Valve fixes Baldur's Gate 3 issue on Steam Deck / SteamOS

I honestly can't comprehend why people keep bothering with 'Native Linux' to me it's just become synonymous to 'most likely broken'. Proton is a much more stable platform, here's some of my own experience:

- Dying Light Native version: unplayable, sent me into a neverending crash loop
- Rise of the Tomb Raider: controller did not work, unplayable on Steam Deck despite rated 'Playable'
- Portal 1: instantly crashes on AMD hardware unless you pretend you're on a Steam Deck or enable DXVK.
- Stardew Valley: display issues.
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider: either did not launch at all, or couldn't get past launcher, or registered inputs that I didn't make.
- ARK Survival Evolved: missing textures

I don't own the new Silksong game but people also reported controller issues with Native that were solved by going to Proton.

None of these problems ever existed in the Proton(Windows) version of these games. Can someone tell me why I should bother with an inferior, more buggy version of games? Forcing the broken native ports on people (like Steam does for every Linux Native game) is actively making the Linux experience worse. I wished there was a global toggle in Steam to force every game to Proton.


Last edited by Stella on 15 Sep 2025 at 8:52 am UTC

Everything but Stardew Valley in your list are all pretty old ports at this point, can't say I ever had a problem with Stardew Valley Native Linux though. ARK Survival Evolved is pretty notorious for being a terrible port even when it was fresh, was laughable at times how little went into that one.

The problem is often that developers simply don't spend enough time on the Linux version, so Proton will naturally run the Windows version better over time with all the resources poured into Proton with the specific purpose to runs games on Linux as best as possible.

If Proton is already so much better, why does Steam not reflect that in its auto-selection of compatibility tools? The average person doesn't care about Native Linux vs Proton or about age of games, they just want to play games. And if Linux experience is worse than Windows because of a broken Native port, they'll be quick to blame Linux for this fault

I honestly can't comprehend why people keep bothering with 'Native Linux'

Yes, people should definitely stop developing software for Linux!

If Proton is already so much better, why does Steam not reflect that in its auto-selection of compatibility tools?

For Steam Deck, it already does in a way, with Deck Verified picking what version runs best between Native and Proton. Over time I would expect Valve to allow developers to specifically tag they support Proton, but I guess they're just not there yet. Perhaps when we get a new Steam Machine console we may see a bigger push?

However, it seems like the developer Larian Studios are working on a Native Linux version specifically for the Steam Deck, which you can see in the depots on SteamDB with a Native Linux version set for Steam Deck only (if a depot is set for Steam Deck it's not available on Desktop Linux).

It's a shame they've chosen to do that. The desktop Linux market is significantly bigger than the Deck market.

Easier to target a specific device though.

WOW! 🤩

Can someone tell me why I should bother with an inferior, more buggy version of games?

Of course you shouldn't. But equating ports to buggy software is nothing else but FUD.

I could name you some hundred native Linux games working all fine from my library alone. (No, I will not actually test hundreds of games for you, but I would have returned them if they wouldn't have been working.)

We used to have a time when Windows users complained about Linux ports. Nowadays, this job has been taken by Linux users.


Last edited by Eike on 15 Sep 2025 at 10:37 am UTC

If Proton is already so much better, why does Steam not reflect that in its auto-selection of compatibility tools? The average person doesn't care about Native Linux vs Proton or about age of games, they just want to play games. And if Linux experience is worse than Windows because of a broken Native port, they'll be quick to blame Linux for this fault

Auto-selecting Proton is a thing on Steam deck - for the games not running fine natively. The other thousands of ports are using the Linux binary instead of the .EXE and a translation layer. Of course.

@Stella

Buying games that are natively compatible with Linux means supporting our favorite OS and ensuring better compatibility than with Proton.

However, porting a game to Linux comes at a cost and unfortunately some publishers, only thinking about profits, give up on offering us native games under Linux to increase their profit margins which are already extremely high ;-(

Valve offers Linux game compatibility via Proton to all publishers who want it, however this is a cost to Valve and it would be normal for publishers to co-fund this development.

It must also be said that even though many games developed for Windows now run on Linux, they are not without bugs and / or graphical display issues. Sometimes you have to tinker a bit to get a game to work, and that's not necessarily within everyone's reach...

In short, Proton is great, but games natively supported on Linux are clearly better !!

PS

- Shadow of the Tomb Raider works great on Linux for me.

- ARK Survival Evolved was developed primarily for Windows, the Linux version has unfortunately never been so well optimized ;-(

- Portal 1 always worked perfectly on Linux until a recent update that caused it to crash when loading old saves ;-(

It's a shame that you only mention games that don't work well on Linux and not the ones that are top notch...


Last edited by phil995511 on 15 Sep 2025 at 11:05 am UTC

However, it seems like the developer Larian Studios are working on a Native Linux version specifically for the Steam Deck, which you can see in the depots on SteamDB with a Native Linux version set for Steam Deck only (if a depot is set for Steam Deck it's not available on Desktop Linux).

I guess there's a workaround for this restriction, for the time the native version is ready?

I guess there's a workaround for this restriction, for the time the native version is ready?

Probably steamdeck=1.

However, porting a game to Linux comes at a cost and unfortunately some publishers, only thinking about profits, give up on offering us native games under Linux to increase their profit margins which are already extremely high ;-(

The reason I buy native Linux games at full price but only buy Windows games at a steep discount is to pay for that support. My one wallet won't make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things, but it is putting my money where my mouth is.

FWIW, the introduction of Proton didn't decrease the proportion of games on Steam that have native builds - that was on the decline since the failure of the Steam Machines. It did kill the third-party porting market, though. The thing that will bring the proportion back up is a bigger more lucrative market, so developers won't want to risk offloading support of their game to Valve.

FWIW, the introduction of Proton didn't decrease the proportion of games on Steam that have native builds - that was on the decline since the failure of the Steam Machines. It did kill the third-party porting market, though.

... and with it the bigger games.

The thing that will bring the proportion back up is a bigger more lucrative market

... unless Linux gamers were saying for years and years that companies shouldn't port, maybe. Would be happy to be wrong on this one, but I'd prefer us to welcome ports. Well running ports, obviously.

Oh! Wow! A Steam Deck only version?

A native Linux version or a Windows stripped down one?

Anyway, looking forward to compare the download sizes of both versions. It will probably take much less space and have better performances on the Steam Deck once every useless "assets" and options are removed.

If so, I like that!


Last edited by Mohandevir on 15 Sep 2025 at 12:08 pm UTC