Linux Gaming News Archives


1,921 Linux Gaming open-source and Linux related news articles on Phoronix since 2006.

VKD3D-Proton 2.9 Released With Performance Improvements
VKD3D-Proton 2.9 Released With Performance Improvements

Hans-Kristian Arntzen of Valve's Linux team has just released VKD3D-Proton 2.9 as the latest major update to this Direct3D 12 on Vulkan API implementation that is used by Steam Play (Proton) for running modern Windows games on Linux.

19 May 2023 - VKD3D-Proton 2.9 - 14 Comments
D8VK v1.0 Released For Running Direct3D 8 Games Atop Vulkan
D8VK v1.0 Released For Running Direct3D 8 Games Atop Vulkan

While DXVK is used by Steam Play for implementing Direct3D 9/10/11 APIs atop Vulkan and there is also VKD3D-Proton for Direct3D 12 on Vulkan, D8VK's aim is for the aging Microsoft Direct3D 8 API atop Vulkan for enhancing the experience of older games on Linux.

10 May 2023 - D8VK 1.0 - 27 Comments
Open 3D Engine 23.05 Released With Many New Features
Open 3D Engine 23.05 Released With Many New Features

It's been just under two years since Amazon's Lumberyard game engine was spun into the Open 3D Engine and the Open 3D Foundation established under the Linux Foundation. Today the project is celebrating its newest open-source game engine update with Open 3D Engine 23.05.

4 May 2023 - Open 3D Engine 23.05 - 5 Comments
OpenRazer 3.6 Brings Support For New Razer Peripherals On Linux
OpenRazer 3.6 Brings Support For New Razer Peripherals On Linux

While prominent gaming peripheral manufacturer Razer still is not officially supporting Linux with their vast array of products, thanks to the community-driven OpenRazer project there is unofficial open-source support and can work quite well when paired with the likes of Polychromatic as a nice user interface. Out today is OpenRazer 3.6 in enabling the latest Razer products on Linux.

30 April 2023 - OpenRazer 3.6 - 7 Comments
QNX Support Restored For SDL3
QNX Support Restored For SDL3

When SDL3 development kicked off last November for this open-source library that is widely used by cross-platform games and other software, QNX support was removed alongside other old targets. Just months later, the QNX platform support is being revived.

28 March 2023 - SDL3 + QNX - 7 Comments
SDL3 Introduces The Concept Of Child Popup Windows

Development work on SDL3 continues at full-speed for the next version of this hardware/software abstraction library that is commonly used by cross-platform games. The newest feature merged is support for child pop-up windows.

12 March 2023 - SDL3 API - Add A Comment
FEX 2303 Released For Improving Linux x86_64 Gaming On ARM64
FEX 2303 Released For Improving Linux x86_64 Gaming On ARM64

FEX-Emu 2303 was published today as the newest version of this open-source software for enjoying x86 64-bit Linux software to run gracefully on 64-bit ARM (ARM64 / AArch64) including the likes of Linux games and Valve's Steam client with Steam Play (Proton).

6 March 2023 - FEX-Emu 2303 - 6 Comments
X-Plane Now Shipping Zink To Avoid Vendor OpenGL Drivers
X-Plane Now Shipping Zink To Avoid Vendor OpenGL Drivers

As written about last year, the Laminar Research developers responsible for the incredible X-Plane flight simulator software have been working to make use of Mesa's Zink for leveraging OpenGL atop Vulkan to thereby avoid vendor OpenGL drivers that can vary in quality across platforms. With X-Plane 12.04b3, that goal is finally realized.

24 February 2023 - X-Plane + Zink - 49 Comments
Godot 4.0 RC1 Released
Godot 4.0 RC1 Released

The open-source Godot 4.0 game engine will finally be released soon while being christened today is the initial release candidate.

8 February 2023 - Godot 4.0 - 13 Comments
Unvanquished 0.54 Brings More Renderer Improvements, ARM Binaries
Unvanquished 0.54 Brings More Renderer Improvements, ARM Binaries

Unvanquished 0.54 was released overnight as the latest update across the array of many releases going back a decade for this open-source first person shooter game. With Unvanquished 0.54 there continues to be enhancements to its renderer, the project is now providing ARM binaries on Linux to complement their x86/x86_64 builds, user-interface improvements, and gameplay enhancements.

30 January 2023 - Unvanquished 0.54 - 4 Comments
DualShock 4 Controller Support Being Dropped From HID-Sony In Favor Of New Driver
DualShock 4 Controller Support Being Dropped From HID-Sony In Favor Of New Driver

With the Linux 6.2 kernel Sony DualShock 4 controller support was added to the "hid-playstation" driver as the newer open-source driver maintained by Sony and started out originally in supporting the PlayStation 5 DualSense controllers. The DualShock 4 controller was long supported by the "hid-sony" driver while now in the Linux 6.3 kernel that support will be removed.

21 January 2023 - HID-PlayStation Instead - 4 Comments
Godot 4.0 Aims To Ship In The First Months Of 2023
Godot 4.0 Aims To Ship In The First Months Of 2023

It shouldn't be too surprising given the pace of beta releases and planning for post-4.0 releases, but the open-source Godot game engine is planning for its major Godot 4.0 stable release to happen in the "first months" of 2023.

31 December 2022 - Godot 4.0 - 5 Comments
FEX-Emu 2212 Improves x86_64 Game Support On Arm, Now Supports Older Radeon GPUs
FEX-Emu 2212 Improves x86_64 Game Support On Arm, Now Supports Older Radeon GPUs

FEX-Emu is the open-source software project working on speedy x86/x86_64 software emulation on AArch64. FEX-Emu is one of the leading options for running x86 binaries on 64-bit Arm and has matured enough for allowing Linux games and Steam Play titles to run on Arm. FEX 2212 is out as the newest shiny feature update to this promising software.

6 December 2022 - FEX 2212 - 2 Comments
SDL 3.0 Drops Its OpenGL ES 1.0 Render Path
SDL 3.0 Drops Its OpenGL ES 1.0 Render Path

With SDL 3.0 in development and it taking a more modern focus and doing away with various pieces of old code, one of the latest chunks of code being retired is the OpenGL ES 1.0 2D render path.

4 December 2022 - No More OpenGL ES 1.0 - 4 Comments
Godot 4.0 Moves Closer To Release, Early Plans For Post-4.0
Godot 4.0 Moves Closer To Release, Early Plans For Post-4.0

The much anticipated Godot 4.0 open-source game engine continues inching closer to release. When that release is finally out, Godot 4.0.x point releases will likely be coming in quick and some plans for Godot 4.1 are already being discussed.

29 November 2022 - Godot 4 Planning - 4 Comments
SDL3 Begins Dumping A Lot Of Old Code: GLES1, OS/2, DirectFB, WinRT, NaCl & More
SDL3 Begins Dumping A Lot Of Old Code: GLES1, OS/2, DirectFB, WinRT, NaCl & More

It was just a little more than 24 hours ago that SDL 2.26 released for this widely-used library by cross-platform games and other software for abstracting software/hardware interfaces. With SDL 2.26 released, SDL 3.0 is now in development. One of the first stages of that big Simple DirectMedia Layer update is removing a lot of old platform code and other obsolete targets.

23 November 2022 - SDL 3.0 - 59 Comments
SDL 2.26 Released, SDL3 Development Now Underway
SDL 2.26 Released, SDL3 Development Now Underway

SDL 2.26 has been officially released as the latest version of this widely-used library by cross-platform games and other software wishing to abstract various hardware/software differences between systems. With the release of SDL 2.26 out, SDL 3.0 is now officially under development.

22 November 2022 - SDL 2.26 - 9 Comments
OpenRazer 3.5 Brings Support For Newer Razer Devices On Linux
OpenRazer 3.5 Brings Support For Newer Razer Devices On Linux

While Razer still sadly isn't officially supporting their various gaming-focused computer peripherals under Linux, the OpenRazer project providing open-source drivers for Razer products continues working out well and offering broad hardware support under Linux.

20 November 2022 - OpenRazer 3.5 - 22 Comments
Godot 4.0 Engine Adds Movie Maker Mode
Godot 4.0 Engine Adds Movie Maker Mode

In addition to the Vulkan renderer and plethora of other enhancements coming with Godot 4.0, a late v4.0 addition for this very successful open-source game engine is introducing a movie maker mode.

14 November 2022 - Godot 4.0 Movie Maker - 2 Comments
OneXPlayer AMD Sensor Driver Coming For Linux 6.2
OneXPlayer AMD Sensor Driver Coming For Linux 6.2

Last month I wrote about a Linux sensor driver being written for the AMD-powered OneXPlayer Mini gaming handheld device. The good news is that this driver has matured enough that it's now queued for introduction in the Linux 6.2 kernel.

13 November 2022 - OneXPlayer Sensor Driver - 2 Comments
FEX 2211 Emulator Gets God of War & Other Modern AAA Games Running On Linux AArch64
FEX 2211 Emulator Gets God of War & Other Modern AAA Games Running On Linux AArch64

Making good progress this year has been the open-source FEX-Emu emulator for running x86/x86_64 Linux binaries on 64-bit Arm (AArch64). This isn't only for running Linux x86_64 applications on Arm but with Steam and Steam Play (Proton) can mean running Windows games on Linux 64-bit Arm. With FEX 2211 out today more progress has been made on the Proton front for getting more modern games running.

3 November 2022 - Linux 64-bit Arm Gaming - Add A Comment
The Godot Game Engine Now Has Its Own Foundation
The Godot Game Engine Now Has Its Own Foundation

The Godot open-source game engine had been part of the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) as many open-source projects utilize for handling fiscal sponsorship duties and the like while now the Godot Foundation has been established as its own legal entity.

1 November 2022 - Godot Foundation - Add A Comment
sdl12-compat 1.2.60 Gets More Old Games Running Atop SDL2 For Modern Linux Gaming
sdl12-compat 1.2.60 Gets More Old Games Running Atop SDL2 For Modern Linux Gaming

sdl12-compat is the library implementation allowing old SDL 1.2 games/software to work atop SDL2. This sdl12-compat can allow for Wayland support if there is no other direct X11 usage by the software itself, native support for PipeWire, improved input controls, and the many other enhancements enjoyed with the much more modern SDL2 library. Released yesterday was sdl12-compat 1.2.60 as the newest stable release for this conversion/support library for vintage software.

25 October 2022 - sdl12-compat 1.2.60 - 5 Comments
FEX-Emu 2210 Eyes Emulating AVX On Arm, Various Fixes

FEX-Emu as the open-source project aiming for speedy x86/x86_64 games and other software on Arm AArch64 including the likes of Steam has issued their newest feature update. FEX-Emu 2210 is today's newest release for this binary emulator and continues on a nice trajectory for being able to enjoy x86 64-bit binaries on modern Arm Linux systems.

13 October 2022 - FEX-Emu 2210 - 16 Comments
Vulkan-Using X-Plane 12 Flight Simulator Now Available In Beta Form
Vulkan-Using X-Plane 12 Flight Simulator Now Available In Beta Form

Last week Laminar Research promoted X-Plane 12 to its early access public beta phase. This realistic flight simulator continues to natively support Linux -- and doing so well for many years -- and now with X-Plane 12, the Vulkan steps up past their long-used OpenGL renderer.

12 September 2022 - X-Plane 12 Beta - 8 Comments

1921 Linux Gaming news articles published on Phoronix.