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Another exciting set of changes for Valve's new Steam Play system. This time the Proton beta 3.16-4 includes some really good stuff. If you don't see it show up, restart Steam.

Here's what's changed:

  • Proton now ships with corefonts support. This should fix many games with missing text, or that crash due to missing font support.
  • Significant Steamworks compatibility improvements. This should fix SOULCALIBUR VI's network failure when launched through Steam Play.
  • For Direct3D games (both DXVK and wined3d), Nvidia cards are now reported as if they are actually AMD cards. This prevents games from trying to load the Windows-only nvapi library and crashing or giving very bad performance.
  • Mouse focus and clipping improvements.
  • Upgrade OpenVR SDK support.
  • Fix for a keyboard input issue in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games.

See the full changelog here, as a reminder the changelog moved from a file in the repo to GitHub's Wiki system.

It's really great to see the Steamworks fix which caused some issues for people. Hopefully there won't be too many hidden gotchas like that buried in it but only time will tell as more people try out Steam Play. I was also hoping Valve would do something about corefonts, since it was an issue in quite a number of games and a barrier for seamless play. For corefonts, they're not using the actual MSFT fonts, instead they're using liberation-fonts as seen from this commit.

As a reminder, Steam Play needs a driver version of 396.54 or newer at a minimum for NVIDIA and AMD ideally Mesa 18.2. For Transform Feedback support from DXVK you need the 396.54.09 Vulkan Beta Driver on NVIDIA and Mesa git for AMD, this fixes missing models in a bunch of DX11 games.

What I'm looking forward to now are Valve finding a way to deal with all those zero-byte updates and seeing how they advertise Steam Play on store pages. On top of that, what I'm also curious about is how Valve will move forwards with updates to their whitelist, it would be interesting if they had a way to notify you if a game on your wishlist gained "official" Steam Play support.

If you have issues with games not working correctly with Steam Play, do ensure you make a bug report on GitHub to help Valve and co improve the system.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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54 comments
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logge Oct 31, 2018
Haha, now Nvidia gets their parts of being closed-source only! What a day!
mrdeathjr Oct 31, 2018
In this proton version

On native side


Shadow of Mordor



Last test with Pentium G3258 @ 4.1ghz + Artic Cooling Alpine 11 Plus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-w3x33tAa8

With Core i3 8350K Tri-Core @ 5.0ghz + CoolerMaster Hyper T4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZVd7FCe-l0


Shadow Warrior



Last test with Pentium G3258 @ 4.1ghz + Artic Cooling Alpine 11 Plus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYDdRpF1VuQ

With Core i3 8350K Tri-Core @ 5.0ghz + CoolerMaster Hyper T4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y29pmr4kkic


Borderlands 2



Last test with Pentium G3258 @ 4.1ghz + Artic Cooling Alpine 11 Plus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXSeiM2aFeE

With Core i3 8350K Tri-Core @ 5.0ghz + CoolerMaster Hyper T4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5bbJtH9f3Y


Shadwen



Last test with Pentium G3258 @ 4.1ghz + Artic Cooling Alpine 11 Plus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gOZX484t_A

With Core i3 8350K Tri-Core @ 5.0ghz + CoolerMaster Hyper T4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEtT0EOwOVQ


Poi



Last test with Pentium G3220 @ 3.0ghz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNg62qwQYUU

With Core i3 8350K Tri-Core @ 5.0ghz + CoolerMaster Hyper T4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okMCGSt4yf8


Tiny Big Story



Last test with Pentium G3220 @ 3.0ghz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hga9crj5vvQ

With Core i3 8350K Tri-Core @ 5.0ghz + CoolerMaster Hyper T4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSMJZeCuIUQ


^_^


Last edited by mrdeathjr on 31 October 2018 at 11:51 pm UTC
Comandante Ñoñardo Oct 31, 2018
QuoteWhat I'm looking forward to now are Valve finding a way to deal with all those zero-byte updates and seeing how they advertise Steam Play on store pages.

I wonder that too...
And I am curious about their actual whitelist process.

Is good to see life signs from Proton devs after two weeks.
Scoopta Oct 31, 2018
Quoting: loggeHaha, now Nvidia gets their parts of being closed-source only! What a day!
I'm not sure what exactly you were trying to say but it sounds sort of like a dig on Nvidia yet you have an nvidia card?
Linas Oct 31, 2018
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
I was sceptical at first, but I think I am slowly becoming a believer. Steam contains a huge library of older games that will never get a native port. Some of them don't even run on new versions of Windows. But with Proton they can resurrect these games for a new life. And I think there might be a substantial market here.
hardpenguin Oct 31, 2018
QuoteFor Direct3D games (both DXVK and wined3d), Nvidia cards are now reported as if they are actually AMD cards. This prevents games from trying to load the Windows-only nvapi library and crashing or giving very bad performance.

That is SO weird, it's insane that it has come to this.
lejimster Oct 31, 2018
QuoteFor Direct3D games (both DXVK and wined3d), Nvidia cards are now reported as if they are actually AMD cards. This prevents games from trying to load the Windows-only nvapi library and crashing or giving very bad performance.

As an AMD user I had an issue with The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux where it would only load if you spoof the vendor id and make it believe it's running an Nvidia card. I hope this update doesn't break those types of fixes.
stankalovich Oct 31, 2018
Benchmarking Nvidia and AMD cards in Proton should now be a more true level playing field.
Merp Nov 1, 2018
Do you guys use the betas? Just wondering if it's worth switching from the stable version.
Shmerl Nov 1, 2018
Quoting: Scoopta
Quoting: loggeHaha, now Nvidia gets their parts of being closed-source only! What a day!
I'm not sure what exactly you were trying to say but it sounds sort of like a dig on Nvidia yet you have an nvidia card?

Nvidia cards are reported as AMD cards now, so Nvidia usage will plummet in Steam stats. Thanks to Nvidia pushing their lock-in APIs.


Last edited by Shmerl on 1 November 2018 at 12:35 am UTC
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