Proton Experimental fixes up EA App, Grounded, The Witcher 3

A rather nice looking Proton Experimental update went live on June 24th, so here's a run over what to expect on Steam Deck and Linux desktop. This is the version of Proton that Valve update regularly, before rolling out changes to the main versions of Proton. See more about Proton here.

For the June 24th update they list these as newly playable:

• 21st Century Basketball.
• Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD.

Plus these bug fixes:

• Fixed an issue with EA Desktop sometimes not launching after an update.
• Fixed scrollbar in Final Fantasy XIV Online launcher.
• Fixed Grounded not being playable on desktop.
• Fixed The Witcher 3 showing the task bar after Alt+Tab on xfce with certain resolutions.
• Fixed Dwarf Fortress SDL2 beta crashing on launch.
• Fixed periodic stuttering in Street Fighter 6 when playing without internet for a longer time.

A Proton 8.0 regression was solved for the debug console in Scrap Mechanic that should work again.

On top of that for desktop Linux users with NVIDIA GPUs the NVAPI was enabled for:

• Atomic Heart.
• Baldur's Gate 3.
• Demonologist.
• Icarus.
• Layers of Fear.
• Severed Steel.
• Showgunners.
• Strayed Lights.
• Voidtrain.
• Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.

Full changelog can be seen here.

Good to see more desktop Linux improvements continue to land. Checking back on Grounded, I can confirm there's no longer a manual fix needed. With Proton Experimental up to date it will now launch fully and work, including the Xbox login as well. Screenshot below of it tested on Fedora KDE:

How to change your Proton version:

Steam Deck:

• Pick a game in your Library and head to the little cog icon on the right.
• Click Properties, then Compatibility on the left.
• Make sure the tickbox is done, then select Proton Experimental from the dropdown.

On a Linux desktop:

• Right click a game, go to Properties.
• Compatibility on the left.
• Make sure the tickbox is done, then select Proton Experimental from the dropdown.