What was hot on GamingOnLinux through December 2020

Here is a look back some of the most popular articles on GamingOnLinux for December 2020, an easy way to for you to keep up to date on what has happened in the past month for Linux gaming, open source and other general Linux news that we cover!

If you wish to keep track of these overview posts you can with our Overview RSS.

Here's what was popular with our readers:

• Valve puts up Proton 5.13-4 to get Cyberpunk 2077 working on Linux for AMD GPUs plus also Valve continues tweaking the new 'Proton Experimental' for Cyberpunk 2077
  • Valve continues tweaking the Proton compatibility layer, along with a new Proton Experimental branch where they appear to be putting up new features quicker.
• The best Linux distros for gaming in 2021
  • For newer Linux users or people looking to switch, it can be a minefield to try and find accurate and up to date info on what Linux distro to game with. Here to help. What is the best Linux distribution for gaming? It's actually not a tough question.
• Our top favourite Linux games released in 2020
  • Here's a brief look over what games we personally thought truly stood out in 2020 that directly supported Linux.
• Valve updates Steam with more Linux improvements, new game properties UI
  • A fresh Beta update for the Steam Client has rolled out and it seems Valve have begun modernising more parts of the UI, along with Linux fixes.
• Wasteland 3 now available on Linux from inXile Entertainment
  • inXile Entertainment have today officially released Wasteland 3 for Linux (and macOS), following on from their successful Fig campaign in 2016 and Windows release in August 2020.
• Stardew Valley has a massive 1.5 update out with a new Beach farm, local co-op and more
  • Here's something to keep you busy over the holiday season! Stardew Valley, the awesome and relaxing farming life sim from ConcernedApe has the biggest update yet.
• The road to Wine 6.0 begins with a first Release Candidate plus also Wine 6.0 hits a third Release Candidate with 19 bugs marked as fixed
  • Reaching that little bit closer towards the next major release, the Wine compatibility layer project marches onwards towards the big 6.0 due hopefully this month (January 2021).
• The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall game engine Daggerfall Unity now feature complete
  • Daggerfall Unity is the open source game engine built with Unity for running the 1996 classic The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall and it's coming along very nicely.
• Plague Inc: The Cure DLC coming in early 2021 and free until COVID-19 is under control
  • Ready to cure the world? Ndemic Creations have released another small bit of info for Plague Inc: The Cure, the upcoming expansion to the excellent Plague Inc: Evolved.
• Portal 2: Desolation standalone mod gets a first proper teaser, coming to Linux
  • Will the cake be a lie here too? Portal 2: Desolation is an upcoming very high-quality looking mod and they have revealed the first look.
• Open Source Game Achievements with Gamerzilla
  • For a while, I've been suggesting an open source game achievement system. Some people liked the idea but no one wanted to build it. Finally after LibrePlanet 2020, I decided to tackle the problem.
• AWS are now funding Blender development for three years
  • Another surprise for 2020! Blender has pulled in yet another major company to help fund their awesome free and open source 3D creation suite.
• Don't Starve Together adds a whole new farming and crop system
  • Don't Starve Together from Klei Entertainment has a huge new update out now, completely overhauling the way survivors deal with farming and crops.
• Collabora announce their Wayland driver for Wine
  • The Wine compatibility layer for running Windows apps and games on Linux currently needs X11 or XWayland but that looks like it could change with a new Wayland driver for Wine.
• Command & Conquer game engine OpenRA has a new test release, working towards Tiberian Sun
  • Play classics like Command & Conquer, Dune 2000 and Red Alert in a fantastic open source game engine with OpenRA.
• Godot Engine hires another developer, this time for physics fun
  • Through 2020 it seems the free and open source game engine Godot Engine has gone from strength to strength, and they've managed to hire another developer.
• Free and open source space sim 'Naev' has a big overhaul update out now
  • Naev returns! This classic free and open source 2D space exploration, trading and combat sim release version 0.8.0 and it's quite a big change for it.
• Raspberry Pi OS has a big new release out switching to PulseAudio
  • Time to warm up your little board as the Raspberry Pi OS has a big new releasing up for those of you sticking with the official Debian Linux based system.
• The absolutely genius Frick, Inc. from Kenney is now up on Steam
  • Driving trucks has probably never been this challenging before with on-screen controls, Frick, Inc. from Kenney is a fantastic idea for a game.
• Open source Linux instant-replay tool ReplaySorcery has some major upgrades
  • Need an easy way to capture those awesome moments when you're playing Linux games? ReplaySorcery is what you need, and the developer has been very busy with it.
• DOSBox Pure for RetroArch aims to make retro DOS gaming real easy
  • Want to play old DOS games easily on whatever Linux machine you're using? RetroArch now has a new fork named DOSBox Pure and you can give it a test now.
• DOSBox Staging has a rather large new release out with 0.76.0
  • DOSBox Staging is the fork of the original emulator with an aim to modernize it and give it some more advanced features, with the latest release out now.
• YoYo Games expand their Linux support in GameMaker Studio 2 to the Raspberry Pi
  • The Raspberry Pi sure is a versatile device and thanks to GameMaker Studio 2 from YoYo Games, it might even end up as more of a gaming unit with newly added support for exported games.
• FOSS game engine written in Rust 'Bevy' has a new release up
  • As another promising free and open source game engine written in Rust, Bevy continues maturing and there's a brand new release up for you to try out with lots of advancements.
• NVIDIA release big new Linux driver with 460.27.04, LunarG Vulkan SDK Ray Tracing ready
  • Today along with upgrading Quake II RTX to support cross-vendor Ray Tracing, NVIDIA had another surprise with the release of the new 460.27.04 Beta driver with quite a number of changes. On top of that, there's also a big new release of the LunarG Vulkan SDK for Ray Tracing.
• Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood to feature time-loops, branching stories - new trailer up
  • Devespresso Games (The Coma series, Vambrace: Cold Soul) have announced along with publisher Headup that their next game Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood will enter Early Access in February 2021.
• Direct3D 12 to Vulkan translation layer VKD3D-Proton version 2.1 is out
  • With more titles out and planned to release that will use DirectX 12, the VKD3D-Proton translation layer is another essential bit of open source tech and a new release is out now.

We published a total of 175 articles last month! You can see more stats on this page.

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What was your favourite Linux and Gaming news through December 2020 and what are you looking forward to seeing throughout 2021? Let us know in the comments. We'll be getting back into it all after our short article holiday soon.