Running a desktop war game outside Windows

Set expectations before you install

War Thunder runs on desktop computers, and the platforms listed for it are Windows, macOS and Linux. That tells you a version exists; it does not tell you how any particular machine will behave, and this site does not publish system requirements or performance figures because those come from the vendor and change with each release. Read them from the vendor's own website, and read them for your actual hardware rather than for the family it belongs to.

The honest general position: a native version on a supported platform is the smoothest path, anything running through a compatibility layer adds variables, and a machine near the lower end of the requirements will be nearer the lower end than a similarly specified Windows machine. None of that makes either platform unworkable. It does mean allowing more time for the first session.

macOS

Apple silicon and Intel are different machines

Macs built on Apple silicon and older Intel Macs run software differently. Where a game is built for one and run on the other, a translation layer sits in between, which costs performance and introduces its own failure modes. Before troubleshooting anything, find out which processor family your Mac has and whether the version you are running is native to it — a great deal of contradictory advice online is contradictory because it is describing the other kind of Mac.

Security and permissions

macOS is deliberate about what it lets new software do. A game installed outside the App Store may need explicit approval the first time it runs, and a launcher that wants to update itself may ask for permission to write to its own folder. A first launch that appears to do nothing is often a permission prompt sitting behind the game window, or one that was dismissed without being read. Check system settings for a blocked application before concluding the install failed.

What else to check on a Mac

• Free space on the startup disk, which fills faster than people expect once a large game is installed.
• Whether the machine is throttling. Thin laptops under sustained graphics load get hot and slow down, which reads as a game problem and is not one.
• Whether an external display is involved. Driving a high-resolution external monitor costs performance that an internal display does not.
• Whether the operating system is a version the vendor currently supports. Very new and very old releases both tend to be where the rough edges are.

Linux

Graphics drivers are the main variable

On Linux, the graphics stack is the thing most likely to be responsible when a game misbehaves. Distributions ship different driver versions, and the gap between what your distribution provides by default and what a current game expects can be considerable. Before anything else, find out which driver you are using and which version it is. A failure to launch, a black screen, or performance far below what the hardware should manage are all classic signs of a driver that is too old for the software asking things of it.

Proprietary and open drivers also behave differently for the same card, and the better choice depends on the hardware. Your distribution's own documentation is the right source for this, because it reflects how that distribution packages things.

Compatibility layers

Where a game has no native Linux build, it is commonly run through a compatibility layer that translates Windows calls. This works well for a lot of software and unevenly for the rest, and it adds a layer that can itself be the cause of a fault. If you are running a game this way, check the compatibility layer's version and configuration before assuming the game is broken. Where a native build exists, prefer it.

Anti-cheat and multiplayer

Some online games use anti-cheat systems that behave differently or are unsupported outside Windows, and this is occasionally why a game installs and runs but will not connect to multiplayer. This is a per-title matter that changes over time, so check the vendor's current statement rather than a forum post from two years ago.

What else to check on Linux

• File permissions on the installation directory, particularly if anything was installed or updated with elevated privileges.
• Enough free space on the partition the game is actually installed to, which is not always the one you assume.
• Whether the desktop compositor is interfering with full-screen rendering. Testing in windowed mode separates this quickly.
• Which display server session you are in, since behaviour can differ between them for full-screen games.

Describing the problem so someone can help

Support channels and community forums answer well-described problems and ignore vague ones, and on these platforms the description needs more in it than it would on Windows.

Include the distribution or macOS version and its release number, the processor family, the graphics hardware, the driver name and version, whether the game is running natively or through a compatibility layer and which version of that layer, and the desktop environment or display server session if you are on Linux. Then describe what happens in the order it happens, quote any error text exactly, and say what you have already ruled out.

Half of what makes these reports hard to answer is that the reader cannot tell which of a dozen possible configurations they are being asked about. Supplying that up front is the difference between a useful answer and four rounds of questions.