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Proton 8.0-5 is here marking more games as playable, bringing HDR support to even more games and of course the usual bug fixes aplenty to Steam Deck / Desktop Linux.

Lots of these changes would have already been available in Proton Experimental or Proton Hotfix (which some games had by default), but those change often and can have regressions breaking things. You should stick with the stable Proton unless you have issues. Want to learn more about Proton? Check out the Proton beginner's guide.

Proton 8.0-5 is a pretty big one so here's all the listed changes. Noted as now playable:

  • Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes.
  • Welcome to Princeland.
  • Red Tie Runner.
  • Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition.
  • Assassin's Creed Mirage.

Even though Assassin's Creed Mirage is not available on Steam, people can still attempt to play it using external launchers so Valve will still fix up issues in Proton for such games from time to time. Plus, it may eventually come to Steam, so it's worth getting anything and everything running they can. Same again with Alan Wake 2 below.

HDR options now available for:

  • Resident Evil 2.
  • Resident Evil 3.
  • Resident Evil 7 Biohazard.
  • Resident Evil Village.
  • Hogwarts Legacy.
  • Mass Effect Legendary Edition.
  • Injustice 2.
  • Alan Wake 2.
  • Devil May Cry 5.

Improvements:

  • Improved audio in Final Fantasy VIII and Freefall 3050AD.
  • Improved load times in LIGHTNING RETURNS: FINAL FANTASY XIII and FINAL FANTASY XIII-2.
  • Improved support for VKB Gladiator NXT Evo and Virpil Constellation ALPHA-R when hidraw device is accessible.
  • Enabled nvapi for the following titles: Satisfactory.

Bug Fixes:

  • Fixed Remnant: From The Ashes and Deep Rock Galactic and possibly other games crashing when too many audio devices are connected.
  • Fixed periodic frame rate drops in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2.
  • Fixed Mighty Switch Force! Collection crashing on some setups when no controllers are plugged in.
  • Fixed Aura: Fate of the Ages missing some audio cues.
  • Fixed games not being able to switch monitors in fullscreen mode on Cinnamon DE.
  • Fixed triple monitor handling in Project Cars 3 and Project Cars 2.
  • Fixed Elite Dangerous crashing when opening external links.
  • Fixed issues with connecting to online services in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2.
  • Fixed wrong scaling in MareQuest: An Interactive Tail and Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 on Steam Deck when set to fullscreen.
  • Fixed fonts not rendering in the main menu of Aveyond 4: Shadow of the Mist.
  • Fixed Aveyond 4: Shadow of the Mist crashing when clicking on Strategy Guide button.
  • Fixed The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth crashes that mostly happened when using bombs later in a run.
  • Fixed load / save dialogs not working in Idle Spiral on Steam Deck.
  • Fixed font rendering in save / load dialog in Idle Spiral.
  • Fixed multiplayer in NASCAR Heat 5.
  • Fixed multiplayer in DiRT Rally.
  • Fixed The Binding of Isaac cursor desync and focus issues when toggling fullscreen.
  • Fixed video playback in Out of Ore.
  • Fixed multiple memory leaks when playing videos in VRchat using AVPro.
  • Fixed Baldur's Gate 3 not starting after a recent game update.
  • Fixed Cyberpunk 2077 crashing with DualSense plugged in after a recent game update.
  • Fixed Forza Horizon 5 not working after a recent game update.
  • Fixed Starfield not saving photos in photo mode.
  • Fixed swapped Start / Select buttons on controllers in Starfield and other games using Windows.Gaming.Input.
  • Fixed Halo Infinite crashes on SteamOS 3.5.
  • Fixed Witcher 3 not being able to switch between windowed and fullscreen correctly on XFCE.
  • Fixed Witcher 3 and other games crashing when monitor is turned off and on again.
  • Fixed Hogwarts Legacy crashing on Intel GPUs.
  • Fixed Resident Evil 2 crashing for some users during gameplay.
  • Fixed Crysis 2 Remastered showing only black screen for some users.
  • Fixed Crysis 3 being unable to launch properly due to failed authorization.
  • Fixed Crysis 3 Administrative Approval EA App Window being corrupted on Nvidia.
  • Fixed outdated driver warning in The Last of Us Part I.
  • Fixed Steam Workshop interface randomly not working in Trivia Tricks.
  • Fixed Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster crashing during combat.
  • Fixed Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster crashing after Steam Cloud save updates sets resolution to Non-Deck-Native.

Updates to various internal parts of Proton include:

See the changelog for everything.

It will just show up as an update for Proton 8 directly in your Steam Downloads.

Valve also updated Proton Hotfix today, which gets Monster Hunter Rise working again.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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14 comments

Cookies Jan 23
How does the HDR option work? Is it enabled out of box or in game settings? Is it SteamOS only or any distro?
sonic2kk Jan 23
How does the HDR option work? Is it enabled out of box or in game settings? Is it SteamOS only or any distro?

To my understanding, it simply tells a game that this platform can support DRM, and allows you to enable it.

This option should work on any distro if your window manager and GPU drivers have support. The work on the Proton side is part of DXVK/vkd3d-proton, which got HDR support last year (requires env var DXVK_HDR=1). Window managers are another story though, for example right now KWin Wayland development versions of Plasma 6 has early HDR support and it should ship as part of Plasma 6. GameScope (in an Embedded Session only, maybe?) has HDR support, which is why the Steam Deck supports HDR. There may be some configuration options required though, see `gamescope --help` for a list of the options that you might need/want to tweak for HDR.

In short, it tells games that you can enable HDR (as many games will grey out the option by default), and it should work on any distro but right now it's mainly SteamOS that has all of the components together by default - If you do this manually, or if your distro is bleeding-edge enough and happens to do this, it should work there as well. SteamOS just has the most out-of-box HDR experience at the moment.


Last edited by sonic2kk on 23 January 2024 at 3:09 am UTC
Phlebiac Jan 23
In short, it tells games that you can enable HDR (as many games will grey out the option by default)

For those who have used it: would you say it dramatically improves the visuals in your game(s)? After playing with it on, would you be disappointed to play with it off? Just wondering if I should prioritize it as a feature next time I buy a monitor.
datablob Jan 23
Fixed swapped Start / Select buttons on controllers in Starfield and other games using Windows.Gaming.Input.
Woohoo, I reported that one!
Glad it's fixed, it also affected basically all Unity games using the "new Input System" (potentially more), including my own. Relieved that I don't have to implement some awkward fix for full Steam Deck support.

Actually had no clue that Starfield was also affected! Curious how swapped start/select buttons flew under the radar for so long, probably affected a ton of games.
RonDamon Jan 23
In short, it tells games that you can enable HDR (as many games will grey out the option by default)

For those who have used it: would you say it dramatically improves the visuals in your game(s)? After playing with it on, would you be disappointed to play with it off? Just wondering if I should prioritize it as a feature next time I buy a monitor.
If the monitor/TV has good HDR support, it is miles ahead SDR. It shows how a game and media was meant to be played/watched if it is new and made for HDR, for example Alan Wake 2.

In short, a monitor/TV has to be OLED or mini LED with lots of dimming zones (1000+) to have a true HDR, otherwise it'll be as reviewers calls it, "fake HDR". Good HDR usually also have a branding has HDR 1000 or HDR 400 True Black (for OLEDs, not to mistake it as HDR 400, which is trash).
tfk Jan 23
Fixed swapped Start / Select buttons on controllers in Starfield and other games using Windows.Gaming.Input.
Woohoo, I reported that one!
Glad it's fixed, it also affected basically all Unity games using the "new Input System" (potentially more), including my own. Relieved that I don't have to implement some awkward fix for full Steam Deck support.

Actually had no clue that Starfield was also affected! Curious how swapped start/select buttons flew under the radar for so long, probably affected a ton of games.

Thanks for your contribution!
Obscure Jan 23
In short, it tells games that you can enable HDR (as many games will grey out the option by default)

For those who have used it: would you say it dramatically improves the visuals in your game(s)? After playing with it on, would you be disappointed to play with it off? Just wondering if I should prioritize it as a feature next time I buy a monitor.
If the monitor/TV has good HDR support, it is miles ahead SDR. It shows how a game and media was meant to be played/watched if it is new and made for HDR, for example Alan Wake 2.

In short, a monitor/TV has to be OLED or mini LED with lots of dimming zones (1000+) to have a true HDR, otherwise it'll be as reviewers calls it, "fake HDR". Good HDR usually also have a branding has HDR 1000 or HDR 400 True Black (for OLEDs, not to mistake it as HDR 400, which is trash).

Pretty much sums it up it's probably the best tech to emerge for a long time when implemented right and your screen is good enough none of the 50 nits above SDR stuff like most monitors were advertising as HDR.

Going from HDR to SDR in the same game is a massive difference and hard to explain to people without seeing it themselves the best I can think is that when you go back from HDR everything looks like it has the original colour pallet of Gears of War on the Xbox 360 with very muted washed out greys.
Vigil Jan 23
For those who have used it: would you say it dramatically improves the visuals in your game(s)? After playing with it on, would you be disappointed to play with it off? Just wondering if I should prioritize it as a feature next time I buy a monitor.

I've not played games with it, but, FWIW, I don't notice any difference when watching a HDR movie on my big screen TV. I would probably need a side by side comparison.
Cgamer Jan 23
On the other hand is Capcom going to remove support for their games on Steam Deck. Monster Hunter World and Rise will get the new "Enigma" DRM making them unable to use on the Deck. I'm really disappointed.
tfk Jan 23
On the other hand is Capcom going to remove support for their games on Steam Deck. Monster Hunter World and Rise will get the new "Enigma" DRM making them unable to use on the Deck. I'm really disappointed.

https://steamdeckhq.com/news/proton-hotfix-monster-hunter-rise-steam-deck/
Pengling Jan 23
On the other hand is Capcom going to remove support for their games on Steam Deck. Monster Hunter World and Rise will get the new "Enigma" DRM making them unable to use on the Deck. I'm really disappointed.
This has been going on since sometime last year (September as far as I know, though it may have been earlier), and several other games are affected as well.

That said, to be absolutely fair (and I hate saying this, because adding undeclared DRM to an old title after it was purchased is, in my books, simply distributing malware), games that were saddled with it are still working on Deck after Proton fixes, and some of them never had any problems at all.

Now, I wouldn't want to use games afflicted with it personally because Capcom breached my trust on this, and I have uninstalled the few Capcom titles I have (some affected, some not), but it's only right to be accurate about this - that way, no-one can claim that people are objecting on false grounds.
SaiyanRaoh Jan 23
Is there something I’m missing? I think HDR has always worked for the listed games. Especially RE2 and 3.
Liam Dawe Jan 23
On the other hand is Capcom going to remove support for their games on Steam Deck. Monster Hunter World and Rise will get the new "Enigma" DRM making them unable to use on the Deck. I'm really disappointed.
This was already covered in a previous article and mentioned at the bottom of this one.

Is there something I’m missing? I think HDR has always worked for the listed games. Especially RE2 and 3.
As noted in the article, some changes were already in other Proton versions. There's multiple versions of Proton but this is the main stable one.
Mohandevir Jan 23
I don't know if it's linked to this update, but since yesterday, Witcher 3 keeps on crashing in the glossary menu. No matter what I do, I get a hard freeze. Tried on my Steam Deck and my computer with Holoiso. Tried deleting the proton files. Tried validating game files. Switched to proton experimental & Hotfix. Hard freeze every time.

Edit: DX12 issue. At least, the DX11 version runs fine.


Last edited by Mohandevir on 24 January 2024 at 3:27 am UTC
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