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Another Steam Client Beta is out, adds the ability to force Steam Play

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Valve are working fast to improve the Steam client this year, with another beta now available including an option that was highly requested.

Firstly, Steam Input gained support for the HORI Battle Pad and HORI Wireless Switch Pad. Additionally, Big Picture mode had two bugs fixed. The usual stuff there and nothing major, that is until you get to the Linux section of the beta changelog.

Users have been asking Valve pretty much since Steam Play arrived, to add a method to force a native game to use Steam Play instead. So now, if you've opted into the Steam beta client you will see this on the properties of a game (the bottom option):

Why is that so interesting and important? Well, honestly, some Linux ports get left behind for months and years and some really just aren't good. Additionally, some Linux games have multiplayer that's not cross-platform, this could also help with that. Not to downplay the effort a lot of developers put in, it's just how it is. The ability for users to control between the version from the developer and running it through Steam Play is a nice to have option.

Linux changes:

  • Added the ability to force-enable Steam Play in per-title properties, including for native games
  • Fixed incorrect scroll offset in the in-game overlay
  • Reworked global Steam Play enable settings to only override the Proton version used by unsupported games
  • Fixed a bug where the global Steam Play enable setting wouldn't prompt for a Steam client restart

See the announcement here.

While not noted, the Steam client now actually shows what version of Proton is used for each title. Here's Into the Breach for example:


I would have played more but fullscreen is broken for me and it's a whitelisted title…

One of the next big stages for Steam Play, will be actually showing it for whitelisted titles on store pages. I'm still very curious to see how Valve will be handling that. Valve might also want to update the Steam support page too, it's rather outdated.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Beta, Steam, Valve
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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118 comments
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Leopard Jan 18, 2019
Quoting: GuestWow, seems I've stirred things up with the fanboys. Cool down folks.

I've been one-click installing games through Steam, via wine, for years. With no troubles. Apparently I baked a wonderful cake quite some time ago.

"Proton" has never run a single game for me that didn't run through vanilla wine. In many cases, vanilla wine runs a game that "Proton" won't. I don't see that being in favour of "Proton".

Semi-support from Valve has already proven to not fully work anyway.

...and you know who you are, trying to pass an insult off as a joke is silly. Please drop it.

Now, it seems many have troubles that I've never seen. As in, I could do everything with a button click already. What stopped that for others before?



Please do this test on your local surroundings and share the common answer with us.

Find Windows users ( not hard )
Show them both normal Wine usage vs SteamPlay
And ask them which one they prefer.

If it comes out as they pick normal Wine usage , then i will apologize ok?

Majority of Steam users ( which they are Windows ) cannot tolerate manual usage.

--------------------------------

Quote"Proton" has never run a single game for me that didn't run through vanilla wine. In many cases, vanilla wine runs a game that "Proton" won't. I don't see that being in favour of "Proton".

Isn't that normal when using upstream Wine? You sound like Proton cannot run a single game but Wine can run all games. Before people go through all of their backlogs , newer Wine versions ends up in SteamPlay already.
JoZ3 Jan 18, 2019
Quoting: kokoko3kWith beta client, i can't download anything, it throws the error "Content servers unreachable".
I'm on archlinux...

same error here, any way to solve this?
Smoke39 Jan 18, 2019
Quoting: GuestWow, seems I've stirred things up with the fanboys. Cool down folks.

I've been one-click installing games through Steam, via wine, for years. With no troubles. Apparently I baked a wonderful cake quite some time ago.

"Proton" has never run a single game for me that didn't run through vanilla wine. In many cases, vanilla wine runs a game that "Proton" won't. I don't see that being in favour of "Proton".

Semi-support from Valve has already proven to not fully work anyway.

...and you know who you are, trying to pass an insult off as a joke is silly. Please drop it.

Now, it seems many have troubles that I've never seen. As in, I could do everything with a button click already. What stopped that for others before?
I find your continued indignation at kuhpunkt's comment rather galling considering your persistent dismissal of and condescension toward anyone who finds Steam Play useful.

I could easily counter your anecdotes of your experiences with Wine with my own of Steam working poorly under Wine and Far Cry 2 crashing with Wine but working fine with Steam Play without any fiddling.

Nobody's trying to stop you from using what works for you, but you seem hellbent on shutting down anyone whose experiences don't match your own.
Nanobang Jan 18, 2019
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Quoting: JoZ3
Quoting: kokoko3kWith beta client, i can't download anything, it throws the error "Content servers unreachable".
I'm on archlinux...

same error here, any way to solve this?

I had this problem after the last update, it turned out to have something to do with my VPN blocking IPv6 to protect against leaks. Once I disabled that feature in my VPN, things worked again.

I'm not saying this is exactly your problem, just that it might have something to do with IPv6 for you as well, somehow.
Nanobang Jan 18, 2019
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Regarding the beta update (and disregarding the usual "thing(x)-hurts-Linux-gaming mewling)---"Yay!"


Last edited by Nanobang on 18 January 2019 at 1:17 pm UTC
Eike Jan 18, 2019
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Quoting: GuestWow, seems I've stirred things up with the fanboys. Cool down folks.

Would you try not to get personal in the first sentence next time? Even more so when complaining about other people insulting? Thanks.

Quoting: GuestI've been one-click installing games through Steam, via wine, for years. With no troubles. Apparently I baked a wonderful cake quite some time ago.

That's fine. For you. But it obviously doesn't help anybody else.

Quoting: Guest"Proton" has never run a single game for me that didn't run through vanilla wine. In many cases, vanilla wine runs a game that "Proton" won't. I don't see that being in favour of "Proton".

To which argument is this a reaction? I cannot remember it...


Last edited by Eike on 18 January 2019 at 1:27 pm UTC
YourPalMark Jan 18, 2019
Great news! There are definitely some horribly ported games (ARK: Survival Evolved) that could benefit from this. Haven't been able to get the Windows version of ARK to load yet, but I hope to get it sorted.
JoZ3 Jan 18, 2019
Quoting: Nanobang
Quoting: JoZ3
Quoting: kokoko3kWith beta client, i can't download anything, it throws the error "Content servers unreachable".
I'm on archlinux...

same error here, any way to solve this?

I had this problem after the last update, it turned out to have something to do with my VPN blocking IPv6 to protect against leaks. Once I disabled that feature in my VPN, things worked again.

I'm not saying this is exactly your problem, just that it might have something to do with IPv6 for you as well, somehow.

Thanks for reply, problem solved. I enabled the IPv6 in my internet connection and now downloads work :)

bolokanar Jan 18, 2019
Come on, guys. You can calm down now…
UNIX world is all about different opinions and ways of doing things. You don't expect everybody to be just like you, now do you?

I'm with mirv on the matter. And I might not be seeing it right, but it was rather a statement-opinion than a question.

By the way I don't want to be that guy, but you do realize that there is a fix for all gaming problems right? ... Windows!

All gaming problems solved in an instant, on top of that you get basicly all games out there (if we don't count console exclusives ofcourse).


Last edited by bolokanar on 18 January 2019 at 1:49 pm UTC
legluondunet Jan 18, 2019
The so long awaited feature: install Windows games version instead of Linux native ones is here!!!
This issue on Github is a long long discussion to read, where a lot of users complains about games Linux ports that are not maintained anymore:
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/5638
Native Linux games seems to get old badly.
Now we can even compare games performance between native port/Wine+DXVK.
And finally now you can choose the Proton version per game!
What I miss now is Media Player support to play games cinematics. Without them games are less immersive.


Last edited by legluondunet on 18 January 2019 at 2:05 pm UTC
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