Wine 6.20 rolls out continuing the PE module conversion

Just before the weekend landed the Wine team released Wine 6.20 as the latest development version with all the latest code. This is the compatibility layer that allows you to run games and applications developed for Windows - on Linux. Part of what makes up Steam Play Proton. Once a year or so, a new stable release is made.

The Wine 6.20 release highlights include:

• MSXml, XAudio, DInput and a few other modules converted to PE.
• A few system libraries are bundled with the source to support PE builds.
• HID joystick is now the only supported joystick backend in DirectInput.
• Better support for MSVCRT builds in Winelib.

As we explained previously: the continued conversion of various modules to PE is another change that will gradually increase compatibility in many ways over time for certain expected behaviour needed by Windows applications. Previously Wine has built its Win32 libraries (like DLLs and EXEs) as ELF but for many reasons (like better compatibility) they've started to move them over to use PE instead. Meanwhile the HID Joystick switch is to help improve controller support in Wine, with it all now under one roof.

For bugs reported as fixed as of this release they noted 29 including issues solved for: Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005), Path of Exile, Victor Vran, EA Desktop app, Diablo 2: Resurrected, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Project CARS 2 and more.