Valve have released SteamOS 3.7.0 Preview, which they noted has the beginnings of support for non-Steam Deck handhelds! So we're closing in on the previously announced Beta for more handhelds. Although this release is still just for Steam Deck.
Honest question: what’s stopping you currently? For me, I kept Windows around purely for playing certain VR games that didn’t run well on Linux.
The last Windows update fucked up my video config, so I reluctantly decided to try SteamVR on Linux again.
I’ll admit my hopes weren’t particular high given me last shot at it but holy shit pretty much every VR game I tried worked as well as they had in Windows (Angry Birds develop a weird controller jitter after about 30 minutes but I’ve had that in Windows too).
The only extra steps I had to do to get stuff working was install “SteamVR experimental” and one of the Linux utilities to set my GPU to always run in performance mode when gaming (not necessary for everything but jealous with some).
For non-VR, most AAA titles also work great. The main issue I’ve seen is certain DRM for non-Steam multiplayer games can be a bit finicky, but that’s getting better too and it’s been awhile since I’ve run afoul of those.
I yes, I should have mentioned the distro+hardware on this system is Mint with an AMD CPU and 6900XT GPU. AMD drivers are pretty well supported in Linux. I also run some Debian systems which do well, though I’ve not tried VR on them
There can be some issues with Nvidia cards due to proprietary drivers but I’ve heard they’re now supporting a FOSS driver in newer cards so as long as you’ve got one of those you should be good.
Honest question: what’s stopping you currently? For me, I kept Windows around purely for playing certain VR games that didn’t run well on Linux. The last Windows update fucked up my video config, so I reluctantly decided to try SteamVR on Linux again.
I’ll admit my hopes weren’t particular high given me last shot at it but holy shit pretty much every VR game I tried worked as well as they had in Windows (Angry Birds develop a weird controller jitter after about 30 minutes but I’ve had that in Windows too).
The only extra steps I had to do to get stuff working was install “SteamVR experimental” and one of the Linux utilities to set my GPU to always run in performance mode when gaming (not necessary for everything but jealous with some).
For non-VR, most AAA titles also work great. The main issue I’ve seen is certain DRM for non-Steam multiplayer games can be a bit finicky, but that’s getting better too and it’s been awhile since I’ve run afoul of those.
Looks like nothing at all…. I know when I looked back a year or so ago people deterred me due to Nvidia drivers not being well supported.
Had a read up on Bazzite last night and it looks just the ticket ! :)
Thanks for the reply (and thanks to everyone that responded). Going to install on my desktop, laptop and handhelds as of tomorrow :)
I yes, I should have mentioned the distro+hardware on this system is Mint with an AMD CPU and 6900XT GPU. AMD drivers are pretty well supported in Linux. I also run some Debian systems which do well, though I’ve not tried VR on them
There can be some issues with Nvidia cards due to proprietary drivers but I’ve heard they’re now supporting a FOSS driver in newer cards so as long as you’ve got one of those you should be good.
https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-transitions-fully-towards-open-source-gpu-kernel-modules/