t has only been a few days since we looked at the Linux Performance in the demo of Onimusha: Way of the Sword. If you remember, the result was excellent. But there was a bitter aftertaste because Capcom’s RE-Engine doesn’t want to trace rays without a bit of nudging and prodding. Although I had the right idea in my tests, I simply and plainly did it wrong. We’re fixing that in this post. And we’re also comparing Bazzite, CachyOS, and Windows 11 with RT enabled in the benchmark. We already know how Windows performs from the first post, so we need to find out how both Linux distros fare.

This is a very short and focused post. So let’s not waste any time and put on a metal hat. Apparently, that’s a thing you do in this world.

I also have a German version of this video.

Performance

You can see the game running at the Ultra preset with ray tracing set to High. I’m using the same hardware as last time, along with the same software and driver versions. As a reminder: this is 1440p with FSR4 Quality upscaling.

Now, let me explain what I did wrong. I’d like to thank viewer „Cody-w7s2c“ for pointing out my error and explaining how to do it properly.

(Screenshot of the comment)

I already found the correct parameter, but I put it in the wrong position in Steam’s launch parameter box. Since it’s a parameter for the game, it belongs after the „%command%“. It’s not a Proton option, but one of the RE-Engine options. The correct line is this:

%command% /WineDetectionEnabled:False

Proper capitalization is important. If you try to use a lowercase „false“, for example, it won’t work, and a colon is the correct separator, which is different from the Proton options. Speaking of which: if you also want to add Proton options, for example, for FSR4, you add them in front of the „%command%“.

PROTON_FSR4_UPGRADE=1 %command% /WineDetectionEnabled:False

That convinced the game to make ray tracing selectable, and it worked. As you can see, Onimusha still runs at over 100 FPS on average. Yes, the performance dropped considerably. However, I think the improved RT reflections that replace the subpar screen-space-reflections are definitely worth it. Unless you do as I did in the demo and just disable them. Although I don’t think the RT reflections are the best I’ve seen, they still outclass the other options and improve the image considerably. Because the visuals are attractive. All environments are densely packed with details, and the characters just look amazing. Especially the facial animations are insanely expressive.

What I also tried was changing the keyboard bindings. In the first blog post, I surmised that it might not be possible, since I couldn’t spot an option in the footage I captured. I was wrong. You can change the key bindings. Second mistake fixed.

Bazzite vs. CachyOS vs. Windows 11

Let’s get to the exciting stuff and compare all three OSes in the game’s benchmark. Windows already put up solid numbers with 136 FPS on average and 85 FPS for the 1%-lows.

Bazzite and CachyOS deliver identical performance and, on average, outpace Windows by a few frames per second, but lag by 10 FPS in the 1%-lows.

System                    Average FPS   1%-Low FPS
--------------------------------------------------
Bazzite (Top Left)        141           76
CachyOS (Top Right)       142           75
Windows 11 (Bottom Right) 136           85

That difference doesn’t change how the game plays, though. I ran through the demo a second time and had no issues whatsoever. Loading into the level greeted me with a couple of hitches that could have come from Unreal’s traversal woes. But after that, it was smooth sailing – or slicing, rather.

Famous Last Words

As we saw, ray tracing runs without performance issues on Linux. Which leaves me even more confused about why there’s dedicated Wine/Proton detection code in the engine, only to lock it and prevent users from changing it. Does it have to do with some RT options that aren’t even active in Onimusha? Or is Capcom still behind on the latest Linux improvements and wants to play it safe due to some past negative experiences with older RE-Engine and Proton versions? Who knows.

Whatever the reason might be, you can test ray tracing pretty easily.

And that brings us to the end of this one. Short and sweet, without silly puns.

Thank you for reading. I hope you have a wonderful day, wearing that fancy headgear wherever you are.