How is gaming on bsd reddit / BSD ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-05-09 13:10 I heard that bsd gaming is a nightmare, has it improved at all? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FUZxxl · 2020-05-09 13:10 Which BSD? Each one is a separate operating system with completely different software support. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-05-09 13:11 I've been messing around with both openbsd and freebsd. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FUZxxl · 2020-05-09 13:14 You can basically forget about OpenBSD with respect to gaming. FreeBSD does work: you can play Windows games using Wine and some Linux games using the builtin Linux emulation. However, many Linux games need some manual work to get running or don't run well (e.g. no sound). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-05-09 13:15 So is steam in the repos for freebsd or do I need to get something from the Internet? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FUZxxl · 2020-05-09 13:17 There is a guy who made a [shim](https://github.com/SteamOnFreeBSD/SteamOnFreeBSD) to run Steam on FreeBSD, but he stopped working on it a while ago. Haven't tested it in a long time. It is likely to not work. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-05-09 13:19 Everyone on the github page seems to complain about the project. I'll check it out in a vm to see if they are correct or not ---------------------------------------------------------------------- crust_cheese · 2020-05-09 13:57 Even gaming on Linux is a pain, which I can confidently say now after fiddling with Wine for the last couple of weeks. If you **care** about gaming, dual-booting Windows is your only choice. If you're okay with very limited choice, Linux and Wine works. Don't even bother on \*BSD IMO. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-05-09 14:00 Proton makes the main games I play run effortlessly. Also if you don't use steam use lutris to not have to configure wine ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ignorad · 2020-05-09 14:08 Can you run Windows in a fullscreen VM? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-05-09 14:13 Yes, and you can get almost no performance decrease compared to dual booting if you happen to have 2 gpu's If you are that rich, then I am pretty sure this video covers making a gaming vm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7SG7ccjn-g ---------------------------------------------------------------------- beowuff · 2020-05-09 14:27 I use play on Linux for some games not in steam. I believe there’s a play on BSD, as well. Might be fun to try. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- maxfromua · 2020-05-09 14:40 More info in /r/openbsd_gaming ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-05-09 14:42 It says that I can't view this community. Is it down or is it just a private subreddit? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- maxfromua · 2020-05-09 14:45 I did a mistake in the name and fixed it. Sorry. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- John_Lins · 2020-05-09 15:36 BSD is not built for gaming. Some people might get mad at me for saying this but it's obvious... BSD is meant for the server or a desktop, but the only reason to run it on your desktop is if you're a developer. You will quickly realize this when you need to start using VMs and compatibility layers just to get up and running with a mediocre experience. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- crocflamingo · 2020-05-09 15:37 Bsd gaming is still a nightmare although there is [this](https://github.com/The-Homura-Project/Homura) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-05-09 16:07 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DHermit · 2020-05-09 16:35 I like the PlayOnLinux interface more, but Lutris makes it easier to use Proton. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- brynet · 2020-05-09 17:33 There are a decent number of games that run on OpenBSD just fine without binary compatibility layers. https://playonbsd.com/shopping_guide/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- verticalave · 2020-05-09 17:48 It depends on what you mean by "bsd gaming". There's thousands, or most likely tens of thousands, of games that you can play on OpenBSD, NetBSD, and FreeBSD if your definition of "bsd gaming" is "games that runs on a computer with a BSD operating system". There's very few, probably none, games that you can play on OpenBSD, NetBSD, and FreeBSD if your definition of "bsd gaming" is "games that have been heavily optimized to utilize proprietary drivers, proprietary graphics libraries on a different proprietary operating system". It's a bit like switching to a truck and then asking "It's my impression this vehicle - that can carry 30 metric tonnes - accellerate slower than the motorcycle I switched from. Has truck accelleration improved recently, so it's competetive with motorcycles?" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Twe27ySeven · 2020-05-09 20:04 Check out https://github.com/the-homura-project/homura instead. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-05-09 20:06 Hopefully this works so I can ditch arch and flex on r/unixporn better ---------------------------------------------------------------------- freakinunoriginal · 2020-05-09 21:21 Don't ditch Arch to flex, [just run more operating systems simultaneou sly](https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/fzj9am/bspwm_qubes_os_ hypervisor_rocks_v2/). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thfrw · 2020-05-09 21:56 We don't have wine on OpenBSD, but you can probably find high-quality games for pretty much any taste except for latest AAA, especially if you're ready to use the available emulators. The buggy state of AMDGPU is probably one of the biggest blockers now because you're limited to integrated intel and old (pre-2012) radeon for a functional GPU at this point. This will hopefully improve over the next few release cycles... Some game genres with examples of great games that run on OpenBSD: ​ |Genre|Games/ports| |:-|:-| |RTS|openra, warzone 2100, Northgard, 0ad| |TBS|openxcom, 1oom, Battle for Wesnoth, FreeOrion, Jagged Alliance 2| |FPS|Ion Fury, Quake 1-3, Doom 1-3 , Wrath: Aeon of Ruin| |Metroidvania|Dead Cells, Chasm, Axiom Verge, Owlboy, Timespinner| |Immersive Sim|Arx Libertatis, TheDarkMod. System Shock 1 likely coming up when audio has been fixed upstream.| |4X strategy|FreeCiv, FreeCol, Jon Shafer's At the Gates| |Management Sims|Theme Hospital, openrct2, openttd, Caesar III| |RPG|Morrowind, Baldur's Gate 1&2, Planescape Torment| |Roguelite|Rogue Legacy, Barony, Cryptark, F.T.L., Slay the Spire| |Adventure games|pretty much all LucasArts adventures via scummvm and residualvm| |Platformer|Capsized, Celeste (no audio though because of FMOD), Apotheon| |2D "Souls-like"|Salt & Sanctuary, Dead Cells| |Brawler|Charlie Murder, Fist Puncher| |6DOF shooter|Descent 1&2| |Space sim|Freespace 2| |Puzzle/hacking|Hacknet| |Farming Sim|Stardew Valley| |Other indies of note|Terraria, One Finger Death Punch| ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BumpitySnook · 2020-05-09 22:00 > BSD is not built for gaming This is not especially true. FreeBSD is "built for gaming," to the extent that phrase has any meaning. The problem is that game vendors (reasonably) do not attempt to target their games to tiny niche platforms. And FreeBSD desktop is a small niche. So... there is very little native support for anything. If you want to play the emulation game, you can — either linuxemul or WINE — but both will be second-class experiences compared with the native platform they were developed for. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- crocflamingo · 2020-05-09 22:18 If you like to flex, use gentoo, gentoo also works with steam ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sunjay140 · 2020-05-10 00:04 The PS4, PS3 and PS Vita all run BSD. I think they're good for gaming. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- John_Lins · 2020-05-10 00:18 That's true, I should have specified that I'm talking about BSD desktops. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-05-10 08:18 My computer has a fairly old prossesor so I don't use it, if I had a powerful pc I would happily install gentoo and compile everything ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-05-10 10:40 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- galiji · 2020-05-10 16:28 XBill is amazing on all the BSDs. Highly recommended. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-05-11 11:25 I know I'm late but it's fine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- typical_bsd_delusion · 2020-05-12 03:11 They took bits from FreeBSD, that doesn't mean they run FreeBSD, let alone that FreeBSD is a good gaming platform. To be a good gaming platform you need a good graphics sub-system (i.e. good support for video cards), support for gaming input devices, low- latency kernel and... games. You can certainly play games on BSD, or on a PDP-11 for that matter. That doesn't make either good gaming platforms compared to Windows or a Playstation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sunjay140 · 2020-05-12 03:27 >low-latency kernel Wound you say Linux meets this specific criteria? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- typical_bsd_delusion · 2020-05-13 05:04 Yes, typically Linux does better than BSD in this area. OpenBSD is generally not well optimized at all, and FreeBSD tends to optimize for throughput, which is useful in server scenarios, rather than latency (which is more useful for multimedia). Linux is used on tons of multimedia set-top boxes, embedded systems, etc. and over the years there have been many patches to improve latency and real-time operation. They're not always enabled by default (certainly not on a server distro like Red Hat) but generally the situation is better. That doesn't mean you can't play games on BSD, as I said, but for AAA games you'll have better luck with Linux (they don't run on BSD in the first place anyway). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- le_funny_yellow_dog · 2020-05-13 06:15 I game on OpenBSD, as I use OpenBSD exclusively for both my server and desktop usage. Gaming is generally fine, though on average you'll need more beefy hardware than you may expect (specifically the CPU) for a variety of reasons; timer imprecision (usually an issue with games with built in frame caps), porting hacks for compatibility reasons, or code that may be specifically slow on OpenBSD when compared to Linux (differences in codebases). Obviously, Steam isn't an option, less obviously WINE isn't either, due to OpenBSD lacking certain components for security reasons (not that it'd be particularly useful due to the lack of multilib and therefore the lack of WoW64 in WINE). If this is a deal-breaker for you, look at another UNIX-like; for me, it's a compromise I'm willing to make to use my favorite operating system. Check out r/openbsd_gaming and #openbsd-gaming on freenode (IRC) if you're still interested. | Some games I play (natively) on OpenBSD | ---|---|--- Cataclysm-DDA | An open-ended post-apocalyptic roguelike; super fun, but a bit buggy; especially with OpenBSD libcxx. I'm working on debugging it currently. OpenMW | An open source re implementation of the Morrowind game engine. Requires proprietary game sources, at least if you want to play Morrowind on it. Xonotic | Arena shooter that runs great, and looks great. One of the few open source games out there that actually needs a somewhat beefy GPU. You'll want to disable the framecap in the Misc section of options or your performance will tank due to (what I assume to be) timer imprecision. Terraria | Open-ended 2D action adventure game Works thanks to the Linux port of Terraria being made in Mono and FNA; install thfr's "fnaify" (in ports/packages) and run it in the game's directory to get it working. Minecraft | It's Minecraft. Slay The Spire | Single player card game fused with roguelike elements. Works thanks to LibGDX; this one's a bit trickier to get working, [look here](https://dataswamp.org/~solene/2019-04-01-slay- the-spire-openbsd.html). Endless-Sky | An open source space game in the style of escape- velocity Oolite | An open source open-ended space exploration game in the style of Elite. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- le_funny_yellow_dog · 2020-05-13 06:41 Can attest to the instability of amdgpu. Interestingly, the R9 Fury X I have in my desktop is considerably less stable and will deadlock in far more scenarios than my much newer Vega 8 iGPU (APU) in my thinkpad. Not a clue as to why. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Expensive-Fish · 2020-05-20 15:48 I play minecraft on mini-game servers on OpenBSD. My build has a HD 5570 and a Ryzen 2600x, works well and I can play it at 60fps while running mumble and firefox.