Valve are working fast to improve the Steam client this year, with another beta now available including an option that was highly requested.
Firstly, Steam Input gained support for the HORI Battle Pad and HORI Wireless Switch Pad. Additionally, Big Picture mode had two bugs fixed. The usual stuff there and nothing major, that is until you get to the Linux section of the beta changelog.
Users have been asking Valve pretty much since Steam Play arrived, to add a method to force a native game to use Steam Play instead. So now, if you've opted into the Steam beta client you will see this on the properties of a game (the bottom option):
Why is that so interesting and important? Well, honestly, some Linux ports get left behind for months and years and some really just aren't good. Additionally, some Linux games have multiplayer that's not cross-platform, this could also help with that. Not to downplay the effort a lot of developers put in, it's just how it is. The ability for users to control between the version from the developer and running it through Steam Play is a nice to have option.
Linux changes:
- Added the ability to force-enable Steam Play in per-title properties, including for native games
- Fixed incorrect scroll offset in the in-game overlay
- Reworked global Steam Play enable settings to only override the Proton version used by unsupported games
- Fixed a bug where the global Steam Play enable setting wouldn't prompt for a Steam client restart
See the announcement here.
While not noted, the Steam client now actually shows what version of Proton is used for each title. Here's Into the Breach for example:
I would have played more but fullscreen is broken for me and it's a whitelisted title…
One of the next big stages for Steam Play, will be actually showing it for whitelisted titles on store pages. I'm still very curious to see how Valve will be handling that. Valve might also want to update the Steam support page too, it's rather outdated.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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That's pretty cool. But hey, are anyone here missing Proton updates?
:P
:P
1 Likes, Who?
if they want to force Linux games to work with Steamplay because they do not use windows directly? I think it's a step backwards in the fight that Valve has been doing for Linux users
0 Likes
if they want to force Linux games to work with Steamplay because they do not use windows directly? I think it's a step backwards in the fight that Valve has been doing for Linux users
No , with this way Valve guarentees a good gaming experience for Linux users.
Example: A Linux user bought the MotoGPX3 game ( native VP port) but performance wise game is beaten by DXVK with a big margin.
So user can use Windows version without dealing Steam on Lutris.
Valve provides you choice and says " Use what you want"
Last edited by Leopard on 18 January 2019 at 12:21 am UTC
19 Likes, Who?
This is a great feature. Sadly many Linux ports are poor quality and the Windows version works better.
I hope Steam Play doesn't discourage Feral, since their ports still generally come out ahead of DXVK but Virtual Programming needs to a new porting tool-set to replace eON, or they can just embrace Wine + DXVK tech and modify/optimize variants of it on a per game port basis.
I hope Steam Play doesn't discourage Feral, since their ports still generally come out ahead of DXVK but Virtual Programming needs to a new porting tool-set to replace eON, or they can just embrace Wine + DXVK tech and modify/optimize variants of it on a per game port basis.
12 Likes, Who?
if they want to force Linux games to work with Steamplay because they do not use windows directly? I think it's a step backwards in the fight that Valve has been doing for Linux users
No , with this way Valve guarentees a good gaming experience for Linux users.
Example: A Linux user bought the MotoGPX3 game ( native VP port) but performance wise game is beaten by DXVK with a big margin.
So user can use Windows version without dealing Steam on Lutris.
Valve provides you choice and says " Use what you want"
True but Steam Play falls behind upstream Wine and Wine Staging, so Lutris and POL w/ Windows Steam client is still useful for games that need newer Wine versions. Hopefully Steam Play gets a Wine 4.x re-base shortly after it's release.
0 Likes
if they want to force Linux games to work with Steamplay because they do not use windows directly? I think it's a step backwards in the fight that Valve has been doing for Linux users
No , with this way Valve guarentees a good gaming experience for Linux users.
Example: A Linux user bought the MotoGPX3 game ( native VP port) but performance wise game is beaten by DXVK with a big margin.
So user can use Windows version without dealing Steam on Lutris.
Valve provides you choice and says " Use what you want"
True but Steam Play falls behind upstream Wine and Wine Staging, so Lutris and POL w/ Windows Steam client is still useful for games that need newer Wine versions. Hopefully Steam Play gets a Wine 4.x re-base shortly after it's release.
It will catch up soon , Wine 4.0 is just RC now.
SteamPlay has an aim ; whitelisting many games as possible while avoiding regressions. So it will always be bit behind of upstream.
Using upstream Wine manually doesn't offer you compability guarentee and doesn't aim it too.
11 Likes, Who?
Let me understand this. This update should make games like Ark with a bad Linux port to work better. I think is good and bad. Dev can become lazy but Linux user don't feel like they need to install windows or go with a wine steam to play the game that their friends play.
3 Likes, Who?
Two sided blade, but I guess it is a good thing for those broken native ports (I'm looking at you Killing Floor! [on nVidia])
5 Likes, Who?
Sadly many Linux ports are poor quality and the Windows version works better.No offense, just curious if this is a qualified "many" or simply an opinion.
We all know some really bad ports, but sweeping statements like this get thrown around a little too often for my liking and it ultimately throws shade at Linux as a gaming platform in general, nevermind who developed what, who ported X game, which distro/gpu - whatever.
Perhaps you could share your thoughts on the matter?
12 Likes, Who?
i bet tomb raider 2013 and rise of the tomb raider will run even better now gonna have to test this
Rise of The Tomb Raider port is really close to Windows port , even faster for Nvidia users compared to DX12 renderer. SteamPlay won't work performant as Feral port.
However Tomb Raider 2013 is another story.
7 Likes, Who?
Reworked global Steam Play enable settings to only override the Proton version used by unsupported gamesWhat do they mean by that? You can't override the Proton version for a whitelisted game?
0 Likes
So i guess Divinity Original Sin and Dying Light just works fine without any workarounds on mesa drivers. Thx Proton :)
2 Likes, Who?
i bet tomb raider 2013 and rise of the tomb raider will run even better now gonna have to test this
rise of the tr has VULKAN and runs pretty good. i dont think, that it runs better with an extra DXVK layer. but maybe someone give it a shot and makes a NATIVE / PROTON comparison video. same with HITMAN
i definitely try METRO. the linux ports rly suck and have less options, than on windows
since there is no WAR THUNDER VULKAN update i think the Win version also could run better now (depends on anti cheat)
and i may can finally play DEAD ISLAND on linux
i complained a few days ago and hoped for forcing steamplay on native ports
and for some reasons 12 is better than 6 and iron snout wont work for me
but first i have to finish some games and make free space
1 Likes, Who?
TheRiddick Jan 18, 2019
As for devs becoming lazy, I think its well past that if they haven't fixed things for their Linux port already. ARK being a prime example..
2 Likes, Who?
Reworked global Steam Play enable settings to only override the Proton version used by unsupported gamesWhat do they mean by that? You can't override the Proton version for a whitelisted game?
I think it means that if a game gets whitelisted at 3.16-3 for example, the global override won't effect the whitelisted titles. So you can override all of the other ones but the whitelisted ones will be frozen at the version that they are known to be working.
1 Likes, Who?
Reworked global Steam Play enable settings to only override the Proton version used by unsupported gamesWhat do they mean by that? You can't override the Proton version for a whitelisted game?
I think that means the global option no longer makes officially supported games use a newer version which may not work due to regressions, but you can still override on a per-game basis if you really want to. I think this is much better.
Valve has been clearing out the backlog for Steam this month, I'm loving it! I still wish they would change it so that you can have the officially supported games in the "STEAMOS + LINUX" view, but be able to launch unsupported games via Steam Play from the "GAMES" view. Right now, you have to globally enable Steam Play, and then the Linux view has both supported and unsupported games in it. Plus switching between modes requires a client restart - annoying.
1 Likes, Who?
This is great. Anyone know if it's possible to have both native and proton versions installed at the same time to quickly switch between the two for testing?
Hope I can use proton for Rocket League to finally get workshop maps working. Performance might be better too. Rocket League's Linux performance is pretty poor compared to Windows sadly.
change directory name of the game and steam wont see it (but close steam first) and you can install it again
Last edited by mylka on 18 January 2019 at 1:36 am UTC
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As for devs becoming lazy, I think its well past that if they haven't fixed things for their Linux port already. ARK being a prime example..It's also a primal example ;) *SCNR*
2 Likes, Who?
Port quality aside, keep in mind that there were some game license that had the Linux button, even if they contained no files, so it's great they fixed it: for example BEAT.TRIP RUNNER activated from Humble Indie Bundle 4 (it had a native version on Humble, but it was never uploaded to Steam for some reason) or TRAUMA from "Krystian Majewski Comp" from some CD-keys. Or some extreme cases when game technically lauches, but due to Linux-exclusive bugs is not even playable, for example for the owners of a removed game Jerry McPartlin - Rebel with a Cause (there's a few more obscure games in my library that didn't even want to launch too).
That's pretty cool. But hey, are anyone here missing Proton updates?Maybe they are waiting for 4.0 to release? Or planning something bigger, such as more performance tweaks especially for DX9 titles (PBA? Gallium 9? VK9 eventually?) :)?
:P
4 Likes, Who?
if they want to force Linux games to work with Steamplay because they do not use windows directly? I think it's a step backwards in the fight that Valve has been doing for Linux users
do you think?
there are games with OLD linux ports.
BLACK THE FALL https://store.steampowered.com/app/308060/Black_The_Fall/
this game has a linux port, but it is very old and the newer windows version looks complete different. the developers wont answer to any questions and they dont delete the linux version
so what you gonna do? now you can install the win version and maybe it works as it should
linux needs market share and for that you need games you can play with ONE CLICK
5 Likes, Who?
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