Best Linux OS for Gaming

Hey guys, its been quite a long time after my last post, I was on a big vacation, now i am finally back. During my Vacation i created a poll in Google+ on which Linux OS people  game and to my surprise i got a great response from the Poll as of today i got a total of 675 votes and almost 70 comments. Since Google+ allows only five options i have to narrow my choices to Ubuntu, Mint , Archlinux , Manjaro and Fedora. Below is the post result

No surprises on ubuntu being widely used for Linux gaming. The Only major surprise i had was with the 2nd position Arch Linux is ahead of Mint, why i am surprised is that seeing the Steam Survey Ubuntu and Mint are the only two OS which is mentioned in the poll. After digging around a lot I found that Arch linux gives much better performance than mint (which i need to test myself to confirm). I am not sure about the 4th and 5th Position as in the Poll lot of people commented why Gentoo was not included and seeing the number of Comments and the +1's for the comment i can say that lot of people are gaming on Gentoo. Few people did mention about opensuse and Slackware. Overall i can say that people have taken Linux Gaming Seriously and there is good increase in the Linux gaming Percentage. As off August 2015 Steam survey 0.92% of people are gaming on Linux. Expecting that percentage will increase in the next few months and hoping there will be big changes when Steam machines are out

Conclusion

When i moved to Linux few months back i had a feeling that gaming in Linux will soon end because of sheer less number of users and publishers out there. But seeing this poll and also the steam survey and last 3 months big games like shadow of mordor, company of heroes 2 and Bioshock infinite making its way to linux shows that the Gaming on linux is here to stay.

Why i Choose Linux over Windows 10

Hey guys, back with another post this time i will be discussing about why i choose Linux over windows 10 (Yep i have been using it past two weeks now and ya its definitely better than windows 8 )

Linux is Free

The biggest thing about linux is it's FREE, you don't have to pay single penny to get a Linux, most of the linux distrubution out there are free of cost and guys before you say windows 10 is free i just have to tell you that Windows 10 upgrade is free not Windows 10 i mean if you want a free upgrade to windows 10 you should have bought Windows 7 or Windows 8.

Linux is Customizable, Super Fast

I have been using Linux Mint for almost 3 months now and i have to admit its really fast, it takes little time to boot up and opening apps, i am not saying windows 10 is slow, its fast too but not as fast as Linux (personal opinion). Moreover, Linux is highly customizable i.e if you hate something on linux and you want that to do or look as you want , you can do it. Linux mint has given me so much customizable options than windows 10, I can change how my login screen looks like, i can choose How my desktop should look like. Windows 10 too offers some of these but not as good as Linux Mint.

Office Suites

Well one area where i was choosing windows over Linux is for the Office Suites, I was under an impression that windows office 2013 is probably the best office suite out there until i started using Opensource Office suites, One of the them is Libreoffice, Well libreoffice is available for both Windows and Linux, but the big thing about Libreoffice is it's FREE. Also, Libreoffice supports most of the microsoft Office formats. It may not look as good as the Microsoft Office Application it sure gets our Work done. I was able to use almost all the functionalities available in Microsoft Office on LibreOffice. And now i have completely started using Libreoffice.

Sound & Video

I don't know how many have done this when they got a windows laptop – DOWNLOAD VLC. Yep the media player which almost play all the video formats. I did when i got my first windows laptop, i just installed VLC since i don't have to download a codecs pack to make some format run on windows media player. Well if you guys are just like me then the thing is VLC is available for Linux too, so why spending some amount to buy a OS to just install a free VLC. You can just do that on a free OS

Well i agree Windows media player is really good for music playback, i use to miss this feature in Linux where you can right click on a song and add to the playlist. I tried a lot of Media player in Linux to get this feature and felt satisfied when I started using Clementine, well you still don't have the option to right click and add it to the playlist but you can just double click on the song to add this to the current playing song. Clementine also has a premium feel the media player has some really good features you can connect to Spotify , Dropbox , Last.fm accounts and start listening.

And for the Windows Media Center Fans, Do Check out Kodi Media Center.


Gaming

This is one area where i can say that Windows is leading over Linux. Windows have great games, all major publishers support Windows and you can get almost all the games you play on console on Windows (Except for Console exculsives). Gaming on Linux is really getting better these days. Games like Shadow of Mordor, Total War, Bioshock Infinite, DOTA 2 have Native Linux Support. I am not a hardcore gamer but i really love playing DOTA 2 whenever i get time, Since it is available on Linux (This was the deciding factor for me) I completely moved to Linux. I usually dual boot windows and Linux for playing DOTA 2, after i started playing DOTA 2 on Linux i really didn't find a reason to boot to Windows again. Moreover, 1 out of 5 games in Steam supports Linux and seeing the future where Games like Batman Arkam Knight and The Witcher 3 are coming to Linux i really don't see a point going back to Windows now. The only Problem I see for Linux Gamers is Display Drivers, as of now Nvidia is the only company which has been able to give a driver where its performance is as similar as the Windows Driver. AMD and Intel are far behind.

And also why Publishers are not supporting Linux ? It's cause of Linux usage, as per the last Steam hardware survey only 0.9 % of people play games on Linux. Which is very small Market share. Hoping this may change in future.

Conclusion

I don't hate windows or i am not a big linux fan either. After using both windows and Linux i had to see which is more benefitting. I can do almost everything on my linux as i can do on my Windows and the big thing is for free of cost. I don't have to spend 50$ on Windows to play a 5$ game instead i can spend a 5$ on the game on a free OS. Windows 10 is definetly good its just i am not quite convinced that its better than Linux.

Well, that's it guys, Peace Out. I will be back with a new post soon till then do let me know your view on this why you choose linux over windows or Vice versa and Finally guys remember this only my Personal Opinion and you guys may have more points than me. Please do share it. 

Linux Gaming : Shadow of Mordor GOTY edition out for Linux

Hey guys, Big news for Linux gamers with Nvidia cards in there System, Shadow of Mordor GOTY edition is out for Linux. As i have mentioned in my first post here, this is one of the biggest AAA title getting a native linux port, I haven't tried myself but seeing some YouTube videos and few articles on Web , Shadow of Mordor seems to be the best looking game on Linux yet. As per Michael Larabel from Phoronix, Shadow of Mordor is Easily one of the most Demanding Linux games out there.

I am not sure if you guys noticed my first line in this blog about the users with Nvidia Card, that's right as per Feral interactive, developers of the linux port of Shadow of Mordor, the game is only supported on Nvidia Cards for now. So people with Intel and AMD cards need to wait for some more time. Well this is not so surprising as the current drivers for Intel and AMD cards lag far behind Nvidia's properiatary drivers. Hoping Mesa 11.0 update in September may allow Users with AMD and Intel GPU to run the game. For people who are not aware of Mesa 11.0,  Mesa 11.0 Open Source Drivers will support OpenGL 4.1 on Intel and AMD Gpu's, this update is stated to be released this September. As of now the Stable version Mesa 10.6 supports only OpenGL 3.3 core on both Intel and AMD GPU. So for now, guys with nvidia cards please do let me know how the game is working on your linux system.


Below are the System Requirement

Well guys, just on the Hard drive space, above requirement shows 47 MB, i think this is bug/mistake in Steam. You need 47 GB of free hard disk space to install the standalone game. if you are buying with both the DLC you will need a total of 67 GB (Thats a really big game), however the game rocks. This game was released on windows almost an year back with Critical acclaim from both critics and gamers.

So, if you guys want to find out how the game looks on Linux, Check out the below gameplay video

That's it guys, Peace out. I will be back with new posts soon. Till then keep rocking Linux

Currently playing on my Linux : Victor Vran

Hey guys, This is the new game i have been playing on my linux machine from the past few hours and i have to say this game is really cool. This is my first Action Role playing game (ARPG) i have played , i haven't played the diablo series or the torchlight series, i bet i will give a try after this game.

As far as the story till now, You start off as Victor Vran a hunter Searching for your friend Adrian a hunter who gets lost during a mission. Sounds simple but not sure how things will turn up, The Game has lot of weapons where each weapon has a Special Attack of its own, You also have a Demonic powers to call out a meteor's from the sky during a fight (This is the first power you start off i bet you can customize these too ).

Check out the trailer below

The Game also has an option for controller as an input, seeing few reviews in Steam i saw that game works far better with a controller than a mouse and Keyboard. This got me excited and i plugged in my PS4 controller and to my dismay it didn't work and i found out now that it only supports xbox controller.

The Music and voice Acting are EXCELLENT, I am loving the music of this game. The Lead voice Actor sounded very familiar and after googling around i found that it is Doug Cockle, the same guy who voiced Geralt in the Witcher series.

The Game looks good, user has an option to tweak lot of settings. Surprised/disappointed to see the it only supports FXAA in antialiasing. On my system, I was able to Max out all the option except i have to turn off Vsync with that i am getting a constant 30 fps. I have also updated my Game benchmark post here

Below are the minimum Settings published in Steam, There is no big change in Recommended requirement other than Processor where recommended is 2.5 GHZ Quad core CPU.

Minimum System Requirment -

OS : Ubuntu 12.04

Processor : 2 GHZ Dual Core CPU

Memory : 4 GB

Graphics : OpenGL 4.1 (Geforce 600 or higher, AMD Radeon 5000 or higher, Intel HD 4000 or higher)

You can check out the AngryCentaurGaming Review for Victor Vran below

Well guys if you are interested in picking up this game, it only costs 20$. As of now Steam is giving 10% off .

That's it guys, Peace out. I will back with more posts soon

Linux : OpenGL 4.0 Support coming for Intel Haswell this September

It looks like finally the Intel Open Source drivers are getting a major update this September. Mesa development team has finished  development for OpenGL 4.0 support for Intel Mesa DRI Driver. This is a huge update for people who are running linux with Intel Graphics and want to play games which support OpenGL 4.0.

Windows support OpenGL 4.3 for Intel Haswell chips, Though slow in Linux this is definitely a huge update for Mesa.

Currently, The OpenGL version on my Asus G551jk is as below. Will post similar screenshot post the update.

I will also Post benchmarks with the new Update. So keep checking this page for updates. Thats it guys , Peace out. 

Game Banchmarks - Updated 27th July

Hey guys, finally back with another post. This page is dedicated to Game benchmark score which i have done on my Linux system. I will be updating this page as and on when i play a new game on my machine. So keep checking this page.

System Details

System	Asus ROG N55jk
Operating System	Manjaro 15.12 Capella
Processor	Intel core i7 4710HQ CPU @ 2.50GHz X 4
Graphics Card	Nvidia 850m GTX
RAM	8 GB
Hard disk	1 GB SATA

Benchmarks :

Game	Max. FPS	Avg. FPS	Min. FPS	Nvidia Driver Version	Kernel	Resolution	Settings
Dota 2	60	42	33	352.21	3.16	1920 X 1080	ULTRA
Bioshock Infinite	40	30	20	352.21	3.16	1920 X 1080	ULTRA
Victor Vran	48	30	19	352.21	3.16	1920 X 1080	ULTRA
Outland	60	60	60	361.42	4.50	1920 X 1080	ULTRA

In case if you want me to test any particular game on linux do let me know on the comment section, I will see what i can do. That's it guys. Peace out !!! and I will be back to this page with few more benchmarks.

Rise of Linux Gaming

Two Words on linux gaming “It Work's” and most of the time Amazingly. I have started using linux for almost 9 months now and i have to admit it Gaming on Linux is far more better than what it use to be two years back and to be honest it is getting really really better. 

The Biggest Credit for this huge development goes to Valve who have been supporting and making gaming on linux a reality. I am not talking about 2D or arcade games i am talking about AAA games which have made its way to Linux. Games like Civilization V, The witcher 2,Portal 2, Half Life 2, Counter strike, Borderlands 2, Tales of Borderland and my personal favorite DOTA 2 can be played on Linux flawlessly. All the games i have mentioned are native linux ports, you don't need wine to run the above games you just need to install and start playing. And Whatelse, Games like Batman Arkham Knight, Middle Earth : Shadow of mordor and The Witcher 3 have been confirmed for linux.

The second best thing about linux is you can run your windows game using Wine. I haven't tested many games with Wine, as of now i am playing prince of persia warrior within on my Linux mint using wine and it works great. The big news is that PlayonLinux is going to bring DirectX 11 support to Linux which is a great news for all those hardcore gamers out there.

And the third best thing about linux are the drivers. Nvidia and AMD drivers have gotten a lot better. Now a days there are frequest updates from both Nvidia and AMD. The updates have increased rapidly after the launch of Steam Client for Linux. Steam OS is pushing out driver updates for AMD/Nvidia and Intel.

I don't think if linux can overtake windows in next 5 years or 10 years but i am pretty much sure that lot of users will definitely start trying out linux. Linux is no more a command prompt OS, as per me linux is more user friendly than windows and if you are a programmer you can customize linux to your own taste and also release your own linux flavor. Below is just a snapshot of my Desktop (Still working on customizing)

Well, if you people are wondering what my linux system configuration see below.

Asus RoG G551JK

Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca 64-bit

Intel 4th Generation i7 Quad core processor

Nvidia GTX 850m

8GB Ram

1TB 7200 Harddisk

Finally Guys don't forget, Linux is free.

Checkout videos on Linux Gaming below. Hoping, this will make people atleast try out linux.

Dota 2 Reborn BETA

Left for Dead Windows Vs Ubuntu