GeForce NOW

I tried this tip to run GeForce NOW on my Linux and run streamed games through the browser. To be honest I'm not sure if this is needed anymore, but I followed the instructions to the letter and now have the service.

The nice thing is that I can "buy" a game in Epic or Steam but don't have to download them.

I was motivated to get games like Fortnite and Apex Legends running, so I could have some first-hand experience about these games. Also, I could try less interesting free-to-play games like War Thunder without having to waste hard drive space.

But as I could also "sync" my existing Steam library, it might be revealing to check games I already know well.

What I noticed is apparently no Steam savegames are translated to the service, so I had to begin the games from the beginning. The other immediate thing is that the streaming computer has a different keymap, affecting some games in (very minor) ways. E.g. Fortnite has auto-run key on = but it's not at shift+0. The key is not really needed, though.

The stream picture quality with 1920x1200 is high. On occasions I tried a lower display resolution to see if it would affect the evenness of the stream, but to be honest it might not have done much.

My observations are not serious comparisons, just how I felt about it.

Rise of the Tomb Raider cutscene

Above: Streaming from Geforce NOW

Below: Running on my Linux and GTX 1060 3GB with my preferred settings.

Rise of the Tomb Raider cutscene

In this scene there is a minor difference in how the pendant casts a shadow, more hair detail, and the leather jacket is rendered perhaps slightly differently. There may be different reasons for this than just the game settings, though, e.g. driver versions and such. Oh and the local screen might be scaled up from a 1440x900 or something,  and this might already explain the difference in materials.

The basic gameplay of Rise of the Tomb Raider is so loaded with "inertia" so a slight lag didn't matter. I felt more doubtful about the quicktime events, though.

Just Cause 3 is a game which I played with some intensity last year. Arguably it has more crisp controls than Tomb Raider, but still I didn't notice any great disadvantage here. The game itself eventually crashed, I think, which is what happened few times when running on my Linux too.

Just Cause 3

I didn't do a comparison of graphic settings, but it may be that using best quality shadows helps give the above effect. I don't know, but blurred and less definite shadows may actually look better in games.

I went through a few battles in Everspace. This was quite playable through the stream. Granted, here the cursor might not exactly follow the mouse, but the ship control itself is sufficiently sluggish so it translates well to the streaming environment. 

The loading hiccups I've sometimes experienced when playing this on my computer, were completely absent on the streamed version. Full graphic detail is active with no slowdown.

Everspace

Elite: Dangerous is a good match for the service, as the game has a slower pace to begin with, and my experiences with Steam/Proton had been a mixed bag. Yes, I initially got it working via Proton, but after later updates I had difficulties in getting the game to run and have no incentive to troubleshoot it. 

After various arrangements and recovering lost passwords and verifying the account, and waiting for shaders to load and planets to generate, I got to my Elite: Dangerous via GeForce NOW. The nice thing here is that the game account is at Frontier, so I guess I am continuing my saved game. 

Oh, and the Geforce NOW tends to have DLC and additional content of the games pre-loaded so the Horizons addition was already plugged in. This is interesting, as I don't really own the Horizons content at Steam. (Horizons is what makes it possible to visit the surfaces of the planets.)

Elite: Dangerous

But so, Fortnite. Twice I tried the free variant of the Geforce service and had 200+ players in line before I could have a go. This meant about an hour of waiting. Then I paid the 6 month fee to get rid of the queue and the one-hour playing limit. The stream itself doesn't seem better, but I guess they wouldn't want to demonstrate a crappy stream in the free service.

I have now played a few hours of Fortnite. One time, the game got stuck in mid-stream, and I used the terminal to shut the browser window.

There was some choppiness as the session starts which I believe is due to the MMO logistics and not the stream really.

Apex Legends was offline and in "maintenance" which I'll have to see as a minus as it shows the service content might change on a whim.

Fortnite

This kind of streamed gaming requires some tolerance towards minor screen effects, as I wouldn't say the stream is perfectly smooth. But it's not always clear what is caused by the stream and what comes from the game itself, or even my setup.

Generally I don't see much point in running a game like Tomb Raider over the stream, if I already have it downloaded on Linux. If the streamed games are from a high-end "rig", then compared to that the 1060 already renders games rather well.

Using full graphics settings is fun to try but reveals that the additions are mostly in details I wouldn't care so much about. Granted, these are already slightly old games.

All in all there's a strange feeling this is not quite "real", but at least for trying out new games and especially games otherwise unavailable for Linux, it is a nice addition. The selection of games is not super-huge, especially at the indie end. But it's just a fact now that many major games are exclusive to different platforms and services.