Recently Valve upgraded Proton Experimental, the special version of Proton that pulls in advancements first with support for their older CEG DRM and another new build is up. Note: you also currently need the Steam Beta Client for the initial CEG support.
In the changelog it simply notes that it improves "compatibility with games using CEG DRM" but it also has the latest fsync changes for the newer code. According to a Proton developer if you have an older Kernel fsync should be automatically disabled so if you want to use it you need to update.
Going by what we've seen, it appears that Call of Duty: Black Ops II will now load with the Campaign working but Zombies and Multiplayer remain a bit problematic with them crashing eventually. As a reminder some of these games should now see improvements on Linux with Proton Experimental:
- Aliens: Colonial Marines
- Aliens vs. Predator (2010)
- Bioshock Infinite
- Call of Duty: Black Ops
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- FEAR 3
- Hitman: Absolution
- Just Cause 2
- Lara Croft & the Guardian of Light
- Saints Row: The Third
- Sid Meier's Civilization V
- Sniper Elite V2
- The Typing of The Dead: Overkill
You can continue to report on CEG DRM games on the Valve GitHub Ticket.
Need to know how to actually use Proton Experimental? Here's a simple HOWTO (as it's not complicated!). Make sure it's installed by searching for it in your Steam Library, then select it from the Compatibility menu in the Properties section of a game. See our quick video below:
For an explainer in text form:
- Search for Proton Experimental and install if not already.
- Right click any game on Steam and go to Properties.
- Select the Compatibility menu on the right side.
- Ensure the "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool" is ticked.
- From the dropdown box that appears select Proton Experimental.
Quoting: fagnerlnDo you know what are you talking about? Kernel with fsync is generally patched, so there's no difference between update manually a kernel and setup a patched one.The difference is that common users don't usually update their default kernel, so if a distro is not using the minimal version with support by default, they won't have the patched benefits since most of distros make the kernel update separated from the usual upgrade process.
Not anyone's fault in this, but it's a reason why I prefer rolling distros for gaming use cases.
Quoting: LoftyDo you have to be in the steam beta in order to run the correct version of proton experimental ? I have the regular steam client running experimental and two games i have tried (hitman:absolution & GRID2) don't launch.
i wonder how long it will be until CEG gets into the regular experimental branch? I don't want to run the steam beta as i have had issues with it in the past.
CEG DRM relies on Steam client that's why you need to run Beta client. Nothing stops you from using any Proton version on stable client, but CEG-protected games won't work this way.
You can always switch between client versions back and forth if something is not working.
Last edited by chelobaka on 3 November 2021 at 10:18 am UTC
Quoting: BielFPsQuoting: fagnerlnDo you know what are you talking about? Kernel with fsync is generally patched, so there's no difference between update manually a kernel and setup a patched one.The difference is that common users don't usually update their default kernel, so if a distro is not using the minimal version with support by default, they won't have the patched benefits since most of distros make the kernel update separated from the usual upgrade process.
Not anyone's fault in this, but it's a reason why I prefer rolling distros for gaming use cases.
None of big rolling distro uses patched kernel by default,it's the same issue
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