked up.

Then there will be Vulkan as soon as Epic, Unity and others build the API support in people will start rolling out games with it.

By the time those older ports are almost forgotten a new range of GPU's / CPU's will come out and wipe out any noticeable difference.


Last edited by on 6 June 2016 at 11:34 pm UTC
Nyamiou Jun 7, 2016
Quoting: maodzedunUntil the terrible performance difference is fixed, they can port the entire Steam library to Linux and it still won't matter. Drivers with equal performance to Windows. Not close, not acceptable, not almost - equal. And getting rid of OpenGL like yesterday. Until there is performance parity between Windows and Linux, nothing else matter. Still, that's a lot of progress compared to 4-5 years ago, I'll give you that.
This is a myth. The performance gap you speak of is because ported games are not optimized for Linux as much as they were for Windows. The performance gap was huge on the first AAA games released on Linux because they weren't many tools for optimization, and it's still huge when the games ported are several years old because it doesn't need as much optimization to run decently on recent hardware. But on games with day-1 Linux support the gap is small, and sometime Linux actually beat Windows.

The NVidia drivers on Linux is 90% the same as the one on Windows with the same perfs, so it's not the problem, AMD suck on Linux but you can just avoid AMD until they fix it.

As for OpenGL it can actually be more powerful than Direct3D, why do you thing DOOM is done with OpenGL? And Vulkan was created to beat and destroy DirectX 12, right now Vulkan is already more powerful, but OpenGL is a living proof that you don't simply need a more powerful API, so we'll see.

The problem with myths on Linux is that it doesn't take much to create them but it takes forever to make people realize.
ShabbyX Jun 7, 2016
Quoting: NyamiouAs for OpenGL it can actually be more powerful than Direct3D, why do you thing DOOM is done with OpenGL?

Completely true. A few months ago some apparently famous guy was showing equal performance between vulkan opengl 4.5. Opengl is very powerful, it's just terribly used. Vulkan is just a more modern reimplemention of the same stuff as opengl.

Quoting: NyamiouAnd Vulkan was created to beat and destroy DirectX 12.

Completely false. DX12 was microsoft's feable attempt to get their own "vulkan" out before the real vulkan. DX12 development started after Vulkan was announced. In fact, if I recall correctly, microsoft was part of the vulkan group just until before releasing DX12, and the fact that they are so similar makes one wonder how to call it anything but stealing.
omer666 Jun 7, 2016
Quoting: maodzedunUntil the terrible performance difference is fixed, they can port the entire Steam library to Linux and it still won't matter. Drivers with equal performance to Windows. Not close, not acceptable, not almost - equal. And getting rid of OpenGL like yesterday. Until there is performance parity between Windows and Linux, nothing else matter. Still, that's a lot of progress compared to 4-5 years ago, I'll give you that.

In fact, Linux nVidia drivers tend to have slightly better OpenGL performance than their Windows counterparts.

Oh and you're right, let's get rid of OpenGL. But then what do you want to use? Vulkan? Developers are still just getting used to it, and don't know yet how to optimise it.

I think your words are very harsh and irrelevant. If you want developers to put such efforts in their Linux ports, what we need is an audience, and an audience won't exist without content.

PC gaming has proven that people are willing to pay for very bad Windows ports of console games, so the public is not that concerned about performance parity.
Corben Jun 7, 2016
It's for quite a while true, that about 8 of the 10 most played games on steam are available to Linux/SteamOS. Already about half a year already, if not even longer. And among them are always about 3 of Valve's own productions. That's quite cool, but it didn't help increasing the Linux share on Steam (yet?).

For getting LoL run on Linux, check out this link: http://metaphysical.zz.mu/league-of-legends/lol-on-linux-the-three-ways/
1mHfoksd1Z Jun 7, 2016
Can't wait for Civ VI!
0aTT Jun 7, 2016
Quoting: tuubi
Quoting: maodzedunUntil the terrible performance difference is fixed, they can port the entire Steam library to Linux and it still won't matter.
You mean it won't matter to so called hardcore gamers, but it will matter to those of us who won't consider gaming on Windows at all. As long as there's plenty to play, with acceptable performance on reasonable hardware, I don't really care how it runs on other platforms.

Besides, there's no shortage of games on Linux for those of us who don't have the time or the budget for every single hit game out there. And the future looks bright through my penguin-shaped eyewear. Time (and Vulkan) will level the playing field, and everyone shall live happily ever after.

FULL ACK.

I'm a Linux-only user since 15 years now. So installing Windows is no option for me. There are other pastimes.

That so many games are ported to Linux over the years can only mean that the publishers make money with it. I think Linux is a serious source of income for them. I buy a lot of older games which Windows users might already have. The Linux gaming community is still hungry. ;)

Recently I play Shadow of Mordor. Had purchased it in discount a few weeks ago. It is also with 30 FPS pure fun for many hours. I would say I have with Linux and my GTX 970 fewer restrictions and more games than with a PS4 or XBOX. I play with the Steam Controller and have my Linux-box linked to my TV. So for me it works.

Next games I will try are Cities: Skylines, Alien: Isolation and the Total War series. Already bought in discount. ;)
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