Frozenbyte being the developer behind titles like the Trine series, Shadwen, Has-Been Heroes and the upcoming Starbase talks a little about Proton and future native Linux support. If you're not clear on what Proton and Steam Play are, be sure to check out our constantly updated dedicated page. It's a special compatibility layer for running Windows games and apps from Steam on Linux.
If you're not aware, Frozenbyte did previously have their games ported over to Linux but they eventually stopped after the release of Shadwen in 2016. The latest Trine 4 and their other titles don't have Linux version. With Starbase that's due to release tomorrow (July 29, 2021), there's a post on the Steam forum from a user asking about Linux support and Frozenbyte developer Jukka Larja (JLarja) replied on July 27 to explain it's not a priority:
With Proton being as good as it is, native support is not very high on our list. In fact (without actually trying the native versions on modern Linux distro) I would recommend Proton emulation over native versions for all the previous games we've released. Changes are you'll get better graphics quality, likely less trouble getting the game running and input working, and possible better performance too. For low-on-resources port Proton is simply superior.
If Linux gaming takes off (for example, because Steam Deck becomes a huge success), then we'll have a reason to consider not-so-low-on-resources port, which may (and probably does) change the picture somewhat. At the moment we have Xbox Series X/S higher on our porting targets list though (not for Starbase currently, but for other future projects).
I imagine there will be plenty more of this, especially for older ports where performance wasn't top and some that might have other issues. Proton isn't just something that's good to ensure Linux gamers and Steam Deck users get to play the latest games, it's also (as even porter Ethan Lee has pointed out), good for being an "essential preservation project" for older Windows games to keep them working nicely.
What is interesting to see is a mention of it being possibility if the Steam Deck is a success. People will argue on one side about there not being a point if Proton gets to the stage where Windows games can just run out of the box on Linux with Proton, but there is the other side that a native Linux build gives developers more control and flexibility on their games compared with handing it all over to Valve. Either way, that and more depends on how the Steam Deck goes.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
So given the situation that they are in I would say that Proton is the best choice, and as other have already said this is a decision they actually made at least 5 years ago.
Mohandevir Jul 28, 2021
User: I have an issue with your game on Proton/Linux/SteamOS.
Frozenbyte: Bad luck, it's an unsupported system, use Windows then.
User: But you said we should use Proton because it's better than native ports.
Frozenbyte: No, we said "you could". Proton is better because we don't know how to do proper ports, we didn't say it would work. Windows is even better, you should try it.
User: No way.
Frozenbyte: Don't buy Windows games, or buy them and try them with Proton, it's very good. And we don't owe you anything.
I actually even play games using Proton which do have native ports (like M&B Warband), becsuse the linux version is riddled with graphics bugs.
On other games (Valheim in example), the Linux port is so bad performance whise (OGL and Vulkan) that it's actually better to play using Proton, since the Windows version seems way better optimized (I use the D3D version, not Vulkan, since their Vulkan port in Proton and Native tends to have bad performance and freaks out my 3070TI pushing it to its limit actually, which is completely unnecessary). Not well optimized yet it seems.
There are great ports with Vulkan though, even with OGL, but I basically use Proton on most of my games by now... because DXVK is just very good.
I prefer playing in Proton having a good experience than playing a bad port.
Every game made with Directx in mind is a potential "Proton only" game, which will result in cases like Trine where even if they have a native version it's different/worse than their windows counterpart, but more games made with Vulkan in mind means better performance, which means more chances to have a (good) linux native version.
Quoting: STiATOn other games (Valheim in example), the Linux port is so bad performance whise (OGL and Vulkan) that it's actually better to play using Proton,
Exactly, my last refunded game had a native port too (Last Epoch) where the game wouldn't even start in my machine, so what was the point of a native version for me in this case?
In case of Valheim I notice this too, and the cause is not Vulkan being worse than Directx, but probably because the developers are more comfortable at working with dx, because dx has more support (easier to work with) than Vulkan right now, hence why it's important to encourage more developers to work with Vulkan even if their games will be Windows only.
Quoting: BielFPsI said this before and I will say it again: Before ask developers to support Linux we need to ask them to support Vulkan first, in order to make them create better games with the api.
Every game made with Directx in mind is a potential "Proton only" game, which will result in cases like Trine where even if they have a native version it's different/worse than their windows counterpart, but more games made with Vulkan in mind means better performance, which means more chances to have a (good) linux native version.
Quoting: STiATOn other games (Valheim in example), the Linux port is so bad performance whise (OGL and Vulkan) that it's actually better to play using Proton,
Exactly, my last refunded game had a native port too (Last Epoch) where the game wouldn't even start in my machine, so what was the point of a native version for me in this case?
In case of Valheim I notice this too, and the cause is not Vulkan being worse than Directx, but probably because the developers are more comfortable at working with dx, because dx has more support (easier to work with) than Vulkan right now, hence why it's important to encourage more developers to work with Vulkan even if their games will be Windows only.
Valheim is a Unity title.
For Unity; GL is basically deprecated ( even if they don't call it that way) and Vulkan is there for mobile purposes.
Same goes for Unreal Engine too. Nearly all dev time+money goes into D3D side.
It is not the fault of game devs; those popular engines has second class citizen support for anything that is a non MS graphics api.
So Metal also shares the same fate.
Last edited by Leopard on 28 July 2021 at 10:12 pm UTC
Quoting: LeopardIt is not the fault of game devs; those popular engines has second class citizen support for anything that is a non MS graphics api.
Hence the point of my post: first ask for Vulkan then latter for a native version.
Quoting: BielFPsQuoting: LeopardIt is not the fault of game devs; those popular engines has second class citizen support for anything that is a non MS graphics api.
Hence the point of my post: first ask for Vulkan then latter for a native version.
Yes, a Vulkan backend that got all dev time on a PC build is vastly better than having a port that translates from D3D code.
With source code access that is also ok ( for example like it happened with SoTR port of Feral) but usually that is not the case.
With having first class citizen Vulkan backends on PC ( Windows ) Proton should be much more viable.
It takes time and money to port an engine to another platform, so Proton can take care of this part.
What I am curious about is if projects like unity and godot will drop native build support and focus on Proton compatibility for the windows builds.
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me