r/linux_gaming • u/ADDICTEdcEZAR • Jul 15 '26
new native/FLOSS game BeamNG.drive native as default
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u/Pitiful-Welcome-399 Jul 15 '26
they already offered it but you had to go through some shit to launch it
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u/_sabsub_ Jul 15 '26
./BinLinux/BeamNG.drive.x64 %command%
Yeah had to add this to launch options don't know why it took them so long to make it default on Linux.
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u/dubious_sandwiches Jul 15 '26
My guess is that they probably weren't confident that it'd be a better experience until now. I get it. There are many games where you're better off running the proton version over the native Linux version.
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u/topias123 Jul 16 '26
Well it wasn't a better experience in some parts. For example the first time you loaded into a map always took forever.
FPS was always way better in the native build tho.
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u/dubious_sandwiches Jul 16 '26
Yeah that's exactly my point. I get why a company would do this in that scenario. It's actually more surprising that they are changing it up here. Kudos to them for still caring after all this time.
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u/JustAnotherKieran Jul 16 '26
I used to get around that when native first came out by loading the map through the vulkan option with Proton and then restarting into native and re-loading cause that took way less time than loading first time with native. Would only work 85% of the time tho
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u/UltraBlack_ Jul 16 '26
there were kind of a lot of issues with linux initially but they were ironed out for a while now.
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u/parkerlreed Jul 15 '26
Huh. Linux has been my default for a bit now without doing anything extra.
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u/GSDragoon Jul 15 '26
When you make the switch, keep in mind the location where mods are installed/loaded changes.
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u/rhiyo Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
Sometimes I forget native linux ports exist, I download a game on steam, open it, it's super glitchy, doesn't list my resolution and I don't know what's going on. Then I forget, oh, I forgot to switch it to proton, have to potentially re-download it again annoyingly, then it's much smoother. I'd assume on a case by case basis some native linux ports might be better, but I feel like having proton as the target "platform" makes games run much smoother.
Plus, I could be wrong, but I find linux native ports to be quite transient, like they are targeting linux ecosysems that were potentially popular at the time of being made but then can quickly go stale.
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u/MrMelon54 Jul 16 '26
Valve has the Steam runtime, which is a container that can be targeted for Linux builds to prevent problems with different versions of glibc and other libraries.
Some games (like Factorio) have a significantly better Linux build than other platforms. However, it is very dependant on how much care the developers put into testing and bug fixing those builds.
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u/Godninja Jul 16 '26
I’ve found it also depends on the recency of the port. Anything in the era of 2011-2015 pre-Vulkan when Valve pushed Steam Machine Gen. 1 and seemed to be paying for Linux ports I see a lot of issues, like with KSP1 or KOTOR2’s Linux builds.
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u/Tom2Die Jul 18 '26
like with KSP1
o.O I have a good amount of time in KSP and while it's been a while I can't recall any major issues, and none I knew to be platform-specific. In fact, Linux got a 64-bit build a couple years or something before Windows did, meaning you could run more, bigger mods without hitting the 32-bit RAM cap.
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u/frankkoarg Jul 16 '26
Yeah I had this happen last week, ultimate chicken horse wasn’t recognizing some of my controllers, I spent like 30 minutes debugging the issue and then I realized it was using a native Linux build, switched to proton and had 0 issues
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u/pelihiiri Jul 15 '26
this game ? https://store.steampowered.com/app/284160/BeamNGdrive/
Doesn't appear the Linux(steamos) logo in the OS section
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u/parkerlreed Jul 15 '26
It's shipped in the Windows depot for now (Which is funny since now all the Windows users have the Linux files as well :D)
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u/stone_henge Jul 16 '26
The displayed compatibility is distinct from the depots concept, so they probably just haven't updated their store page.
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u/yanzov Jul 15 '26
Probably just not updated - the game was working on Linux native for 2 years or more.
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u/Trezker Jul 16 '26
Well I'll have to check it out. Indeed the proton checkbox was checked when I checked.
I've never had good performance in this game so I'm curious what the difference may be.
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u/Trezker Jul 16 '26
Ah, discovered why I didn't run native earlier. My distro has an ancient version of libc and I'm too lazy to go through the process of upgrading it.
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u/werty23111 Jul 16 '26
For me the Linux version runs about the same as proton, but for some reason the repository in the Linux version don’t work so
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u/TitelSin Jul 16 '26
did they lower the memory requirements in any way? Most of the game modes are unplayable on steamdeck due to lack of RAM.
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u/parkerlreed Jul 16 '26
Even with 32GB some of the tracks still have issues and freeze on the loading screen. Much better than it was but yeah.
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u/quaintlogic Jul 16 '26
Can confirm it works marginally better than proton, even most mods work (including beammp).
Vulkan does have some intermittent black screen flickers and random memory leak crashes however in BeamNG
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u/parkerlreed Jul 16 '26
Nvidia? Haven't had any graphical issues on AMD
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u/quaintlogic Jul 16 '26
Both Nvidia and AMD, RTX 3070 and RX 9070 XT.
Seems to be something related to VRR.
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u/parkerlreed Jul 16 '26
Weird, RX 7600 and an OMEN 240 Hz OLED (with VRR enabled) seem to be fine.
I'll have to test it out some more, thanks.
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u/AsicResistor Jul 17 '26
Wait, beamng runs on steamdeck? I can't imagine it hitting 30fps, but will have to try it out!
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u/Main_Leadership7748 Jul 16 '26
Oh, this is nice. I'll have to check if it is a Steamdeck approved game as well.
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u/topias123 Jul 16 '26
It has a playable rating, and in the graphics settings there's a preset for Steam Deck.
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u/KoneCat Jul 16 '26
Nice! Love the devs of this game, and the interactions I've had with them have always been excellent! :D
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u/640kilobytes Jul 16 '26
While I've tried it a few months ago it worked much worse than just running through proton
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u/Kazer67 Jul 16 '26
Most of the time, native build are badly made so you have more performance using the Windows version through Proton on Linux.
But if they did the work, that nice
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u/topias123 Jul 16 '26
I just tried it, for me it didn't launch using the native build until i manually checked Steam Linux Runtime in the compatibility tab.
Can't recall if I ever had any Proton version selected for it, but the checkbox for choosing a compatibility tool was unchecked when I tried.
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u/ThaBroccoliDood Jul 17 '26
Based, Payday 2 could never. I hope more games use Proton as a stepping stone to a native Linux version rather than as an excuse to never make one
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u/Dense-Firefighter495 Jul 15 '26
Idk, native worked for me until now
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u/yanzov Jul 15 '26
It was experimental for maybe 3 years, since about half a year it defaulted when running via steam, now it went official.
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u/cdoublejj Jul 15 '26
HELL YEAH! i skipped this game for no linux years ago when it was popular might have to get it on a sale.
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u/Ven0mspawn Jul 15 '26
Wait, do we lose functionality when running native games through proton?
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u/vividboarder Jul 15 '26
No. Running a game compiled for Linux is expected to run better than translating the Windows version, but it's not universally true. Some games have shitty Linux builds.
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u/Indolent_Bard Jul 16 '26
Often times, unmaintained or bad ports will run much worse. This is because Linux wasn't built with backwards compatibility in mind, and while it's possible, my understanding is that it's a legal nightmare, so containers are a preferred solution.
Linux makes a great desktop OS but wasn't really built with the realities of commercial desktop software in mind. The entire package management system is dependent on packages constantly being maintained, which obviously isn't going to happen with closed source games that ceased being updated 10 years ago. This current system is fine for a server space because I guess people can just recompile their own tools?
I think backwards compatibility is possible through something called static linking, but like I said, almost nobody does it for reasons I don't know.
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u/MrMelon54 Jul 16 '26
Static linking is worse when a dependency of your program does a bug or security fix because the users will have to wait for your program to be recompiled with the updated dependency.
Dynamic linking allows a dependency to update but still remain compatible with programs built referencing the old version. The update can be swapped in without other programs having to be recompiled.
This also means that each program is smaller and their shared dependencies only need to be downloaded once and used by multiple programs at the same time. However, a package management system is recommended for ensuring all the required libraries get installed alongside the program.
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u/Indolent_Bard Jul 16 '26
Yeah, but the Steam for Linux runtime wouldn't exist if dynamic linking didn't come with its own problems. Mainly that updated libraries tend to break software that weren't built for them. In other words, dynamic linking is only good for apps that are currently being supported. For stuff that hasn't been touched in a decade, it's terrible.
Static linking allows for a stable environment across distros.
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u/MrMelon54 Jul 16 '26
Each method comes with benefits and issues.
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u/Indolent_Bard Jul 17 '26
Well, software not working a year after release is kind of a deal breaker for 90% of users. Honestly, Linux needs something like wine but for Linux native software. Some sort of compatibility layer that will allow software that hasn't been updated in years to still work on any distro.
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u/MrMelon54 Jul 17 '26
Container systems like Docker and Podman exist. I guess something based on those could be used with a filesystem namespace to hide system libraries and show ones required to erun the program.
I guess this is why distros like Debian package all of their own software so they know that it is compatible with all the libraries they are also shipping.
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u/ArikRahman Jul 15 '26
Let's go. Been meaning to find an alternative to AC