New Linux Gaming Survey For August

Well, my PC is "Desktop" years old ;).

Quoting: bladerunnerWell, my PC is "Desktop" years old ;).

:P Haha.... I just remembered. Basically, one of the changes was adding two completely new questions. One on what device, and another on how old the device is, but then decided to remove the second question because it was too ambiguous (i.e. if it's a desktop then it's difficult to quantify how "new" it is because of upgrades).

I think the best solution to that question would be "when was the last time you upgraded or changed that device" or something along those lines. If anyone has any suggestions for that one, I can re-add it into this survey ASAP. Those two "test" questions weren't going to make it into the final results next month anyway, so it doesn't matter if it's added late this month.

Do microtransactions in free to play games count as a game purchase? :P

Minor typo: "What type of device do you primerily use for Linux gaming?"

I answered "no" for the emulator question, but I do dip in and out of playing my old favourites from time to time. :)

Really digging Shadow of Mordor, havent had any problems yet and performance is pretty good. I still have to use my windows partition for dota though until i find a way to fix the unbearable tearing (even with vsync)...

Every month when I get to the "How many games did you buy" question I think I didn't really buy all that many last month. Then I look at all the receipts, and realize I may have self-control issues... If it's on Linux, I want it. :p

I'm back on my desktop after on and off dealing with nVidia Optimus on my Lenovo. Besides the fact almost every laptop has awful keyboards, I just go so fed up with having a broken graphics card practically. It seemed to be fine on older kernels with just the nVidia drivers, but recently it's been so bad I just gave up and here I am. What's even more interesting is it seems the newer kernel is also slowing down this card I have in here. Either that or Source games just run really bad for me (as that's all I've tested so far). At least I get to use my soundcard instead of that terrible HDAudio! Also before anyone says anything, yes I did use Bumblebee at one point, I will never install it again. Great effort by open source devs but I saw worse results if anything.

At What type of device do you primerily use for Linux gaming?, I answered Other, but since there is no input box to add some informations, here it is:

I stream my games from my desktop PC to my laptop while I'm on my sofa (with Steam streaming). So, not sure if it counts as Desktop, Laptop or Sofa PC...


Last edited by mbouchar on 4 August 2015 at 1:19 am UTC

Hm. That "primarily" question is a bit difficult. I use a wireless bluetooth mouse and keyboard, or a controller, and I use the machine from the couch for everything. The system itself is a desktop-style computer (for general use plus gaming) with a single user account set aside for Steam Big Picture. My family shares their Steam games, so this way we only have one instance of each game installed. It saves space and time, for sure.

Since we use that computer for more than gaming, though, I identified it as a "desktop" in the survey.

Perhaps these answers would suit the style of question better? I'd consider a gaming-exclusive partition to be equal to an entire machine's worth of space, since it's for a dedicated purpose.

What kind of machine do you use primarily for gaming?

* a general purpose desktop with games installed
* a general purpose laptop with games installed
* a gaming-exclusive desktop (or desktop partition)
* a gaming-exclusive laptop (or laptop partition) *edit for clarity


Last edited by namiko on 4 August 2015 at 2:06 am UTC

Thanks for adding "Developer website" as an option :) I don't think I saw it the last time :)

I chose "laptop" as my gaming device, which is technically true. Although when I game, I usually connect it to the TV and play from the sofa. So it is more of a "sofa laptop."

I had trouble with the type of PC question too: I use a desktop with 3 monitors, 2 for the desk for normal use and certain games that play better that way, and 1 large TV for playing games from the sofa with a controller. My desktop/sofa gaming us about 50/50, depending on the games.
I chose sofa PC though.

Not really interested in Shadow of Mordor. I'm too sad it's so far away from the Tolkien universe.


Damn, just had a look in the release calendar.Why do the "best" games start to be released in September? Bad timing, I'm starting university there :-(


Last edited by ljrk on 4 August 2015 at 9:00 am UTC

Quoting: LeonardKNot really interested in Shadow of Mordor. I'm too sad it's so far away from the Tolkien universe.

Ah, come on :) The game is really a treat for us.
Imagine that is an alternate Tolkien universe :)

Quoting: dubigrasu

Quoting: LeonardKNot really interested in Shadow of Mordor. I'm too sad it's so far away from the Tolkien universe.

Ah, come on :) The game is really a treat for us.
Imagine that is an alternate Tolkien universe :)

Well, I simply can't get on it. If it'd be completely different: Maybe. But I cannot endure this 'a bit Tolkien but actually not quite' way of Mordor :D

I thought about buying it anyway but decided against it... - better saving for American Truck Sim - and waiting for a 'real' Tolkien game. Why not using the Akallabeth as story? Please guys: DO that :D

Nice survey. I already had shadow of Mordor so I didn't have to purchase it, just removed the windows version and started downloading/playing the Linux version.

Fan culture is weird. This is just like dissing a movie because it's not a literal and complete adaptation of whatever book it's based on. So what? Why treat entertainment like holy scripture? It's not heresy, it's just a different story.

Quoting: mboucharI stream my games from my desktop PC to my laptop while I'm on my sofa (with Steam streaming). So, not sure if it counts as Desktop, Laptop or Sofa PC...

I guess that in this case, "Sofa" is the right answer.
Kidding aside, I am planning to do the same... If only the streaming client could be ported to more devices... I already started to look at reverse-engineering the protocol, but it looks quite complex now. I would be interested to start from the first beta, but it's hard to find an outdated client.

Edit : other than that, I am terribly excited about vulkan :-)


Last edited by MayeulC on 4 August 2015 at 11:47 am UTC

Quoting: Segata Sanshiro

Quoting: bladerunnerWell, my PC is "Desktop" years old ;).

:P Haha.... I just remembered. Basically, one of the changes was adding two completely new questions. One on what device, and another on how old the device is, but then decided to remove the second question because it was too ambiguous (i.e. if it's a desktop then it's difficult to quantify how "new" it is because of upgrades).

I think the best solution to that question would be "when was the last time you upgraded or changed that device" or something along those lines. If anyone has any suggestions for that one, I can re-add it into this survey ASAP. Those two "test" questions weren't going to make it into the final results next month anyway, so it doesn't matter if it's added late this month.

How about asking how much time since one last built or upgraded his/her PC? Only counting some components, like:

Q: When did you last built or upgraded your PC?

A:

☐ 6 months
☑ 6+ months - 2 years
☐ 3 - 4 years
☐ 5 + years

I'm not sure what the best date options would be though :P

Additionally a question of the parts that were upgraded/added within a timeframe. The only problem with that is that let's say someone purchased 1 part each year in lets say the last 4 years would fill in all the part checkboxes on the 2nd question and would still count as a new computer, so the question would need a timeframe for upgrades (let's say 6 months or a year back before the last upgrade).

So it'd be like

Q: "Which of the following components have you upgraded/added within a year since your last PC upgrade? (e.g. last replaced RAM in april 2015 and GPU in september 2014 would count, but anything before april 2014 would not count)

A:
☐ Motherboard
☑ GPU
☑ RAM
☐ CPU

I'd also suggest to count components that could dramatically alter gaming performance, as a lot of stuff is arbitraty when it comes to gaming like, let's say HDD's and SDD's that would improve load times and space but right now they're more of a choice than something required to run games, the mobo is also arbitrary, but it dictates which type of RAM / CPU / GPU it could have, but I'd agree with some counter arguments on this.

Basically in the end those who would select all parts within the last upgrade timeframe would count as a completely new computer(even if they didn't upgrade PSU or HDD but did so with everything else) while the ones who upgraded some parts and not all of them within the timeframe would not count as new computers but could interestingly make another list that would tell us the average upgrade/time ratio.

That's what comes to mind ^^

Quoting: GuestFor UQ2 I chose the 'issue solving' answer, the issue is 'steam-only' :D

I suppose I could have done that, as I instead said I was not interested in buying it even though I would be if it was on GOG or similar.


Last edited by Hamish on 5 August 2015 at 2:14 am UTC