As we speculated previously, Valve have now officially announced their new version of 'Steam Play' for Linux gaming using a modified distribution of Wine called Proton, which is available on GitHub.
What does it do? In short: it allows you to play Windows games on Linux, directly through the Steam client as if they were a Linux game.
What many people suspected turned out to be true, DXVK development was actually funded by Valve. They actually employed the DXVK developer since February 2018. On top of that, they also helped to fund: vkd3d (Direct3D 12 implementation based on Vulkan), OpenVR and Steamworks native API bridges, wined3d performance and functionality fixes for Direct3D 9 and Direct3D 11 and more.
The amount of work that has gone into this—it's ridiculous.
Here's what they say it improves:
- Windows games with no Linux version currently available can now be installed and run directly from the Linux Steam client, complete with native Steamworks and OpenVR support.
- DirectX 11 and 12 implementations are now based on Vulkan, resulting in improved game compatibility and reduced performance impact.
- Fullscreen support has been improved: fullscreen games will be seamlessly stretched to the desired display without interfering with the native monitor resolution or requiring the use of a virtual desktop.
- Improved game controller support: games will automatically recognize all controllers supported by Steam. Expect more out-of-the-box controller compatibility than even the original version of the game.
- Performance for multi-threaded games has been greatly improved compared to vanilla Wine.
It currently has a limited set of games that are supported, but even so it's quite an impressive list that they're putting out there. Which includes DOOM, FINAL FANTASY VI, Into The Breach, NieR: Automata, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, Star Wars: Battlefront 2 and more. They will enable many more titles as progress on it all continues.
To be clear, this is available right now. To get it, you need to be in the Steam Client Beta.
There will be drawbacks, like possible performance issues and games that rely on some DRM might likely never be supported, but even so the amount of possibilities this opens up has literally split my head open with Thor's mighty hammer.
Holy shit. Please excuse the language, but honestly, I'm physically shaking right now I don't quite know how to process this.
Update #1: I spoke to Valve earlier, about how buying Windows games to play with this system counts, they said this:
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.Hey Liam, the normal algorithm is in effect, so if at the end of the two weeks you have more playtime on Linux, it'll be a Linux sale. Proton counts as Linux.
How long will it take for Microsoft® to sue WINE and Valve® for copyright infringement regarding Windows™ API and unlicensed DirectX™ implementation?
After all, WINE was tolerated only as long as it was relatively useless. I dobt Microsoft® will allow someone to chew off some 20…30% of its market share with basically its own API.
Luke_Nukem Aug 21, 2018
Quoting: liamdaweUpdate from Valve to me:
QuoteHey Liam, the normal algorithm is in effect, so if at the end of the two weeks you have more playtime on Linux, it'll be a Linux sale. Proton counts as Linux.Excellent.
Oh this is so gooooood!
Which in the end gives us more leverage to convince devs to give us proper ports rather than rely on Wine and the like. Perhaps that's overly optomistic, but I think that's the sort of strategy that's in Gabe's head right now.
Quoting: mirooh well, I am really not that happy as most people.
from now on I'm really afraid that too many publishers will use this as an excuse not to provide native linux builds in case it runs "well enough" with proton/wine.
since this is now to be built-in, most people will not have to understand what wine even is, they will take the running binary for granted. hence what is to expect is less performance and continuous direct x instead of opengl or vulkan
this would totally be acceptable for older/legacy titles, but I really think too many will jump on that train that it runs with proton and that there is no need to compile it for linux.
we'll see.
This is exactly how I feel. On the whole I'm betting it'll be detrimental - we'll see less ports as a result.
Abu_Shawarib Aug 21, 2018
Comandante Ñoñardo Aug 21, 2018
Spoiler, click me
Good for Valve... Finally listening to the SteamOS/Linux users...
Now, I wonder if I can force the steam Linux client to play the windows version of a game that has a Linux port..
You know, sometimes, the windows version of a game running via wine runs better than the Linux port.
Mohandevir Aug 21, 2018
Didn't found any Steam Play entry in BPM, though...
legluondunet Aug 21, 2018
Quoting: Alm888So, in case Valve in fact gets somewhere with its small WINE trick…
How long will it take for Microsoft® to sue WINE and Valve® for copyright infringement regarding Windows™ API and unlicensed DirectX™ implementation?
After all, WINE was tolerated only as long as it was relatively useless. I dobt Microsoft® will allow someone to chew off some 20…30% of its market share with basically its own API.
Who said wine was tolerated only because it was "useless" Wine is a translation tool it merely converters instruction sets into code that linux can understand dxvk basically the same it takes dx calls converts them in real time to code that vulcan can understand.The code has not been tampered with no code injection has taken place they havent re written direct x to get it to work so they shouldnt have any legal grounds.
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