Gaming

Emulating and launchers

Games can be run by different applications. Some are able to include libraries from different platforms.


Application	Platform	Description	nixpkgs
Steam	Steam	Stable support for Windows games. Linux games often incompatible due to interoperating differences.	`steam` `steam-run` `steam-runtime` `steam-original` `steam-unwrapped` `steam-small`
Lutris	Epic Games, EA App, Flatpak, GOG, Humble Bundle, Steam, Ubisoft Connect, Wine		`lutris` `lutris-free` `lutris-unwrapped`
Legendary & Rare	Epic Games	Rare is a GUI for Legendary.	`legendary-gl` `rare`
Heroic	Epic Games, GOG, Prime Gaming, Wine	Supports gamepad navigation. Uses Legendary unlike Lutris.	`heroic` `heroic-unwrapped`
Itch.io	Itch.io		`itch`
PPSSPP	PSP emulation		`ppsspp`
PCSX2	PS2 emulation
RPCS3	PS3 emulation	Contains unfree blobs (PS3 firmware).	`rpcs3`
RetroArch	Retro games emulation
Wine & Bottles	Windows emulation and software management		`wineWow64Packages` `winetricks` `bottles`
Dosbox	DOS emulation		`dosbox`

List of games in Nixpkgs


Name	Category	Description	nixpkgs
0 A.D.	Strategy, Historical	Historical real-time strategy game.	available
Armagetron Advanced	Arcade, Racing	A multiplayer Tron-like lightcycle racing game.	available
Battle for Wesnoth	Strategy, Turn-based	Turn-based strategy game with fantasy themes.	available
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead	Survival, Rogue-like	Post-apocalyptic survival game.	available
Chromium B.S.U.	Arcade, Space Shooter	Fast paced, arcade-style, top-scrolling space shooter.	available
Dungeon Crawl	Rogue-like, Adventure, Turn-based	Open-source, single-player, role-playing roguelike game.	available
Dwarf Fortress	Simulation, Management, Rogue-like, Sandbox	Single-player fantasy game with a randomly generated adventure world.	available
Endless Sky	Space simulation, RPG	Explore a universe with different factions and ships.	available
FreeCiv	Strategy, Turn-based	Civilization-building strategy game.	available
FreeDink	Adventure, RPG	Free, portable and enhanced version of the Dink Smallwood game engine.	available
FreeDoom	FPS	Free alternative to the Doom series.	unavailable
GZDoom	FPS	A feature-centric port for all Doom engine games, based on ZDoom, adding an OpenGL renderer and powerful scripting capabilities.	available
LinCity	Simulation, Management	City simulation game.	available
LinCity-NG	Simulation, Management	City simulation game.	available
Luanti	Sandbox	An open source voxel game engine.	available
Mindustry	Strategy, Sandbox	Sandbox tower defense game.	available
NetHack	Rogue-like, RPG	Rogue-like game.	available
OpenMW	RPG, Open world, Action-adventure	Unofficial open source engine reimplementation of the game Morrowind.	available
OpenRA	Strategy, RTS	Open-source implementation of Command & Conquer.	available
OpenTTD	Simulation, Management	Business simulation game based on Transport Tycoon Deluxe.	available
Shattered Pixel Dungeon	Rogue-like, RPG	Rogue-like dungeon crawler with pixel graphics.	available
Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection	Puzzle	Simon Tatham's portable puzzle collection.	available
Super Tux	Platformer, Side-scroller	Classic 2D jump'n run side-scroller game.	available
SuperTuxKart	Arcade, Racing	Kart racing game (like Super Mario Kart) featuring Tux and friends.	available
Tales of Maj'Eyal (ToME 4)	Rogue-like, RPG, Turn-based	Rogue-like focused on exploration of procedurally generated dungeons.	available
The Dark Mod	Stealth, FPS	Stealth game inspired by the Thief series.	pending pull request
The Powder Toy	Sandbox	Classic 'falling sand' physics sandbox game.Classic 2D jump'n run sidescroller game.	available
Veloren	RPG, Sandbox	Multiplayer voxel RPG set in a procedurally generated world.	available
Xonotic	FPS, Arena shooter	Fast-paced multiplayer shooter.	available

Installing games

Workarounds

Games that aren't yet available in nixpkgs can be played by other means, including but not limited to:

steam-run as described in Steam or by installing it then running steam-run $GAME or steam-run ./$GAME.
programs.nix-ld = { enable = true; libraries = pkgs.steam-run.fhsenv.args.multiPkgs pkgs; }; to run nearly any binary by including all of the libraries used by Steam. (Source)
appimage-run as described in Appimage.
Distrobox to virtualize an OS that has a package for your game.

Renowned Explorers: International Society

Tested with version renowned_explorers_international_society_522_26056.sh from gog.com. It can be played with steam-run, but it needs some libraries that are not normally included in Steam's FHS environment. One way to solve this is to add an overlay:

  nixpkgs.overlays = [
    (self: super: {
      steam-run = (super.steam.override {
        extraLibraries = pkgs: with pkgs;
          [
            libxkbcommon
            mesa
            wayland
            (sndio.overrideAttrs (old: {
              postFixup = old.postFixup + ''
                ln -s $out/lib/libsndio.so $out/lib/libsndio.so.6.1
              '';
            }))
          ];
      }).run;
    })
  ];

Adding libxkbcommon, mesa, and wayland is straightforward. The game expects the shared library sdnio.so.6.1 to exist, so we need to create a symbolic link after the installation of sndio.

Possible performance optimisations

While NixOS should provide perfectly reasonable performance, there does exist a number of ways to increase gaming performance on existing hardware in the system. Do note however, that all of the below suggestions, only increase the number of generated frames per second by a margin. To achieve much greater performance, better hardware is usually needed.

Disabling kernel split-lock mitigation

In kernel version 6.2, split_lock_mitigate was added, in order to disable the punishment implemented in kernel version 5.19 for abusing the kernel's split locks^[1]. Disabling split_lock_mitigate should see significant performance improvements, in the games affected by the split lock's "misery mode"^[1]^[2]. The kernel parameter can be enabled, or disabled in the system's configuration.nix.

boot.kernelParams = [
  # Split lock mitigation disabled.
  "split_lock_mitigate=0"
];

Enabling GameMode

Enabling GameMode should also yield some performance improvement. How to install and enable GameMode is described its' wiki page. Please note, that by default, GameMode disables split-lock mitigation^[3].

Increase vm.max_map_count

If the value of the kernel parameter vm.max_map_count is too low, it can affect the stability and performance of some games^[2]. As of writing the default value of vm.max_map_count in NixOS is 1048576^[4]. According the the Arch Linux Wiki, SteamOS uses a default value of 2147483642^[2], equivalent to maximum value of a 32-bit signed integer subtracted by 6. The value of vm.max_map_count can be altered in the system's configuration.nix file, as shown below.

boot.kernel.sysctl = {
  "vm.max_map_count" = 2147483642;
};