Despite limitations in support and internal decisions from various hardware manufacturers, the desire to play on Linux has never disappeared. Some companies work hard to bring high-profile titles to the Linux world. One of them is Feral Interactive, which is about to release a new port of Rise of the Tomb Raider. That special version will include GameMode, a tool designed to optimize game performance by directly adjusting processor behavior.
Feral Interactive and Linux Gaming
Feral Interactive is best known for its Mac game ports, but in June 2014 it began releasing Linux-compatible versions, and the first on its list was none other than XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Thanks to its efforts, today we can enjoy Alien: Isolation, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, F1 2017, the Warhammer and Total War series, XCOM 2 with its expansions, and the Tomb Raider reboot. Its sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider, will also come to Linux as a Feral port, but that game will include something special: GameMode, an open source tool designed to optimize its performance.
What Does GameMode Do?
GameMode’s future goal is to become a platform with different integrated adjustments that apply temporarily to the operating system, concentrating all available processing power on running each title. Right now, however, it’s a bit less than that. Basically, GameMode modifies the CPU’s so-called “governor” on the fly to activate the performance mode instead of ondemand or powersave.
Any user could do this manually on their preferred distro, but GameMode’s advantage is that it installs as a resident background daemon and handles the process automatically.
Is It Worth It?
The question is: is it worth it? The final answer is simply “it depends” – on both the game and the hardware and distro you have installed. GameMode is open source, so porting it to other distros and games shouldn’t be complicated, but the official GitHub section offers installation guides for Ubuntu, Arch Linux, and Fedora. If you try it, tell us how it went.
