Proton 7.0 out with Easy Anti-Cheat improvements, more games for Linux & Steam Deck

Woot! Proton major update time, it's like Christmas only the Santa Claus is real.

Time to test Star Wars: Squadrons again! I've already seen the easyanticheat so file being delivered, but I still got kicked out of multiplayer matches. Time to test again with Proton 7.
According to the tweet of flibitijibibo Proton 7 is also being used for the Deck verified program.

QuoteRocksmith 2014 Edition

nice.

Hope that they can get that USB-chord thingy working so that I can plug in my quitar.

Here's hoping that this will also make Cyberpunk 2077 work again, after the massive patch yesterday...!

Quoting: mZSq7Fq3qsHope that they can get that USB-chord thingy working so that I can plug in my quitar.

Ah! Good point! I sincerely hope so too! I've mentally put Rocksmith into the "not working" category due to that USB issue.

Would be fantastic if that one is working, then there'll be rockin' in my cave. :)


Last edited by Beamboom on 16 February 2022 at 8:44 am UTC

QuoteNecroVisioN

Quoting: BeamboomHere's hoping that this will also make Cyberpunk 2077 work again, after the massive patch yesterday...!

Worked fine for me after the patch, checked again this morning with Proton 7 and still works fine for me.

Quoting: Liam DaweWorked fine for me after the patch, checked again this morning with Proton 7 and still works fine for me.

Really?! Oh man that's a relief cause I can't wait to check out the new stuff. And you're on Nivida, right? My install flatlined after the upgrade. Thanks for that info, I'll have to look more into this then!


Last edited by Beamboom on 16 February 2022 at 9:10 am UTC

I noticed something interesting when trying Wargroove.

Wargroove was crashing when intro video was playing on previous proton versions. It looks like they added some color testing/placeholder video instead of the original video, when you run game with proton 7.0.

Now it's not crashing anymore when you run the game. Before I had to run it with 'No intro' option.

I hope that means P4G gets to lose its unsupported tag soon.

Quoting: BekaI noticed something interesting when trying Wargroove.

Wargroove was crashing when intro video was playing on previous proton versions. It looks like they added some color testing/placeholder video instead of the original video, when you run game with proton 7.0.

Now it's not crashing anymore when you run the game. Before I had to run it with 'No intro' option.

That is the placeholder for missing WMF videos, my guess is that Yakuza 4 is the same type of "fix". That game used to simply freeze during loading on start because of intro/credits videos.

Quoting: damarrinI hope that means P4G gets to lose its unsupported tag soon.

Some of the comments report the videos in the game are just placeholders. So the game probably runs now, but without videos (I don't know the game, so I am not sure if it's just intros or actual part of gameplay).

Quoting: mZSq7Fq3qs

QuoteRocksmith 2014 Edition

Hope that they can get that USB-chord thingy working so that I can plug in my quitar.

Just tried it out on Pop!_OS, and it didn't work with the real-tone cable right away, but there are existing fixes to get it to work.

Quoting: impartiallydeadJust tried it out on Pop!_OS, and it didn't work with the real-tone cable right away, but there are existing fixes to get it to work.

I've briefly looked into that, but it seemed they required a manual wine bottle setup, outside Proton. Is that how you got it to work too, or did you use a different method that utilise Proton?


Last edited by Beamboom on 16 February 2022 at 10:30 am UTC

Persona 4 Golden marked as working is a big deal. For a long while now, codec has been an issue with a LOT of games, particularly Japanese ones like ArcSys's games. Persona 4 Golden was literally the first non-VR game marked as not playable in Steam Deck Verified program. If it's actually working, that's a LOT of games that suddenly went from Silver to Gold or Platinum in ProtonDB and so much less hassle to play.

A lot of people in the visual novel community was interested in Steam Deck as a VN machine, and those people can pay a lot of money to import stuff from Japan and just want people to accept their money to get something officially. They're also already pre-disposed to like handheld like Switch and Vita, even though most VNs are on PCs. So they might be a good customer in the future if codec is really 100% working now.


Last edited by fenglengshun on 16 February 2022 at 10:32 am UTC

Quoting: BeamboomHere's hoping that this will also make Cyberpunk 2077 work again, after the massive patch yesterday...!

Quoting: mZSq7Fq3qsHope that they can get that USB-chord thingy working so that I can plug in my quitar.

Ah! Good point! I sincerely hope so too! I've mentally put Rocksmith into the "not working" category due to that USB issue.

Would be fantastic if that one is working, then there'll be rockin' in my cave. :)

I managed to get this game working with the real tone cable, that was about about half a year ago. Of course I had to do all the tricks recommended on protondb, but I don't remember what I did exactly. Anyways, good thing is that it seems do be easier to set up now. Keep rocking!

Quoting: FrawoOf course I had to do all the tricks recommended on protondb, but I don't remember what I did exactly.

Oh look at that, indeed there's a lot of info on this over there now! It wasn't back when I tried, now this looks promising.

Thanks for this info!

I'don't know what has changed but the Introcutscenes in some of my games (Orcs must die 3) which startet to work some time ago are not rendered anymore with the new protonrelease.I just get that testscreen image again.

@Liam, did you encounter more crashes with Dying Light 2 (DX12)?

Since the update to proton 7 I can hardly pass the 30 minutes threshold. I will try with DX11 and maybe rollback to proton 6…

Edit: It seems to be a known problem https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/5542.


Last edited by Bogomips on 16 February 2022 at 12:18 pm UTC

Quoting: fenglengshunA lot of people in the visual novel community was interested in Steam Deck as a VN machine, and those people can pay a lot of money to import stuff from Japan and just want people to accept their money to get something officially. They're also already pre-disposed to like handheld like Switch and Vita, even though most VNs are on PCs. So they might be a good customer in the future if codec is really 100% working now.

I can't speak for the average reader, but I will say that Steam is not a great platform for visual novels (even if it seems convenient at first). Comparatively few are released there, and there's been outcry about removing adult content from releases due to Steam's rules about not exploiting minors. The vast majority of publishers on Steam are localization companies like Sekai Project and Mangagamer, not actual Japanese publishers.

Take the release of Wonderful Everyday Down the Rabbit-Hole on Steam. The first ~5% of the game is available on Steam for purchase, but you have to download the other 95% which includes some R18+ content from the publisher's site and move it into the game folder. This is not a great experience on PC, and it's even worse for a handheld. This type of release is not particularly unique. Publishers like JAST will release part of the game on Steam and offer Adult patches on their website, which completely defeats the convenience factor. Other publishers, like Moenovel, will gut that content from the game completely while serving customers a mediocre localization that clearly hasn't been proofread very well.

Japanese publishers don't use Steam to get their games to a Japanese audience; they use DMM. DMM doesn't have any of the same draconian temperament toward R18+ content in visual novels as Steam does, and it's HUGE. There are thousands of visual novels on DMM. And DMM games don't work on GNU/Linux, full stop. They are shipped with either the Soft-Denchi DRM (doesn't work), DMM Game Player (always-online DRM that many find annoying and almost certainly doesn't work on GNU/Linux either), Buddy (doesn't work), or something else that doesn't work. I have yet to find any DRM-free releases. Yes, you can buy your porn games on DMM, as long as you're a Windows user.

Like it or not, there's a reason that "eroge" is the term many in the community use to refer to these games. A lot of them include various detailed sex scenes. The objective of many of them is romancing a "capture target" to get to that payoff. Steam does not like visual novels that include adult content and bans games quickly and harshly, usually without opening a channel for communication with the publisher at all. It's often hard to tell whether the game will end up being banned by Steam or not, especially as it can come months after the initial release. Not to mention the pushback you get from a certain segment of readers even when you do manage to get an All-Ages release past Steam's gatekeepers.

I don't particularly care about sex scenes in eroge, but they sure can cause a ruckus, huh?

Then, there are the Japanese readers. Many releases on Steam do not come with a Japanese language option, especially the ones with adult content. These readers can't get games from DMM as mentioned before, but they can get some of them from DLSite. PlayDRM does work on GNU/Linux, but you have to be careful about which games you purchase because some can include the incompatible Soft-Denchi DRM (they do tell you on the site if it does). There's also Johren for both English audiences and (I believe) Japanese audiences, but many don't like them because of the always-on DRM with only 3 activation codes, which they probably won't give you any more of. It also probably doesn't work on GNU/Linux.

Their best bet is actually physical releases, because they tend to come with no DRM at all, but it's often hard to know whether a game will work until you try it. Dies Irae, for example, will not work because of the DRM. Aiyoku no Eustia's AlphaROM DRM doesn't work either, but you can get a file from AlphaROM's SETTEC site that you place in the same directory as the game to bypass the check (apparently it's flaky even on Windows). But the majority don't seem to include DRM at all.

Even with all the trouble you go to, you still end up managing WINE prefixes instead of just launching it with Proton because there are so few visual novels available on Steam in Japanese, the original language they were published in. I can't imagine that being particularly fun or convenient. And, of course, for those learning Japanese, setting up Textractor doesn't seem fun on a handheld either (and Textractor rarely works with VNs on Steam), but this is a niche within a niche.

I don't see the Steam Deck being a particularly good VN machine unless it has Windows on it, or the user is willing to circumvent DRM (which is only legal for this purpose in a handful of countries). I don't think Steam is a great platform for Visual Novels either, even if we take the operating system out of the equation. The moderation has been shown to be repeatedly hostile to these games, with publishers often spending months stripping the VN of content that might trip the alarms, and then having to either deal with complaints from their readers about not including content that was in the original release or offer the content separately as a patch (assuming they don't just ban your game altogether), and at that point, why not just buy it on another store in the first place?

A number of things have to get a lot better before visual novels on Linux are a good experience, let alone the Steam Deck. I wish it were better.


Last edited by pleasereadthemanual on 16 February 2022 at 12:37 pm UTC

Interested in trying Star Wars: Squadrons multiplayer, but yikes, the concurrent player count is peaking at about 200, so not easy to find matches.

Quoting: Bogomips@Liam, did you encounter more crashes with Dying Light 2 (DX12)?

Since the update to proton 7 I can hardly pass the 30 minutes threshold. I will try with DX11 and maybe rollback to proton 6…

Edit: It seems to be a known problem https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/5542.

I can confirm that with Proton 7 there are problems. After 20 minutes or so it stuttered to a crawl and then froze up tight. Could only hard reboot as whole system was unresponsive.

Going back to Proton Experimental, it seems much better. Smoother, no freezing up.