Valve rolls out Proton 8.0 to further improve Steam Deck and Linux gaming

After a bit of a wait since the Wine 8.0 release, Valve has now released Proton 8.0, the latest version of their Windows translation layer for Steam Deck and Linux desktop. This is the tool that runs some of the most popular games around!

Plenty of the changes will have already been in Proton Experimental, but Proton 8 is the latest stable version that eventually the majority of Windows games will move over to use. According to the Twitter post from Valve developer Pierre-Loup Griffais, Proton Experimental will see an update this week too.

Now noted to be playable include:

• Forspoken
• Samurai Maiden
• Dead Space (2023)
• Creativerse
• Nioh 2 - The Complete Edition
• One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4
• Atelier Meruru
• Atelier Lydie & Suelle ~The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings~
• Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book DX
• Blue Reflection
• Atelier Rorona ~The Alchemist of Arland~ DX
• Disney Dreamlight Valley
• ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS XIV
• ToGather:Island
• WARRIORS OROCHI 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition
• Exceed - Gun Bullet Children
• Gungrave G.O.R.E.
• Chex Quest HD

Bug fixes and other improvements include:

• Fixed 2K launcher failure caused by launcher update.
• Fixed Arabic fonts in FIFA 21 and 22.
• Improved CJK font support in many games including NOBUNAGA'S AMBITION: Souzou with Power Up Kit, Stardom 3 and Sword and Fairy 3.
• Improved sleep/resume functionality on Steam Deck for Tiny Tina's Wonderland.
• Improved multi-touch support.
• Fixed native scrollbar being always visible in Final Fantasy XIV Online launcher.
• Fixed A Plague Tale: Innocence and A Plague Tale: Requiem showing on-screen keyboard when starting the game on the Steam Deck.
• Fixed rendering issues during cutscenes in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.
• Fixed Japanese keyboard input in Final Fantasy XIV Online.
• Fixed Football manager 2023 crashing when trying to return from a player profile.
• Fixed experimental regression: Fall in Labyrinth started crashing on some setups.
• Improved CJK characters rendering in many games including NOBUNAGA'S AMBITION: Souzou with Power Up Kit.
• Fixed Life is Strange Remastered crashing at the end of chapter 2.
• Fixed Alt+Tab not working on Gnome 43.
• Improved force feedback compatibility for BeamNG and Forza Horizon 5.
• Fixed regression with Mortal Kombat X performance.
• Fixed OpenGL launch option for Youropa.
• Fixed raytracing in Crysis Remastered.
• Improved multiplayer support in Company of Heroes III.
• Improved fullscreen support for The Last Blade 2.
• Fixed regression: Minecraft Dungeons was hanging when disconnecting from multiplayer game.
• Fixed Immortals Fenyx Rising missing/out-of-order audio lines in cutscenes.
• Fixed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt launcher flickering on Wayland.
• Fixed Story Mode not working in Dead or Alive 6.
• Enabled nvapi for many games.
• Updated wine to 8.0.
• Updated dxvk to v2.1-4-gcaf31033.
• Updated vkd3d-proton to v2.8-84-g08909d98.
• Updated dxvk-nvapi to v0.6.2.
• Updated wine-mono to 7.4.1.

How to use it?

You can select Proton 8 in the Properties -> Compatibility menu of any game when you tick the box. See more in the Steam Play beginner's guide article. You can also search for "Proton 8" directly in your Steam Library to install it manually.

Note: it requires a GPU that supports Vulkan 1.3 (Steam Deck is fine).

Full changelog can be found on GitHub.

Update 18/04/23 - 18:36 UTC: Valve pushed out a hotfix to Proton 8 fix a crash on startup with Dark Souls games.