As we speculated previously, Valve have now officially announced their new version of 'Steam Play' for Linux gaming using a modified distribution of Wine called Proton, which is available on GitHub.
What does it do? In short: it allows you to play Windows games on Linux, directly through the Steam client as if they were a Linux game.
What many people suspected turned out to be true, DXVK development was actually funded by Valve. They actually employed the DXVK developer since February 2018. On top of that, they also helped to fund: vkd3d (Direct3D 12 implementation based on Vulkan), OpenVR and Steamworks native API bridges, wined3d performance and functionality fixes for Direct3D 9 and Direct3D 11 and more.
The amount of work that has gone into this—it's ridiculous.
Here's what they say it improves:
- Windows games with no Linux version currently available can now be installed and run directly from the Linux Steam client, complete with native Steamworks and OpenVR support.
- DirectX 11 and 12 implementations are now based on Vulkan, resulting in improved game compatibility and reduced performance impact.
- Fullscreen support has been improved: fullscreen games will be seamlessly stretched to the desired display without interfering with the native monitor resolution or requiring the use of a virtual desktop.
- Improved game controller support: games will automatically recognize all controllers supported by Steam. Expect more out-of-the-box controller compatibility than even the original version of the game.
- Performance for multi-threaded games has been greatly improved compared to vanilla Wine.
It currently has a limited set of games that are supported, but even so it's quite an impressive list that they're putting out there. Which includes DOOM, FINAL FANTASY VI, Into The Breach, NieR: Automata, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, Star Wars: Battlefront 2 and more. They will enable many more titles as progress on it all continues.
To be clear, this is available right now. To get it, you need to be in the Steam Client Beta.
There will be drawbacks, like possible performance issues and games that rely on some DRM might likely never be supported, but even so the amount of possibilities this opens up has literally split my head open with Thor's mighty hammer.
Holy shit. Please excuse the language, but honestly, I'm physically shaking right now I don't quite know how to process this.
Update #1: I spoke to Valve earlier, about how buying Windows games to play with this system counts, they said this:
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.Hey Liam, the normal algorithm is in effect, so if at the end of the two weeks you have more playtime on Linux, it'll be a Linux sale. Proton counts as Linux.
Quoting: GuestSo, while I can see how Valve thinks this is a good thing for getting games on Linux, and getting gamers over to Linux, it in turn has a big impact to those of us who were bringing games over to Linux officially. I don't see how Proton is going to help us with the big issue of getting publishers interested in Linux as a platform... in fact, I see it doing the opposite.
Well, I think Valve's move is more intended for peoples migrating to Linux with a library already full of Windows exclusive games (less dualboot will strengthen Linux marketshare on Steam), and even more intended for their "console-like" experience with Steam Machines (they resolve by this way the chicken and egg problem off not enough Linux gamers / not enough games available)... which is a way to protect their business as always (Steam for Linux and porting efforts of Valve's games with OpenGL benchmarks defeating DirectX were direct response to the risk of Microsoft hurting their marketshare with Windows store). But I think that many Linux gamers from the last years will continue to buy in priority games natively available or properly ported to Linux (at least it's how I will continue to spend my money on games in the near future). :)
Mohandevir Aug 22, 2018
Quoting: Guest... unless, of course, some amazing and groundbreaking first-person shooter gets released natively on Vulkan for SteamOS. ;)
What have you got on your mind?! :D
legluondunet Aug 22, 2018
Quoting: chancho_zombieNow we need better Net framework support, IMO a good chunk of the games that don't run it's .Net fault.
Yes, same experience here: Batman, L.A. Noire...need .NET and today there are a lot of issue that block the install on 32 and 64 bits Wineprefix.
Windows media player is also need for Darksiders (remastered or not).
TheLinuxPleb Aug 22, 2018
Quoting: Mountain Man"Proton counts as Linux."
Now that is huge!
Yep, that is _the_ most important piece of information for me. Finally there is a chance to get better numbers regarding market/financial share between platforms. I really hope that Linux will rise from the 0.5% to a much more significant percentage. Once the numbers increase developers will keep Linux much more in mind when starting a project.
Regarding Feral, I really hope that they will continue to provide us with a high-quality ports like recently RoTTR or soon LiS:BTS, at least once in a while. I'll certainly continue to buy from their store. Like someone already stated, may be they will end up eventually with even more work. I would love that.
Quoting: scaineSorry if this has been asked before - is Proton going to contribute back into Wine generally? I suppose I'm asking if DXVK progress helps Wine more generally?
They contribute to wine, see https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/86
Quoting: GuestSo, while I can see how Valve thinks this is a good thing for getting games on Linux, and getting gamers over to Linux, it in turn has a big impact to those of us who were bringing games over to Linux officially. I don't see how Proton is going to help us with the big issue of getting publishers interested in Linux as a platform... in fact, I see it doing the opposite.
Gonna have to disagree. This is the chicken versus egg problem and it has to be sorted out one way or another. Valve and GoG can either get together and require linux ports of every new title OR they could go this route. Valve has sunk a bunch of money into this to provide a way out for them that want it, so it's rather obvious that Valve is favoring Linux. In the short term yes, this is going to hurt the odds of Linux ports to major titles, but at the same time it incentivises an increase in use of Vulkan as that makes it easy to run in PROTON. In the long term that grows the user base, and a large user base gets catered to.
We will get one of two outcomes here. 1)We will either get a large enough user base that big devs shift their first their APIs to be more friendly with PROTON and then a shift to native ports to avoid user experience issues.
2) PROTON plays all the games seamlessly from Steam, and eventually is so good that it doesn't matter whether we get a port or not.
The results are the same for practical purposes.
Now that is for new titles going forward, but what about Steam's existing library of titles that WILL NEVER GET A LINUX PORT? Do you think Ubisoft is gonna hand a Feral a contract top port Assassin's Creed and Far Cry? How about EA for anybody that feels like playing Crysis? A whole bunch of my games on Steam don't even work with WINE like Sleeping Dogs, but this push by Valve has the best chance of fixing that.
Comandante Ñoñardo Aug 22, 2018
If they don't want to port their games to Linux, at least make a Linux Origin client with an embedded compatibility layer like this.
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