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Very few native Linux games available
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Arnaudk Apr 1, 2022
Hi !

I used to be a Linux gamer in the early 2000, at the time when companies like Loki, LGP and Tribsoft released games on Linux, and when Desura was so promising. Due to personal and professional reasons, I went away from Linux gaming for years, even if I have Steam installed on my Linux machine.

As I have now more spare time, I wanted to take a look on the games available on Steam and I am rather disappointed:
- I wanted to play the original Quake (released in 1996). I noticed this is only available on Windows while it was possible to play it on Linux decades ago. We can still use Steam Play or do some tricks with opensource clients like vkQuake but we have to buy the Windows game before
- Almost all the RuneSoft games once available on Linux through Desura are only available on Windows / MacOS on Steam. We can still use Steam Play but what a shame, this is like a rollback !
- Very few major games are available on Steam for Linux. There are plenty of minor games, especially for very young people, but not for gamers

I thought Linux was mature enough to have many good games available on it, but this is not the case...
damarrin Apr 1, 2022
Yeah, no one cares about native any more.

Just buy the versions that's there and use Proton. If you buy and play on Linux, it counts as a Linux sale in Valve's stats and is reported as such to the dev/publisher of the game.
LeBarjack Apr 1, 2022
Hi,

I think the old games ported by now defunct companies like Loki or Tribsoft had their IP disappeared along the company, so you won't find them on Steam. But you can try on GoG as they republished a lot of old franchise

There's quite a lot of native linux games on steam (but sometimes, they may not be advertised as such. It's rather rare though). Almost all the Paradox catalog is available, for example. I played a lot to Battletech, Valheim and 7 days to die, recently.

I usually play only native games, but it may happen thzt I play with proton, especially for games I bought in bundles. All the programs derived from the wine compatibility layer, like proton, work well enough for a lot of games.
You can check on protondb how well a game works on linux.

https://www.gog.com/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/892970/Valheim/
https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/our-games/discover
https://www.protondb.com/
Liam Dawe Apr 1, 2022
If your only interest is Native stuff, I suggest you follow: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/category/Native_Linux/
Arnaudk Apr 1, 2022
Hi !

Thank for all the information. I will try Proton, I never thought it existed. Will try Proton on the old Quake game.
Arnaudk Apr 1, 2022
So I tried with Proton. Even with a games seen as "compatible" :
https://www.protondb.com/app/1173370

The games install but don't start at all. A pity !

Maybe this is because I use Steam (latest version) on OpenSUSE (not officially supported)
whizse Apr 1, 2022
My math might be off, but about 15% of the Steam catalog have native Linux ports. Considering that we make up about 1% of the demographic that isn't too bad.
Samsai Apr 1, 2022
I tend to be very dogmatic about only sticking to native games and I cannot say that I've ever felt like I had no games to play. There's more than plenty of great gems in the indie space with native versions available. With stuff like Quake, throwing something like Luxtorpeda at it to easily run a native FOSS client is arguably even better than having a proprietary native version available, since that means the game can live basically forever.
Arnaudk Apr 1, 2022
I don't know if this is a known issue but anytime I try to run a game with Proton, I get this log file:
 
ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored.
ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64): ignored.
ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored.
ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored.
ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored.
pid 21971 != 21964, skipping destruction (fork without exec?)
GameAction [AppID 1241500, ActionID 4] : LaunchApp changed task to WaitingGameWindow with ""
GameAction [AppID 1241500, ActionID 4] : LaunchApp changed task to Completed with ""

Nothing works
Arnaudk Apr 1, 2022
For another game using Proton:

 
GameAction [AppID 521320, ActionID 8] : LaunchApp changed task to ProcessingInstallScript with ""
GameAction [AppID 521320, ActionID 8] : LaunchApp changed task to SiteLicenseSeatCheckout with ""
GameAction [AppID 521320, ActionID 8] : LaunchApp changed task to CreatingProcess with ""
GameAction [AppID 521320, ActionID 8] : LaunchApp waiting for user response to CreatingProcess ""
GameAction [AppID 521320, ActionID 8] : LaunchApp continues with user response "CreatingProcess"
/bin/sh\0-c\0/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/reaper SteamLaunch AppId=521320 -- '/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/SteamLinuxRuntime_soldier'/_v2-entry-point --verb=waitforexitandrun -- '/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental'/proton waitforexitandrun  '/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Final Warrior Quest/Game.exe'\0
Game process added : AppID 521320 "/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/reaper SteamLaunch AppId=521320 -- '/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/SteamLinuxRuntime_soldier'/_v2-entry-point --verb=waitforexitandrun -- '/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental'/proton waitforexitandrun  '/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Final Warrior Quest/Game.exe'", ProcID 32069, IP 0.0.0.0:0
chdir /home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Final Warrior Quest
ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored.
ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64): ignored.
ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored.
ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored.
ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored.
pid 32076 != 32073, skipping destruction (fork without exec?)
GameAction [AppID 521320, ActionID 8] : LaunchApp changed task to WaitingGameWindow with ""
GameAction [AppID 521320, ActionID 8] : LaunchApp changed task to Completed with ""
*** stack smashing detected ***: terminated
Game process removed: AppID 521320 "/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/reaper SteamLaunch AppId=521320 -- '/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/SteamLinuxRuntime_soldier'/_v2-entry-point --verb=waitforexitandrun -- '/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton - Experimental'/proton waitforexitandrun  '/home/arnaud/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Final Warrior Quest/Game.exe'", ProcID 32069 
ThreadGetProcessExitCode: no such process 32231
ThreadGetProcessExitCode: no such process 32227
ThreadGetProcessExitCode: no such process 32226
ThreadGetProcessExitCode: no such process 32074
ThreadGetProcessExitCode: no such process 32073
Uploaded AppInterfaceStats to Steam

Very disappointing
Arnaudk Apr 1, 2022
It seems the main issue comes from the latest versions of Proton. Some games works with v5.x
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