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Valve have announced the release of Steam Play Proton 4.11, this is a pretty exciting one and it's pretty huge overall.

Firstly, it was re-based on top of Wine 4.11. So it brings thousands of improvements over, considering that's quite a version bump. Additionally, 154 patches from Proton were upstreamed directly to Wine!

The next exciting bit is that Valve are now funding D9VK (and have been since June according to developer Joshua Ashton), along with shipping it in Proton as part of this update. This Vulkan-based Direct3D 9 renderer is still experimental, so it's not enabled by default as you need to use the "PROTON_USE_D9VK" setting.

Additionally DXVK was updated to 1.3, your current display refresh rate is now actually reported to games, there's more fixes to window management and mouse cursor focus, VR users rejoice as there's support for the latest OpenVR SDKs, FAudio was updated to 19.07, GameMaker titles got a fix for networking and there's a joystick input lag fix and rumble support for certain games.

Possibly just as exciting, is that a bunch of Wine "modules" are now built as Windows PE files instead of Linux libraries. Eventually, this will help some DRM and anti-cheat systems as work progresses on it. Fantastic to see work on that being done!

Is that all? Oh no—there's more.

When Valve identified issues with multi-threaded games as Proton development was being ramped up, CodeWeavers worked on developing the "esync" patchset to address it. It worked well but it came with multiple issues. As Valve said it needed a "special setup" and can cause "file descriptor exhaustion problems in event-hungry applications", they also think it "results in extraneous spinning in the kernel". So, they're working on what they're calling fsync and suggesting changes to accommodate it in the Linux Kernel.

Valve also showed off some proof-of-concept glibc patches, to expose the Kernel patches as part of the pthread library to get it all working. They said that if it's all accepted, "we would achieve efficiency gains by adopting it in native massively-threaded applications such as Steam and the Source 2 engine". You can read more about all that work in this Steam forum post and fsync testing instructions here.

As always, the Proton changelog for Steam Play can be found here.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Shmerl Aug 1, 2019
Quoting: TriasJust for information – it is possible to publish a DRM-free game on Steam. For example, Space Rangers HD: A War Apart (a very good game, by the way) is DRM-free, as stated in a special notification - “Incorporates 3rd-party DRM: DRM Free!”. Even if this option is not well-advertised, it is still possible…

In practical terms, what Valve could do to improve the situation:

1. Start offering standalone downloads for games as an option (like GOG, Humble and itch.io do).
2. Clarify / fix up their TOS, to allow DRM-free scenarios without any ambiguity.

That would go already a long way, even if not as far as fully DRM-free store like GOG.


Last edited by Shmerl on 1 August 2019 at 3:13 pm UTC
jgacas Aug 1, 2019
I am impressed with a performance of d9vk. Number of games that were unplayable on my old machine now run perfectly fine. To name a few:
- Burnout Paradise (most of the time perfect 60 FPS)
- Dragon's Dogma (30 - 60 FPS, I barely had 10 FPS in some areas)
- Call Of Pripyat (over 100 FPS in open areas, 30 in some indoor areas)
jarhead_h Aug 2, 2019
Quoting: Dunc
Quoting: jarhead_hAt this point I genuinely cannot understand why there would be any Linux gamers left who aren't on Steam. Don't talk to me about DRM, because Valve has done more for Linux's future this past year I think than any other company I can name.
I'm no fan of DRM, but here's the thing: I've been gaming for (well) over 30 years....

Same.

Quoting: DuncWhat does bother me is always-online and cloud saving. I tried to play GTAV offline on my XBox 360 a few weeks ago, and it turns out a) I can't load my old saves, and b) I can't save my progress from a new game. I've got a physical copy, and it still runs. But there's no point in playing it. That's way more worrying than snake-oil DRM.

This does not apply to Steam because of Steam's Offline mode. The thing we have to worry about is Valve going out of business. Steam is only fifteen years old, or already fifteen years old depending on how you want to look at it.
chelobaka Aug 2, 2019
How do you install Proton 4.11? Steam client doesn't update Proton 4.2.
omicron-b Aug 2, 2019
Quoting: chelobakaHow do you install Proton 4.11? Steam client doesn't update Proton 4.2.
in your Library, switch to Tools
you will find Proton 4.11 in the list
right click it, there would be "Install" option


Last edited by omicron-b on 2 August 2019 at 11:41 am UTC
chelobaka Aug 2, 2019
Quoting: bird_or_cagein your Library, switch to Tools
you will find Proton 4.11 in the list
right click it, there would be "Install" option

Thank you, it worked :-)
t3g Aug 2, 2019
Quoting: jarhead_hI'm not saying you have to re-buy your GOG library over on Steam, but you should really start buying stuff there if you aren't already.

You keep saying that you want to reward developers that support Linux, well I'd say that Valve counts.

If you use GameHub and import your GOG library, it will allow you to use Proton like Steam. It’s pretty neat.
Shmerl Aug 2, 2019
Quoting: t3gIf you use GameHub and import your GOG library, it will allow you to use Proton like Steam. It’s pretty neat.

Adamhm's scripts also allow using Proton for GOG games, if you prefer that to stock Wine.
michaldybczak Aug 2, 2019
I just played Mass Effect for over an hour with Proton 4.11 and PROTON_USE_D9VK and it all works fine! Previously the game had occasional strong FPS drops in some situations plus crashes every 5-15 or 30 min more or less. Now there were no crashes and stable ca. 60+ FPS. To be completely sure that the common issues (many experience it) I have to test it longer but so far it's great.
It's hard to judge whether it's better wine or D9VK, maybe both :). Anyway, it's awesome!
RossBC Aug 4, 2019
For arch derivitives.

There is an aur you can try for fsync.
trizen example.

trizen linux-fsync

then you need to update your grub

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

then remember to pick the kernel when you reboot your linux.
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