Games on linux

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Gas_Mask_

Games on linux

Post by Gas_Mask_ »

Hi all! I have a question involving some of the main desktop envrionments, and games.

So from my experince I'v noticed that games work better in some DEs than others, and some will work fine in a few, but lagg more in one.

So from what I have experinced here is the rank of desktop envrioments, with the fastest, and smothest at the top, and the slowest, and laggyest at the bottom: LXDE, XFCE, KDE, MATE, Cinnamon, and Unity. (Yes I know this is a small list, but it is a list of the ones I have tryed.) (Scale graded in FPS)

Now my question is, is this just how thinigs are, and if not, what can I do to make Cinnamon less laggy/faster? (FPS wise) And I would like to know why some DEs work better/are faster than others.

PS I have used multiple games in my trials, but minecraft is the main one I am concerned about, so if you have experince with java please offer your support in that area.

Any help is greatly apreciated!
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
monkeyboy

Re: Games on linux

Post by monkeyboy »

Look at the resources being used and which services you can shut down to free up resources. I use htop to get a look at what is being used, which is available in the Mint repositories. As to something specific to Cinnamon, sorry I don't use it so I can't be that much help but now you at least have a place to start as you wait for a better answer. Good Luck
Last edited by monkeyboy on Mon Oct 20, 2014 7:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
Gas_Mask_

Re: Games on linux

Post by Gas_Mask_ »

Well I'v tryed killing anything not relavent, and making the game the top priority, but still some DEs work better than others. If I log on with LXDE for one session, (instead of my defauly Cinnamon) it works better than Cinnamon, and I want to know why. Why do some DEs get better FPS than others? Is it the window managers?
Gas_Mask_

Re: Games on linux

Post by Gas_Mask_ »

Is there anybody that can tell me why some DEs are faster in games, and such?
Gas_Mask_

Re: Games on linux

Post by Gas_Mask_ »

*BUMBP* If anyone could give any advice, that would be great! :D
Pointedstick

Re: Games on linux

Post by Pointedstick »

Having done this dance many times, let me honestly recommend that if you want to play games, just install a bare-bones Windows partition or get a console or something. The selection of Linux games is pretty awful and using WINE for everything gets old fast trying to troubleshoot configuration and compatibility issues.

The reason why the DEs on the top of your list are are faster for games is because they're more bare-bones. They don't do as much, especially fancy visual things that use the GPU. It's pretty apparent that games are not a major concern for the writers of the whizzy awesome DEs. C'est la vie.
Ph0z3

Re: Games on linux

Post by Ph0z3 »

few things here:

1. try adjusting your BIOS settings?
2. are your video drivers current and installed correctly?
3. is your machines internal parts staying cool / clean / ventilated ?

also... i would suggest installing a few packages from SPM:

1. libcegui-mk2-0.7.6
2. libcuda-331 (or whatever your current driver is) [331 is current]
3. libcufft5.5
4. libcusparse5.5

That should help a TON... if you have a decent card (with cuda cores)
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Pierre
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Re: Games on linux

Post by Pierre »

"Having done this dance many times, let me honestly recommend that if you want to play games,
just install a bare-bones Windows partition or get a console or something."

so they even hack the windows O/S - in order to remove the maximum No of running services,
- just to speed the thing up, some what. :(

in Linux - just use a lighter DE :)
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doctorx

Re: Games on linux

Post by doctorx »

Gas_Mask_ wrote:Hi all! I have a question involving some of the main desktop envrionments, and games.

So from my experince I'v noticed that games work better in some DEs than others, and some will work fine in a few, but lagg more in one.

So from what I have experinced here is the rank of desktop envrioments, with the fastest, and smothest at the top, and the slowest, and laggyest at the bottom: LXDE, XFCE, KDE, MATE, Cinnamon, and Unity. (Yes I know this is a small list, but it is a list of the ones I have tryed.) (Scale graded in FPS)

Now my question is, is this just how thinigs are, and if not, what can I do to make Cinnamon less laggy/faster? (FPS wise) And I would like to know why some DEs work better/are faster than others.

PS I have used multiple games in my trials, but minecraft is the main one I am concerned about, so if you have experince with java please offer your support in that area.

Any help is greatly apreciated!
coming at this very late... but i game in linux. Some DE are purposed for different things. Cinnamon 1.7 tends to be heavy, however I am hearing good things about 1.8. The problem for a lot of them is video tearing. Personally, i use (for now), mate using kwin as composter and can play games very fast. I have a nvidia card so that may make a difference, but using this combo, I can play Diablo3 very smooth. Unfortunately i dont play minecraft, but should not be a problem with native java. You do not need windows to play most games. I have 76% of my steam library (out of 530+ games) running either in crossover or native. I have java 8 installed and it launches minecraft with no issues.
Gas_Mask_

Re: Games on linux

Post by Gas_Mask_ »

Pointedstick wrote:Having done this dance many times, let me honestly recommend that if you want to play games, just install a bare-bones Windows partition or get a console or something. The selection of Linux games is pretty awful and using WINE for everything gets old fast trying to troubleshoot configuration and compatibility issues.

The reason why the DEs on the top of your list are are faster for games is because they're more bare-bones. They don't do as much, especially fancy visual things that use the GPU. It's pretty apparent that games are not a major concern for the writers of the whizzy awesome DEs. C'est la vie.
Well i have windows on my desktop, but i wanted to keep my laptop linux only. Anyways, I was just looking for tips to make cinnamon play games better. I like cinnamon the best, and I didnt want to swich to lxde or xfce every time I wanted to play a game.
Ph0z3 wrote:few things here:

1. try adjusting your BIOS settings?
2. are your video drivers current and installed correctly?
3. is your machines internal parts staying cool / clean / ventilated ?

also... i would suggest installing a few packages from SPM:

1. libcegui-mk2-0.7.6
2. libcuda-331 (or whatever your current driver is) [331 is current]
3. libcufft5.5
4. libcusparse5.5

That should help a TON... if you have a decent card (with cuda cores)
1: I've alredy tryed that.
2:Yes.
3:Yes.

Also 3/4 of the packages installed. apt couldent find the second one in ur list: libcuda-331
Gas_Mask_

Re: Games on linux

Post by Gas_Mask_ »

Hey so I tryed MC after I installed those packages, and I got close to 10 more fps. Although, I would like to know about that missing package.
Gas_Mask_

Re: Games on linux

Post by Gas_Mask_ »

Hey so I wanted to know what these do and if I shoud have them on or off: Sync to VBlank, Allow Flipping, and Use Conformant Texture Clamping. PS I know that there is a gaming section, so I was wondering if you can like copy a thread into another section?
Ph0z3

Re: Games on linux

Post by Ph0z3 »

Gas_Mask_ wrote:Hey so I wanted to know what these do and if I shoud have them on or off: Sync to VBlank, Allow Flipping, and Use Conformant Texture Clamping. PS I know that there is a gaming section, so I was wondering if you can like copy a thread into another section?
1. VSync = will not surpass your screens refresh rate. (normally around 60-fps)
1a. can hinder performance
1b. will make the game "smoother"
1c. not suggested if you have a high-end / decent gaming-GPU, or strong proc/mem
1d. not suggested if you have SLI

2. Flipping = if you get screen flicker, turn it off.. or on... (adjust accordingly) [everyone's hardware is different]

3. Texture Clamping = cleans up edges/borders in older games (duke nukem, open arena, etc...)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gas_Mask_ wrote:Hey so I tryed MC after I installed those packages, and I got close to 10 more fps. Although, I would like to know about that missing package.
the libcuda-331 package is only if you are running a CUDA enabled video card... what driver version are you currently running?
Gas_Mask_

Re: Games on linux

Post by Gas_Mask_ »

331.113
Gas_Mask_

Re: Games on linux

Post by Gas_Mask_ »

Also, I'm going to be reinstalling soon, cuase my hdd is going bad.
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Re: Games on linux

Post by coffee412 »

Gas_Mask_ wrote:Is there anybody that can tell me why some DEs are faster in games, and such?
I would think that your video card and amount of memory ect.. would make a difference. LXDE is very light on resources so things will run better when using older hardware and such. I run a nvidia GTX-650 video card so I dont get any lag really in Mate.

My thoughts anyways,

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MtnDewManiac
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Re: Games on linux

Post by MtnDewManiac »

This thread is a bit old, but I found it whilst trying to view/close some tabs in Firefox (only 453 to go, lol) and noticed that it hadn't been marked [SOLVED], so...
Gas_Mask_ wrote:If I log on with LXDE for one session, (instead of my defauly Cinnamon) it works better than Cinnamon, and I want to know why. Why do some DEs get better FPS than others?
That's like asking why you can carry more stuff around in an empty pickup truck than in one that happens to already have two and a half tons of cinder blocks in its bed :roll: . Cinnamon requires hardware-accelerated graphics - just to run the DE, lol. There's heavy, then there's "oh, my back!" heavy... And then there's Cinnamon :lol: .
Gas_Mask_ wrote:Is it the window managers?
Could be, IDK. Xfce uses XFWM as its (lightweight) WM. Some other DEs use Compiz. I believe I read that, with Mint 17.1, Clem decided to saddle the Xfce version with Compiz in addition to XFWM - so you might ask some who have installed that version of our distro who are good at benchmarking whether or not it is a boat-anchor. IDK, to be honest.

Regards,
MDM
Mint 18 Xfce 4.12.

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