PUBG is currently a game that doesn't work at all on Linux due to anti-cheat, even with the Steam Deck coming it's sounding like a game that won't play nicely. Oh, it's also going free to play.
In their development letter posted on December 10, they outlined what they've been doing and their future plans for anti-cheat with PUBG. While previously PUBG relied on BattlEye, which does have Linux support and recently made it easy for developers to turn on support for Proton and the Steam Deck, their newer proprietary solution with Zakynthos is going to get more invasive and cause more problems.
Through 2022, they explained that one of the major adjustments coming would be the "Implementation of kernel drivers" and I'm sure I don't need to explain to any regular Linux gaming fans why this will be a problem. These kernel drivers are designed for Windows, and something Wine / Proton likely will just not work with.
So what's the hope for PUBG running on Linux / Proton and the Steam Deck? It's not looking good.
A shame, as it's consistently in the top 5 most played games on Steam.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
All posts need to follow our rules. For users logged in: please hit the Report Flag icon on any post that breaks the rules or contains illegal / harmful content. Guest readers can email us for any issues.
And I'm sure the majority of players will just accept this as normal. I'll let out a slight grin on the day we have our first major security breach due to these "anti-cheat" "solutions".
24 Likes, Who?
as if that was not bad enough:
https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/9/22827037/google-android-games-windows-pc-google-play-games
now, i know that steam games and android games arent the same, android has tons of casual games filled with lootboxes and micro transactions, while steam have the more traditional "games for gamers" type of games.
the issue is, we need linux to appeal to both publics, people who only play traditional games and people who play both types of games in order to reach an mainstream audience that we need to finally break the chicken and egg cycle problem.
steam deck seemed to be the thing that may change everything, but now we have better android emulators on windows than on linux, microsoft is making windows run android games and even google is trying to do the same.
sigh.
google should be spending money on chromeOS or stadia instead ihmo, but no, looks like they're giving up competing in that market and doing decisions that will backfire against the linux ecosystem again.
personaly i dont care about android games, i just hope that this wont affect the deck popularity enough to break the current trend of more and more things starting to work on linux (natively or via proton) and reverse it.
i mean, imagine if we start to have killer productivity apps like office, photoshop and maya, but apps that were born on mobile coming to windows, linux would suffer again, it already happened, sure it wont happen for things like image editors, but we already have new markets like youtube, substance paint etc.
and what is even worse, i foresee we will have hybrid apps using libraries exclusives to windows and android at the same program.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/9/22827037/google-android-games-windows-pc-google-play-games
now, i know that steam games and android games arent the same, android has tons of casual games filled with lootboxes and micro transactions, while steam have the more traditional "games for gamers" type of games.
the issue is, we need linux to appeal to both publics, people who only play traditional games and people who play both types of games in order to reach an mainstream audience that we need to finally break the chicken and egg cycle problem.
steam deck seemed to be the thing that may change everything, but now we have better android emulators on windows than on linux, microsoft is making windows run android games and even google is trying to do the same.
sigh.
google should be spending money on chromeOS or stadia instead ihmo, but no, looks like they're giving up competing in that market and doing decisions that will backfire against the linux ecosystem again.
personaly i dont care about android games, i just hope that this wont affect the deck popularity enough to break the current trend of more and more things starting to work on linux (natively or via proton) and reverse it.
i mean, imagine if we start to have killer productivity apps like office, photoshop and maya, but apps that were born on mobile coming to windows, linux would suffer again, it already happened, sure it wont happen for things like image editors, but we already have new markets like youtube, substance paint etc.
and what is even worse, i foresee we will have hybrid apps using libraries exclusives to windows and android at the same program.
2 Likes, Who?
Korean / Chinese games usually use an in house anticheat or something from an asian company, I'm surprised this wasn't the case yet.
Since this very popular game will be f2p, It'll be so much a "cheater's fest" to the point this isn't going to be a big lost for Linux gaming in my opinion.
Since this very popular game will be f2p, It'll be so much a "cheater's fest" to the point this isn't going to be a big lost for Linux gaming in my opinion.
4 Likes, Who?
I'm sure Linux users usually understand better than Windows ones that running malware is a bad idea, even if it's labeled as "anti-cheat".
15 Likes, Who?
We can talk about market share, accessibility & compatibility all day long but the fact of the matter is, most anti-cheat is becoming essentially spyware bordering on malware. It's antithetical to what Linux is all about.
Linux is the equivalent to an open break away social-society running in parallel to a walled off industrial civilization. Trying to forge the two works for a while, but as ever it's either going to be 'EEE' or just simply the last 'E'.
it's not just about markets which is about money , it's about collusion which is about power.
Linux is the equivalent to an open break away social-society running in parallel to a walled off industrial civilization. Trying to forge the two works for a while, but as ever it's either going to be 'EEE' or just simply the last 'E'.
as if that was not bad enough:
steam deck seemed to be the thing that may change everything, but now we have better android emulators on windows than on linux, microsoft is making windows run android games and even google is trying to do the same.
sigh.google should be spending money on chromeOS or stadia instead ihmo, but no, looks like they're giving up competing in that market and doing decisions that will backfire against the linux ecosystem again.
i mean, imagine if we start to have killer productivity apps like office, photoshop and maya, but apps that were born on mobile coming to windows, linux would suffer again, it already happened, sure it wont happen for things like image editors, but we already have new markets like youtube, substance paint etc.
it's not just about markets which is about money , it's about collusion which is about power.
3 Likes, Who?
Call it what you want it, but that's Spyware. I don't see why anyone should put effort to support that on linux. I don't see added value, but damage here.
A shame for who likes the game, but if you have to make your pc insecure for it, make a Windows partition and use it to play pubg, while you use the Linux one for all the serious stuff like banking, shopping, play sensible games and so on.
A shame for who likes the game, but if you have to make your pc insecure for it, make a Windows partition and use it to play pubg, while you use the Linux one for all the serious stuff like banking, shopping, play sensible games and so on.
15 Likes, Who?
I'm sure Linux users usually understand better than Windows ones that running malware is a bad idea, even if it's labeled as "anti-cheat".
Yup
We can talk about market share, accessibility & compatibility all day long but the fact of the matter is, most anti-cheat is becoming essentially spyware bordering on malware.
Agreed
Call it what you want it, but that's Spyware. I don't see why anyone should put effort to support that on linux. I don't see added value, but damage here.
A shame for who likes the game, but if you have to make your pc insecure for it, make a Windows partition and use it to play pubg, while you use the Linux one for all the serious stuff like banking, shopping, play sensible games and so on.
Well said
2 Likes, Who?
We can talk about market share, accessibility & compatibility all day long but the fact of the matter is, most anti-cheat is becoming essentially spyware bordering on malware. It's antithetical to what Linux is all about.
Linux is the equivalent to an open break away social-society running in parallel to a walled off industrial civilization. Trying to forge the two works for a while, but as ever it's either going to be 'EEE' or just simply the last 'E'.
that time i gonna reply something else other than the reply to my own comment lol.
i think discussing anti cheat is a bit of a null point.
sure we shouldnt sacrifice freedom, but we can avoid DRM and anti cheat systems by geting informed on what games are using those techs and avoiding any game that use then.
the issue is: what about everyone else?
think about it: what do you prefer, everybody using linux, most of then not caring about issues like DRM and anti cheat systems running on their machines.
or everybody using windows most of then not caring about issues like DRM and anti cheat systems running on their machines?
if we cant get ride of all the layers at one, at least we should get ride of some of then.
nowadays there are a bunch of games that we cant play even if they dont even use DRM or anti cheat systems, and that was the case for most of the time in the past.
at least on linux privacy is an option, you are free to not install those games that spy on you or do other malicious behaviors, on windows even that isnt an option, the OS itself spy on you.
honestly i'm tired of this all or nothing aproach, if i have to wait one more year to play certain games, then i might as well go back to windows to never look back.
4 Likes, Who?
i think discussing anti cheat is a bit of a null point.
sure we shouldnt sacrifice freedom, but we can avoid DRM and anti cheat systems by geting informed on what games are using those techs and avoiding any game that use then.
the issue is: what about everyone else?
think about it: what do you prefer, everybody using linux, most of then not caring about issues like DRM and anti cheat systems running on their machines.or everybody using windows most of then not caring about issues like DRM and anti cheat systems running on their machines?
Even then my answer is still Linux.
We have a better chance to inform people. Free software also encourages the application of free speech it isn't just about games but communication platforms themselves. Informing people on a closed platform could eventually become hard to impossible and outside of the 'terms and agreements'. It would suck having to be careful about what you type out on your licensed copy of their software.
at least on linux privacy is an option, you are free to not install those games that spy on you or do other malicious behaviors, on windows even that isnt an option, the OS itself spy on you.
True. But i don't think "discussing anti cheat is a bit of a null point." as you have said. Perhaps, on this site it is and that is not upto me. But as long as there is an outlet within which to inform people of the invasive layers that DRM/Anti-cheat goes to i will voice my opinion on it.
honestly i'm tired of this all or nothing approach, if i have to wait one more year to play certain games, then i might as well go back to windows to never look back
But you said yourself, you can choose to run anticheat or not. It's not an all or nothing approach, you just have to make a sacrifice in order to stand for the thing you believe in whatever that may be. If you believe a AAA game is more important than the issue itself then just use Windows or Dual boot.
Personally I won't encourage modern day anticheat's as they are mostly thinly veiled spyware (not all of them but a lot) .
Each to their own though.
0 Likes
hardpenguin Dec 13, 2021
I think people commenting here today confused GamingOnLinux with some mailing list for free software and privacy zealots...?
While I understand the point of the concerns over intrusive anti-cheat solution, the problem stands. I would rather play one of the most popular video games in the world on Linux thanks to Proton than to use Windows. And so would many other Linux gamers.
Such a pity.
While I understand the point of the concerns over intrusive anti-cheat solution, the problem stands. I would rather play one of the most popular video games in the world on Linux thanks to Proton than to use Windows. And so would many other Linux gamers.
Such a pity.
0 Likes
I think people commenting here today confused GamingOnLinux with some mailing list for free software and privacy zealots...?If you have a point, make it. If you don't, then just call people names I guess.
6 Likes, Who?
Disgusting...
Oh, waydroid works relatively well. And there's interest in it thanks to the linux-on-mobiles effort (pinephone, librem5 etc).
now we have better android emulators on windows than on linux, microsoft is making windows run android games and even google is trying to do the same.
Oh, waydroid works relatively well. And there's interest in it thanks to the linux-on-mobiles effort (pinephone, librem5 etc).
1 Likes, Who?
Disgusting...
now we have better android emulators on windows than on linux, microsoft is making windows run android games and even google is trying to do the same.
Oh, waydroid works relatively well. And there's interest in it thanks to the linux-on-mobiles effort (pinephone, librem5 etc).
define works, i heard the same about some emulator but never was able to find any app that it was capable of runing (not that it would matter to find an app if the ones i need dont work anyway)
0 Likes
But you said yourself, you can choose to run anticheat or not.i can chose IF the option is even there, what im trying to say is that having the option avaliable is better than not having, because if we dont have, not only i have to accept using the anti cheat but i have to accept using windows, and doing so will give control to microsoft that they will use to gain more and more control over their users.
let me try to explain with other words.
Free software also encourages the application of free speech it isn't just about games but communication platforms themselves"you are assuming that people are coming from valuing their freedom first, then geting something good as result later, the issue is, that isnt how most people think.
think about it, if you say to someone;
"you should give up on listen to musics because mp3 is evil, watching videos because mp3 and mp4, dvd etc are evil formats, give up on playing games because most of then only run on proprietary formats, also give up on making your own music, movies, games, chating with friends etc, because you cant do none of that in an free operating system right now, but you might be able to in the future"
do you think that person will love linux and freedom? hell no, they will think free software is shit and can only produce shit.
the reason why i started using and caring about linux was:
i got tons of virus on windows (an problem that dont exist anymore) losing my files countless times and being constantly afraid of losing the ability to use my computer (it helps nothing that my cd burnder didnt worked, pendrives and cloud storage didnt existed back then)
i grew tired of the computer geting slower over time, constalty crashing into BSOD etc.
i skiped xp, vista was too heavy to my brand new computer making it slower than the previous one a few months after the purchase and i didnt had money for another, vista broke backward compatibility with some hardwares like my printer and softwares like the game engine that i used (and probably some of the games made on it) and windows was the only system capable of runing those meaning that if microsoft ditch backward compatibility, we would lose the preservation of those games.
microsoft did some ransomware bullshit with office, among other crap moves...
and while all those bad things were happening on one side, i tried this linux stuff out of curiosity without expecting much and was surprised.
i didnt expected my video card to work but the naive me thought i knew enough code to write an video driver, so i decided to test this "hoby os" only to get surprised on how well things worked.
there were a few issues like instaling "ugly" codecs and stuff, but the system was much faster, stable and didnt had enough marketshare to worry about virus, the first game i tested on wine worked, and i didnt knew that only got luck picking an game that worked on wine on my first try, then i realized all those softwares arround me were open source, even the firefox that i was alredy familiarized with on windows, and starting loving and supporting the cause.
then later on i started learning that not all softwares were really free, like the drivers and firmwares and stuff, but at least i saw the potential.
currently the zeitgeist is "linux sucks" that is what everyone thinks, we need to change that, we need to show to people that linux can do everything windows can (or most of it, everything they care about) then when people see that linux is not just an utopy but an real thing, we can convince then to fight for more freedom.
first we show stuff like blender and what it can do, then we say "It is free software, it was developed in such model" and point to other softwares and say "It can reach the same potential if we support it" not the other way arround.
currently almost no game support linux and we have to wast tons of resources making stuff like wine/proton, resources that could be better spent creating new tech if we had the marketshare to not need wine anymore.
then even with wine/proton, people have to give up a lot of games to use linux, wich make most of then come back to windows.
then we have to convince a ton of people skeptical about this free software development model, that DRM is bad, anti cheat is bad etc, where they dont have anything to compare against, dont know about any better development model than proprietary software, they think: "that is how things are, and cant be anything else"
sigh.
1 Likes, Who?
While I understand the point of the concerns over intrusive anti-cheat solution, the problem stands. I would rather play one of the most popular video games in the world on Linux thanks to Proton than to use Windows.
The point is more that it s a scary shame that most users, even on windows, wouldn't care about kernel-level malware as a requirement to play that game. No matter the OS, that should be a red flag for any sane user...
1 Likes, Who?
Disgusting...
now we have better android emulators on windows than on linux, microsoft is making windows run android games and even google is trying to do the same.
Oh, waydroid works relatively well. And there's interest in it thanks to the linux-on-mobiles effort (pinephone, librem5 etc).
define works, i heard the same about some emulator but never was able to find any app that it was capable of runing (not that it would matter to find an app if the ones i need dont work anyway)
To make sure, I just installed it trough the AUR (I'm already running a zen kernel). Installed F-Droid, checked that supertuxkart worked (I'm getting in-game, but don't have touch), then as I thought you might not be satisfied, I downloaded the Aurora store from F-Droid, then Excel and power point from there. Seems to work fine, although it's a bit fiddly and not well-integrated (I don't have a desktop environment, just sway, so that's not too bad, I guess a DE could integrate better). Microsoft's apps require me to sign in to create a new file so I just downloaded one from there.
It looks like the Android UI assumes it works fullscreen. I can't really blame it. Permission mapping could be better too.
I didn't find an app that doesn't work, but then even on my phone I only use apps from F-Droid. Obviously I expect low-level apps like wifi analyzer, miracast, etc to be mostly broken for now.
!link
0 Likes
Disgusting...
now we have better android emulators on windows than on linux, microsoft is making windows run android games and even google is trying to do the same.
Oh, waydroid works relatively well. And there's interest in it thanks to the linux-on-mobiles effort (pinephone, librem5 etc).
define works, i heard the same about some emulator but never was able to find any app that it was capable of runing (not that it would matter to find an app if the ones i need dont work anyway)
To make sure, I just installed it trough the AUR (I'm already running a zen kernel). Installed F-Droid, checked that supertuxkart worked (I'm getting in-game, but don't have touch), then as I thought you might not be satisfied, I downloaded the Aurora store from F-Droid, then Excel and power point from there. Seems to work fine, although it's a bit fiddly and not well-integrated (I don't have a desktop environment, just sway, so that's not too bad, I guess a DE could integrate better). Microsoft's apps require me to sign in to create a new file so I just downloaded one from there.
It looks like the Android UI assumes it works fullscreen. I can't really blame it. Permission mapping could be better too.
I didn't find an app that doesn't work, but then even on my phone I only use apps from F-Droid. Obviously I expect low-level apps like wifi analyzer, miracast, etc to be mostly broken for now.
!link
maybe those emulators require some processor instructions to work, and i dont have then...
i cant remember the games i was trying to run, can you test pokemon tcg online?
0 Likes
I think people commenting here today confused GamingOnLinux with some mailing list for free software and privacy zealots...?
While I understand the point of the concerns over intrusive anti-cheat solution, the problem stands. I would rather play one of the most popular video games in the world on Linux thanks to Proton than to use Windows. And so would many other Linux gamers.
Such a pity.
It's not that cheating ruining otherwise good games is not an issue. It's that there must be better ways to fight cheating than having intrusive and shady software look into all your memory and send reports back to some remote location.
Have the game run into some trusted, standardized container and have all the worst shit you want and some more run isolated there with the just stuff it has to monitor. At the worst make something intrusive but open source so one at least knows what it actually does.
Just don't make one sided spyware that has access to all your memory and expect people to trust you, your collaborators, your investors, all your providers and the government(s) that rules over all these people to make only your multiplayer interests with everything they get out of your machine.
People who play games with anti cheat should seriously consider to run that stuff on different partitions than where they use their sensible data. Even if it mean to have two Windows partitions.
0 Likes
While I understand the point of the concerns over intrusive anti-cheat solution, the problem stands. I would rather play one of the most popular video games in the world on Linux thanks to Proton than to use Windows. And so would many other Linux gamers.
Wine and Proton are not kernel drivers. But what if you had to run a binary kernel module of unknown origin before you could do that. Would you still be willing?
0 Likes
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me