Monday, January 15th 2024
Simple Trick gets "The Finals" Running in Linux with Intel Arc Graphics
The Finals—a free-to-play online first-person shooter—has pulled in a large population of gamers across Windows PCs and current-gen gaming consoles since its surprise launch last month, but players on Linux Desktop + Intel Arc hardware were missing out on this experience...until very recently. Phoronix reports that Embark Studio's Unreal Engine 5-powered title has started to work in a Linux environment "thanks to Valve's Steam Play (Proton + VKD3D-Proton). With the latest Mesa driver activity, Intel Arc Graphics on Linux with their open-source driver can now handle this popular game." GamingOnLinux owner, Liam Dawe, created a post about this development, although he noticed a multitude of stability problems and glitches in-game, but was largely up and running with an AMD Radeon 6800 XT GPU on Mesa 23.3.3.
Phoronix's Michael Larabel noted some (Intel Arc-specific) feedback on GitLab: "when launching The Finals on Linux with Intel Arc Graphics using the default DirectX 12 renderer, it was reported that the game is stuck at a black screen for Intel Arc Graphics and then simply closes... Well, it's an easy fix and one that has come up before." He has witnessed similar problems with other games—notably Diablo IV and Cyberpunk 2077: "due to The Finals using Intel's XeSS upscaling tech but that not behaving well on Linux. The Windows game sees Intel Graphics being utilized and by default tries to leverage XeSS...Intel Arc Graphics on Linux can run The Finals when concealing the fact that it's Intel Graphics inside."
His method, conclusion and wishlist: "Setting the "force_vk_vendor=-1" environment variable can be used for concealing the graphics vendor or with Mesa Git is now the configuration change to apply this behavior out-of-the-box for the game. The Finals uses a binary called "Discovery.exe" as a rather common binary name so hopefully this won't cause issues with any other software out there. That patch is also marked for back-porting to the Mesa 23.3/24.0 stable series. So if you've been wanting to play The Finals with Intel Graphics on Linux, now you know. Hopefully Intel XeSS will be eventually supported on Linux or at least work nicely for Windows games on Steam Play."
Sources:
Phoronix News, Gaming on Linux
Phoronix's Michael Larabel noted some (Intel Arc-specific) feedback on GitLab: "when launching The Finals on Linux with Intel Arc Graphics using the default DirectX 12 renderer, it was reported that the game is stuck at a black screen for Intel Arc Graphics and then simply closes... Well, it's an easy fix and one that has come up before." He has witnessed similar problems with other games—notably Diablo IV and Cyberpunk 2077: "due to The Finals using Intel's XeSS upscaling tech but that not behaving well on Linux. The Windows game sees Intel Graphics being utilized and by default tries to leverage XeSS...Intel Arc Graphics on Linux can run The Finals when concealing the fact that it's Intel Graphics inside."
7 Comments on Simple Trick gets "The Finals" Running in Linux with Intel Arc Graphics
I think its always the same reason "supporting issues"
Anyone remember graphical glitches at start of Arc A750/770? Like Black / Green boxes over flame particles in Witcher 3?
Linux had no problem like that with Arc xd
Tho i am still waiting for XeSS support be implemented to the Linuxtbh you don't need Kernel 6.1 or higher to run Arc - you can just use Mesa
tho i have to agree for the "working as intended without any problem" you need at least Kernel 6.2
tho for the best 6.5 is minimumSad thing - developers NOW are a different kind of breed...
One that mostly have no idea what they are working on and doing - all they care is just to force "realistic" graphics, put 4k textures everywhere and brag "how our game looks" - while ignoring art style, optimization and other stuff like that XD
those are not DEVS, those are just "devs" sadly to say....
and well... that "some crack" people are community and people working for Valve - thanks to those kings, we are able to be where we are currently with Linux Gaming.correct me if wrong - but isn't that like an easy option to just switch off/on for the develops but most of the "Unreal Engine Devs" are ignoring that thing?
i mean... Insurgency Sandstorm uses EAC aswell and it runs on Linux for as how long as i can remember
There is however a theroretical drawback of enabling it, anti-cheat on wine / linux is fundamentally less strong as the system owner has full control over the kernel. Kernel level anti cheats are simply not viable.
That being said in practice its easy enough to develop cheats for windows, especially around eac so the weakness is purely academic.
This also would not be the first game to break on intel like that.On the flipside of importance.