Thinking about setting up a linux VM for KSP

[Barklight]

So... I run Windows 8.1 Pro on my gaming desktop. Hyper-V is installed and I'm thinking about spinning up either an Ubuntu or Fedora virtual machine. I'm curious about a few things and am looking for some input, please

Why? I <3 mods. And for fun. I'm thinking of starting up one heavily modded run of the game with around 30 mods plus many of the popular graphics mods at the same time. Enough to say from past experience that I know I'd be crashing the x86 client.

• Which Linux distro would be the best choice for KSP and other linux capable games?
  
• Any special tricks for graphics on a linux VM? I have SLI GTX660Ti's and a GTX470 in the system.
  
• Anyone have problems setting up a joystick to be used in a VM? I like my Logitech stick.
  
• Do you have any horror stories or tips/tricks for KSP on Linux you can share?
  

[HaoSs]

i'd make a dual boot , not a VM. I'd switch to linux entirely if it run directx games )

As for linux . Id go with fedora.

[sievers808]

I agree with HaoSs, you should set up a dual boot instead of running a VM. I prefer Fedora as well but Ubuntu might have a bit more information available online for getting KSP running smoothly. That and the new Fedora version has quite a few issues (at least it did when I installed it).

[Duke23]

Definitely dual boot if you're serious about performance... You're still dealing with all of Windows' bloat with a VM. I'm partial to Linux Mint, it's functional, easy to use, and looks good. I switched when Ubuntu went to that ugly netbook interface and didn't look back.

I just started messing around with KSP on that machine since it's older and doesn't get used much so I can't really advise on that, but it was easy to get up and running from a pretty much fresh install of the OS.

[cantab]

I've long been partial to Kubuntu. KDE's a bit fat but has some nice features.

If your main interest is games you could try the SteamOS beta.

[Barklight]

Definitely dual boot if you're serious about performance... You're still dealing with all of Windows' bloat with a VM. -snip-

Good point, though I don't know if it'd cause much of an issue on my end. My gaming desktop hardware consists of an 8-core AMD 8350 and 16GB of DDR3 1800 ram running on an ASUS Crosshair Formula V motherboard. Windows runs on a 120GB Intel 330 SSD, with my apps installed to a Samsung 840 Evo 1TB SSD (I'd keep the VM here too). Would the bottleneck be through the Hyper-Visor or just windows background stuff? I figure if I throw 8GB of RAM, 60GB on the Samsung SSD, and 4 cores to the VM that it should run pretty snappy. Not sure how to allow the VM hardware access to the EVGA graphics cards though.

[Duke23]

With the SSDs it probably wouldn't be as big an issue but unless something has changed that CPU should get you slightly better performance than my FX-4350 as far as KSP goes. Which still leaves a little to be desired on high part count ships and stations not considering still running Windows... I wouldn't personally run any game in a VM unless I absolutely have to because there always seems to be a performance loss even when the VM is 98se or something.

Then again a lot of that is probably due to the way the CPU and GPU especially is accessed by the VM so maybe you wont have that issue depending on your setup. I've found a dual boot system often runs games much faster on the Linux side though, even if you have to cheat with WINE. I just fear that running it in a VM may get rid of that benefit...

Edited May 30, 2014 by Duke23

[TeddyDD]

Im using Linux Mint and Windows 7. KSP works on Linux like crap. I love Linux but for now is way better to install Active Memory Reduction and play on Windows :|

[Albert VDS]

A VM doesn't use your gfx card or actual cpu funtionality. Go for a Xubuntu install, it's light and easy to install.

[sp4c3]

A VM doesn't use your gfx card or actual cpu funtionality.

Actually thats completly wrong.

Modern Virtualisation is able to pass through a cpu with all physical available features on the host. (that is no emulated...).

Also you can pass-through real pci(-e) hardware like vga-cards.

At least Linux KVM and Xen can do this, and depending on your mainboard etc. it works great.

@Topic:

Choose a linux Distribution of your choice. I just found out, that some mods make the x86_64 KSP executable crash on loading, while the x86 works. But maybe the error is somewhere in my System.

[BrokenPhysics]

KSP works on Linux like crap.

I have to disagree strongly!

I'm running Kubuntu and it works fine.

KSP is actually the smoothest gaming experience I had on Linux. (The second best being Portal for Linux) Of course, linux isn't magically solving all the performance problems of KSP.

[Seret]

For gaming you always want to run on the bare metal. VMs may include some support for 3D graphics these days, but the performance hit is a big issue. VMs are great for desktop apps, but still suck for gaming.

Luckily a dual boot is actually even easier to set up than a VM. If you're new to Linux I'd recommend Ubuntu. KSP runs on it without any issues, and it's really widely supported. Why make life difficult for yourself if you're only interested in using it as a platform for one game?

[cantab]

If the game performs really badly on Linux, as in slideshow at the main menu badly, you probably don't have the proprietary graphics drivers installed. You'd have the same problems on any OS if you didn't have the proper drivers for your graphics card.

[TeddyDD]

I have to disagree strongly!

I'm running Kubuntu and it works fine.

KSP is actually the smoothest gaming experience I had on Linux. (The second best being Portal for Linux) Of course, linux isn't magically solving all the performance problems of KSP.

You lucky devil. Even the 32-bit version did not want to work for me.

[rtxoff]

The 64bit Linux version is still not using more then 4GB of RAM. No need to switch to Linux because of that.

You will need ActiveTextureManagement anyway to play with that amount of mods on Linux too.