Pragmata: The RE Engine Delivers! | RX 9070 XT Linux Performance & Impressions (Bazzite 43)

January 11, 2026January 8, 2026 Robert LohrLeave a comment

(World Premiere)

Alright, alright. I admit, I’m exaggerating here. It is true for me, however. The unique thing about Pragmata is its use of the RE-Engine, which is like venturing into new territory for me. I have avoided the Resident Evil games and, by extension, the RE Engine because I’m officially in the scaredy-cat camp when it comes to horror games. As a result, Pragmata shines among the many Unreal-based stars in outer space.

And with that, hello and welcome to a Linux Gameplay Performance blog post.

The Pragmata demo was announced at The Game Awards 2025, and the game is slated for release in April 2026.

Will Pragmata’s launch into the Linux universe be soft, or will the trek to orbit be a rocky one?

Here’s a German version of the video.

Total War: Three Kingdoms Benchmark-Battle Linux & Windows | RX 9070 XT (Bazzite 43)

January 3, 2026January 8, 2026 Robert LohrLeave a comment

If you regularly watch Gamers Nexus benchmark videos or are just a strategy game enthusiast, Total War may be a name you recognize. It has been quiet as far as “Mystery Games” go in the Epic Games Store, but at the end of the year, Tim Sweeney handed out a household name in the strategy space for free. I took this opportunity by the hand to check out Total War for myself and, of course, also benchmark it.

And with that, I welcome you back to another Linux versus Windows benchmark battle.

I usually prefer to do a Gameplay Performance first, before diving into the benchmarks. However, I’m sad to say that Total War: Three Kingdoms just isn’t my cup of tea. Therefore, I spent only as much time in the game as I needed to record some B-roll and get the testing done.

But enough foreplay. Let’s get to the climax and the question of who’s packing more heat.

Yes, you heard that right. And there’s plenty more where that came from.

(German version of the video)

My Year In Video Gaming 2025 – Game Of The Year And More

January 1, 2026January 1, 2026 Robert LohrLeave a comment

Hello everyone.

This blog continues what I started in 2021. I cannot believe this baby is celebrating its fifth birthday.

This blog also exists as an English and a German YouTube Video.

2025 has been a challenging year for me from a health perspective. I’ve never had so many unpleasant, long-lasting issues at once. Don’t worry, I will not go into detail here. As a result, I didn’t have as much energy for gaming or working out as I would have liked to spend. Nevertheless, my enthusiasm for video games never faltered. It is much greater than for watching TV shows or movies. For example, I never finished the Fallout TV series, although I had no issues with it. I just didn’t care enough.

Video games were a different beast, though. I preferred watching streams or Let’s Play series over standard TV. I love the medium, and I envy everyone who has been able to turn this great hobby into their job or even just a viable second income stream. I’ve been drawn to voice my feelings about games on my mostly coding-focused blog, the-codeslinger.com. And while I always enjoyed the process of writing, it became less and less fulfilling over time. Even though you do hobbies for yourself, if it’s something creative like this, you still would like people to engage with it.

So, I’ve been thinking about whether and how to continue, and if it would make sense to finally separate the coding content from the gaming. And this led me to start a YouTube channel as a creative outlet. I love this visual medium so much. My channel focuses on Linux gaming, testing Linux gaming performance, and comparing Linux and Windows in benchmarks on my hardware. I’m not limiting myself to just Linux gaming, but it’s the niche I’m trying to occupy alongside other major gaming and benchmarking channels.

It just feels great to render a video that matches my idea of what I wanted to discuss. And I couldn’t be happier about the reception. Now, the content isn’t pushing crazy numbers or anything like that. But there are viewers, and for now, the process of making the videos and seeing the result is rewarding enough. It’s the total opposite of my day job and the perfect release valve for my (admittedly barely) creative side.

But that’s enough intro-talk. Let’s move on to what really matters.

You’re probably only interested if Expedition 33 is my Game Of The Year anyway.

“The Codeslinger” Becomes “The Gameslinger”

January 1, 2026 Robert LohrLeave a comment

Happy New Year, everyone.

I’d like to start 2026 with a brief (I hope) public service announcement. I’ve been writing blog posts since July 2012, if WordPress can be believed. What started as a hobby and later became a job has now become just a job over the past few years. All of my blog posts in 2025 relate to gaming, and there are only five. I used to write so much more.

But times have changed. My priorities and how I deal with stress have changed. The software development industry has changed with the rise of AI. I have experienced firsthand how such tools can help with coding-related problems and, in a way, make traditional blogging less relevant. Asking an AI can be so much faster, even if it doesn’t immediately work. The turnaround is much quicker than trying to find something on Google, reading the blog, trying it out, and repeating.

Long story short:

I don’t think writing a coding blog is the best use of my time at this point.
I need distance from software engineering in my free time.
I will focus on gaming topics as a creative outlet from now on.

In the past, I occasionally used YouTube to augment my benchmark videos to demonstrate how I tested. Starting in Q2 2025, this has become the primary outlet for real content, rather than just showing benchmark runs without commentary.

That is what I will focus on for now. Since I still pay for this page, I plan to gradually rename “The Codeslinger” to “The Gameslinger” to host my scripts and link to the YouTube videos. My game reviews still receive a surprising number of clicks, and I think I could expand my YouTube reach by also publishing written content. After all, I have written scripts anyway.

For now, the name “The Codeslinger” and the domain “the-codeslinger.com” will remain. I will start posting my scripts and linking my videos. Over time, I may redirect the domain to my GitHub account and try to get “the-gameslinger.com” or something like that for this site. I will also keep all my coding posts for posterity. But I don’t think I’ll add anything anytime soon.

I’d like to thank everyone who subscribed to this blog for the coding content. I hope you also enjoyed the gaming stuff and stick around for more of that.

If you are interested in what I’m doing on YouTube, here’s the link to the English channel, The Gameslinger EN, and here’s the German channel, The Gameslinger DE. In short: test game performance on Linux and also compare it to Windows. And some opinion pieces and reviews.

Thank you for your time. Have a great 2026!

South of Midnight Benchmarks & Critique (Linux vs. Windows)

May 3, 2025January 10, 2026 Robert Lohr1 Comment

Compulsion Games and striking art might as well be synonyms in dictionaries. South of Midnight’s visual identity is unmistakable, but it does not stop there. The game is more than just artsy graphics.

But before I briefly share my opinion on the game, let me talk about the technical side of things, which is central to this blog post. The primary focus is how South of Midnight performs on Linux and Windows, how difficult it was to get working, and things I noticed while playing on both platforms.

The Nerdy Bits

I purchased the game on Steam, and as one has come to expect, it just worked. I did not force any Proton version and let Steam do its thing instead. Throughout my playtime, I did not have any issues whatsoever. South of Midnight felt like it belonged.

Star Wars Outlaws Benchmarks & Critique (Linux vs. Windows)

April 20, 2025January 10, 2026 Robert Lohr1 Comment

Star Wars Outlaws is Ubisoft’s take on a Star Wars game working within the framework of their established Open-World formula. Although Massive Entertainment worked to avoid the checklist-like map design full of question marks, it still ended up being a checklist, just not on the map. And underneath all that busywork is a heist story along the lines of Ocean’s 11. With a twist.

But before I briefly share my opinions on the game itself, let me talk about the technical side of things, which is at the center of this blog post. The main focus is how Star Wars Outlaws performs on Linux and Windows, how difficult it was to get working, and things I noticed while playing on both platforms.

The Nerdy Bits

Let me start with the installation. I purchased the game on Ubisoft’s platform instead of Steam, so I had to resort to Lutris for the first step. After I installed the Ubisoft Connect launcher via this handy script, the procedure was the same as on Windows: select the game to install, the install location, and start the download.

In Lutris’ settings, I chose Proton-GE as the runtime, but I also tried Wine and Proton Experimental. Since I noticed no differences, I stuck with what I tested last, which was Proton-GE.

Benchmarking Preamble

I tested on my AMD Ryzen 7600 with 32 GB of DDR5 6000 Mt/s memory and an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT. Windows 11 was on version 24H2 as of the end of March. My Linux installation was a regular Fedora 41 Workstation with Gnome Shell on Wayland running kernel version 6.13.8. Since I play at 1440p, that was the only resolution I tested. For graphics settings, I limited myself to Ultra and High, each at native resolution and upscaling with FSR Ultra Quality.

I ran every benchmark pass three times in one go instead of performing three separate runs and averaging the numbers. I am lazy, and I also assume that the result would be the same.

A Plague Tale: Innocence Review (PC Linux)

March 8, 2025March 9, 2025 Robert Lohr1 Comment

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a stark contrast to Asobo Studio’s prior work, which includes titles based on family-friendly movies such as WALL-E, Toy Story, or Garfield. Even contemporary games could not be more different. Today, Asobo Studio is best known for the A Plague Tale games and Microsoft Flight Simulator. What sets A Plague Tale: Innocence apart from the rest of the lineup is its extremely dark and gritty medieval fantasy setting. The game does not hold back on heartbreaking moments and gory visuals. But it is not a horror game at heart. A Plague Tale: Innocence is a linear, story-driven adventure with a focus on stealth and occasional combat. It borrows elements from survival horror titles, such as exploring the world for supplies to aid in your journey. The major difference is that resources are plenty enough to get you through all situations. If a puzzle requires a certain amount of crafting materials, you can generally find them near its location. This design choice makes the game very approachable, and the primary reward for exploration is a healthy surplus of resources for lavish use and upgrading the main character’s gear.

A Plague Tale: Innocence’s game design is a puzzle at its core. But it does not present itself as a puzzler. Your journey through the 17 chapters confronts you with carefully crafted areas populated with enemies of varying types. Depending on the enemy and the gear you have unlocked, you can take out your foe or, most of the time, distract them to sneak past. After all, the main protagonist is a fifteen-year-old girl usually accompanied by even younger children, her five-year-old brother in particular. One hit instantly spells game over. A slow and methodical approach is typically the key. When you combine the dark story and atmosphere, the game creates a suspense-packed gameplay experience.

For the most part, A Plague Tale: Innocence is not very difficult. Because of its linear structure and limited size, the solution to crossing an area is usually not difficult to deduce. Only in the later chapters does the number of enemies in a particular location provide a challenge. Until then, A Plague Tale: Innocence is more about engrossing you in its story, world, and characters. The successor, A Plague Tale: Requiem changes that and unleashes you into larger, much more challenging places. But that does not mean that A Plague Tale: Innocence is a walking simulator. There is enough gameplay here to make it a proper and exciting game. Asobo Studio created a very focused adventure without unnecessary fluff and monetization crap.

(Stay away from the Coats of Arms DLC, though. From what I saw, this is a pack of “outfits” that merely change the color of the base outfit, which you’ll never see again after the second or third chapter.)

Take (Game) Screenshots On Linux Every X Minutes In Python

February 2, 2025 Robert LohrLeave a comment

Almost four years ago, I explained how I automated taking screenshots of video games on Windows. I integrated this code into a GUI two years later to simplify starting and stopping the capture. It was not a pretty application, but it did the job. Since I resurrected my Linux experiment a while ago, gaming on Linux and even the general day-to-day use of Linux have caught up to the point where it is a serious contender for daily driving. Therefore, I was looking for a way to automate taking a screenshot while I am gaming on Linux. My previous approach would not work since it relied on Windows’ infamous WinAPI, and Wine wasn’t something I wanted to dabble with for something so small.

My initial idea was to use a Wayland API to do something low-level. It seems like this is impossible by design in the name of security. I want to substantiate this with links to official statements or documentation. However, I could only find user messages in various forums and SO-like services saying precisely what I just did, but without providing a source.

The most viable solution I found was using DBus and calling into the XDG Desktop Portal to capture the screen. From my understanding, the desktop environment’s compositor implements this specification and serves the request, e.g., Gnome’s Mutter.

The solution I present here is based on this StackOverflow response. All of the credit goes to that user. I added a bit of context and explanation in this blog post. Note that this is not a DBus tutorial, although I implicitly tackle some core concepts when explaining the code. I would direct you to the Freedesktop tutorial on DBus for a high-level overview. I am not a DBus specialist, and some aspects still elude me.

The complete example code is in my GitHub repository. I only show the bare minimum here for the explanations.

My Year In Video Gaming 2024 – Game Of The Year And More

January 19, 2025February 2, 2025 Robert LohrLeave a comment

2024 was just like all the other years regarding my game selection. Barely any of the titles I played were released in 2024. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is the only new game, and Horizon Forbidden West on PC was just a re-release on a different platform. I was debating whether to continue this series, especially since the end of the year was not the best time health-wise. Motivation to play or write was nonexistent.

Before trying to squeeze any more semi-interesting words out of my fingers and waste everybody’s time, let me summarize the games I played.

Why Buy An Xbox When Games Are Released On PlayStation? Here’s A Thought.

October 24, 2024 Robert LohrLeave a comment

Xbox has changed its strategy and started releasing games on other platforms previously exclusive to the Xbox. These moves have caused some unrest among Xbox fans, who have voiced their dissatisfaction on social media. This has been especially true since the announcement of the Indiana Jones game, which is a major upcoming title for Xbox. My exposure to all of this is all hearsay through podcasts and reports in YouTube videos. In these discussions, very few people can (or want to?) find a convincing reason that answers why you should still buy an Xbox. I have a few ideas.

But before I share them, I would like to briefly rant about the notion of being disappointed and now questioning the point of owning an Xbox. So, please stay a while and listen.

(Or rudely skip ahead to the “Pro Xbox” section.)

PlayStation Envy

I am baffled by any outrage because of this. Shouldn’t we gamers be happy for each other? Now, more players can also enjoy the great games that have only existed on an Xbox (not all, of course). The idea of being a fan of a brand, a.k.a. a giant corporation accountable to shareholders, is beyond me. How can it be so simple to shake this loyalty? Is it a form of schadenfreude that turns people into Xbox fans because they know that PlayStation owners do not get access to certain games, like Halo, Gears of War, and other exclusives? Is it jealousy, as the other platforms will soon have more games available to them?

What made people choose an Xbox over a PlayStation in the first place? Was it only the games? The pull of the Xbox exclusives must have been stronger than Sony’s portfolio. If so, it’s not like releasing more titles on Sony PlayStation and Nintendo Switch removes them from the Xbox platform. And if games weren’t the reason, the other arguments favoring an Xbox would not change. Right?

Black Myth: Wukong PC Technical Discussion (Linux + Windows Benchmarks)

October 5, 2024October 6, 2024 Robert LohrLeave a comment

The hype around this game may have subsided, but I thought it would still be fascinating to test Black Myth: Wukong on Linux and Windows and see how both operating systems fare. Games Science’s handy benchmark utility was a perfect tool for the task. I was not interested in realistic gameplay benchmarks, so a built-in canned benchmark was perfect. What started as a simple run of the benchmark with different settings turned into a discovery of some unexpected behaviors that piqued my curiosity.

Java Crypto Extensions Read DER Encoded Asymmetric Keys

August 4, 2024August 4, 2024 Robert LohrLeave a comment

In a work project that heavily focused on asymmetric crypto, certificates, and digital signatures, we had to switch from PEM-formatted keys and certificates to DER-encoded data. Many of the examples I found on the internet always focused on reading PEM data with Bouncy Castle. I wanted to determine how much you can do without an additional library.

Spoiler: Not everything. But, let’s say, the stuff you likely care about.

A Story About OpenSSL & Formats

The starting point of this is a key pair, and you are likely to create one with OpenSSL. Its default output is PEM, so we start from there. You can also instruct OpenSSL to write DER when you generate the key by passing the command line argument -outform DER (or lowercase, it does not matter). This option is also used to convert from PEM to DER.

RSA

Let us start with RSA keys, which are still the most prevalent. Afterward, I will show you how to handle Elliptic Curve keys.

openssl genpkey -algorithm RSA -out genpkey_rsa_private_key.pem -pkeyopt rsa_keygen_bits:2048

You can also use the following command. However, according to a comment on StackExchange, genpkey is the recommended way to go.

openssl genrsa -out genrsa_private_key.pem 2048

Depending on your OpenSSL version, there may be differences though. I could not narrow down the exact version, so you must look at the generated PEM. I am using OpenSSL 3.2.1. If the PEM starts with -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----, you are golden. If it is -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----, a conversion is necessary. That is because key information can be encoded in different ways. Java requires PKCS8, which is represented by the first one. From what I understood, the second one is PKCS1.

(Much data formats. Many confusing.)

Alan Wake Remastered Review (PC)

June 30, 2024July 8, 2024 Robert Lohr1 Comment

The gamer thought he knew what to expect. After all, he had watched a playthrough of the Xbox 360 version so many years ago. In truth, he had no idea.

Alan Wake had been a successful game. It sold over three million copies. Critics loved it. Players loved it. There was a huge fanbase around it. Still, the remastered version was slightly less well-received. It was a technological overhaul, more suitable for modern systems, while the gameplay was still the same old same old.

As the gamer fought his first battles, a realization set in. The controls were clunky, even odd at times. He had to retrain his brain to make things work. Dodging and sprinting were activated by the same key. „Why would the game do such a thing?“, the gamer wondered. The way he controlled Alan was unlike anything he had ever played. Alan was a writer, not a superhero. He was less athletic than a boulder chasing a famous fictional adventurer through narrow caves. Running was a futile endeavor. Any such attempt was quickly responded with heavy panting by the protagonist, Alan Wake.

The game did not want to be fast-paced, did not want to be a shooter. It was a supernatural mystery thriller with action elements. The beam of Alan’s flashlight was the game’s version of a reticle. The gamer thought this was a clever idea. He also didn’t like it as it made him feel vulnerable, not always in control. That’s what the game wanted him to feel.

Not in control.

Helpless.

The game’s story evoked similar feelings on an intellectual level. It was deliberately convoluted. It contained a meta narrative that foretold the story while the gamer experienced it on screen. He was dreading the moments of instense combat the game foretold. But how much of it was real? Was any of it real? This was unlike anything the gamer has seen before. He was wondering how the pieces fit together, how it all made sense. Would there be a happy ending?

Not in the know.

Clueless.

Base64 PowerShell Cmdlet Via Advanced Functions

June 23, 2024July 2, 2024 Robert LohrLeave a comment

Among the many valuable command line utilities on a Linux system is base64, which encodes to and decodes from the Base64 encoding scheme. As much as I like PowerShell…

(Yes, you read that correctly)

…it sorely lacks a base64-equivalent utility, or cmdlet as they are called in PowerShell land. The only solution was to create one myself. Cmdlets are usually written in C#, but you can also employ the concept of advanced functions, which is what I have done.

Here’s the code for converting strings to Base64. The function supports receiving data from a pipeline, or you can call it directly and pass the value as a parameter. More on the usage later.

Function ConvertFrom-Base64
{
    [CmdletBinding()]
    param (
        [Parameter(ValueFromPipeline = $true)]
        [string] $Base64
    )
    
    Process 
    {
        if ($null -ne $Base64) 
        {
            $Bytes = [Convert]::FromBase64String($Base64)
            Write-Output [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetString($Bytes)
        }
        else 
        {
            Write-Error "No base64-encoded data provided."
        }
    }
}

Horizon Forbidden West PC Technology Discussion (Linux + Windows Benchmarks)

April 7, 2024October 5, 2024 Robert Lohr1 Comment

Horizon Forbidden West was one of the most visually impressive titles on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Two years later, the same sentiment repeats on the PC. Despite no fancy raytracing features, Guerrila’s Decima Engine still produces a stunning game world and character rendering. I gushed enough about the visuals when I wrote my PS4 Pro and Burning Shores expansion reviews. Therefore, I will not elaborate further on this topic here. Instead, I will focus on the performance aspects. If you are interested in seeing a lot of screenshots, please read my reviews. The PC version is essentially the PS5 version, with a slightly higher level of detail in the distance and some PC-specific improvements, as Digital Foundry had discovered.

The most significant benefit of this PC version is the “unlimited” performance that is unshackled from console hardware and the free choice of input peripherals. I played with a keyboard and a mouse because of RSI issues in my thumbs that operating a controller’s thumbsticks worsened. A mouse was also more accurate when aiming with the bow, but I would still have preferred a controller during traversal and combat. The proximity of all buttons to the fingers would have made coordinating the various skills and movement patterns much more effortless. Apart from that, PC’s stalwart input methods worked very well and did not hold me back much. I made up for what I lost in convenience with comfort and precision.

Unlike other modern releases that ate hardware for more or less good reasons, Horizon Forbidden West performed admirably. The YouTube channel eTeknix did enormous work testing 40 GPUs in three different resolutions. Nixxes did an excellent job making the game scalable, and Guerrilla’s initial work optimizing for the weaker consoles also paid off immensely. Even my former 3060 would have been enough to enjoy the Forbidden West with some help from DLSS upscaling.