Age of Empires 4 is the only game I have had trouble getting to run properly after my switch to Linux. On my Windows boot I can play at 100% scaling 1440P and get a solid 80fps with High settings
When I launch AOE4 on Linux through steam it defaults to 720p low graphics and 50% scaling and still only gets about 20FPS in the menu!
If I manually up the settings to the level I know my rig can run based on my Windows boot the game basically crawls to a hault.
I have scrolled through all of the pages on ProtonDB and tried all of the Boot Config’s suggested that relate to underperformance in the preference menu in steam. I have tried forcing proton experimental and the beta version and running it in an X11 session.
Even moderate increases from the 720p defaults cause so much lag the game is unplayable.
It feels like the game isn’t even using my GPU. Any advice on getting this working? My workaround right now is to just boot into windows when I want to play AOE4 the side benefit of this is solid HDR support but I hope that changes once Wayland HDR for gaming works better out if the box.
Setup
Fedora KDE Plasma
AMD 5600X Graphics
AMD AMD RYZEN 7 7700X CPU
Dual Monitor Setup.
Main Monitor 27" 1440P with Freesnnc
Second Monitor 21" 1080P with Freesync
SOLVED: Buddy of mine suggested I monitor my GPU usage just to see if that helped find any clues on what was going on. I installed Misson Control and took a look at the usage. This is when I noticed that I had 2 GPUs.
Then it clicked. For some reason AOE4 was using my iGPU. I upgraded CPU’s over the summer and never realized this AMD CPU had an iGPU. I am sure I could have found a command to force Proton to use a specific GPU but the quick and dirty was just disabling it. I disabled it in the bios and restarted. No more iGPU in Misson Center. However, now none of my games launched in Steam. Messed around with some launch options for about an hour until i just reinstalled my MESA drivers. Rebooted and now everything plays perfectly.
Replying to the original reply. I got ProtonGE9-4 up and running and the game still plays the same. Game still says I dont even meeting the minimum system requirements for “Low” settings. Really not sure whats going on here.
Great I’ll give this a shot. I’ve never install anything via asdf, similar to RPM? Can I have this installed along side normal Proton? I don’t want to mess with the 99% of games that are working 100% fine on Linux through Steam Proton.
Yeah I believe asdf is a kind of package/version manager, so probably similar. And yes when you install you will see the Proton-GE version as an additional Proton version you can apply in the game options, but it does not overwrite the already installed proton versions
Then it clicked. For some reason AOE4 was using my iGPU. I upgraded CPU’s over the summer and never realized this AMD CPU had an iGPU. I am sure I could have found a command to force Proton to use a specific GPU but the quick and dirty was just disabling it. I disabled it in the bios and restarted. No more iGPU in Misson Center. However, now none of my games launched in Steam. Messed around with some launch options for about an hour until i just reinstalled my MESA drivers. Rebooted and now everything plays perfectly.
You said youve tried experimental and normal proton but have you tried protonGE?
Replying to the original reply. I got ProtonGE9-4 up and running and the game still plays the same. Game still says I dont even meeting the minimum system requirements for “Low” settings. Really not sure whats going on here.
I have not. Is this within the Proton compatibility tab within steam? I’m away from my machine for a couple more hours but I’ll look into this.
https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom
I recommend installing it via asdf, which is described in the installation section of the github readme
Great I’ll give this a shot. I’ve never install anything via asdf, similar to RPM? Can I have this installed along side normal Proton? I don’t want to mess with the 99% of games that are working 100% fine on Linux through Steam Proton.
Yeah I believe asdf is a kind of package/version manager, so probably similar. And yes when you install you will see the Proton-GE version as an additional Proton version you can apply in the game options, but it does not overwrite the already installed proton versions
Great! Thanks for the information.
GE installed separately (at least on Arch)