Proton, Valve's rumoured "Linux compatibility" tool has been released into the Steam client!

[pipnina]

Today Valve posted an announcement on the Steam website that confirmed the recent rumours and leaks regarding their development of "compatibility tools" to run Windows games through the Linux steam client:

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

 

In the post Valve states:

Quote

So, two years ago, we started an effort to improve the quality and performance of Windows compatibility solutions for Steam games. A lot of our work has been in the form of supporting Wine and other existing compatibility projects. We have also been integrating these tools into the Steam client to provide the same simple plug-and-play experience offered by regular Linux games.

 

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.

Valve's decision to have "Proton" include these patches by default is sure to improve gameplay experience vastly. Personally I have played several games through WINE which suffered due to slow graphics translation, threading issues or fullscreen screwery.

 

Valve also released an initial list of games compatible with the service (but states that you can still play games that are not certified)

Quote

This goes hand-in-hand with an ongoing testing effort of the entire Steam catalog, in order to identify games that currently work great in this compatibility environment, and find and address issues for the ones that don't. The initial set of supported games that we are enabling with this initial Beta release is as follows:

• Beat Saber
• Bejeweled 2 Deluxe
• Doki Doki Literature Club!
• DOOM
• DOOM II: Hell on Earth
• DOOM VFR
• Fallout Shelter
• FATE
• FINAL FANTASY VI
• Geometry Dash
• Google Earth VR
• Into The Breach
• Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012
• Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013
• Mount & Blade
• Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword
• NieR: Automata
• PAYDAY: The Heist
• QUAKE
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
• Star Wars: Battlefront 2
• Tekken 7
• The Last Remnant
• Tropico 4
• Ultimate Doom
• Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War® - Dark Crusade
• Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War® - Soulstorm

We 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.

Steam Play whitelisted games will not be offered for purchase or marked as supported on Linux on the Store during the initial Beta period.

 

I'm pretty excited to see where this ends up. Maybe bigger Linux market share from gamers, or more interest from bigger devs supporting the platform? Or perhaps this simply ends up as a nicety for people like me who use Linux already.

 

EDIT: Posted accidentally while editing title! had to finish post in edit. Sorry!

[Dabombinable]

So I could possible use Linux now....

[PlayStation 2]

Shit, I'll have to try it out.

[Master Delta Chief]

There are some problems at the moment with the settings menu to actually enable the option, however somehow it fixed itself. Gonna try one of the current supported games which is Star Wars BF2 Classic 2005 edition. Looking forward for other games!

 

EDIT: Issue is fixed

[pipnina]

1 minute ago, Dabombinable said:

So I could possible use Linux now....

If not now, hopefully in a few months! I posted the topic prematurely as I didn't have the text window selected when I hit "Enter" . I have updated the OP with information about currently supported games.

[AlTech]

Nice .

 

If this expands to most games on Steam then I could seriously see myself switching 100% over to linux on Desktop.

[Firewrath9]

I love to see DDLC on that list, best horror game lmao.

[captain_to_fire]

Aside from Ubuntu, what's are the best Linux distros for Linux noobs? Which is better? KDE or GNOME?

 

Because my know-how with Linux is like a grandparent learning how to text using an iPhone.

[Drak3]

Just now, captain_to_fire said:

Aside from Ubuntu, what's are the best Linux distros for Linux noobs? Which is better? KDE or GNOME?

 

Because my know-how with Linux is like a grandparent learning how to text using an iPhone.

Linux Mint or Debian.

 

KDE vs Gnome is almost entirely preference now.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

That's good news for those who really don't want to move to Win10 but are reluctant to give Linux a go because of the lack of games. 

 

2 minutes ago, captain_to_fire said:

Aside from Ubuntu, what's are the best Linux distros for Linux noobs? Which is better? KDE or GNOME?

KDE and Gnome are actually Desktop Environments, basically different user interfaces on top of a Distro. 

[captain_to_fire]

Just now, Captain Chaos said:

That's good news for those who really don't want to move to Win10 but are reluctant to give Linux a go because of the lack of games. 

 

KDE and Gnome are actually Desktop Environments, basically different user interfaces on top of a Distro. 

So it's like an TouchWiz on top of Android? Are there any terminal commands I should know like installing an application?

[Ryujin2003]

WOOT! Linux and Ultimate Doom. Can life get any better?

[pipnina]

7 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Linux Mint or Debian.

 

KDE vs Gnome is almost entirely preference now.

I think Mint will be good to start, but remember that moving from one major version to another (17 to 18, or 18 to 19) is supported but not recommended. More of a short-term learning distro IMO.

 

I think default Ubuntu, Kubuntu/KDE Neon would be good for a beginner with long-term interests.

 

I have thought about Debian myself, but I think the release cycle is too long for me personally.

 

6 minutes ago, captain_to_fire said:

So it's like an TouchWiz on top of Android? Are there any terminal commands I should know like installing an application?

"Linux" as we call it is really a group of programs working together to create a full OS.

 

The Linux kernel sits at the core, as it does in Android, but you also have:

• Init system (Such as SystemD) which manages services.
• GRUB, which is a bootloader
• Plymouth, which manages the boot process (and makes it look nice)
• GNU coreuitls, this includes BASH and many configuration tools essential for basic command line use
• GUI, which is usually loaded when the boot process has completed, this is things like the login screen and the general desktop experience. (KDE/i3/GNOME/LXQT/LXDE/XFCE and so on)

I might have missed some stuff, but that's basically what a "Linux" OS is made of (plus some extras like package managers)

 

Most useful commands?... https://ss64.com/bash/ is a good resource, I don't know half of those but it contains the basics as well as more advanced commands.

 

My most used commands are:

Quote

    115 make
     78 cd
     63 sudo
     51 ./mersennes
     51 ls
     48 ./quick
     41 wine
     39 g++
     33 apt-cache
     31 dpkg
     30 ./WineSteamLauncher
     28 ps
     20 shutdown
     19 WINEPREFIX="/home/james/.wine/ORIGIN/"
     18 rm
     18 htop
     16 pkg-config
     15 WINEPREFIX="/home/james/.wine/WINE32/"
     15 kill
     13 valgrind
     12 cat
     12 apt
     11 ./heap
     10 winecfg
     10 uptime
     10 ping
     10 nano
     10 grep
     10 du
      8 WINEPREFIX="/home/james/.wine/ORIGIN"
      6 uname
      6 man
      5 wget
      5 ./type-test
      5 ./MassEffect2
      5 ifconfig
      5 echo
      5 clear
      4 xinput
      4 ./WineSteamLauncher64.sh

 

I use WINE a lot, and I use the terminal for programming so things like pkg-config and make are heavily used.

[Drak3]

8 minutes ago, pipnina said:

think default Ubuntu, Kubuntu/KDE Neon would be good for a beginner with long-term interests.

 

I have thought about Debian myself, but I think the release cycle is too long for me personally.

Personally. I think all Linux that is not Android is shit for those that aren't either power users or literally only need the OS to get a web browser.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

29 minutes ago, captain_to_fire said:

So it's like an TouchWiz on top of Android? Are there any terminal commands I should know like installing an application?

For fear of getting flamed for over-simplificating things, it's kinda comparable to Touchwiz, HTC Sense etc indeed. 

However you're not restricted to one type that comes with your PC like you do with your phone.  The choice is yours.

 

Having to enter terminal commands really doesn't happen as often as people think.  I upgraded my laptop's SSD early this year and did a fresh install of Mint 18.3 on it.  Pretty sure I haven't entered a single terminal command on this install yet.  Some people use it all the time because it's fast and efficient or because they have special needs (in a good way), others use the GUI for everything.

 

As for installing applications: I mainly use Ubuntu and Linux Mint, and they both come with a very easy to use software center (keeping with the cellphone comparisons, think of it as an app store) where you can browse applications etc and select the ones you want to install. 

 

EDIT : To get back on topic, I can't imagine that MS is too happy about Valve helping to get DX12 games on Vulkan.  Pretty sure they counted on DX12 games to draw more people to Win10. 

[bcredeur97]

21 minutes ago, Captain Chaos said:

For fear of getting flamed for over-simplificating things, it's kinda comparable to Touchwiz, HTC Sense etc indeed. 

However you're not restricted to one type that comes with your PC like you do with your phone.  The choice is yours.

 

Having to enter terminal commands really doesn't happen as often as people think.  I upgraded my laptop's SSD early this year and did a fresh install of Mint 18.3 on it.  Pretty sure I haven't entered a single terminal command on this install yet.  Some people use it all the time because it's fast and efficient or because they have special needs (in a good way), others use the GUI for everything.

 

As for installing applications: I mainly use Ubuntu and Linux Mint, and they both come with a very easy to use software center (keeping with the cellphone comparisons, think of it as an app store) where you can browse applications etc and select the ones you want to install. 

 

EDIT : To get back on topic, I can't imagine that MS is too happy about Valve helping to get DX12 games on Vulkan.  Pretty sure they counted on DX12 games to draw more people to Win10. 

they really gonna be pushing the MS store now...

[bcredeur97]

54 minutes ago, vinyldash303 said:

My last encounter with Ubuntu was using their built in software updater breaking the install.

yeah back like 6 years ago. it's better now. I promise

[ARikozuM]

Electron: The tool for compatibility with Macs. 

 

Now you can play Bloons at 24Hz!

[EPENEX]

b-b-but muh secret club

[Dabombinable]

30 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

yeah back like 6 years ago. it's better now. I promise

Still got Ubuntu 8.04 on a magazine disc some where. And yeah....its far better than it used to be.

[S w a t s o n]

Still would rather just pass a gpu through to a windows VM if I ran linux natively but, I'm not a masochist so I'll keep enjoying the Micro$haft Winders lyfe

[mr moose]

The nerd in me got a real woody chumper hearing this.  

 

 

[ARikozuM]

11 minutes ago, mr moose said:

The nerd in me got a real woody chumper hearing this.  

I need a translation on this, @leadeater.

 

Spoiler

/s

 

[Stefan Payne]

53 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

yeah back like 6 years ago. it's better now. I promise

How often did I hear that from the Linux side of things?

And how often got I disappointed for believing them??

Misrepresenting the Linux experience only leads to more disapointment and Haters than to honestly talk about that...

 

Especially until there is a big company kicking the asses of the Desktop development guys...

 

And one of the Biggest issues is the Multimedia stuff as it is not implemented in some Distributions and has to be handly installed. With some it works out of the box with some it doesn't and with others its a pain to get it running....

 

Anyway, as for the Desktop Enviroments:
Can KDE 5.0 stream from Windows Shares yet or does it have to open the whole file from the Windows Share??

And also you should mention that KDE might look more like Windows but doesn't use the Windows Shortcuts but the Unix ones.

 

Gnome might be a bit better in that regard but its UI tries to immitate MacOSX but even that it does badly, though its the only Desktop I've seen that supports WIn 1-9 for starting Programs...

 

The biggest issue with Linux is the lack of accountability for the Linux developers....

 

For commercial software, you can hold them accountable with not buying their shit like people do with Battlefield V or M$ Windows 8.1. With Linux its the: "Don't like it? Dont use it, m8!" mindset...

 

 

Well, I really would like to not hate Linux so much but sadly it doesn't seem like there is an easy way out of it, especially with the lack of accountability....

[bcredeur97]

19 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

How often did I hear that from the Linux side of things?

And how often got I disappointed for believing them??

Misrepresenting the Linux experience only leads to more disapointment and Haters than to honestly talk about that...

 

Especially until there is a big company kicking the asses of the Desktop development guys...

 

And one of the Biggest issues is the Multimedia stuff as it is not implemented in some Distributions and has to be handly installed. With some it works out of the box with some it doesn't and with others its a pain to get it running....

 

Anyway, as for the Desktop Enviroments:
Can KDE 5.0 stream from Windows Shares yet or does it have to open the whole file from the Windows Share??

And also you should mention that KDE might look more like Windows but doesn't use the Windows Shortcuts but the Unix ones.

 

Gnome might be a bit better in that regard but its UI tries to immitate MacOSX but even that it does badly, though its the only Desktop I've seen that supports WIn 1-9 for starting Programs...

 

The biggest issue with Linux is the lack of accountability for the Linux developers....

 

For commercial software, you can hold them accountable with not buying their shit like people do with Battlefield V or M$ Windows 8.1. With Linux its the: "Don't like it? Dont use it, m8!" mindset...

 

 

Well, I really would like to not hate Linux so much but sadly it doesn't seem like there is an easy way out of it, especially with the lack of accountability....

oh it's not windows. don't start to believe it needs to be. 

And yes, it still needs work. but if you simply look at the progress that has happened; it's definetly gotten a lot better. It's still not perfect yet. needs more time. But so much work is going into it...

 

keep in mind a lot of these ppl who are building this stuff aren't exactly paid to do it. maybe donations or something but that's all they get. so it is what it is.