The Steam Play whitelist just had a large update including The Witness and Wolfenstein: The Old Blood

I was little bit skeptical last weeks, as it was looking like in September after making Steam Play official for all Steam Linux clients, Valve was not putting a lot of work in Proton, it was outdated while comparing to DXVK and while comparing to Wine.
Now Proton uses almost newest DXVK, Wine I guess was not updated yet, but Whitelisting takes place, which makes me happy.
Hope Valve pushes forward Steam Play each day, each week, each month. It's good to be Linux gamer this year.

They didn't commit to two years of work just to abandon it one month into launch. Honestly Valve is on the hook for this for years and at this point may be doing this just to see if they can actually shift the OS marketshare with GAMES. It's long been theorized that OS succeed or fail based on that, this is an interesting experiment.

Personally, I'm in agreement with Bryan Lunduke, Linux would not be anywhere near as mature as it is without Microsoft angering everyone. It's not enough to have a place to run to, you have to have something to run from. And like with this latest Win10 update that was deleting files thanks to a bug that they apparently knew about for months and yet they still rolled it out, Microsoft is doing exactly what Valve is counting on. Microsoft just being itself will provide all the inspiration needed for the resources allocated to Proton+DXVK+MESA to actually pay off.

Have you tried Killing Floor 2 yet? Eager to know how that runs since I dual-boot to play that game ALOT, would be great having it run flawlessly on Linux seeing as how Tripwire never gave us that native port they promised.

In-fact I feel Tripwire should work with Valve to help KF2 work good under proton, feel like it's the least they could do after failing to keep their promise of a native linux port

I'm having a go trying Killing Floor 2 on Proton right now. Note that there is every possibility that if it works for me then it won't work for you, and vice versa. Anyone else want a try - It is a 23GB download (tsk).

Okay, well GOOD NEWS. Off the bat, no tweaking, it worked okay on my Debian Buster, Ryzen 5, GTX 1080ti, Nvidia driver 390.87 system. I try to run all my games at 4K resolution (3860x2160) and it was working at that res, but it seemed the frame-rate or responsiveness was a bit off, so I did get fiddling around with command-lines and graphics settings.

First minor surprise was that changing resolution barely affected the responsiveness of the game. In games where I have had slow-downs in the past, I've dropped resolution and BAM, loads more FPS and the game feels more perky. Certainly I have resorted to doing that while playing SCUM on Proton (and it helped a lot).

So, instead of dropping resolution, I adjusted the anti-aliasing, lens bloom, DOF, and other effects (while keeping the textures on Ultra - my graphics card should be okay with that). With a fair bit of tweaking it did improve the responsiveness during game-play.

Also I had a go with some command-line settings, to see what they would do:

PROTON_USE_WINED3D11=1 %command%
- this worked and seemed a teeny bit quicker but introduced graphical artefacts.

PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 %command%
- this worked and might have slightly improved performance, no graphical issues.

Noting that the Killing Floor 2 "Proton" Window on startup mentions that it is running in 64 bit with Direct X 11. As such I expect the graphical beauty isn't as great as if it were using Direct X 12. Still, even so, it does look pretty decent as it is.


Last edited by g000h on 6 October 2018 at 7:08 pm UTC

Amazing for me:

Sam & Max 101: Culture Shock +other episodes
Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge
Stick Fight: The Game
HeXen: Beyond Heretic
Commander Keen



More and more Spydows refugees will find a new home on Linux for sure.

I was little bit skeptical last weeks, as it was looking like in September after making Steam Play official for all Steam Linux clients, Valve was not putting a lot of work in Proton, it was outdated while comparing to DXVK and while comparing to Wine.
Now Proton uses almost newest DXVK, Wine I guess was not updated yet, but Whitelisting takes place, which makes me happy.
Hope Valve pushes forward Steam Play each day, each week, each month. It's good to be Linux gamer this year.

You can keep track (and also help if you have the games) of everything over on their github https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues

I submitted 30 odd games for whitelisting before getting caught up in said games lol. Never realized how much gold I'd never bothered to play in my games list.

Okay, well GOOD NEWS. Off the bat, no tweaking, it worked okay on my Debian Buster, Ryzen 5, GTX 1080ti, Nvidia driver 390.87 system.

Have you tried updating your driver to check performance?

The quickstart guide that Valve linked to in their initial announcement for Steamplay, stated "Linux users with NVIDIA graphics cards should install the latest NVIDIA proprietary drivers; 396.54 or newer is REQUIRED"

Wasn't Castle Crashers already on the whitelist?

No it was not on the original list, which can be seen here.

Fair enough, Liam. I wasn't questioning your reporting; I just could have sworn that it was. Oh, well.

Monkey Island™ 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge™ is the first game on the whitelist that's in my library. Pretty excited for that, I was really happy with how they remastered the games.

Yep, just tried both MI SE versions, very cool that both "just" work. Not as nostalgic as playing via ScummVM, but both SE versions preserve the original feeling quite well imho, especially the music.


Last edited by jens on 6 October 2018 at 9:05 pm UTC

I just want to know what is the criteria used for to whitelist games...
and what is the criteria for to choose those specific games and not other games.

Simple. it must work on every system as if it would be a native game. It must work on Nvidia and AMD cards without any extra steps. That means massive testing and they can't just blindly trust fan sites with their anonymous tests.;)

I think they must focus first on Big games and big franchises, and test each game following just the official hardware requirement listed on each game store page.
Example:
Sniper Ghost Warrior 3:
minimum
 
i3 3240 3.4 GHz or AMD FX-6350 3.9 GHz
8 GB  RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 2GB or AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB
This should give you solid 30FPS @720p with graphics presets at low.

Recommended:
AMD FX 8350 Wraith or Intel Core i7 4790 or equivalent
16 GB RAM
AMD Radeon™ RX 480 4GB or NVIDIA GeForce(R) GTX 1060 3GB
And this should give you solid 60FPS@1080p at Low-Medium

But, while it works OUT of THE BOX, after few hours of gameplay, the sound begins to turn choppy and distorted.
So, it will be irresponsible to whitelist it... (but, maybe is a Pulse issue and not a Proton Issue)

Have you tried Killing Floor 2 yet? Eager to know how that runs since I dual-boot to play that game ALOT, would be great having it run flawlessly on Linux seeing as how Tripwire never gave us that native port they promised.

In-fact I feel Tripwire should work with Valve to help KF2 work good under proton, feel like it's the least they could do after failing to keep their promise of a native linux port

I'm having a go trying Killing Floor 2 on Proton right now. Note that there is every possibility that if it works for me then it won't work for you, and vice versa. Anyone else want a try - It is a 23GB download (tsk).

Okay, well GOOD NEWS. Off the bat, no tweaking, it worked okay on my Debian Buster, Ryzen 5, GTX 1080ti, Nvidia driver 390.87 system. I try to run all my games at 4K resolution (3860x2160) and it was working at that res, but it seemed the frame-rate or responsiveness was a bit off, so I did get fiddling around with command-lines and graphics settings.

First minor surprise was that changing resolution barely affected the responsiveness of the game. In games where I have had slow-downs in the past, I've dropped resolution and BAM, loads more FPS and the game feels more perky. Certainly I have resorted to doing that while playing SCUM on Proton (and it helped a lot).

So, instead of dropping resolution, I adjusted the anti-aliasing, lens bloom, DOF, and other effects (while keeping the textures on Ultra - my graphics card should be okay with that). With a fair bit of tweaking it did improve the responsiveness during game-play.

Also I had a go with some command-line settings, to see what they would do:

PROTON_USE_WINED3D11=1 %command%
- this worked and seemed a teeny bit quicker but introduced graphical artefacts.

PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 %command%
- this worked and might have slightly improved performance, no graphical issues.

Noting that the Killing Floor 2 "Proton" Window on startup mentions that it is running in 64 bit with Direct X 11. As such I expect the graphical beauty isn't as great as if it were using Direct X 12. Still, even so, it does look pretty decent as it is.

What about your game stats? I understand that playing via proton has an issue with your perk stats and everything goes to 0 .

Here's an alphabetized and less cluttered list of the games added to the whitelist:
AdVenture Communist
AFTERGRINDER
Bejeweled® 3
Castle Crashers®
Cat Goes Fishing
Coffee Shop Tycoon
Coloring Pixels
Commander Keen
Everyday Shooter
Fieldrunners 2
Guacamelee! 2
Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders
HeXen: Beyond Heretic
HeXen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel
Mighty Switch Force! Hyper Drive Edition
Monkey Island™ 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge™
Mugsters
Overcooked
Puzzle Agent
Sam & Max 101: Culture Shock
Sam & Max 102: Situation: Comedy
Sam & Max 103: The Mole
Sam & Max 104: Abe Lincoln Must Die!
Sam & Max 105: Reality 2.0
Sam & Max 106: Bright Side of the Moon
Sam & Max 201: Ice Station Santa
Sam & Max 202: Moai Better Blues
Sam & Max 203: Night of the Raving Dead
Sam & Max 204: Chariots of the Dogs
Sam & Max 205: What's New Beelzebub?
Sam & Max 301: The Penal Zone
Sam & Max 302: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak
Sam & Max 303: They Stole Max's Brain!
Sam & Max 304: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls
Sam & Max 305: The City That Dares Not Sleep
Spelunky
Stick Fight: The Game
The Witness
VirtuaCreature
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
Zen of Sudoku

So in other words, if you're not a Sam & Max fan, it's actually a pretty small list.

Strange, considering there's apparently a lot more games which have complete "platinum" results... I would have thought that many of those would be added to the "whitelist" in the next update.


Last edited by Cyba.Cowboy on 7 October 2018 at 12:25 am UTC

So in other words, if you're not a Sam & Max fan, it's actually a pretty small list.

Strange, considering there's apparently a lot more games which have complete "platinum" results... I would have thought that many of those would be added to the "whitelist" in the next update.

I think it's obvious that they are not whitelisting just because someone somewhere says it's good enough. SPCR list has its limits, often not fully tested and it's opinion-based rather than factual. Valve is most likely doing proper QA on their own and it takes time.

Valve is most likely doing proper QA on their own and it takes time.

Hopefully that is the case, because the long-term benefits will far outweigh the short-term benefits if true... My understanding however (based on something I read somewhere, can't remember where), was that Valve were using SPCR as a primary reference point.

Super Mega Baseball 2 should be on the list. I have played several games with and without mods at lowest to highest settings and it works great without having to do anything.

Looking at your avatar I'm presuming you lost horribly. ;)

My understanding however (based on something I read somewhere, can't remember where), was that Valve were using SPCR as a primary reference point.

They just wishlisted at least one game with a "Borked" rating on spcr. Maybe they found the list too unreliable. Or maybe they use it as an additional reference but prioritise and test games requested by developers themselves. That could (and should) happen.

My Steam is not updating and I won't see any of theses games working yet :(

Have you tried Killing Floor 2 yet? Eager to know how that runs since I dual-boot to play that game ALOT, would be great having it run flawlessly on Linux seeing as how Tripwire never gave us that native port they promised.

In-fact I feel Tripwire should work with Valve to help KF2 work good under proton, feel like it's the least they could do after failing to keep their promise of a native linux port

I'm having a go trying Killing Floor 2 on Proton right now. Note that there is every possibility that if it works for me then it won't work for you, and vice versa. Anyone else want a try - It is a 23GB download (tsk).

Okay, well GOOD NEWS. Off the bat, no tweaking, it worked okay on my Debian Buster, Ryzen 5, GTX 1080ti, Nvidia driver 390.87 system. I try to run all my games at 4K resolution (3860x2160) and it was working at that res, but it seemed the frame-rate or responsiveness was a bit off, so I did get fiddling around with command-lines and graphics settings.

<snip>

As someone else noted, it's worth trying the proper driver - Proton requires 396.54 now - that might fix your graphical headaches. Certainly, the game looked and performed brilliantly when I tried it.

But as someone else noted, Perks don't sync in that game for us. This bug is the cause and it doesn't sound like a fix is coming any time soon. I bought Killing Floor 2, tested it, confirmed the networking bug and refunded it same day. Looking forward to buying it again one day though. Although, part of me feels like boycotting Tripwire after all their "we will support Linux" bullshit, then silently dropping that support when their single, irreplaceable (apparently) Linux dev left...

The Witness is good news! i really wanted to play that game.

As someone else noted, it's worth trying the proper driver - Proton requires 396.54 now - that might fix your graphical headaches. Certainly, the game looked and performed brilliantly when I tried it.

I'm a long term Debian user, and I use it properly... i.e. I install the packages from the regular repositories so that my system doesn't get messed up. I have tried backports and all sorts of things in the past, but generally find that forcing a later graphics driver onto the system ends up borking it.

Any suggestions about installing Nvidia graphics drivers onto Debian which don't mess it up?

I'm a long term Debian user, and I use it properly... i.e. I install the packages from the regular repositories so that my system doesn't get messed up. I have tried backports and all sorts of things in the past, but generally find that forcing a later graphics driver onto the system ends up borking it.

Any suggestions about installing Nvidia graphics drivers onto Debian which don't mess it up?

Well, backports (and even experimental from time to time) works well for me...

http://ein-eike.de/2016/08/28/how-to-install-steam-and-nvidia-drivers-on-debian-jessie/

I'm a long term Debian user, and I use it properly... i.e. I install the packages from the regular repositories so that my system doesn't get messed up. I have tried backports and all sorts of things in the past, but generally find that forcing a later graphics driver onto the system ends up borking it.

I'm kind of in the same boat. I'm on Mint, but it's only offering me 340.107 and 390.48 so I'd rather stick to that. Didn't someone say that the newer drivers were only necessary for Vulkan games anyway, or something along those lines?

I'm a long term Debian user, and I use it properly... i.e. I install the packages from the regular repositories so that my system doesn't get messed up. I have tried backports and all sorts of things in the past, but generally find that forcing a later graphics driver onto the system ends up borking it.

I'm kind of in the same boat. I'm on Mint, but it's only offering me 340.107 and 390.48 so I'd rather stick to that. Didn't someone say that the newer drivers were only necessary for Vulkan games anyway, or something along those lines?

To be honest, only DXVK seems so need it. Some Feral games have it as requirement, but work fine on 390.