I primarily use Gnome desktop (x11) with Ubuntu because I’m pretty comfortable with it, I like the minimalist, modern style, I enjoy the smoothness, and I don’t feel like I need to customize everything. Plus, having familiarity with the desktop, out-of-box experience helps me when installing and reinstalling, which I do often because of work.

The issue with it, however, is I can’t really play games smoothly on it, specifically Rocket League. On Plasma, I was able to achieve smoothness (not just high framerate, but also input – erm, latency? lag? not sure the term here) by installing the liquorix kernel, using the proprietary nvidia drivers, and – here is the key – hitting Shift+Alt+F12 to disable with the compositor. After that, I get a nice smooth experience in Rocket League, which is essential since it’s a game that is dependent on quick reactions and physics.

But with Gnome, there is no disabling the compositor this way. Supposedly Gnome handles this by allowing apps to bypass the compositor if they’re in fullscreen mode, but it does not seem that Rocket League does this. I did set it to full screen, turned off the second monitor, but it still felt like there was a delay between when I pressed a button on the controller and when the car reacted. The framerate is still at 144, but its not playable with this amount of input lag. Honestly, feels kinda like if vsync were on. I did read that mutter forces vsync on, but not sure how reliable that is.

I don’t mind logging out and switching my desktop to Plasma, but it would be nice if I could just stick with Gnome. I very much like how it handles workspaces, and yeah, I know I could probably configure Plasma to do somewhat of the same thing, but it just doesn’t feel the same to me.

Anyone have RL running smoothly on Gnome?

Edit: whoops, yes, running through proton. I forget what version at the moment…

  • Victor@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    3 days ago

    But Rocket League has a Linux version in Steam, which is obsolete, so if you don’t specify explicitly in the Rocket League Steam settings that you want to override the compatibility for it, then it will install the Linux version (which will not work). It has to install the Windows version.

    This has to be done even if you have the compatibility set to always use Proton for games in the general settings.

    I’ve been playing Rocket League on Arch for years now. 😊

    • HakunaHafada@lemm.eeEnglish
      3·
      3 days ago

      Thanks for the help! I had no idea there was a Steam-wide compatibility setting, I was only aware of the per-game compatibility mode.

          • Victor@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            2 days ago

            Maybe they’d like it more if they could play with real people. Bots are boring. Depends how old they are of course. I don’t think kids should be playing Rocket League anyway. One of the most toxic games out there. At least if you run into French players. 😐

            • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              1·
              2 days ago

              They’re pretty young, so getting dominated by people wouldn’t be the best experience. They just want to play car soccer, and they still get beaten by the AI.

              And yeah, I’ve played a fair amount online, not a fan of the toxicity these days, but it was great before it went F2P.

              • Victor@lemmy.worldEnglish
                2·
                2 days ago

                getting dominated by people wouldn’t be the best experience. They just want to play car soccer, and they still get beaten by the AI.

                Same reason why my two kids only get to play freeplay on the Switch 😆👍

                it was great before it went F2P

                I really was. It really, really was. 🥲