Games on i3 Arch Linux

Marlhin

Marlhin

Member
Greetings!

During the last few days I got very curious about the window manager i3 and I thought about reinstalling Arch Linux on my machine with i3.
But what I've heard so far, is that gaming on a tiling window manager may cause problems or is problematic after all.

So I might ask you, have you made any experiences in using a tiling window manager and gaming?
Or should I stick with my current XFCE setup on my machine, if I want to play games on it?
 
I have not used a tiling windows manager, at least I don't think I have...
But I have used Openbox Windows Manager (which can use a tiled setup) for gaming.
Can you change your Windows Manager on-the-fly?
 
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I think @Daerandin uses tiling wm?

I'm no tiling wm user, never understood the hype about it besides "saving resources". I'm a happy camper with KDE or GNOME 3.

I could foresee a problem on how a window manager manages the application. Example, Ubuntu can't run GW2 without it permanently freaking out thanks to compiz.
 
Yeah, compiz is often a problem when it comes to gaming.
Well, I never had any issues playing games on an openbox machine (my first Arch installment was with openbox).
Daerandin seems to be off for a while but if he is a tiling window manager user I hope that he comes back pretty soon to comment on this topic ;)

Regarding the hype, a lot of habits have been changed during my time at Linux. In the end it is up to you if you are able/willing to get used to another kind of system or usage. I want to try i3 out so that I can make my own point of view about it. It will be a new experience for sure! And maybe I do not get used to this kind of usage but everybody has another taste :)
I like my current system with XFCE but I am always open for new things to try out.
 
Didn't mean it as a bad thing haha. By all means go ahead, people should always try new things than being reclusive of choices. Sometimes it can really impact your productivity or brings new workflows.

In terms of experimenting with DEs I think I'm done, haha. I'm waiting for GNOME 3 to keep polishing it. GNOME Shell randomly keeps sucking your RAM for no good reason. KDE Plasma 5 still needs to be shaped for the user... but bleh, I'll leave that for some other time, haha.
 
I'm emailing Daerandin now
Unfortunately I have to stick with the Vanilla Mint Cinnamon package because I'm trying to simulate a noob Linux gamer experience with my Guides.
I don't mind Cinnamon at all, in fact I really like it and Nemo... Nautilus isn't so bad either.
I'm not to picky, but when I have problems I start looking elsewhere.
 
Hey guys, sorry about being so quiet lately. Studies have been more demanding this year than what I expected. And while looking at an open source alternative to what we learn in my studies (asp.net web development) I came across Django and have been reading up on django development. So I got kind of lost in all that. I have barely played games lately, except for Space Hulk Ascension which I've been playing a lot the last days.

I have vacation coming up a month from now, and I was planning on updating some of my older guides, as well as getting back to being active here.

When it comes to tiling window managers, I have actually not used them much so I don't really have anything to offer on that topic. I did try awesomewm shortly since it was a fairly light install on Arch, just to try out a tiling window manager, but it was not my thing.

If you will experience problems or not probably depends on how the window manager will let wine control it's own window size. If i3 allow full-screen applications, or let games run in their preferred resolution then it should work well. But if your window manager start to put limitations on the wine window, then you could possibly have problems with how the game is displayed.

I think the best advice I can give is to go ahead and try. After all it is very simple to change what window manger (or desktop environment) you want to start when you run X but editing your .xinitrc file.

I'm also an Xfce user, and quite happy with my desktop as it is. Tiling wm's are probably very useful if you frequently have several windows open at the same time and you always need to see them all.
 
Daerandin corrected me about Window Managers... Openbox is not a Desktop Environment, its a Window Manager
which is funny because by default there is nothing but a gray screen. Hence why its not a Desktop Environment, not menu's no buttons, no wallpaper, etc.

I haven't found a need for tiling windows either. If anything I use the multiple desktops Ctrl+Alt+arrow-keys to manage my programs.
I always use PlayOnLinux on the first desktop, then internet on the 2nd desktop.
I love multiple-desktops so much that its hard to use Windows.
 
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