Question Which DE is best for standalone games?

[monere]

Hi,

I've just put together a new build that I intend to use Linux on, and I would like to know what the best option for a newbie is when playing games. Let me explain...

1. By "best option" I mean that I want to click on the game's icon and play, I don't want to have to type frequent and endless commands into the terminal, I don't want to keep temperature monitoring and regulating software opened all the time to handle the GPU's loads, and so on. I just want a simple, plug and play solution that doesn't crash my games and which doesn't require my constant involvement and attention, both during the initial setup but also later on after / when updating the system, or installing games, etc.

2. By standalone games I mean that I am NOT required to sign up with steam, epic, ubisoft and all other mafia companies. I want to just download the game and play it in single player without any 3rd party asking me to create accounts on their useless website.

The games I intend to play on this new PC are Last Epoch, Grim Dawn, Wolcen, Legend of Grimrock. These are the main ones, so ARPGs in general, but I might try out other genres occasionally (survival / city builders for example, I might also try Counterstrike, etc). But the system should be able to handle ARPGs usually, and - like I said - without forcing me to sign up with 3rd party companies that have no business getting their filthy hands on the games that I own.

I did a bit of research on the internet (on reddit mostly), and apparently any Linux distro is good for gaming, so the only other question I have then is which desktop environment is best for gaming?

Again, when I say "best" I am actually referring to the most stable out of the box, and with as little manual / hands-on involvement as possible, and by this I mean also if / when a game doesn't work. I don't mind using a few terminal commands to fix stuff around that I can easily find solutions for online, but I don't want to have to CONSTANTLY type commands before launching a game, or when a game crashes or doesn't work for whatever reason.

I am really a beginner to Linux (although I did try it a few times some years ago), and if I can't find easy fixes for the games that I intend to play and which won't run then I am not interested in that particular DE because my time is limited from now on (life, work, etc. are in the way) so I don't have time to take classes in using Linux, I just need a simple plug and play solution that just works out of the box both initially and when whatever troubleshooting / maintenance might be required later on.

I just installed Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon 3 days ago but after updating it once the system refuses to let me access the OS anymore (and it didn't even detect my 4TB HDD, which is bad). After doing some research yesterday and today I saw that other people are having similar issues with this particular version of Mint but also with this particular DE which, by the way, it's not among my favorites to begin with. I just chose to use this DE out of curiosity, but since my system is new and I have nothing installed yet I can easily switch to another DE if needed.

And speaking of DEs, GNOME is the one whose looks I like the most, so I would prefer a distro that's based on this DE, but if this DE is not stable and newbie-friendly I could use any other DE, I don't care all that much. All I care about is for the system to work flawlessly (or with as little intervention as possible from me).

Also, while doing research I kept seeing 2 words that I have no idea what they mean: X11 and Wayland. Apparently these 2 words are very important when it comes to gaming on Linux, may I know what the deal with these 2 is and which one is best for gaming and why? So much new stuff for me to wrap my head around as a 30+ years Windows user....

So yeah, that's what I'd like to know. I have my USB stick ready to install whichever Linux distro on, but before I settle on the distro I need to know what the most stable and least interaction-intensive DE is, so I can find a distro based on this DE. So, what are your guys' thoughts on this? Let me know

Thanks in advance!

 

[USAFRet]

The question is.....are your desired games available in the Linux world?
Not all are.

 

[USAFRet]

And by the "DE" in your title, I was thinking you meant 'Development Environment.
Not Desktop Environment, within Linux.

 

[monere]

The question is.....are your desired games available in the Linux world?
Not all are.

I saw that Last Epoch, Grim Dawn and LoG are. Haven't checked Wolcen, though.... but to be honest, if these 3 work I'm fine with it initially

And by the "DE" in your title, I was thinking you meant 'Development Environment.
Not Desktop Environment, within Linux.

I don't know what you mean. But I was referring to those things like GNOME, KDE, Xfce, Cinammon, etc. They're called desktop environments, no?

 

[USAFRet]

I saw that Last Epoch, Grim Dawn and LoG are. Haven't checked Wolcen, though.... but to be honest, if these 3 work I'm fine with it initially


I don't know what you mean. But I was referring to those things like GNOME, KDE, Xfce, Cinammon, etc. They're called desktop environments, no?

"DE"

Development Environment - What tools would one might use to build and code software, incl games.

Desktop Environment - Which Linux distro and its desktop might be better for games.

I initially thought the former.

For a desktop? Ubuntu or LinuxMint would be the 2 default choices.
But other Linux people will probably be along to suggest more in depth.

 

[monere]

Development Environment - What tools would one might use to build and code software, incl games.

Desktop Environment - Which Linux distro and its desktop might be better for games.

I've not even heard of "development environment" before, so yeah I was referring to desktop environments

I initially thought the former.

sorry! Had I known that the other one exists I would have made it clear, but technology is not my strong point, I'm not familiar with all of these terms

For a desktop? Ubuntu or LinuxMint would be the 2 default choices.
But other Linux people will probably be along to suggest more in depth.

yeah, I like Mint, it was actually my 1st choice both now and several years ago when I tried Linux for the 1st time. Mint just looks great, but apparently my system doesn't like something about it (about the Cinnamon DE at least), which is why I'm looking for alternatives.

And besides, the world of Linux is completely new to me, and I see a lot of distros out there, I feel like a kid in a candy shop and want to try everything xD

So, I don't mind going for a less popular distro, the one thing that I'd like to be mindful of is that it allows me to play those 3-4 games as good as on Windows with as little interaction from me as possible (because the use of terminal - as cool as it sounds - still scares me )

 

[USAFRet]

Just go with Mint.

 

[monere]

Just go with Mint.

how?? I installed it and it won't even display the logging screen anymore. And I've tried everything I could inside of the UEFI / BIOS thing... well, anything that I KNEW it might help, which I assume is not good enough for someone with my "knowledge"...

Anyway, thanks for the recommendation, but I'll wait for more opinions. Let's see what other people say. And I am interested in the DE actually, not in the distro

 

[stonecarver]

The games I intend to play on this new PC are Last Epoch, Grim Dawn, Wolcen, Legend of Grimrock. These are the main ones

The first issue I see that you don't want is to not sign into Steam. All these games are Steam games. No disrespect or am I missing you can buy them off Steam?

I messed around with Pop OS and It was refreshing how far Linux has come with almost seamless install and play.

Steam just released there steam deck OS for desktop PC's but again it involves steam.

I will be honest I have a love \ hate feeling for Linux.

Not a Linux daily driver just what I found the less hassle using with games.

 

[monere]

The first issue I see that you don't want is to not sign into Steam. All these games are Steam games. No disrespect or am I missing you can buy them off Steam?

I've purchased Grim Dawn off GOG if memory serves me well, so for this game specifically I can guarantee that Steam is not required. LE is new, though, so I'm not sure how I will be able to get it

And Legend of Grimrock is also on GOG from what I'm seeing, so for these 2 games I'm covered. But yeah, I'll have to see what options I have for LE, if that game demands that I use Steam or other 3rd party site I'll have to give up on it sadly...

I messed around with Pop OS and It was refreshing how far Linux has come with almost seamless install and play.

I did see a few recommendations on Reddit for Pop OS, and it's on my list for sure. The thing is that I checked their site and I can't see a forum, and if they have no forum I am pretty much helpless as a new Linux user because I almost certainly will need help at some point. But yeah, Pop is a valid option

I will be honest I have a love \ hate feeling for Linux.

well, I can't speak for, or against your opinion since I've not experienced Linux too extensively yet. I've tried it for a few months some years ago but I barely knew what I was doing back then. But Windows forcing me to open up a MS account and cramming bloatware and spyware and ads down my throat and - worst of all - updating the system behind my back while closing all of the 30-40 .txt files that I constantly have opened is the last straw. I have to use a OS that gives me control over MY system...

Anyway, thanks for the recommendation, I'll keep it mind (I actually already had it in mind, but I appreciate the help nonetheless)...

 

[monere]

I've done some more research and there's something called "compositor" that can impact the performance of games on certain DEs. What are your thoughts on this?

And which DEs are the most stable in general?

 

[SyCoREAPER]

Heroic and Lutris will help with GOG games but not all games work. Steam won't work any better but their compatibility layer and list is a bit more expansive.

As for distro, it depends what your comfortable with. Some you will need to compile applications before you can install them and others will have precompiled (like Debian based) packaged to just double click and install.

Unless you are a Linux diehard or have a much older machine, you'll likely see no benefit over the convenience of Windows.

 

[monere]

Heroic and Lutris will help with GOG games but not all games work. Steam won't work any better but their compatibility layer and list is a bit more expansive.

As for distro, it depends what your comfortable with. Some you will need to compile applications before you can install them and others will have precompiled (like Debian based) packaged to just double click and install.

Unless you are a Linux diehard or have a much older machine, you'll likely see no benefit over the convenience of Windows.

Hi,

Thanks for the tips and sorry for the late reply, for some reason I'm not getting notifications when I receive messages, but that's probably because of something on my end, I'm still learning how to use Linux...

To your pointers: yeah, I just wasted 4 hours toying around with Lutris, and I manage to make a few games work, although there still seems to be some bugs. But one step at a time...

As for distro, I am on Mint 21.2 Cinnamon, and so far it's pretty good. Well, I knew Mint from a few years ago when I dived into the Linux rabbit hole for a few months while trying things out and I've stuck with Mint since it's been the only distro working on my Intel + Microsoft heavy computer. So I'm pretty happy with using MInt, if I manage to make the few 4-5 games that I usually play work I don't see myself changing anything for the foreseeable future

Again, thanks for the tips and sorry for replying late, I wish I could say it wasn't my fault but it probably was

 

[SyCoREAPER]

Hi,

Thanks for the tips and sorry for the late reply, for some reason I'm not getting notifications when I receive messages, but that's probably because of something on my end, I'm still learning how to use Linux...

To your pointers: yeah, I just wasted 4 hours toying around with Lutris, and I manage to make a few games work, although there still seems to be some bugs. But one step at a time...

As for distro, I am on Mint 21.2 Cinnamon, and so far it's pretty good. Well, I knew Mint from a few years ago when I dived into the Linux rabbit hole for a few months while trying things out and I've stuck with Mint since it's been the only distro working on my Intel + Microsoft heavy computer. So I'm pretty happy with using MInt, if I manage to make the few 4-5 games that I usually play work I don't see myself changing anything for the foreseeable future

Again, thanks for the tips and sorry for replying late, I wish I could say it wasn't my fault but it probably was

No worries, the fact that you have etiquette and manners alone speaks worlds compared to other users.

Another option of course if you have the space is just dual boot. The games you can't get running could go on a small partition until you get it sorted on the Linux side.

 

[monere]

No worries and another option of course if you have the space is just dual boot. The games you can't get running could go on a small partition until you get it sorted on the Linux side.

yeah, I will probably get dual boot at some point, I did think about it and it's a great solution indeed

The problem is that I only have 1 SSD of 500 GB and it's already 2/3 full, and I won't be able to get any more storage until next year, so I'm rolling with this configuration for now.

But yes, dual boot is good

 

[rustigsmed]

Which gpu/apu do you have? If you are going with nVidia, then you will need to use the proprietary drivers - some distros have nVidia versions you can download so the issue of installing nvidia is taken care of at the start - others you need to flag during the installation process. if amd you are generally ok as the open source drivers (which are better than AMD's proprietary drivers) are baked into the kernel.

As mentioned earlier Lutris or Heroic Games launchers are good for non steam games. Lutris took me a bit to get used to but now i have the hang of it - I find it very good.

Some options for you to consider - PopOS (has nvidia and non nvidia dowload options), Linux Mint and perhaps something a bit different is Chimera OS - which i think is designed to be like a gaming console (for hand helds/tv's etc) and thus easy to use for gaming.

 

[monere]

Which gpu/apu do you have? If you are going with nVidia, then you will need to use the proprietary drivers - some distros have nVidia versions you can download so the issue of installing nvidia is taken care of at the start - others you need to flag during the installation process. if amd you are generally ok as the open source drivers (which are better than AMD's proprietary drivers) are baked into the kernel.

As mentioned earlier Lutris or Heroic Games launchers are good for non steam games. Lutris took me a bit to get used to but now i have the hang of it - I find it very good.

Some options for you to consider - PopOS (has nvidia and non nvidia dowload options), Linux Mint and perhaps something a bit different is Chimera OS - which i think is designed to be like a gaming console (for hand helds/tv's etc) and thus easy to use for gaming.

The GPU is XFX Radeon RX 570 RS, and I have Mint 21 Cinnamon and Lutris and I'm already playing games on it just fine.

There are some issues (Grim Dawn freezes and crashes after a while), and also I've lost all saves in all games at some point without doing absolutely anything, I still haven't figured out why this happened, but I don't care because the saves were very new because I had just installed several games in Lutris and was basically testing them, I only lost a few hours worth of saves, but those were game testing saves so like I said, I didn't care.

But now I'm full into gaming and if I lose saves again it will be a big issue