Valve Announces STEAM for LINUX Proton: Windows to Linux compatibility layer

All stolen from resetera

https://steamcommunity.com/games/221410#announcements/detail/1696055855739350561

ENORMOUS for Linux Gaming. WOW. Special bundled version of Wine for Steam that will allow Windows games to run in Linux without the end user having to mess with stuff or set it up, and improved performance over normal wine.

As a result of this work, today we are releasing the Beta of a new and improved version of Steam Play to all Linux users! It includes a modified distribution of Wine, called Proton, to provide compatibility with Windows game titles. Here are some of the improvements it brings to the table:

• 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.

thats awesome for those who prefer linux.

i'd be curious to see performance comparisons between a game running on windows natively and through this layer on the same hardware

Impressive stuff. Steam has it's foibles, but it keeps pushing forward while it's competitors stagnate.

Wow they fixed the compatibility issue.... this is a gamechanger and gives me a backdoor if windows starts closing on me.

Damn if only they had this come with the Steam machines, they might have actually caught on. I wonder if someone buys a game through linux on Steam but its a Steam play game will it count as a Windows sale or Linux sale? Now if they can get this to work with non Steam games Microsoft will definitely have to worry about losing the gamer demographic of Windows sales.

Q: Are there any games that will never work with Proton?

It's likely that some games using complex DRM or anti-cheat systems will be difficult, or even impossible to support.

I've always appreciated Valve's effort to make Linux gaming better.

This is why I like Valve.

They don't work on stuff that is going to "wow" people. They don't always come out with crazy shit.

But they come out with important, meaningful products, applications, and solutions.

I've always just appreciated Valve. They are in it for gaming as a whole. So happy they remain privately owned.

Sure this is great news for the 9 people that use Linus.

Awesome, the only thing keeping me with Windows is PC games and if the performance difference isn't much I'll convert to Linux fully because I still have to run Linux in VMs/dual boot because of my programming work.

This is really good news. A Windowsless future is coming closer.

If MS rumors of monthly Windows subscription is true, this may be an important step.

Why I have a feeling that console wars will now be fought over the PC market share?

brilliant news!!! I have been itching to play doom but im too lazy to boot up my laptop.

now this happens.

I have opted into the beta and am going to give doom a go....see how it runs. I think its the only game i currently have that supports this feature. Hopefuly monster hunter world soon..fingers crossed. I think i will hold back my purchase of MHW until i hear more news on that front.

on a side note: games running on wine/proton counts as linux usage. so if you buy, e.g., doom 2016 using the steam client and play it on linux then its a linux sale and contributes to linux usage stats.

If that increases then more developers may spend more time at least testing their games against proton. If it increases further then they may be more inclined to port to linux (proton is a great idea but native is preferred).

in fairness to developers, even with a very small % of the total userbase, they have been working to improve and bring more titles to linux. Unity, UE4, Obsidian, Feral interactive (porting gurus), codemasters, square enix, obsidian.....i could go on. still bringing games to linux. thank you to them all (and those i have not mentioned..er.....sorry) :D.

linux has also improved a lot as a gaming OS since the steam machine. development hasnt stopped on that front: if anything its getting faster. the open source graphics stack is vastly improved from 5 years ago (when it was really only there to put a desktop on the screen). its not perfect. its not a windows killer. but its constantly improving. also thanks to everyone working on that too...kinda critical stuff right there :P.

This was stated it's only for Business related users and if all your doing on Windows is just playing games only, no need to worry about paying monthly fees. Not for Windows gamers to pay, just strictly for business Windows users. MS isn't stupid enough to try making PC gamers paying.

No problems with Windows 10 I have since it came out, no reason for me to switch to a OS I'm not used to.

Lulz at Linux hipsters. Oh look, it's so user unfriendly that my hipster level will rise to over 9000. I have to work with that shit every day. If I also had to game with it I would throw my PC straight out of the window.

why do you then?

Interesting,

But couldn't care less and would continue to use windows over linux.

As someone who has to use Linux for work (alongside windows) there is next to no day-to-day advantage as a consumor .... other than being free, whoopdey do.

Nethernova gets it.

I dont know a lot about Linux but I do know that the Steam servers run on Linux and in the server world Linux is considered the best option from a security and stability stand point.

That might all be untrue but I would think in our new world of hacking that might be a selling point on the server side

@tryit: hackings not new, have you not seen wargames?

that is the most lame response to what I said I can possible imagine.

'its not new' (which is a 'no shit sherlock' response) because of ...wait for it.... a fucking movie?

try just 'its always been around' and skip the movie reference.

to be clear I was referring to Russia interference and the fact that we now basically 'live' on the internet

Linux has it's upside, as production servers and cloud servers they are excellent because they are incredibly lean, a very simply file structure, and by its design (lean) can be secured quite easily. Where as Microsoft servers, even when you trim lots of services leaves more vectors to attack, and given the platforms popularity and trying to balance "Usability vs Security" you will have these challenges.

In reality if Linux was more than what is it 2% of the market, you would start to see far more effort from criminal actors than you currently do, its the same "MAC more Secure than Windows" debate from 10 years ago....

Only Linux has many distros, which vary in quality, about the closest you will get to "Secure Support" is Redhat.... which costs more than bloody windows. Yea you can secure Cent OS by yourself, but how often would you get updates compared to a Billion Dollar Corp like Microsoft handeling one set of products?

Usability vs .... what? What does Linux offer me over windows? Usability? Hell no..... Updates? Hell No.... Compatibility? Hell no

Maybe for someone on an INCREDIBLY tight budget, or just anti-microsoft .... if that's the case, as a consumour you mayswell go for frigging Apple.

yeah fair enough. I was just thinking about government security as a side note.

I would think members of both parties might be interested in talking to Red Hat about their email servers :)

@tryit: was just a joke to be honest. But I forgot who I was replying to my apologies.

Hmm. OK ^__^

Sounds good to me! I really dislike Window 10

DirectX 11 and 12 implementations are now based on Vulkan...

Wow, if true RIP windows. Windows 10 will be my last Microsoft operating system.