[HN Gopher] Roblox on Linux with recent Wine 6.11
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Roblox on Linux with recent Wine 6.11
Author : homarp
Score : 158 points
Date : 2021-06-27 13:00 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (roblox.fandom.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (roblox.fandom.com)
| shmerl wrote:
| Roblox developers weren't helpful at all.
| abledon wrote:
| So for the most part, has roblox replaced most 'physical'
| building activities kids used to do in the 80s/90s/00s ? E.g.
| Lego/ going outside, building forts etc?
| MattRix wrote:
| That's mostly Minecraft, not Roblox. Lego is still super
| popular... and yes kids still do go outside and build forts.
|
| Also if you've never played Minecraft, it is amazing,
| especially as a social experience, and it is very much not just
| for kids.
| McGlockenshire wrote:
| Roblox is both a creation/building tool and a minigame
| building/playing tool.
|
| Both of my kids love playing minigames with their friends, but
| don't build anything. Minecraft scratches their building itch
| for the most part.
| Black101 wrote:
| I think that was the only program that prevented me from
| installing Linux on the kid PC
| Animats wrote:
| _" Wine 6.11 or a more recent version. As of June 19, 2021, this
| requires using a development release."_
|
| That's an annoying problem with Wine. I submitted a bug report on
| the released version, and it was rejected because it wasn't on
| the latest development version. It's hard to install Wine in a
| local directory, so installing a version that didn't come with
| the Linux distro is iffy. (Someone is going to tell me it's
| really easy, just type all these command line commands. That's
| not what the instructions [1] say.)
|
| [1] https://wiki.winehq.org/Wine_Installation_and_Configuration
| jchw wrote:
| To be completely fair, it really _isn 't_ that bad, at least
| not compared to other software. In my experience the only
| notably annoying part is getting all of the dependencies that
| you want. After that, it's basically an affair of ./configure
| && make.
|
| If you are using Ubuntu, Debian or Fedora, you can probably use
| WineHQ's repo with the winehq-devel package. You can also find
| the dev dependencies listed on the Fedora page. On Arch, AUR
| has the wine-git package that should work. On NixOS or other
| distros/OSes where you have the Nix package manager installed,
| you can get an environment with all of the dependencies setup
| for you, although in _that_ case, I will at least note that you
| don 't get a multiarch build.
|
| The situation could be better, but given the heroic amount of
| ridiculous stuff going on in Wine, it's not too bad either.
| (Not sure how many pure C programs I've seen exposing MSVC C++
| ABI interfaces, but Wine is one.)
| simion314 wrote:
| Try Play On Linux, or similar tools. It has the ability to
| download wine versions, it has 6.11 and 6.11 staging but not
| the GE or other special patched ones.
| duxup wrote:
| My son plays Roblox a great deal. It's fascinating the variety of
| games on there. He'll play a tank game that is pretty much a
| semi-clone of World of Tanks Blitz, but then the next day he's
| playing a sort of bug RPG / simulator.
|
| The variety is something that I don't see in the traditional game
| industry where a bug rpg / simulator probably wouldn't be a thing
| (anymore... sim ant..) but it somehow is in the Robox ecosystem.
| ddtaylor wrote:
| Someone needs to update https://lutris.net/games/roblox/
| undfg wrote:
| As you can see in this article, and as it is said in hn all the
| time, running games on Linux is really easy.
| judge2020 wrote:
| Usually it's not for multiplayer games. I'm surprised Roblox's
| anti-cheat is fine running on Wine since Roblox has been
| dealing with cheaters (injecting LUA scripts into the
| client/server, known as level 4/7 exploits) for over a decade.
| undfg wrote:
| Absolutely none of the problems mentioned in this article
| have anything to do with Roblox being an online game.
| judge2020 wrote:
| Let's just say this would have been (and is) a problem for
| competitive games like Fortnite, Valorant and Apex Legends
| - at least until Epic releases the Linux Easy Anti Cheat to
| third party developers https://www.easy.ac/en-
| us/support/game/guides/os/
| ThatPlayer wrote:
| Linux Easy Anti Cheat already exists. Games like Rust and
| 7 Days to Die do this fine on Linux.
|
| The issue is those developers aren't releasing a Linux
| native version of the game that can use the native anti-
| cheat. And getting a Windows version of anti-cheat
| working through Wine is harder. Games like Valorant and
| Apex will never release a Linux native version
| donkarma wrote:
| They mostly solved cheating with good netcode design ala
| Source Engine
| villasv wrote:
| So easy that it is newsworthy.
| beebeepka wrote:
| Yeah, it's fine for the most part. Of course there are some
| problems with junk such as recent EA games requiring their
| completely broken launcher. I just asked for a refund after
| trying to play Crysis 3.
|
| Games with crazy rootkit anti cheat spyware also don't work.
| Such as PUBG. Not a big loss, really. StarCraft works, Doom
| works, Quake, works. Even Cyberpunk works fine with AMD and
| Nvidia cards.
|
| I am not going back to Windows. Gaming hasn't been an issue for
| a while. Huge thanks to everyone Took us almost 20 years.
| Could've been sooner if Linus cared about gaming.
| x4e wrote:
| > Could've been sooner if Linus cared about gaming.
|
| This surprises me, so you have any more details about Linus'
| impact? I've always thought the main barriers were NVIDIA
| and, lately, Battleye.
| beebeepka wrote:
| I don't think he ever blocked anything of substance that
| could have helped. What I meant is that he just don't care
| and never did. As far as I know, of course
| undfg wrote:
| There should be a stable kernel interface for drivers. The
| developers of Linux have always been against the idea.
| worldmerge wrote:
| It's kinda funny that people can't read the sarcasm in this.
|
| (I hope it's sarcasm).
| indigodaddy wrote:
| I believe they did read the sarcasm, and that's why they
| downvoted probably..
| morsch wrote:
| You can run external games using Steam's Proton[1]. It's not
| mentioned in the article so I guess it's not any help?
|
| [1] https://boilingsteam.com/valve-breaks-the-shackles-of-
| proton... or you could in 2019, anyway
| Johnyma22 wrote:
| and surprisingly this approach works incredibly well from my
| personal experience.
| tvb12 wrote:
| I've been manually setting up wine prefixes for my games, and
| until last week I had not run into any issues. For some
| reason, Ori and the Blind Forest DE could not see input from
| my controller. When running the game through steam,
| everything works.
|
| It's an excellent last resort, even if you're more
| comfortable using Wine directly.
| aspaceman wrote:
| Proton is implemented via Wine - it's like a collection of
| software and automatic configuration. You use Wine to implement
| Windows syscalls. Wine also has DXVK to convert the DirectX
| calls to Vulkan ones. So it's all the same stuff really.
|
| https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/
|
| wine @ eef39a6 vkd3d-proton @ 72d9b32
|
| Cobbling together existing tools is really powerful in games
| and graphics :)
| [deleted]
| spicybright wrote:
| So powerful. I feel when many try doing this a lot reach for
| custom code instead of leaning established technology.
|
| Building on wine just for games is an excellent thing too.
|
| I just bought crossover for mac the other day (commercial
| wine tuned for games) and have been pleasantly surprised how
| well games run under it, esp. compares to my dual booted
| windows for some reason.
|
| 19 inch 2029 macbook pro
| ThatPlayer wrote:
| Proton still has a lot of Steam integrations that make it a
| pain to use outside Steam. For example, Lutris no longer
| supports Proton.
|
| https://github.com/lutris/lutris/pull/3330
| 2Gkashmiri wrote:
| i recently tried to install amoung us exe on phoenecis play on
| linux. there is this starting bug that is caused by shaders. i
| tried a few fixes but none worked. It looks like i need to wait
| for 6.11
| nsajko wrote:
| I know what's Linux and what's Wine, and Roblox is some video
| game; but what's the interesting part in this page?
| bemmu wrote:
| Roblox is more than just a game, it's like a web browser that
| instead of showing pages anyone can make allows you to join 3D
| multiplayer hangouts/games anyone can make.
|
| 75% of kids aged 9-12 in the US join these hangouts, and I
| imagine not being able to participate would be a Linux adoption
| dealbreaker for many.
| fnordfnordfnord wrote:
| Yup. My kids are on Windows machines primarily because of
| Roblox
| larrydag wrote:
| It's kind of like a massively distributed sandbox game
| environment.
| an_opabinia wrote:
| > hangouts/games anyone can make
|
| Certainly not young children, who to the 50th percentile will
| lack the computer, as opposed to phone, needed to author a
| Roblox game, and to the 99th percentile, the developmental
| skills needed to program in Roblox Studio.
| mrspeaker wrote:
| Yeah, calling it a "game" is underselling it. My nephew and
| niece were really into Roblox, so I thought I'd be the "cool
| uncle" and have a go at making something for them in Roblox
| Studio.
|
| I dragged out my macbook (as there was no Linux support) and
| it was ridiculously easy to make a 3D multiplayer game that
| millions of people could play instantly (sure, only a handful
| of their friends played my creation, but still - if you made
| something good, the audience is there!). It was also a great
| introduction to my niece on using 3D software - she loved
| adding tonnes of random stuff and moving it around into weird
| structures.
|
| I've tried to make multiplayer games in the past, and it's a
| nightmare. Having a giant player base already authenticated,
| with all the plumbing in place - it's just a really fun
| environment to develop for.
|
| I wish there was something similar (and as popular) for
| making "more serious" games.
| 83457 wrote:
| Last time I played and watched neighbor kids play it all
| just felt like a great idea implemented in a crappy way.
| Watching kids playing games with micro transaction scams
| and terrible experiences was disappointing, but the idea is
| probably the future. It would be intriguing to see a
| company like Mojang create a much higher quality system
| with a similar approach.
| hhh wrote:
| As someone not in the target age group, the game Phantom
| Forces in Roblox is one of the greatest FPS games to date.
| All of the weapons have very visible stats, no pseudo-stats
| displayed with bars (that sometimes aren't even accurate.)
| Newer FPS games are starting to get this right, however.
|
| Phantom Forces even had a sponsored event with Disney.
| 83457 wrote:
| I tried Phantom Forces and got the impression that the
| main thing going for it was being available in Roblox and
| a clone of a great game. There are many fps clones in
| Roblox and PF may be the best of them but I don't think
| it is comparable in quality to games like CSGO and
| Valorant.
| speeder wrote:
| Last I tried to run Roblox on wine the problem is Roblox policy
| officially consider Linux to be cheat software and ban anyone
| attempting that immediately.
| astroanax wrote:
| That doesn't seem to be an issue now, tried it with
| Grapejuice and didn't get banned. From the Grapejuice
| Discord, this also seems to be the case for other Roblox on
| Linux users.
| indigodaddy wrote:
| This is addressed in the article
| bitfhacker wrote:
| I have 3 kids and all of them play Roblox. In the past I tried
| to run Roblox with wine but it didn't run.
|
| Now, in the laptops of my kids, I can switch to Linux...
| taf2 wrote:
| So I have wine running on my linux machine in the house so my
| girls can play the sims... I noticed on the web browser the
| other day my kids had been searching how to install mods.
| Interestingly they had gotten pretty far but couldn't figure
| it out all the way since all the guides online pointed how to
| do it in windows... it got me thinking maybe I'm depriving
| them by having the linux setup... little successes along the
| way build confidence... it's made me consider having the
| games on windows... only reason I went wine in the first
| place is I could not for the life of me figure out how to get
| windows to install... unbuntu was a 20 minute process...
| windows failed with some kind of driver error related to sata
| controller issues ... spent a few nights and decided to just
| run wine... gonna look back into it thought want them to have
| the little successes of independence... 12 years old
| simion314 wrote:
| Hi, I can confirm that Sims3 and Sims4 mods work fine under
| Wine. My suggestion is to teach your children to always
| read instructions and install the mods one at a time and
| test. It is easy to install something incorrectly and crash
| your game.
| boba7 wrote:
| This particular video game is crucial for gnu/linux to become
| popular and finally crush Microsoft.
| pjmlp wrote:
| That ship departed in 2000.
| gizmo385 wrote:
| I don't think Linux is anywhere close to crushing Windows as
| the de facto desktop gaming platform.
| [deleted]
| Zhyl wrote:
| Closer than you might think. With Valves efforts now 88%
| [0] of the top hundred Steam games run on Linux and there
| is ongoing work to improve drivers, support and UX.
|
| Steam now allows you to install any Windows game on linux
| in the same way you'd install any other game. That's a big
| improvement.
|
| Anti-cheat is an issue, but otherwise it isn't a million
| miles away.
|
| [0] https://www.protondb.com/
| Thaxll wrote:
| It's not even close, it does not play most recents games.
| Zhyl wrote:
| Thankfully thanks to ProtonDB we can see exactly which
| games run and what the caveats are.
|
| I think "it does not play most recent games" is untrue
| without qualification.
| eitland wrote:
| Importantly CS:GO runs better on Linux than on Windows on
| my hardware (and that is after tweaking Windows for max
| performance.)
| raptorfactor wrote:
| CS:GO is far from a "recent" game. It still gets
| regularly updates sure, but it's nearly a decade old and
| the engine hasn't evolved in that time in a way that
| would make it comparable to a current-gen game.
| eitland wrote:
| > CS:GO is far from a "recent" game.
|
| It is however one of todays most well known games.
| raptorfactor wrote:
| Sure, but that's not what was up for debate in the
| comment chain you were responding to. That was
| specifically about how well it handles "recent" games.
| Not how well it handles old but still popular games. WoW
| also runs great under Wine for example afaik.
|
| I'm not diminishing the value of games like that running
| well under Wine, I think it's great. But it's not the
| same as "recent" games running well.
|
| As one of the GPs points out anti-cheat is unfortunately
| another big hurdle. CS:GO works great because VAC runs in
| user-mode and Valve go out of their way to specifically
| detect Wine and adjust behavior as appropriate (I reverse
| engineered it extensively some years ago). I think EAC
| has a native Linux client, but many of the big names are
| still unplayable.
|
| If you try to play Valorant, Apex, Siege, Warzone, PUBG,
| etc. my understanding is they'll barely even launch, let
| alone allow you to join a multiplayer match.
| pizza234 wrote:
| 88 out of the 100 top Steam games are not representative
| of desktop gaming in general, even less "crushing"
| windows, where games run out of the box, and as intended
| ("platinum").
|
| The value 88(%) is also misleading. It represents games
| running at least at bronze level (the lowest quality of a
| playable game). The percentage of perfectly running games
| (via Proton) is 15%.
|
| I support Proton as a shortcut to release Linux-
| compatible games, but there's no comparison, in the big
| picture.
| Zhyl wrote:
| But running out of the box with no tweaks includes Gold,
| Platinum and Native which is far more than 50%.
|
| I'm less about trying to imply that Linux is "crushing"
| Windows and more about it being seen as a viable option
| (i.e. " not a million miles away").
|
| I think I'm against out of hand dismissal, which your
| post and the post I responded to are without
| qualification or balance.
| pjmlp wrote:
| And yet it is barely over 1% Linux desktop usage.
| [deleted]
| caslon wrote:
| I think the above poster was more talking in terms of
| market share. I only use free software, so I don't really
| have an incentive to shill against Linux here, but it's
| worth noting that among the premiere desktop gaming
| platform, more people use _PC VR_ than Linux. Linux isn
| 't winning here, despite its better...everything, because
| Windows has two major advantages: It's already installed,
| and games are marketed to kids who more often than not
| probably don't have a choice in operating system!
|
| Markets don't optimize for efficiency in computing.
| auggierose wrote:
| Also, Linux isn't better everything, it is a pita.
| Zhyl wrote:
| It's not as good as the evangelists make out, it's not as
| hopeless as the detractors make out.
|
| The "news" is that in the last 5 years it has gone from
| "absolutely not viable for gaming" to "good enough for a
| lot of people".
| pjmlp wrote:
| Hardly, when the solution is to emulate the ABI of
| another OS.
|
| OS/2 was also a great platform for games by that measure,
| thanks Win-OS/2.
| Zhyl wrote:
| That's true, I don't think it will be exploding without
| either of the blockers you mention being overcome.
|
| I do think the above poster hasn't made it clear the
| experience they're speaking to. A lot of "anti" sentiment
| I see is based on things that aren't really true anymore.
| If all were informed and were giving their considered
| opinion that despite recent advances they still don't
| foresee a large gain in marketshare then that's fair
| enough. I think my main issue is with uniformed
| generalisations being stated as if fact backed up by
| recent and relevant experience.
|
| Having said that I do agree with your post, so please
| note that my criticisms don't apply to you!
| stingraycharles wrote:
| Roblox is very popular among children, and having Linux support
| is a big deal. Consider it the equivalent of "Minecraft finally
| runs on Linux".
| lukego wrote:
| Hey what's a good way to engage with Roblox? My 6-7yo kids love
| it but I don't see them doing anything creative as they do with
| e.g. Minecraft. maybe they are just playing it wrong?
| beermonster wrote:
| Maybe get them to play more creative games like Build a Boat.
| The platform is great but like any platform there are games
| which either do or don't engage creativity.
|
| Another thing you could try is get an account and play along
| with them. A lot of games allow for private servers / areas
| where you can play.
|
| Get them to add real friends from their school and hookup on a
| web conferencing app. That really helps with team building and
| communication.
| michaelbrave wrote:
| Use Roblox studio, it's basically a game engine to develop
| games for Roblox, uses Lua and has a marketplace full of things
| like 3D models, it's best to start with a simple platformer,
| Roblox has tutorials on their site.
|
| Before that if it's too much, they could make things like
| shirts to wear in game and sell those to other players, easiest
| is to use a template and something akin to photoshop.
|
| Roblox is closer to a game marketplace where the games are made
| by fans than a game unto itself, so the creativity isn't game
| inherent unless it's subgame was built to be like that (most
| aren't).
| marto1 wrote:
| Don't forget the biggest selling point..you could become some
| kid's unsung hero by making a game that he plays all the
| time.
| ohyeshedid wrote:
| If they're enjoying it, and do so regularly, are they really
| playing it wrong?
| DaiPlusPlus wrote:
| What's the typical age at which we expect people to decide if
| they're doing something for fun - or if they're doing
| something to create? Does it matter if it's inside the
| sandbox (e.g. SimCity) or outside the sandbox (e.g.
| Dreamweaver)? What if the sandbox is also a tool for
| exploitation of the user (i.e. microtransactions?)
|
| To share my own example - beyond SimCity and not-really-
| understanding-how-to-make-Age-of-Empires-maps when I was 10
| years old - I don't think I can say I was really using
| computers constructively until I was 12/13 when I was at the
| point where I actually understood what I was doing with my
| cracked copies of Macromedia and Adobe software - so if I'm
| using myself as a benchmark I wouldn't stress too much about
| grade-school kids being newbs...
|
| ...just please don't repress them. And introduce them to the
| concept of creating _their own things_ outside of closed
| platforms.
| watwut wrote:
| Roblox is just games platform. It is not creative unless you
| download roblox studio.
|
| 6-7 years old could use it to create obby game with adult
| guidance.
| arkitaip wrote:
| Roblox games can be incredibly creative, many are sims and
| builders, i.e. games within games. But yeah, Roblox Studio is
| where the real stuff gets made
| encryptluks2 wrote:
| Cool I guess, but a bit disappointing that it isn't just natively
| supported by Linux. I thought the team at Roblox would at least
| have enough people that were interested in helping kids create
| that they would see the value in creating a native Linux client.
| miked85 wrote:
| I must be getting old. I am not sure I understand what Roblox
| even is.
| qwerty456127 wrote:
| I was unpleasantly surprised there still is no Linux-native
| version.
| ineedasername wrote:
| Consider that their primary audience is close to 40 million
| mostly kid players. Young kids generally don't care about OS
| options and use whatever PC their parents buy, which will
| mostly be Windows. Further, even Windows PC players are in the
| minority, with close to 75% of users playing on mobile devices.
|
| Linux would always be a minority option. In the case of Roblox,
| it would be the minority option of a minority platform. Not
| really the type of thing the company is going to throw money at
| while they're supporting 4 other platofrms: Windows, MacOS,
| iOS, Android. All of them more accessible to their audience.
|
| Disappointment in their choice not to develop for Linux is
| natural, but it's a fairly reasonable choice on their part to
| avoid increasing their platform & build maintenance
| requirements by 25% for an exceptionally small number of users
| that would refuse to use a different OS.
| qwerty456127 wrote:
| I expected it to be available on RaspberryPI.
| washadjeffmad wrote:
| "Linux-native" is an outdated mindset. With tools like WINE and
| Proton+DXVK/D3DVK / SteamPlay, software developed on Windows is
| in all practicality platform agnostic.
|
| After more than a decade, we know the cost of supporting Linux
| native builds seems to be the sanity and good will of the devs.
| For indie and small teams, it's literally taking food out of
| their mouths asking them to use resources fixing obscure bugs
| from a vocal minority that they could instead put towards
| developing new content or planning their next projects.
|
| I get the sentiment, but really, we won the lock-in war. It's
| kinder to ask devs to stick to what they know and are
| comfortable with, and if they want to build with SteamPlay in
| mind, then we all win.
| bruce343434 wrote:
| > we won the lock-in war
|
| I think you meant lost? But then we sidestepped it, albeit in
| a buggy and incomplete fashion.
| MayeulC wrote:
| > albeit in a buggy and incomplete fashion.
|
| Really? I find that I can play most games just fine under
| Linux, except those that require annoying anti-cheat
| software (but then I wouldn't want to run that under
| windows either...).
| bruce343434 wrote:
| For my library, it's still largely a 50/50. But it has
| been getting better lately. Maybe it's 60/40. A big one
| is Space Engineers, which is supposed to work with such
| and so patch, but not for me.
| pjmlp wrote:
| As much as OS/2 did win.
| marto1 wrote:
| While this is true, some devs in the indie community develop
| on linux[1] so support is there by default. It's also a
| small(hopefully growing) niche to target Linux as a platform.
| SteamOS is also a thing, albeit without a solid market afaik.
|
| [1] https://blog.system76.com/post/654884924769370112/develop
| ing...
| michaelbrave wrote:
| More than half of their player base (like 60%) play on mobile,
| so I image it's just not a big priority to them.
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