If you don’t have it installed search online.

If you have it installed search through its files.

You can check for a Windows (DOS) binary via magic numbers on the commandline, pipe od to 'head' or 'less' if you want. If the launcher is a Linux binary or script, then you may need to find what it launches.
file 'binary'
od -t x1 'file'

Check the logs to see if the game produces any information to related techs, like eon.

You can find out some more info with Linux binaries with the following.
readelf -a 'binary' 

SteamDB may be somewhat helpful in this regard.
- You can go to 'Configuration' and see what they have for the Linux executable. (I have seen devs mess up and put a Windows executable there, or even renamed the Linux binary to .exe).
- Check in the Linux depot and look for files that would indicate 'eon', 'wine' etc.

Companies that have done ports with some form of 'layer' would be Valve (ToGL), Aspyr, Feral Interactive (indirectx), and Virtual Programming (eON). You can just go to their sites and see their game list, although you may need to use the wayback machine since information may have been removed.

Depending on the company, source access and the tech they use, some may not be native and external like wine, or a translation layer in the source like valves ToGL.

There's also games that use an interpreted language, so while the game code may not be native, the Interpreter/VM will be and you can check that.
ie. Some HTML/Javascript game using nwjs.

Last edited by Myrhan on 28 March 2024 at 9:58 pm UTC

Quoting: InstallI found out some games arent really native despite them being mentioned as native such as bioshock infinite. it uses a wrapper called eON.

The Virtual Programming Linux ports are native, just like their Mac ports are native to Mac, and just like Feral's Linux and Mac ports are native to those platforms respectively.

Would they likely perform better and have better support if they were first-party builds rather than using a third-party porting house after the fact? Sure. Would they perform better if they were translating to modern Vulkan (with DXVK) rather than OpenGL (with eON or IndirectX, respectively)? Also yes.

But they're not non-native.

Quoting: damarrinIf you don’t have it installed search online.

If you have it installed search through its files.

I am still newish to linux. what should I be searching through the files for? btw which games valve used ToGL for?

Last edited by Lib-Inst on 28 March 2024 at 3:34 am UTC

Myrhan has a much more complete answer above, but basically you should be searching for .exe and .dll files.

Out of curiosity, why do you want to know that so precisely?

Quoting: Installbtw which games valve used ToGL for?

All of them that haven't since been upgraded to use DXVK instead.

Source engine Linux games are using ToGL. You can still see this in the depots if you search for 'togl' in the files section. Take a look at these two Left 4 Dead 2, and Half Life 2.

Try 'readelf' on the binary, you can try loading up those games and typing 'lsof' and grep it to see if it gets loaded or not. There's also a bunch of command line options for these game you can toy with if stuff is not exposed in the settings. ie. '-vulkan', '-gl'.

I didn't verify any of these, check them out. For instance DOTA 2 has been upgraded to Source 2 engine and is using vulkan now, with openGL support being dropped.

MangoHUD seem to have something to detect DXVk, etc.

Quoting: damarrinMyrhan has a much more complete answer above, but basically you should be searching for .exe and .dll files.

Out of curiosity, why do you want to know that so precisely?

Quoting: MyrhanSource engine Linux games are using ToGL. You can still see this in the depots if you search for 'togl' in the files section. Take a look at these two Left 4 Dead 2, and Half Life 2.

Try 'readelf' on the binary, you can try loading up those games and typing 'lsof' and grep it to see if it gets loaded or not. There's also a bunch of command line options for these game you can toy with if stuff is not exposed in the settings. ie. '-vulkan', '-gl'.

I didn't verify any of these, check them out. For instance DOTA 2 has been upgraded to Source 2 engine and is using vulkan now, with openGL support being dropped.

MangoHUD seem to have something to detect DXVk, etc.

I checked the depots on steamdb for other games that are native like shadow tactics and overload and I saw some dll files in them. So are these games false claiming that they are native? Unless I am missing something....

Quoting: InstallI checked the depots on steamdb for other games that are native like shadow tactics and overload and I saw some dll files in them. So are these games false claiming that they are native? Unless I am missing something....

You're missing that Unity uses Mono.

Also some devs may be sloppy and leave junk in the Linux depot (windows/mac files).