You can sign up to get a daily email of our articles, see the Mailing List page.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

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.

Read more here.

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:

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.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
151 Likes
About the author -
author picture
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.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
528 comments
Page: «18/53»
  Go to:

jarhead_h Aug 22, 2018
Something that I noticed on the page that I found very telling:
QuoteQ: I'm a developer; I wasn't planning on targeting Linux, how can I best leverage the new Steam Play?

We recommend you target Vulkan natively in order to offer the best possible performance on all platforms, or at least offer it as an option if possible. It's also a good idea to avoid any invasive third-party DRM middleware, as they sometimes prevent compatibility features from working as intended.

So Vulkan is definitely our way forward. Valve is saying as much, if you want to Linux sales without having to port, go with Vulkan. And that is an absolutely terrific first step. The cost difference in porting a DirectX game to Linux versus a Vulkan title is night and day because there's just so much less to do on the Vulkan game. That's our foot in the door.

As for the Steam Play Beta client, it's glitchy. Right now the storefront won't display. Most of the games Aren't working yet. Installing Alan Wake as I type this.

Not Working for Me:
Far Cry 2(buggy but started on with display options all turned down to low. Also didn't want to uninstall)
Far Cry 3
Batman Arkham Asylum GOTY

Working:
F.E.A.R.(flawless)


Last edited by jarhead_h on 22 August 2018 at 5:39 am UTC
lucifertdark Aug 22, 2018
Quoting: legluondunetFirst Steam Play game installed: Ultimate Doom installs and launches, no crash, no bug. It uses a dosbox with a steam overlay.
I had the same thing, restarted Steam & it now works perfectly, just got to remember how to adjust the resolution.

Doom 2, Ultimate Doom & Quake all work so far, haven't had a chance to try anything else yet, but I'm going to. :D


Last edited by lucifertdark on 22 August 2018 at 5:52 am UTC
lucifertdark Aug 22, 2018
Quoting: chancho_zombiehey guys. Where does proton creates the bottles? I need to recreate the bottle to try without installing some dotnet cruft.
I guess all the games are 600mb fatter (that's what wine bottles take for system files)
According to my system Proton is 1.7Gb & the compdata folders for each game are 44Mb, instead of having a separate Wine bottle for each game they have one wine install that all games link to. Much better than a separate bottle for each game.

Apart from hitting the button to enable all games does anyone know how to add games to the list of compatible games as they are tested? is it something we can do ourselves or are we waiting for Valve to add them for us?


Last edited by lucifertdark on 22 August 2018 at 6:31 am UTC
Ne0 Aug 22, 2018
21 pages in 9 hours ? WOW !
This is a SUPER HOT thread !

My WishList for Proton:
  • Tropico 5

  • Path of Exile

  • Alien Swarm


Quoting: lucifertdarkApart from hitting the button to enable all games does anyone know how to add games to the list of compatible games as they are tested? is it something we can do ourselves or are we waiting for Valve to add them for us?

QuoteWe will be enabling more titles in the near future as testing results and development efforts progress; in the meantime, enthusiast users are also able to try playing non-whitelisted games using an override switch in the Steam client. Going forward, users can vote for their favorite games to be considered for Steam Play using platform wishlisting
:D.


Last edited by Ne0 on 22 August 2018 at 6:38 am UTC
Beamboom Aug 22, 2018
There's nothing I can say here that's not already said.

I'll just go in a corner and faint for a while.
lucifertdark Aug 22, 2018
Quoting: Ne021 pages in 9 hours ? WOW !
This is a SUPER HOT thread !

My WishList for Proton:
  • Tropico 5

  • Path of Exile

  • Alien Swarm

You do know Tropico 5 already has a Native build that actually works?

Quoting: lucifertdarkApart from hitting the button to enable all games does anyone know how to add games to the list of compatible games as they are tested? is it something we can do ourselves or are we waiting for Valve to add them for us?

QuoteWe will be enabling more titles in the near future as testing results and development efforts progress; in the meantime, enthusiast users are also able to try playing non-whitelisted games using an override switch in the Steam client. Going forward, users can vote for their favorite games to be considered for Steam Play using platform wishlisting
:D.
ooh I missed that bit. :D


Last edited by lucifertdark on 22 August 2018 at 6:40 am UTC
Ne0 Aug 22, 2018
It almost feels like Christmas/New Year came early for Linux gamers... lol
jonko Aug 22, 2018
This Could Change Everything - maybe the Year of Linux Desktop is finally here ? :)
Nonjuffo Aug 22, 2018
Quoting: bradgyDear God... the possibilities!

My first thought is Windows is gone from all of my machines forever, starting with the HTPC I use to play Rocksmith 2014 on.

Thank you Pierre-Loup, Yorha2B, and the rest of the Linux/graphics team at Valve,... doing such great work.

Bloody hell, that reminds me, I need to renew my CodeWeavers subscription.

Have you tested RS2014 with Proton? That title is a serious mess of uplay, hardware dongles and ... Denuvo? WTH? Pretty sure that DRM wasn't there in 2014. Maybe that is the "remastering" they did later.
dubigrasu Aug 22, 2018
Quoting: lucifertdark
Quoting: chancho_zombiehey guys. Where does proton creates the bottles? I need to recreate the bottle to try without installing some dotnet cruft.
I guess all the games are 600mb fatter (that's what wine bottles take for system files)
According to my system Proton is 1.7Gb & the compdata folders for each game are 44Mb, instead of having a separate Wine bottle for each game they have one wine install that all games link to. Much better than a separate bottle for each game.
On my system games do have separated bottles, varying in size from 300MB to 1GB+.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.