Official Linux support would be nice

My new pc came with Windows 11 which is awful and literally gets worse as time goes on. I'd love to make Linux my main OS but then I can't play EQ. I've read that playing using WINE makes it look like you're using a VM which is bannable.

If there were a supported way to play under Linux that would be very nice.

Unless there is a way for Linux to support DirectX 11 I wouldn't expect it ever to get ported over to Linux. They just did a project to upgrade from DirectX 9 to 11 and I wouldn't expect them to change to a different graphics engine at this point.

It runs really well under both WINE and PROTON (you can install the "EverQuest Free to play" version in steam, set it to use Proton Experimental (think the normal one works fine too; but its a habit for me) and launch!

Now this last patch that "fixed" full screen? Made a mess of it for me, and to fix that I used my window manager to force the game client into borderless full screen windowed mode; and well that works great!

Really the only issues are around 3rd party tools like Magelo, I've yet to be able to get java to install under WINE, so I can't seem to run their EXE. I haven't tried to extract the JAR file from that exe and see if I can run it with the native java; but it should be possible.)

Official support.. well i can't say it will never happen, but they can hardly support it on windows right now. Those of us who choose to run on an unsupported OS (Linux, Mac) are largely on our own. If you run into a specific issue or want me to detail how I setup full-screen windowed mode let me know. (It will be specific to KDE/KWIN as that's the desktop I use)

I game all the time, and its been literal months since I needed to reboot back to windows to do something. Fallout 76, Enshrouded, Nighengale, EQ, No Mans Sky, ESO, all play without a hitch. NMS and ESO actually feel smoother under Proton then natively on windows, at least to me. (DLSS/DLAA work, only thing that doesn't is nvidia's frame generation in DLSS3 (FSR/XeSS also work in games with them but lacking DLSS.. I'm an nvidia user what can I say heh)

I've been playing and raiding current content on Linux (Fedora) for some time now, and it works like a charm nowadays. Using Steam with Proton Experimental, but it can also be played through Lutris or Bottles.

The only current issue is some very old textures rendering as plain white, a few of them in PoK, but if you don't play on TLP servers you won't see many anyway. There used to be a random crash with some buggy item or weapon texture but either it was fixed, or noone is using that texture anymore.

You can try using a Live CD on a USB key to boot on the distribution of your choice and launch EverQuest from there.

I doubt there will be a native version as it would be a lot of work while it runs already fine through Wine / Proton. Also, some native game versions have even been known to run worse than their Wine counterpart, so there's not much incentive for it. Wine is a translation layer, not virtualization, that's why some games (not all obviously) may run even smoother on Linux than on Windows in the right conditions.

I guess I don't mean support really, but rather not forbidden. I don't want to get banned if I play on Teek using WINE. I have no idea what Proton, Lutris, or Bottles are. I'll probably setup dual boot and start looking at these options today.

EQ runs flawlessly using steam proton and it's a doddle to setup.
It's not cheating and if you are having difficulty running windows 11 then it's the way to go.

I'd recommend Ubuntu (I'm using the new LTS version using Mate), as it has less faffing about, but use what ever distro takes your fancy if you're prepared to fiddle a bit.

This video is helpful (even though it's EQ2... it's the same process)

I can't remember if it mentions it, but install the mscorefonts package too.
Enjoy.

Using a VM by itself isn't cheating, however as they allow some rules to be bypassed it can lead to issues when used on some servers.

WINE (Proton, lultris, etc) are not VM's so that is a non-issue.

Its simply an API translation from DirectX 11 to either OpenGL or Vulkan (mostly the latter). Wine also provides a windows subsystem, libraries, and filesystem for the game/program. However it is not a virtual machine in any way.

So far I've been playing this way off and on since.. 2006 or so (it's worked better and worse over the years) and they haven't banned met yet. I can assure you they know, too. I've profiled what eqgame.exe loads/reads/checks as it starts up, and based on the keys they poke; I'm sure they know (if they care to look at that data) what % of us are running each OS / version and if its WINE (or one of its forks like SODA or Proton).

They are ... notoriously cagey about saying whats ok to use or not, but all evidence so far says they don't care but won't help or support us. I'm very ok with that. Its not like it gives us any advantages (in game that is..)

I wasn't suggesting that they where, I was just pointing out that using a VM by itself isn't cheating. That being said it doesn't matter if they are VM's or not rather what Daybreak detects them as.

No operating system is 100% secure be it one from apple, microsoft, linux, google or whatever. Anything of this complexity is going to have holes.

The benefit of open source however is that it's not just the submitter that knows what's in there... there are thousands of people scrutinising the source code which makes back doors harder to implement. Huawei may or may not be dodgy, but the same could be said of any other company... even those under Uncle Sam's remit.

Anyway... the internet is full of long winter night discussions on the topic of Windows vs Linux.
The question was... getting back on topic... does EQ run on Linux.

The answer is yes... quite successfully.

I suggest you first boot from a Live USB key, this will allow you to check the hardware compatibility (keyboard, mouse, monitor, hard disk, video card, network card ...) before going for a dual boot, this is the standard practice.

Forget Linux and Windows, when is the TempleOS port for EQ coming?

I used the trial of Crossover on my Macbook and EQ ran very well overall, and much better on MacOS with Crossover than it did on the same machine running Windows on Bootcamp. It really showed the performance issues caused by the overhead due to windows as EQ played better with the extra step of a port running than it did directly on Windows.

Crossover is $75/year so I did not purchase it and did not use it longer than the 7-day free trial, but it did show me how well EQ runs on MAC. I really wish DPG would add support for MAC. I know a lot of people using macs that have limited access to games due to the hardware limitations on most macs that could be potential customers as they can't play newer games on their macs. EQ even runs just fine from USB3.0 so the game could even have an install to USB option for mac or any OS user that lets them play the game on any hardware.

Yes this is about Linux not mac but they are pretty much the same thing.

As other's have stated, though they did not directly quote you, WINE and the other programs listed are not VMs and as such not against the rules. You cannot be banned for using WINE or Proton.

Well the blank textures appear to have been fixed with the June patch. For me that was the two brew barrels near the tavern, the halfling merchant at the main bank, as well as the lizardman illusion and mobs in Feerrott and other places. I also saw a few players holding blank weapons during the previous weeks, maybe they've been fixed too.