CachyOS - Gaming

Gaming on CachyOS

Welcome to the world of gaming on CachyOS, a leading Arch-based distribution! This guide will help you get started with playing your favorite games on this operating system.

Prerequisites

Before we dive into the fun stuff, it is essential to ensure that your graphics card drivers are installed and working properly. If your graphics card is not functioning optimally, you won’t be able to play games properly.

Essential Packages

To make things easier for you, CachyOS has grouped all the necessary packages for gaming into one meta package. This makes the installation process faster and easier. Simply run the following command in your terminal:

sudo pacman -S cachyos-gaming-meta

Note

The cachyos-gaming-meta package installs the following packages. If you find that it is missing any packages, feel free to let the CachyOS team know.

Steam

For Steam users, playing games on CachyOS is a breeze! Simply open Steam and select the Proton option, and you’re ready to enjoy your games.

Note

Notebook users with NVIDIA GPUs should refer to the following guide: NVIDIA PRIME Render Offload

Proton

Don’t worry, Proton is very simple! In just a few clicks, you can have it set up and ready to use. Check out the screenshots below for a step-by-step guide.

You can use Proton to play your Windows games on Linux.

Note

To check if your game is compatible with Linux, visit proton-db.

CachyOS provides various Proton versions for improved performance, including proton-cachyos, proton-ge-custom, proton-tkg-git, and the official Proton versions proton-experimental and proton.

Bottles

Bottles is an application that allows you to easily manage Windows prefixes on your favorite Linux distributions. Bottles can also use different runners like Lutris and are all manageable within the application. Bottles offer the option of a gaming-orientated prefix. You can install dependencies, add EXE files, and use their one-click installers for gaming-related apps like EA App or Battle.net. To install Bottles, run the following command in your terminal:

sudo pacman -S bottles

If you would like more information about Bottles, you can look through the documentation for Bottles.

Lutris

Lutris serves as a central hub for all your games on CachyOS. With Lutris, you can efficiently manage your games runners, including Wine, Proton, and emulators. You can even customize their parameters! To install Lutris, execute the following command in your terminal:

sudo pacman -S lutris

Lutris guide

Example on how to install the Epic Games Store inside Lutris on CachyOS.

1. Set the proper Wine runner

Many games perform optimally with the Proton-GE runner, so it’s advisable to configure it before installing anything else.

2. Install the Epic Games Store

It’s as simple as clicking with your mouse; Lutris automates the entire installation process.

3. Sign in to the Epic Games Store with your account.

Yes, you can even sign into the Epic Games Store, and Lutris will display all your owned games in your library.

4. Final words about Lutris

• You can launch games through Lutris simply by clicking the Play button.
• You can also launch a store using the Play button and then run games from within the store, just like you do on Windows.

Script Installers

For many games, launchers and stores, installation is made easy with scripted installers. For example, the League Of Legends scripts can be installed with minimal effort.

1. Just click Install and the browser will prompt you to open in Lutris.
2. Simply follow the instructions provided by the script.

Games stores:

• Epic Games Store
• Ubisoft Connect
• GOG Galaxy

Raytracing

The Arch Wiki has already provides comprehensive instructions on how to enable raytracing for various hardware platforms.

• Raytracing on the NVIDIA
• Raytracing on the AMD
• Raytracing on the Intel
  With this guide, you are now ready to start gaming on CachyOS. Enjoy!