Proton

Borderlands 3 And Linux… Will It Blend?

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I was feeling a little brave and tried to run Borderlands 3 under Linux just to see if I could get any sparks to fly, and to my surprise it actually ran… sorta.

I made a fresh character just to see how a first time run through of the intro would perform, and the answer is that… it didn’t. Any video that tried to run in game, pre-rendered cutscenes and Lillith sightings, didn’t display correctly.

I broke the game once I got to the part where you had to watch a bandit on a monitor, the game broke and wouldn’t let me progress beyond that point. I tried restarting the game later on to see if the problem fixed itself and it actually got worse, the game no longer wanted to launch. I’m thinking of experimenting with different Proton versions, and maybe switching to a different API.

I did livestream it a bit tonight with Yutram (under Windoze), but for some strange reason it wasn’t outputting any audio apart from my mic, and no one told me… I was getting audio through OBS, so I figured it was streaming properly. Oops. Fortunately I had no plans of keeping this stream locally, already have enough film to sort through. That said; I’ll be returning to animation duty tomorrow for the video. I got the editing done on the video, now I can begin on working on a proper ending and a tiny something for the start of the video. I can’t wait to release this!

My BloodRayne Of Terror Begins

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To kick off the weekend I decided to try a new/old game. I played a tiny bit of the original BloodRayne a long time ago, and ended up shelving it due to control issues, like proper controller support. I recently discovered that I had the Remastered version given to me for free since I own the original copy! It has controller support! But I couldn’t get it to perform to my liking on the Steam Controller, and I opted to use a keyboard and mouse only to remember there were a lot of buttons I was probably not going to remember. I opted to make my own Steam Controller Config based on the game’s keyboard and mouse settings, that way I have the convenience of a controller with the precision of a keyboard and mouse. It isn’t too surprising that it runs perfectly under Proton, being this is an older game despite it being a remaster. I just hope I’ll actually be able to finish it; I’ve had a couple friends tell me they couldn’t progress a long time ago due to a certain game mechanic.

Hopefully I don’t run into that problem in this version.

 

Sunday Open Thread: Doing Something While Doing Nothing

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I’ve been feeling pretty under weather in and out throughout the day. I woke up feeling fine, had breakfast, and started doing the dishes when I started feeling queasy. I’ve been taking some stuff for it, but I’ve pretty much been relaxing a little more than what I wanted to… oh well. I sometimes think that’s my body’s way of telling me to sit the fuck down and relax for a minute.

I pretty much kicked back and played under Linux up until the evening to crack open Windoze to play Serious Sam 4, where surprisingly Yutram and I had a good time! I tried to get it to work under Linux, and for the most part it does!… but the textures flash in and out like crazy. I’ll have to double check to make sure but I’m pretty sure I’m running the latest Open Source drivers. I also played a little Quantum Break under Linux, and while that does work the game will crash when it tries to play a live action video, and since minor interactions can change how these scenes play it I’m going to have to exclusively play this under Windows unfortunately. Tried to get a couple Sonic games to work; All Stars Racing Transformed runs but I can’t configure the graphics, and Generations runs, but sound is completely broken and controller input is non existent. I did play a bit of Trine, as that does have a native client, only to find that the Linux version only goes up to 1080p while the Windows launcher allows me to use 1440p and also detects my proper refresh rate, whereas the Linux build does not. I’m thinking next time I fiddle with it I’ll see about configuring the text file for the Linux client to see if that makes any difference. I’d rather not run it under Proton unless I absolutely feel the need to.

I’ll see about being a little more productive tomorrow.:P

Playing Spyro To Keep Warm

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I had a nice quiet evening to myself, a bit of a cold bite in the air, and managed to have a little fun with some Proton Powered Spyro to help heat up the room. Now if I could just figure out how to get a mod manager to work properly under Proton or Wine it would be perfect. I even managed to get a couple achievements/trophies at the same time! One funny thing that did happen was finding a sleeping sky bat; usually they hang from the ceiling in the ice cave.

Some Penguin Approved Gaming And Chill

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I kicked back today with a good breakfast, a little photo work, and lots of Linux gaming. Took a bit of a break from using Proton to play some native Linux TF2 and Dusk. Apparently in Discord it reads that I’m playing hl2_linux instead of TF2, that made me chuckle a bit. The last time I played TF2 under Linux it kept giving me stack errors, nice to see they’ve fixed it.

I prepped my laptop on the Linux side for some fun lunch time shenanigans tomorrow. Since DMC5 runs so well on my Manjaro desktop setup with pure AMD hardware I want to see how well it runs on my laptop with Intel/NVidia. I did a quick test launch and it automatically detected the best settings, always a good sign! It even sees the proper refresh rate (144hz). Should make for a fun, scientific lunch break. I also installed a few Portal 2 mods in case I wanted to do somewhat actual not actual science.

Weekend Of Linux Stuffs

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My attempts to try and run this game into the ground have been futile. Other than issues with FOV during cutscenes Devil May Cry 5 continues to run, and at decent framerates despite the eyecandy being cranked to max. My attempts to mod this game on the other hand have proven to be a bit of an issue… I can install and run Vortex, but it only renders as a black window. I can also run Fluffy Manager 5000 but for some reason it doesn’t see the mod folder. Modding will take further science, but aside from that I’m still impressed with how well Devil May Cry 5 performs.

I’m also happy to report that I finally finished the 4th and final part of the Skyrim saga! I’m going to work on the video thumbnails tomorrow, and from there work out release dates, and of course start project prep for the Broforce vids.

I think I have everything pieced together the way I like. I’m running xfce with two tool bars. The one on the bottom is my Linux studio tools. I even installed Photoshop for shits and giggles, and the once in a blue moon chance I decide to use it. It kinda feels mac-ish sitting there on the desktop like that, only cooler looking because I’m outside of their walled garden. 😛

Now… I wonder what would be good for a future Linux livestream. 😛

Add Devil May Cry 5 To The List Of Recommended Playable Linux/Proton Games

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Well… I might not be able to get the first three DMC games to run under Proton, but their latest game DMC5 runs almost perfectly. I’ve only played three levels, but so far it has been just as stable as it is under Windows. The only problem that I’ve found is that it has issues rendering FOV and background/foreground blur during cutscenes.

Graphical glitches aside; DMC5 has been just as impressive performance wise as the RE2 remake. Next time I play I’ll see how it handles recording and mods, though something tells me the latter will be identical in process to Windows.

Okami Plays Nicely With Proton… Kinda

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When Proton was brand new I remember Okami being among one of the first titles I tried to run, but never to any success. I’m happy to say that has changed, at least with Proton 5.0 hard at work. The only problem I’ve found with it is a random crash that can occur at anytime during any particular cutscene, and given that you have to manually save at certain locations this can be a little annoying if you’ve covered a lot of ground and barely made it to a save point before crashing. Still, it’s much further along than it was when Proton was in its infancy.

Now that I know how well it performs on my desktop I’ll have to install it on the laptop to see how Proton handles the game on an NVidia GPU… because science!

Resident Evil 2 Plays Peachy Under Linux

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I played RE2 a little bit under Linux last night, and surprisingly it runs almost as if it was natively released for the platform. I turned up everything I could, making sure to utilize as much of the GPU as possible, and it didn’t crash once. I always like seeing newer titles with few flaws working under Proton/Linux.

I’ve been experimenting with OBS recordings, as it appears that unlike the Windows version of OBS I’m able to record games that use the Vulkan API. I tested it earlier with DOOM, and while it did record it did also overload the encoder. I didn’t have time to test Resident Evil 2 and other games running through Vulkan, but now that I have a fully loaded OBS to record with under Linux I’ll have to do some more science.

You Got Halo In My Linux?

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It has been amazing watching what would be considered Console Exclusives finally giving PC Gamers long awaited access to titles that should have been sold across the board from the start.

I caught one of my British friends (MaddogSuperior) streaming the newly released PC version of the Halo Masterchief Collection these last couple of days, and I’ll usually leave Twitch on a 2nd monitor while I’m working on videos and stuff. The gameplay looked fun, but from what I also heard the input lag is quite terrible when driving vehicles. I’ll probably pick it up sometime down the road, right now it isn’t a big priority to me and I’d rather they work out any growing pains before I give Microsoft any money. Though I have to say I am surprised to see that at least the Single Player Campaign works nicely under Proton, which gets more and more awesome everyday it seems. It also seems that at least in Single Player you can mod the game to your heart’s content… moddable games are always a bonus for me.