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.
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Edit: It would be nice if there was a way to differentiate the proton compatible games in my list. A separate drop down category on the Library menu would be nice.
I actually put all the Windows games in a "Windows" category. This category disappears when I select Linux games. But it would reappear if any of those games suddenly becomes available on Linux. I don't have a proton supported game, but this may work for that as well. (unless you turn proton on for all win games of course)
I just added STALKER to a "Proton" category and it's listed separately at the top of my game list, so that's something. Thanks for the info.
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Mohandevir Aug 22, 2018
Lego StarWars The Force Awakens, Lego Marvel's Avengers and Witcher3 seem to be working great even without being "whitelisted".
I don't know if it's been mentionned, this thread is way too long to read through, but Proton might become a Windows programming standard to create a Linux "plug&play" experience. Hiring qualified Linux developpers seem to be a problem for many game studios. If they start programming their Windows build with Proton in mind, they will have to maintain only one build, thus reducing the cost of Linux development. The resulting experience, as per Valve say, should be 1:1 on both platform. Linux will get more quality supported titles this way... I see it as a Win-Win situation.
In a couple of years, if ever Linux gets a 5% to 10% Steam market share and depending on what happens with UWP, we might see true linux native builds of new games, but at the moment, I think it's the best solution for Linux gaming adoption.
Anyway, let's face it, even Feral ports are still "hacked windows build". Why not use Proton then?.
Edit: Typo.
Edit2: Further testing shows that both Lego games crashes at specific points while playing. Snif! Witcher 3 is fine though.
Last edited by Mohandevir on 22 August 2018 at 8:01 pm UTC
I don't know if it's been mentionned, this thread is way too long to read through, but Proton might become a Windows programming standard to create a Linux "plug&play" experience. Hiring qualified Linux developpers seem to be a problem for many game studios. If they start programming their Windows build with Proton in mind, they will have to maintain only one build, thus reducing the cost of Linux development. The resulting experience, as per Valve say, should be 1:1 on both platform. Linux will get more quality supported titles this way... I see it as a Win-Win situation.
In a couple of years, if ever Linux gets a 5% to 10% Steam market share and depending on what happens with UWP, we might see true linux native builds of new games, but at the moment, I think it's the best solution for Linux gaming adoption.
Anyway, let's face it, even Feral ports are still "hacked windows build". Why not use Proton then?.
Edit: Typo.
Edit2: Further testing shows that both Lego games crashes at specific points while playing. Snif! Witcher 3 is fine though.
Last edited by Mohandevir on 22 August 2018 at 8:01 pm UTC
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So tested Dishonoured and Skyrim so far both work fine and with controller support performance isnt brilliant i ll be honest if you normally play at 1080p chances are you are going to have to dip it down to 900p to get playable frame rates but they are not whitelisted yet and room for further improvement. I have 386 steam games in my library many from my time dual booting or back about 4 years ago when i was windows only.If anyone has a game they must know if works if i have it ill be happy to say if its playable or not
Last edited by Whitewolfe80 on 22 August 2018 at 2:11 pm UTC
Last edited by Whitewolfe80 on 22 August 2018 at 2:11 pm UTC
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Wow... big news, big thread (and I'm late to the party as usual!). I have actually read every post
Just re-installed STALKER: Shadow Of Chernobyl for the hell of it, to test. Played it a looong time ago, back when I had a Windows partition. Enjoyed all three games immensely as it happens.
This is a double edged sword for me though. The fact purchases count as a Linux sale is great, especially as there are potentially a lot of very good games which can be had cheaply in the sales. But... if I'm buying a Windows game then I'm not spending that money on a Linux native game. Which is even worse these days as I have such a backlog of titles to wade through that I'm spending less on games anyway.
Interesting times ahead!
Edit: It would be nice if there was a way to differentiate the proton compatible games in my list. A separate drop down category on the Library menu would be nice.
Whole point is that already.
Many long time Linux users like you or me still care about native ports and we will be still caring.
But with that rate , Linux user base is not enough for native ports.
When userbase expand , they will eventually consider native ports because that is a compability layer. Not an exact solution , just a workaround for expanding Linux user base.
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Just really want to point out that Valve see and fund things that are very useful, and that's not to be underestimated, but I personally dislike the treatment that it's all and entirely Valve doing everything.
It's hard to understand your point of view!
My question is why did the winehq developers not take the burden to make wine an out of the box feeling?
Don't take me wrong, I know howto use wine and my few windows games I have do run well with wine from winehq.
Currently more windows games run with newest wine than proton. But this will change in the next months.
Simply click install in the Steam Client and it configures the game for you automatically is what Linux needs - not all Linux users are geeks.
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rafaelcgs10 Aug 22, 2018
Dark Souls Works, but you need to disable Steam Controller system to use a joystick.
Could not make DSfix work. I Don't know why.
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So...Skyrim when?
I actually have Skyrim SE in my library, tried the SteamPlay stuff and the game runs, but seems like the fullscreen window is loosing mouse focus somehow, so I cannot use a mouse in game :).
I also tried several other titles, and some of them worked. It is however quite annoying that you cant close some windows (at least on Gnome's overview)
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Not sure if this has been posted, but I am 32 pages late and that is a bit much to catch up while I'm at work.
There is a community-driven list of games that run or crash with Steam Play/Proton, it is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQ3_odz8JzEVK80vkku-b6FsICWb45xGf4VYnzYz5cNSMVQ-5BA2WoHBGAScw96MgLj1ONA7Cx0tyGa/pubhtml#
Since the official whitelisting process can take some time, is probably more conservative, and does not show what has been tested but failed, it might be worth posting this list in the GOL article so that people know about it. There are 50k reads on the article at the moment, imagine if even a small percentage of those people were documenting about the tests they are currently doing with their game library.
While the testing from the community is not necessarily exhaustive, seeing if a game fails terribly or runs smoothly on someone else's computer would help deciding whether to download 50 GB off Steam and try.
Last edited by Kabouik on 22 August 2018 at 2:52 pm UTC
There is a community-driven list of games that run or crash with Steam Play/Proton, it is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQ3_odz8JzEVK80vkku-b6FsICWb45xGf4VYnzYz5cNSMVQ-5BA2WoHBGAScw96MgLj1ONA7Cx0tyGa/pubhtml#
Since the official whitelisting process can take some time, is probably more conservative, and does not show what has been tested but failed, it might be worth posting this list in the GOL article so that people know about it. There are 50k reads on the article at the moment, imagine if even a small percentage of those people were documenting about the tests they are currently doing with their game library.
While the testing from the community is not necessarily exhaustive, seeing if a game fails terribly or runs smoothly on someone else's computer would help deciding whether to download 50 GB off Steam and try.
Last edited by Kabouik on 22 August 2018 at 2:52 pm UTC
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Thing is, I feel Valve have been exceptionally clear on the situation. Who people choose to champion is their business.So now that I've had time to think about this news more, I thought I'd try add more discussion points.Let's be clear though, Valve did fund the development of DXVK - so essentially, yes they did make. They've been funding it through all but the first what, two releases?
Disclaimer: I personally find it odd that people are praising Valve so much here. Valve didn't make wine. Or dxvk. Or actually any of the tools that make this possible. They're just packaging it into Steam.
I meant its original creation - I didn't think Valve was responsible for that?
Just really want to point out that Valve see and fund things that are very useful, and that's not to be underestimated, but I personally dislike the treatment that it's all and entirely Valve doing everything.
In the case of DXVK, they couldn't have been clearer even noting when funding started. The point is, while Valve didn't start these projects, it is the one that's pulling them together, funding them and making something bigger out of it. That benefits everyone too, since it's open source.
Oh absolutely, it's a good thing, and I don't mean to diminish the work Valve is doing. But Valve isn't doing quite as much as people think - for example, Valve isn't making any game work through wine directly. Well, that can be argued via dxvk, but the point I guess I'm trying to make is that while the impact might be large to users, the effort itself from Valve is actually not equivalent.
If it makes people feel better I can point out really great things Valve have done (mostly around Vulkan tooling and drivers). But I have to ask: if wine didn't exist, if dxvk didn't exist, would Valve have tried to create either?
If Valve wasn't involved neither DXVK or Wine would be in such a mainstream , accessible form.
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Just really want to point out that Valve see and fund things that are very useful, and that's not to be underestimated, but I personally dislike the treatment that it's all and entirely Valve doing everything.
It's hard to understand your point of view!
My question is why did the winehq developers not take the burden to make wine an out of the box feeling?
Don't take me wrong, I know howto use wine and my few windows games I have do run well with wine from winehq.
Currently more windows games run with newest wine than proton. But this will change in the next months.
Simply click install in the Steam Client and it configures the game for you automatically is what Linux needs - not all Linux users are geeks.
Because if you want an out of the box feeling and one click install before steam there was lutris or playonlinux both work without you having to jack shit other than click. I get what your saying what valve has done will appeal to more people because its super low effort you login into steam install a game and see if it has decent enough performance to play. I do get that arguement but knowing what is happening under the hood and therefore potential fixes is more helpful to the community that shrugging your shoulders and going meh next game.
1 Likes, Who?
rafaelcgs10 Aug 22, 2018
Not sure if this has been posted, but I am 32 pages late and that is a bit much to catch up while I'm at work.
There is a community-driven list of games that run or crash with Steam Play/Proton, it is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQ3_odz8JzEVK80vkku-b6FsICWb45xGf4VYnzYz5cNSMVQ-5BA2WoHBGAScw96MgLj1ONA7Cx0tyGa/pubhtml#
Since the official whitelisting process can take some time, is probably more conservative, and does not show what has been tested but failed, it might be worth posting this list in the GOL article so that people know about it. There are 50k reads on the article at the moment, imagine if even a small percentage of those people were documenting about the tests they are currently doing with their game library.
While the testing from the community is not necessarily exhaustive, seeing if a game fails terribly or runs smoothly on someone else's computer would help deciding whether to download 50 GB off Steam and try.
The author of this post should put this link in the post!
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I have a question/hypathetical question feral and vp would it not make sense for valve to buy both or one because then if a developer wants a linux port and they want to use feral gabe gets all the cash from point of contract to point of sale minus development overhead which if they bought feral they would gain the rights to use their tools for the port jobs they do. This would 1 create a very skilled linux software house within valve and 2 makes valve able to make linux more attractive to develop on perhaps by lowering the cut valve takes at point at sale for linux ports.
Meh maybe to much theorising there but it is going to be interesting to see what happens regarding Feral and VP i would say aspyr but they gave up on linux ages ago so i gave up on them.
Meh maybe to much theorising there but it is going to be interesting to see what happens regarding Feral and VP i would say aspyr but they gave up on linux ages ago so i gave up on them.
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I do get that arguement but knowing what is happening under the hood and therefore potential fixes is more helpful to the community that shrugging your shoulders and going meh next game.
I'm with you.
But I'm also pretty sure there is some kind of debug mode for proton - did not have time to look in protons bottles yet.
Also don't forget that proton is OpenSource - you can be part of it.
I think that plenty of people will send patches and write bug reports to valve.
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I do get that arguement but knowing what is happening under the hood and therefore potential fixes is more helpful to the community that shrugging your shoulders and going meh next game.
I'm with you.
But I'm also pretty sure there is some kind of debug mode for proton - did not have time to look in protons bottles yet.
Also don't forget that proton is OpenSource - you can be part of it.
I think that plenty of people will send patches and write bug reports to valve.
I do hope so i know the bug reporting for dxvk is live if we can make this an all out of the box experience granted its not going to happen over night but the more feedback the better. Plus since GOL confirmed with valve that a game bought and played under Proton counts as a linux sale after two weeks, who knows we may get a native version of something like cod next year.
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Been playing with this for a little over an hour, and so far I've had very good results overall. I've only really tried older games so far (smaller downloads, this just came out after all).
The not great:
The good:
The great:
Last edited by dibz on 22 August 2018 at 3:53 pm UTC
The not great:
- Crazy Taxi: Loads, but crashes after pressing start.
- Chip's Challenge 1: Does not load at all. Not surprising, I seem to recall this game requiring .Net 4+.
- Learn Japanese To Survive Hiragana Battle: No graphics, it's possible desktop settings could fix this (compositor, etc). Plays blind w/ music.
The good:
- Dead Island Definitive Edition: Plays great, mouse is slow in the main menu.
The great:
- C&C Red Alert 3: Plays perfectly.
- Duke Nukem Manhatten Project: Plays "perfectly" with nixon quotes. Takes like 30 seconds for the window to show, THEN plays perfectly. I'm not sure if it does this in windows too.
- Sam & Max Season 1 Ep 2, Situation Comedy: Plays perfectly.
Last edited by dibz on 22 August 2018 at 3:53 pm UTC
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The biggest shot in the foot Microsoft® made was "DirectX™ 12 Windows™ 10 lock-in". :DMaybe you are too young to remember how many times Microsoft shot itself in the foot. Here's a small list...
- Windows Vista DRM
- Windows 8 metro UI
- Windows RT app incompatibility
- Windows 10 NSAtc reporting
Last edited by Ne0 on 22 August 2018 at 3:41 pm UTC
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Comandante Ñoñardo Aug 22, 2018
I have a question/hypathetical question feral and vp would it not make sense for valve to buy both or one because then if a developer wants a linux port and they want to use feral gabe gets all the cash from point of contract to point of sale minus development overhead which if they bought feral they would gain the rights to use their tools for the port jobs they do. This would 1 create a very skilled linux software house within valve and 2 makes valve able to make linux more attractive to develop on perhaps by lowering the cut valve takes at point at sale for linux ports.
Meh maybe to much theorising there but it is going to be interesting to see what happens regarding Feral and VP i would say aspyr but they gave up on linux ages ago so i gave up on them.
Actually, is not bad the idea of Feral being acquired by Valve...
Acquiring Feral, Valve will acquire IndirectX, the most valuable asset from that company.. And will have a dedicated and qualified team for porting..
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The biggest shot in the foot Microsoft® made was "DirectX™ 12 Windows™ 10 lock-in". :DMaybe you are too young to remember how many times Microsoft shot itself in the foot. Here's a small list...
- Windows Vista DRM
- Windows 8 metro UI
- Windows RT app incompatibility
- Windows 10 NSAtc reporting
Eventually they will run out of feet and might shoot themselves in some more vital organs...
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Eventually they will run out of feet and might shoot themselves in some more vital organs...
That one might be making Windows a subscription service.
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OG SWAT RV@Linux Aug 22, 2018
DOOM 2016 multilayer ?!?
Is not working here...
It crash always.
Maaannnn I only go for the multiplayer
Is not working here...
It crash always.
Maaannnn I only go for the multiplayer
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