Well, this is my first post here as a member of the Level1Techs community.
So here’s the scoop: For a while, I’ve been wanting to switch from Windows to a Linux distro of some sort. (I’m currently torn between a few choices, but I have a good general idea of what I’m after.) I’m a bit of a newbie when it comes to Linux. But in the last several months of all my research, I’ve really learned a TON! When I initially started my build list, I had intended at the time for it to be used for Windows. But since then, my mind has been changed. Now before I state my questions, I’ll provide the specs of what my pc will have then you can answer my questions if you have had any experience with what I’m describing.
Here are the components my entire build will consist of:
Asus ROG Strix Z370-E Gaming motherboard
Intel i7-8700 CPU
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 GPU FE
GSkill TridentZ ram 2 x 8GB 3000MHz
Samsung 970 Evo NVMe M.2 1 TB SSD
Noctua NH-D15S cpu cooler
Corsair RM750x 750 watt 80+ Gold fully modular PSU
Corsair Obsidian 500D RGB SE Premium mid-tower case (Comes with 3 fans installed.)
Corsair LL Series RGB case fans 3-pack
Acer Predator XB271HU 27" WQHD Gsync 165Hz monitor
Corsair K70 RGB MK.2 Mechanical Gaming keyboard
Logitech G305 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming mouse
Please remember that I don’t have any of these part yet. So I haven’t really built my pc yet. I just want to be sure I won’t run into any issues down the road. But here are my questions anyhow:
Since my RGB components are mainly Corsair & ASUS for the motherboard, would I be able to run the RGB software in any Linux distro without any issues? If I can, what would be the best method of doing so? (Wine/Winetricks, Playonlinux, Crossover, etc)
I am a bit of a gamer & plan on doing some modern gaming, but nothing really heavily demanding in my case. Most of the games I play are actually featured in Origin & I was wondering if anyone here has been able to run Origin (& Origin games for that matter) in any Linux distro without any issues?
If anyone does have any better suggestions, I’m open to them! And if you have any questions for me or want more details, you can just drop me a line & I’ll be sure to answer them for you!
Thank you to anyone here who is able or willing to help!
Kyle.
I went out of my way to buy an asrock taichi motherboard just because the RGB lighting can be controlled from the BIOS. In the case of an ASUS one, you should be able to set the lights once in Windows, and then the setting will stick in linux.
Or you can just chill with the default rainbow colored scheme.
Phoenixan, thank you very much for the reply! Yeah, I figured it wouldn’t be too complicated when it comes to the RGB side of things. But what about running Origin on Linux? Have you ever tried it or know someone who has?
Modern titles for the most part. I won’t really actually bother going into much detail tho. Mainly cause I’ve been stuck with older hardware for the time being. But in a nutshell, I haven’t really ever owned a desktop or got into “high-end” gaming. The closest I’ve come to it is playing Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare (1 of my favorite pc games ever!) on my Windows pc using Origin. BTW, Origin isn’t all that bad, you know. I’ve never had a bad experience with them so far & I don’t think I will!
Well, then I can’t answer that. I can’t even search for possible solutions.
Here is the rule of thumb: It won’t work! <- That should be your expectation for all games that you haven’t found a widespread accepted solution for.
That is even more true for modern games with stupid copy protection mechanisms, e-sports titles that will check the underlying OS, run anti-cheat stuff and so on.
Yeah, when moving over to linux, it’s generally safe to assume that Windows programs/games won’t work, and if it does work, then hey, that’s a plus! You’re essentially forcing things to run in an environment they weren’t designed for.
Unfortanly I have to agree with what @Phoenixan and @noenken said, you have to assume any game not natively supported on Linux won’t work. There are some exceptions but they are very few. I was able to get one EA game (Star Wars The Old Republic) to be playable under Linux using Wine and Play on Linux. Now remember this was about three years ago, so maybe with the latest version of Wine, it is more enjoyable. The issue I had was using the mouse to move your character, sometimes there seemed to be a lag between the mouse click and my character moving. It wasn’t so often that it interfered with my enjoyment of the game.
I don’t know if you are aware of two other options for running Windows programs and Linux, one you could do what is called dual-booting or setting up setting up a Windows Virtual Machine under Linux.
I have set up dual-booting which worked very well on my desktop but not so well on my laptop. The reason I think it didn’t work very well on my laptop has to do with the complicated graphical system that is used on my laptop. If you do decide to use the dual-booting method, Do your self a favor and install each operating system on its own physical drive. I have heard several horror stores of the Windows file system corrupting the Linux file system when there is just a partition between the two operating systems.
The second way is setting up a Windows Virtual Machine, While I don’t have any practical experience setting this up, I do understand the theory behind it, and as soon as I can raise the money to build a new desktop I am going to use this method. I have to warn you this method has its challenges, but it is possible if you pick the right equipment. One the advantages of being a member of Level1 Techs forum is there a huge Linux community and just about every forum member is very noob friendly, which isn’t the case with a lot of Linux distributions forums, at least that has been my experience. So if you do decide to go the Windows virtual Machine route, there are a lot of people who have done it that can help you if you run into problems. If you want to learn the requirement or want to learn more just do a search in your favorite web search engine or search this forum. There are several posts in this forum that explain Windows Virtual Machines better than I. I have included a link to my favorite web search engine to get you started
I would not expect any level of support for Origin.
And I would not be surprised if you do get banned unexpectedly due to anti-cheats that come out.
Nowadays a lot of games can be hacked and modded to work on linux. The main thing that causes issues is the anti-cheats.
Take Destiny 2 for an example, Blizzard has a much better record of supporting linux than EA does, however it is still not an officially supported platform, and Blizzard defers all bans to Bungie, and Bungie has no system for contesting bans.
Essentially, if you get banned, even if you weren’t cheating or anything else, you are fucked.
They will not unban for any reason at all.
I would expect nothing less than this same mindset from EA.
When it comes to running games that do not have official support, remember this:
You’re right @sil3ntpr0digy the biggest problem with getting Windows only supported games running on Linux is the anti-cheat software, not dependencies for a piacular game. Which is why a lot of people either run Linux and Windows on the same computer system or set up a Windows Virtual Machine, which is the reason for my post. I want to make sure @jennings92 knew there were two other options available to him.
OK, just to balance it a bit: I am running linux and I am playing games. There are lots of them and not only old ones. I am also runneng windows games, WoW, Doom 2016, even EA games like Burnout Paradise. Not all is lost for gamers on linux.
But if it isn’t supported by lutris or proton (steam play), it gets complicated, slow, old or straight up impossible.
Also looking at todays games… I have no problem not playing most Ubisoft, Activision or EA games.
Noenken, is there any of determining whether certain games are supported via Proton, Vulkan, etc? I have heard of lutris & might give them a try in the future if the other methods don’t work out. BTW, what about using DXVK as shown in this vieo? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsgI1mkx6iw
Lutris (and I believe proton as well) is running on DXVK whenever possible. DXVK is the technical side, lutris and proton are just making it very easy to use.
If you wanna check, lutris has a game list on it’s website. If there are hundreds or thousands of players running your game, it probably works fine. If it’s like … five, it probably doesn’t.
I’ve considered that & have already checked them out. The problem is they don’t have all the games I’m wanting to try out. That’s why I mentioned earlier that I’ll be using both Origin & Steam for this.
If there isn’t a particular game you want to play not listed in Lutris check the following link https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&sTitle=Browse%20Applications&sOrderBy=appName&bAscending=true
It gives a list of games that have been tried to see if they run under Wine. I checked and there is a list of a few games from ORIGIN Systems, Inc. that play on Wine with a few caveats. The list for each game should tell you how to set up a particular game. The only thing Lutris provides for a particular game is an install script.
Yeah, I figured it wouldn’t be too complicated when it comes to the RGB side of things. But what about running Origin on Linux? Have you ever tried it or know someone who has?