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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.

Read more here.

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:

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.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Proton, Steam, Valve
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516 comments
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tuubi Aug 24, 2018
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Quoting: BoldosJust to refresh the info:
THIS is the "live" version of the tracking document, and it has grown 1,5 times from yesterday (to roughly 2600 test entries as of this morning; so pretty impressive so far):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DcZZQ4HL_Ol969UbXJmFG8TzOHNnHoj8Q1f8DIFe8-8/edit#gid=0
This generated view loads a lot faster and it's cleaner without the useless editor bits. It seems to update every 5 minutes so it's live enough.
MayeulC Aug 24, 2018
Quoting: Boldos
Quoting: musojon74I'm liking this. There appears to be a common problem with sound. I can't get all the sound on mass effect 1 other than the intro swoosh sounds. Skyrim works lovely other than the standard freeze on quit which we are used too. No mans sky works great. Interestingly when I switch to 4k resolution on Ubuntu then run it I get a black screen with sound. Anyone getting sound but no video try out 1080p. Exciting. I deleted the wine install. If it keeps working well the windows partition is on borrowed time.
I have to confirm, that running some of the games on 4K is problematic...
...that is why it feels like I'm almost the only guy on the planet, for whom Doom is not working out of the box... (and yes, before you ask - I have a pretty standard config of Ubuntu 18.04 with GTX 1060 on 396.51). But after several tries/fights I won and I can shoot the whole Mars hell into oblivion.
Crysis is also reported to run ok, but on my 4K it is again a nogo..
Hum, since you didn't tell before I asked, have you reported your findings on Valve's Proton Github? DOOM is supposed to be supported :D

Quoting: CSharpI'm curious to see how this is gonna reflect on the Steam HW survey... So far Linux gamers playing on wine have always counted as windows. Now they're apparently properly counted as Linux. So maybe we see a spike there too.
No, wine gamers are NOT going to be counted as Linux. However, Proton users obviously run the native client, so players that previously used wine to run steam, but now use the native Steam + SteamPlay ARE going to be counted as Linux :)

Hopefully someones builds a few libraries to easily use the native Steam API with regular wine/wine staging. I foresee this happening soon enough :)
tuubi Aug 24, 2018
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Quoting: MayeulCHopefully someones builds a few libraries to easily use the native Steam API with regular wine/wine staging. I foresee this happening soon enough :)
How about the option to use your own "compatibility tool" in steam play, as in provide a wine executable path and prefix or something along those lines and let Steam handle the API access? Might be easier said than done of course.
Boldos Aug 24, 2018
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Quoting: tuubi
Quoting: BoldosJust to refresh the info:
THIS is the "live" version of the tracking document, and it has grown 1,5 times from yesterday (to roughly 2600 test entries as of this morning; so pretty impressive so far):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DcZZQ4HL_Ol969UbXJmFG8TzOHNnHoj8Q1f8DIFe8-8/edit#gid=0
This generated view loads a lot faster and it's cleaner without the useless editor bits. It seems to update every 5 minutes so it's live enough.
Yep, that is very correct.
Nevertheless, it has a bit limited functionality, like you do not see line numbering, no possibility to filter by game name or game's Status. Hence I chose to use the more complicated version :)


Last edited by Boldos on 24 August 2018 at 8:57 am UTC
Boldos Aug 24, 2018
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Quoting: MayeulC
Quoting: Boldos
Quoting: musojon74I'm liking this. There appears to be a common problem with sound. I can't get all the sound on mass effect 1 other than the intro swoosh sounds. Skyrim works lovely other than the standard freeze on quit which we are used too. No mans sky works great. Interestingly when I switch to 4k resolution on Ubuntu then run it I get a black screen with sound. Anyone getting sound but no video try out 1080p. Exciting. I deleted the wine install. If it keeps working well the windows partition is on borrowed time.
I have to confirm, that running some of the games on 4K is problematic...
...that is why it feels like I'm almost the only guy on the planet, for whom Doom is not working out of the box... (and yes, before you ask - I have a pretty standard config of Ubuntu 18.04 with GTX 1060 on 396.51). But after several tries/fights I won and I can shoot the whole Mars hell into oblivion.
Crysis is also reported to run ok, but on my 4K it is again a nogo..
Hum, since you didn't tell before I asked, have you reported your findings on Valve's Proton Github? DOOM is supposed to be supported :D

Ummm, nope, not yet :) I'm playing/testing the game for now (and a bunch of others); but I will report it at a later time. I guess I want to re-install it later on, and test the behavior under more "deterministic" conditions (right now I have to admit I'm not even sure how I made it work; I tried around 5 things in parallel :) ).
Anyway, I already made around 6 reports into the sheet itself, so I guess I will work on it more during the weekend; now I'm more like enjoying the ride :D
MayeulC Aug 24, 2018
Quoting: tuubi
Quoting: MayeulCHopefully someones builds a few libraries to easily use the native Steam API with regular wine/wine staging. I foresee this happening soon enough :)
How about the option to use your own "compatibility tool" in steam play, as in provide a wine executable path and prefix or something along those lines and let Steam handle the API access? Might be easier said than done of course.
My guess is that we're going to see that functionality popping up soon, as well as the ability to specify a custom proton version for each game.
X6205 Aug 24, 2018
Holy frikin'mecha-jesus,

Bye bye Wine, PoL or Lutris.. Bye bye super-duper-anniversary-ultimate-creators "free" Windows Update with telemetry clusterfuck and UWP junk. Bye bye NSA wankers.. I guess i don't need to renew my Crossover linux license for the next year. When i think about it, i actually have contributed to this to happen.. Wow :)

Now i just need working utility to occasionally change AlienFX colors on my X51 R2 desktop and Windows partition can rest in peace. Also need to check if new XBOX One S controller will work through bluetooth.

Busy weekend ahead.. busy.. busy.. need fresh air..
lucifertdark Aug 24, 2018
Quoting: X6205Holy frikin'mecha-jesus,

Bye bye Wine, PoL or Lutris.. Bye bye super-duper-anniversary-ultimate-creators "free" Windows Update with telemetry clusterfuck and UWP junk. Bye bye NSA wankers.. I guess i don't need to renew my Crossover linux license for the next year. When i think about it, i actually have contributed to this to happen.. Wow :)

Now i just need working utility to occasionally change AlienFX colors on my X51 R2 desktop and Windows partition can rest in peace. Also need to check if new XBOX One S controller will work through bluetooth.

Busy weekend ahead.. busy.. busy.. need fresh air..
You do know the Crossover guys ARE the Wine guys? so any money you give them helps to fund support for Linux gaming.
legluondunet Aug 24, 2018
I laughed, the best laughing issue I did read:
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/390
mike44 Aug 24, 2018
How to start Doom Demo? Seems broken
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