Hi everyone!
I’m a Playstation gamer looking into moving to Linux gaming as the next Playstation might not be able to play physical games.
Here are my 2 computers:
MacBook Pro 2012 (upgraded) with Fedora 41
Surface Go 1 with Fedora 41
I bought Frostpunk on Steam after checking on Proton DB that it would normally run on the MacBook as I knew the Surface Go would probably be way too weak.
According to Proton DB it’s a Gold game.
In the end, no matter what version of Proton I use, it doesn’t launch on the MacBook. I have a black screen, some icy sounds and then it crashes at best…
I then thought, let’s give it a try on the Surface Go and it launched immediately without any tinkering using Proton experimental.
But, the game crashes when the firat cinematic starts, probably because it’s loading too many assets for the Surface.
If anyone has an idea about what to try too many get it working on the MacBook, I would be thankful.
In the meantime, I would want to know, how do you know if a game is gonna run on your machine?
Others have already answered the main question here, but I have a different question for you and a couple recommendations.
I’m a Playstation gamer looking into moving to Linux gaming as the next Playstation might not be able to play physical games.
While I’m happy to see more people flock over, you’re also not going to get physical games here, so not sure what’s the advantage for you.
As for recommendation, many have replied that your system doesn’t meet the minimum requirements, but there are other management games that you could play that would run okay on your system, my main recommendation is RimWorld it’s an amazing colony building game, and a lot more in-depth than Frostpunk, plus it should run on your machine.
Well, physical games are one of the things retaining me on Playstation as it gives me the ability to sell a game I don’t enjoy.
If you take this away, it only leaves the plug&play aspect and the power for your money aspect.
Thanks for the suggestion about Rimworld, I’ll check it out👍
That makes sense, I guess I haven’t thought of it that way. BTW for the plug&play feeling a Steam Deck is as console-like as it gets, I’ve had mine since launch and it’s by far one of the best purchases I’ve made.
Left a comment as a reply to one of yours about the laptops themselves.
The way I can tell if a game does/should run on my PC is kind of a multi-prong approach
- System requirements page
- DigitalFoundry does really good performance analysis videos on new games (REALLY good if you have a rough idea of how your components compare to others)
- Determining what console my PC compares to in terms of performance and going off that. Specific examples:
- First laptop had an i7 3610HQ and a GT 740M - a bit more powerful than PS3/Xbox 360. If a game runs on those consoles (720p with inconsistent 30FPS) I should be able to run it on this laptop at slightly lower (trash port) or slightly better (good port) resolution or fps.
- Second laptop had an i5 7300HQ and a GTX 1050Ti - performance between a PS4 and PS4 Pro
- If it gets 30FPS on base PS4, this laptop can easily run it at 45 unless it’s a bad port (FPS can be higher if I lower settings)
- It’s also comparable to a desktop GTX 970 (although 970 is still a bit better) so If I see 970 as the minimum, I know I can tweak stuff to get it running.
- Current laptop has an i7 11800HQ with a GTX 3070 - quite a bit better than PS5, not sure how it compares to PS5 Pro yet. It’s new enough and supports DLSS so I expect a locked 60FPS at 1440p on everything with some tweaking. Right now, until a new console generation comes out, if I can’t lock 60 on a game, it’s probably really poorly made and not worth my time.
- Once you’ve seen how different games run on your hardware, you sorta get a sense of how certain types of graphics should perform
And then check protondb to see if it can run on linux (most likely will)
Integrated graphics may have some gotchas but the general rule I follow is “if it came out within a console generation, it can’t run that console’s games. Last gen can be serviceable. 2 generations back run pretty well.”
Where did you buy Frostpunk and how are you installing it?
Buy it and get a refund if it doesn’t
It’s is (usually) not so difficult, and this is no exception.
Look up the game’s system requirements. Frostpunk’s say this:
Minimum:
Processor: 3.2 GHz Dual Core Processor
Graphics: GeForce GTX 660, Radeon R7 370 or equivalent with 2 GB of video RAMLooks plain as day to me. Your hardware doesn’t meet the published requirements, or even come close.
Keep in mind that CPU-integrated GPUs like yours are not merely slower than the discrete GPUs listed as bare minimum; they sometimes also lack features that are present in the latter. Also, both of your CPUs are older/weaker the minimum, and may lack some of the newer instructions that would be present in 3.2GHz+ models.
In cases like this, there’s no reason to expect the game to run on your hardware. This is not because you’re running Linux. It’s because of decisions made by the game’s developers.
You might get lucky, or discover enough workarounds to get it running anyway with some effort, but it’s unlikely to be a good experience. If I were going to try anyway, I would start by enabling as much logging as possible, and searching online for any error messages I found in the logs to see if I could find someone else who had encountered and solved them. Be aware that troubleshooting like this can take a long time even if you’re an experienced software developer, and might not bear fruit.
because you are running integrated graphics that can barely run your OS’s UI, much less a game.
it has nothing to do with steam, or proton, or frostpunk.
You don’t meet the minimum system requirements.
Before you have a fit over another game, you ain’t playing anything made in the last 20 years on either of those. Or anything with 3d graphics.
Only thing you’re playing on those is old school games like original Fallout, and original baldurs gate, and those sort.
I buy it on steam. If it does not work, i refund it.
It may be a good idea to launch the game through the terminal for troubleshooting when it doesn’t launch through the UI. More often than not on Linux, the terminal carries very useful info, of which often you can find solutions online once you spot a suspicious line. And for Steam games specifically, to not change the test environment too much, the command for starting a given game is steam
steam steam://rungameid/[game_id], where[]is the number that appears in a given game’s page on Steam, e.g.211820for Starbound, making the commandsteam steam://rungameid/211820.Ivy Bridge doesn’t fully support vulkan
To add more context i also use an old 2012 MacBook as a retro rig
Most unreal engine games don’t even bother running. And of course you dont have CUDA support since no Nvidia hardware
Neither of these systems are powerful, and they’re also running Intel integrated GPUs which are frankly generally poor.
If you want to game with Proton, then the device still needs to be able run the game well if it had Windows installed.
As a general very rough rule, most games will work with proton if other games work with proton on your system. Its basically a compatibility layer between the game and your linux PC - if Proton can communicate well with your graphics card and CPU, and it has the right specs, it should just work - proton does the heavy lifting. But if no 3D games are running then most of them wont.
When it doesn’t work, the first place to look is your drivers and hardware. There are then certainly lots of caveats for specific games which may behave peculiarly with certain hardware and needs adjusting but I find that is the exception rather than the norm. Start with your drivers and hardware.
Also if it crashes on video playback that’s a good indicator that you might need proton GE as the video is wanting a weird windows codec that reg proton doesn’t want to install in vanilla proton for good reason.
these computers with linux are good as lightweight servers, not really for gaming
the 2008 Mirror’s Edge might run with 30 fps
https://store.steampowered.com/app/17410/Mirrors_Edge/
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or better
1GB RAM or more
The GeForce 6800 has a Passmark score of 113 and he’s fine on memory, so, yeah, I’d give decent odds that it’d probably run well on his system.
great game, i can recommend it. Altrough it is very short, almost anybody can finish it in 3 hours or less. All early Fallout games (1-2-3, maybe even New Vegas with compromises) would run. Far Cry 3 on 720p low, Far Cry 1 and 2 would run well. Crysis 1, 2 too. Sleeping Dogs 720p low. Minecraft too if opengl 4.5 is aviable. Resident Evil 5, Half Life 1-2, Alien Isolation 720p low, CS Source, CS 1.6, Tomb Raider 720p low. maybe these would work and worth trying. Generally, most games made before 2010 should run. The weakest part is the gpu, the strongest is the RAM
Fallout: New Vegas lists an ATI X1300XT as the minimum and 2GB of RAM. That card has a Passmark score of 69. I’d guess that he’d probably be more than fine.
IIRC, New Vegas was really CPU-constrained, too, not GPU-constrained, and the systems he’s using are probably pretty comparable to any other system from the time CPU-wise – it’s just that they don’t have discrete 3D hardware.
btw it is pretty hard to launch on modern systems, as it was made with Windows Vista and 7 in mind
You’re trying to use a laptop from a billion years ago. Of course it doesn’t work. Frostpunk is older, but not that old.
How do you know if a game is gonna run on your machine?
Read the system requirements. If you meet or exceed them, and Proton DB says silver or above, it will probably work.
There’s only so much you can do with a 13 year old MacBook. You note “upgraded”, but that doesn’t mean much at that vintage.
If you’re trying to run current games, assume they won’t work.
As the other user said, better off getting a SteamDeck.
Although, TBH, if your prime concern is PlayStation going discless, that may be an unwarranted worry.
PlayStation is ahead in too many territories that don’t have the infrastructure to support a discless console.
