{"id":123121,"date":"2022-03-21T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fedoramagazine.org\/?p=36142"},"modified":"2022-03-21T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T08:00:00","slug":"fedora-workstations-state-of-gaming-a-case-study-of-control-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/03\/21\/fedora-workstations-state-of-gaming-a-case-study-of-control-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Fedora Workstation\u2019s State of Gaming \u2013 A Case Study of Control (2019)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in the day, it used to irk me as to how GNU\/Linux<\/em>[1] distributions could not be even considered to be in the proximity of video games enthusiasts – less because of the performance of the video games themselves and more because of how inconvenient it could be for them to set it all up. Admittedly, it had been quite a while since an avid video games fan like me did that, so it was almost a no-brainer for me to try it out and see if things have changed. What I ended up finding surprised me – I like to think that it would be just as pleasing to both enthusiasts who have been playing video games on GNU\/Linux<\/em> distributions and to newcomers who have been scoping this, alike.<\/p>\n

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On a testing bench using an AMD RDNA2-based<\/em>[2] GPU, the video game was configured to the highest possible graphical preset<\/em>[3] to really stress the hardware into performing as much as its limiting factor. If the RDNA2 architecture<\/em> reminds you of something, allow me to share that it is what forms the foundation of the GPU that no other than the widely acclaimed Steam Deck<\/em>[4] makes use of. For that matter, if you factor in some performance scaling with respect to the handheld nature of the device and the optimized Proton compatibility layer, this article can be representative of what the Steam Deck is capable of when you use Fedora Workstation<\/em>[5] as a platform of your choice for playing your favourite video games.<\/p>\n

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Figure 1<\/strong> – GNOME Software<\/em> helps to install Steam<\/em> conveniently<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To have an apples to apples comparison, we set up two environments – one with Windows 10 21H2<\/em>[6] and one with Fedora Workstation 35<\/em>. On the former, I installed MSI Afterburner<\/em>[7] and ensured that the graphics drivers are up-to-date while I did not have to bother doing the same on the latter as they came preinstalled. The only extra thing that I did was to configure the Lutris v7.1 runner<\/em>[8] after clicking my way through installing Lutris<\/em>[9] and MangoHUD<\/em>[10] from GNOME Software<\/em>[11]. It is downright astonishing how much you can do these days on GNU\/Linux<\/em> distributions without actually having to interact with the command line, making the entry barrier very low and welcoming.<\/p>\n

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Figure 2<\/strong> – GNOME Software<\/em> helps to install Lutris<\/em> conveniently
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Before we get into some actual performance testing and comparison results, let me talk a bit about the video game that is at the centre of the case study. Control<\/em>[12] is an action-adventure video game developed by Remedy Entertainment<\/em>[13] and published by 505 Games<\/em>[14]. The video game is centred around a fictitious organization about paranormal activities and takes inspiration from the likes of the SCP Foundation<\/em>[15]. It is a well-optimized video game that exhibits great graphics and is a showcase of what the underlying hardware is capable of. I ran tests on both DirectX 11<\/em>[16] and DirectX 12<\/em>[17] versions of the video game with their compatibility layers<\/em>[18], DXVK<\/em>[19] and VKD3D<\/em>[20], respectively.<\/p>\n

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Figure 3<\/strong> – Lutris<\/em> configured to play Control (2019)<\/em> using the Wine runner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Following are the results of the tests. I made use of OBS Studio<\/em>[21], which is available as both an installer binary and as a package in the RPM Fusion<\/em>[22] repositories, to record around 15 seconds of in-menu gameplay and around 60 seconds of in-game gameplay. As the video game does not have any intrinsic benchmarking tool, the footage had to be broken down into segments of equal time periods to be able to pick up performance statistics on CPU usage, GPU usage and framerate. Please do note, even when OBS Studio<\/em> introduces a certain overhead to the performance, the comparison still remains valid as in both the platforms the recording software is configured identically.<\/p>\n

Metrics<\/h3>\n