The day has come, Google has finally opened up their Linux-powered game streaming service Stadia. They're giving you two free months of Pro too, so you can try it with the Pro games without paying a penny.
Announced on the Google Blog, they mentioned the current trying times with social distancing and how difficult it can all be. Since a lot of people are stuck at home they're giving gamers in "14 countries free access to Stadia for two months". When in, you will instantly be able to play these games that you can claim free with Pro:
- Destiny 2: The Collection
- GRID
- Gylt
- SteamWorld Dig 2
- SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech
- Serious Sam Collection
- Spitlings
- Stacks on Stacks (on Stacks)
- Thumper
Do keep in mind, that to continue playing them you need to keep up the Pro subscription which can be cancelled at any time. I've tested the cancellation procedure, and there's no issues with it. Takes a few clicks and it's automatic. You can buy games too at any time, to keep them. Google also run special discounts for Pro subscriptions. If you stop your Pro, you can re-subscribe any time and then get back access to previously claimed games too.
To acccess Stadia: make sure you have a Chromium/Chrome browser and then you need to go to Stadia.com to sign up, and then you should be able to just get going. If you have a gmail account, you shouldn't need to create anything extra. However, Google said that it may take up to 48 hours for this opening to be available everywhere.
Apart from that, there's not much else special you need. It works with mouse and keyboard plus it's worked with my Steam Controller, and the Logitech F310 is fine too. As long as it's picked up as an input type in your browser, it should work. You don't need their own Stadia controller.
If you want a few extra helpful features, you can also try out the Stadia+ extension, which is open source.
As a reminder, there's been a lot of updates around Stadia lately. In short: Google has promised at least 120 games on it this year, they've opened dedicated studios to work on Stadia games, Typhoon Studios has joined them to work on Stadia games, Splash Damage are working on an exclusive game for Stadia and more. You can see a recent round-up we did here.
I'm definitely keen to see what more people think of it, after having a great experience with it personally. I regularly play The Division 2 (video on YouTube) and Assassins Creed both on my Linux desktop and my Chromecast without issues.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Last edited by Shmerl on 8 April 2020 at 4:50 pm UTC
Quoting: ShmerlWhy is it not compatible with Firefox?Unsure but perhaps now with people flooding in, some people smarter than me can find a way? ;)
Quoting: EhvisIf there is a chrome snap, I might give it a test run. Not really interested in the games that come with it, but still curious about the tech.I tested using the Chromium Snap, worked fine.
I'll probably give Pro a try but I feel GeForce Now has a *MUCH* bigger selection of games that don't work in Lutris/Proton compared to Stadia. Since I have a gaming computer already, cloud gaming is only useful when non-native games don't run in Lutris/Proton and I don't want to play AAA games on my phone with it's tiny screen.
One big advantage I see with Stadia is that it has Red Dead Redemption 2, while GeForce Now doesn't and will probably never work in Wine due to how it uses both DirectX and Vulkan simultaneously.
On the other hand, GFN has tons of anti-cheat enabled titles borked on Linux like Fortnite, Apex Legends, PUBG, Hell Let Loose, WW3, Paladins, Darwin Project, Rust, etc. GeForce Now works on Linux with the Android VM. I posted instructions on how to set it up. Unfortunately, it seems most people are having major issues getting their Android VM to work like mine, so I'm almost tempted to just create a pre-built QEMU VM image and script that people can download and use with almost no setup at all.
Last edited by Xaero_Vincent on 8 April 2020 at 8:23 pm UTC
Quoting: Xaero_VincentFor those not able to sign up yet from the website, I managed to create a free Stadia account using the Stadia mobile Android app.
Same here, couldn't sign up on website, but used the app to activate my free trial. I've only briefly tried GRID and it was quite playable. But I'm not sure if it's the game or Stadia, as the car seems in focus but everything else is quite soft. I will try a few of the other titles probably tomorrow. I was using my Steam gamepad, but it didn't detect it properly. Not sure it has full compatibility with unofficial wireless pads yet.
Quoting: ShmerlWhy is it not compatible with Firefox?
What Mirv said
I would'nt bother, it's shit for FPS like I expected, it's worse than a damn console !
Just tried D2 , it's shocking the lag and not just input either.
Credits where it's due for what they've managed but sorry, despite what some will tell you it's a loooooooooong way of for first person shooters. I deal for things like Stellaris ect.
Last edited by pete910 on 8 April 2020 at 11:31 pm UTC
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