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Valve released a new update to Proton Experimental with a big change for how they handle video playback, and hopefully give a nice compatibility boost for Windows games on Steam Deck and Desktop Linux.

The update released today, October 23rd, has a changelog that notes fixed or improved video playback for:

  • Gal*Gun 2
  • SOULCALIBUR VI
  • Call of Cthulhu
  • All-Star Fruit Racing
  • Greedfall
  • Onimusha: Warlords
  • Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
  • Indigo Park: Chapter 1
  • Agony Unrated
  • TELEFORUM


Pictured - Call of Cthulhu

In the linked GitHub issue developer Arek Hiler mentioned:

Living true to its name Proton Experimental will serve as a vehicle to roll out and test a new implementation of media source. While it improves video playback in many games and enables us to fix even more things in the future, the change is substantial and may cause regressions.

We've done extensive internal testing and made the changes available via the bleeding-edge beta branch already. Now it's time to push this experiment even further - into the default Proton Experimental.

In case of regressions in video playback please report them here.
There's a beta branch named old-media-source (select Proton Experimental in your Steam Library -> cog icon -> Properties -> Betas -> and select the branch from the beta participation drop-down).

If you face any issues please make sure that they are not present with old-media-source before reporting them here.

While the above list notes improved games, there's also some games with known issues right now with it:

  • Resident Evil 7 videos fail to play.
  • Resident Evil Village videos fail to play.
  • Quantum Break videos have green flashes and intermittent crashes.
  • Shin Megami Tensei III has intermittent video playback failure.

It's changes like this that's why I always advise you to stick to the main versions of Proton, the latest being Proton 9, unless you specifically need Proton Experimental - as it can come with breakage.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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6 comments

Aeder Oct 23
Is this just for newer games or would it fix stuff like the videos in old games like swat 3?
Could this also improve performance in games like DJMAX Repect V? I feel like it’s way harder to run it then it should because it’s essentially a video playing in the background of very simple UI elements…
KingKrouch Oct 23
The recent versions of Proton Experimental seems to fix video playback on several Ghostlight PC ports (Mugen Souls, Mary Skelter 2 + Finale) as well.
Pengling Oct 23
Quoting: AederIs this just for newer games or would it fix stuff like the videos in old games like swat 3?
Quoting: tarcisiosurdiCould this also improve performance in games like DJMAX Repect V? I feel like it’s way harder to run it then it should because it’s essentially a video playing in the background of very simple UI elements…
All you can do is give it a try - Proton Experimental usually fixes more than they list, because changing things has knock-on effects.

Quoting: KingKrouchThe recent versions of Proton Experimental seems to fix video playback on several Ghostlight PC ports (Mugen Souls, Mary Skelter 2 + Finale) as well.
The recent ones have also (finally!) fixed the crashing when video cutscenes are called in Super Bomberman R, as well, over a year after Valve incorrectly assigned it a stable Proton where it was still crashing and corrupting the video files all the time. They've clearly been putting in a lot of work with these issues!
RealChris Oct 23
Too Bad The Fix Wouldn't Fix The Video Cutscenes For Quantum Break.
Lolcat Oct 24
I wonder if this finally improves Catherine classic?
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