Black screen or partial black screen when playing video games?

[jumpboy]

I'm new to linux and everything is so difficult. I did try and am still trying to figure things out.

I checked my nvidia graphics driver and it is updated to the latest.
(Read nvidia might cause problem though in linux.)

I have wine installed. Is the WINE program outdated in Software of zorin ? I think I've read that it's better to download through terminal.
I just checked and wine on zorin software right now is wine 6.0 and I found that wine 8.0 is out in the official website. maybe this is the cause ?
I need to know how to install through terminal.

Also wasn't sure if I need direct x , windows redistributables the c++ since this is
linux and not windows anymore but I do have wine so I just installed all of them just like I need them in windows. and since wine makes it work and most games are windows version, I thought I need it. I didn't wanted to if possible but installed. redistributables all of them from 2005 to 2017.

Still none of the games are working after installing and restarting.
Normally in windows this is all I need to run any games.

I wonder what I'm missing to fix any of the problems. Any basic thing
I missed to install ?

There's a game where I could run the game and see the logo,
and a game logo with game title right before pressing a key to start the menu screen to load.
I can see the new game, load, options, exit.
but there's a black part besides those buttons. where it probably should be some background image.

Then I would start new game, and I can hear the sound, I also can see the
character face with dialogue. I was thinking everything is perfect until after
the dialogues end, it's complete black screen with background music and
character's making sounds as they are swinging their weapon when clicking mouse.
Which means the black screen with the dialogues, there wasn't supposed to be
a black screen. Made me think it was pitch black dark place at first.

Another game I could run is completely black screen. Background music plays.
I would hover my mouse on top right and I can hear the sound as I move around
the menu buttons.

Another game I could run just shows a "Launcher". (like lutris or steam.)
Then the launcher doesn't have any menu, blank. No play button.

There are a lot of launcher ? like programs such as play on linux (probably installed when installing wine) , lutris , steam and on.

I mean if you are gonna install games after downloading them through steam then you might use these. but if you are just installing games that has nothing to do with steam ? are these still required ?
It's not an emulator though. So if I use these to install the game will work unlike if I installed through wine ?
Wine can be used to install any windows game and programs so why won't anybody say anything about using wine to just simply install games like they do in windows ? Why do they always mention steam ? Besides from it being like a
all in one online get any game and some support of proton thing ?

I tried to open a game with lutris and it can't find browse C:drive on my desktop.
I have to remove and install with lutris to even find it ?
So lutris has this proton? or protondb to make games work ?
I don't see the reason to have these unless they make games that don't work , work. With wine, I did successfully installed it. I ran it and it runs except there are
problems.

[Michel]

Maybe read my tutorial how to get games working.

It would have saved you alot of time writing your post.

[Luca_Pavan]

@jumpboy

I need direct x , windows redistributables the c++

I suppose so. @Michel, what do you say? If under a game system requirements no stuff like DirectX, C++, .NET Framework and so on is listed this means that the game has all files it needs to run fine?

[Michel]

I have not seen a game (aa titel) that does not require directx. Enter the matrix i played in the past and it used directx 8 or 9.

[Luca_Pavan]

So it's strange that's not listed under system requirements. Space Trader instead hasn't it listed and I don't even installed it but works really smooth. Well, until the maps aren't filled with many enemies, then it starts lagging a bit, but luckily not till being unplayable.

[Michel]

I dont know what site it is you use. You can google for system requirements for that game.

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Enter_the_Matrix

How do you run the game ?

[Luca_Pavan]

@Michel

what site it is you use

I usually downloaded from sites like MyRealGames, Toomky Games, Gametop and similar, while for abandonware I used My Abandonware and Old Games Download. Sometimes Internet Archive, too. For now, I'm letting Windows and Linux separated, it's a while since I last tried to run Windows games. I mean, I'm mostly playing Linux games, now Minetest much. Also, I'll probably try Lutris as Wine drives me crazy.

@Michel

How do you run the game ?

If needed, the game archive has a folder named _redist containing any support needed by the game (DirectX, .NET Framework and so on) to run properly. At least who published the game did this nice addition, just in case the user is not good at these things.

Thanks for showing PCGamingWiki, looks like I'll use it again next times before installing games. Added to Bookmarks .

[Michel]

[HOW TO] How to get Windows Apps / Games working in Zorin OS 16

Today i create a nice tutorial for people who come from Windows to Linux. There are some poeple around here that don't get games to work. I managed to get alot of games to work with Lutris and Steam, so i share my findings (still new in linux as well). We download the latest Wine release We setup Lutris We setup Steam [Naamloos1] Installing the latest Wine build Remove the current one in Zorin OS 16, to do so go to the software store search for wine and remove it. We are now going to insta…

[Luca_Pavan]

Got it, thanks.

@337harvey

don't expect the newest games to work well in linux.

No problem at all, I still never played games as Fortnite, Overwatch and so on. I like playing old games, I don't care much about graphics quality or the latest trending games, for me fun and variety first of all.

[Luca_Pavan]

Don't worry, your guide is already on my bookmarks since when I saw it about 2 months ago, thanks.

[Luca_Pavan]

But let's not forget about jumpboy. Hey @jumpboy, fixed the issue or not yet?

[zabadabadoo]

@Michel

Maybe read my tutorial how to get games working.

It would have saved you alot of time writing your post.

A link to your tutorial would have been a useful addition to your post.
Were you by chance referring to this tutorial: [HOW TO] How to get Windows Apps / Games working in Zorin OS 16

There is another tutorial by devs here: [HOW TO] Install and play games

[Michel]

The tutorial posted by the devs dont say anything about runners in lutris which is very important for gaming. GloriousEggroll releases modified proton to run in lutris.

Posted that in post 2 from my topic. The devs should write that as well in their tutorial and not talk about adding steam in lutris. Why would you use lutris for steam anyway ??? Does not make much sense to me.

You can see their latest version -> Wine-GE-Proton7-35