Performance issues with Overwatch in relation to wine.
Performance issues with Overwatch in relation to wine.
After an hour of adjustments, I finally got Overwatch to work in Wine. I launched it, felt pumped, headed to the practice area, and began playing. However, issues arose. The performance was extremely low. My PC (with specs listed in the signature) on Windows can handle high/epic settings and 50+ fps antialiasing, but in Wine it behaves differently. No matter the settings I tried, I consistently achieved between 40 and 70 fps. I played at the highest and slowly reduced the settings, but the fps remained unchanged. While 40 fps is acceptable, there were noticeable small problems, especially during teleportation with Tracer. When removing a training bot, the game would stutter as well.
Software: Latest Overwatch Wine version 2.21, Manjaro Linux fully updated (kernel 4.14.15-1), Nvidia proprietary drivers version 384.111. EDIT 4: the game is currently unplayable online, even at the lowest settings. It consistently lags and drops to 2 or 3 fps with multiple heroes in front of me.
WineHQ currently marks performance as "garbage," but this isn't a permanent fix—improvements are expected soon.
It might have helped to disable battle.net, but the stutters still persist. When I increase the settings to high, the frame rate stays the same, yet the interruptions continue.
WINE acts as a bridge layer, replacing native Windows API calls with alternatives that work on Linux and Unix systems. It lets games and apps pretend they’re running on Windows, enabling them to use the right API functions. However, because it translates these calls into POSIX/Unix commands, its speed is limited by the developers’ ability to reverse engineer them. It’s important to note that WINE isn’t an emulator, so it can’t handle every API request—like newer ones in Blizzard’s games—leading to possible slowdowns or crashes. I’m puzzled you managed to hit around 30 FPS recently, especially after a previous session was completely unplayable on the same hardware.
It might relate to the refresh rate. Have you applied any tearing fixes? Such issues can affect FPS. Do you own a G-Sync monitor? Is it functioning properly on Linux? That won’t solve the stuttering, though. It could be a problem with the Windows API or Direct3D implementation. Also, look at winecfg → "Staging" → CSMT enabled and switch it on or off. I don’t play Overwatch, so I can’t provide exact steps. The graphics performance on Linux isn’t sufficient for serious competitive gaming (FPS, RTC, or any that need quick reactions). Edited January 31, 2018 by Wild Penquin a few missing words
it turns out i struggle with this. when more than two heroes appear in front of me, the game slows down and drops to around 3fps. that boosted the overall frame rate, but didn’t fix the stuttering issue. i also observed my cpu usage was consistently near 100%.
It seems wine won't match Overwatch's constant updates. That game is always changing.
Overwatch... I recall my college roommate from hell would blast audio through his mic at 3 AM in the middle of the night, trying to sleep while I attempted to prepare for my 9 AM physics lectures. What a strange game world? They seem to exist just to keep people hooked online. Use Linux to aid in breaking free.
Wine performance is quite typical, you rarely see the same results as on Windows. It's already impressive enough to function. For a more recent update, you might want to try it if you're up for it, though expect nothing extraordinary.