Two Months After Proton Over 2,500 Windows Games Work On Linux Through Steam Play

[dmartin]

Proton is a new tool released by Valve Software that has been integrated with Steam Play to make playing Windows games on Linux as simple as hitting the Play button within Steam. Underneath the hood, Proton comprises other popular tools like Wine and DXVK among others that a gamer would otherwise have to install and maintain themselves. This greatly eases the burden for users to switch to Linux without having to learn the underlying systems or losing access to a large part of their library of games. Proton is still in its infancy so support is inconsistent, but regularly improving and the list of supported Windows games is growing each day.

In fact, this project has announced that it has now over 2,500 Windows games (2,663 at the time of writing) that work on Linux with Proton and Steam Play. Beyond those supported "whitelisted" games, there are several others that although not-whitelisted are supported and "play just as well as on Windows". Some examples are "No Man's Sky", "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt", "Wolfenstein: The New Order" or "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim". Any user can contribute and report about the titles in his game library thanks to ProtonDB.

The performance could be slightly different on Windows and Linux, but overall developers expect these supported games to run fine on Linux. This allows users to enjoy those games without installing Windows on their Linux machines, something that could improve Linux usage all around even for gamers that used Linux on a daily basis as their operating system and had to install Windows just to play those titles.

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[Cybrnook2002]

Super cool. If this takes off, and continues support, I wouldn't mind switching my main rigs at home to a unix based OS. Everything else at home is already on unix, just the personal PC's would be the last step and gaming is one of the main pain points.

 

[WikiFM]

I thought it would be much worse, anyway I still watched like a 30% slower performance compared to windows.

 

[Salty_sandwich]

I thought it would be much worse, anyway I still watched like a 30% slower performance compared to windows.

Still good news for Linux users or if you just feel like trying a different o/s

 

[WikiFM]

Still good news for Linux users or if you just feel like trying a different o/s

Just install Windows in a second drive or partition, it doesn't fit in my head any reason to lose 30% performance just for sticking to play on Linux.

 

[geon2k2]

Why do they take credit for ~25 years of opensource community wine development.
What does proton bring except a nicer package for already existing software?

 

[Xpect]

Just install Windows in a second drive or partition, it doesn't fit in my head any reason to lose 30% performance just for sticking to play on Linux.

Honestly, since I started dabbling in Linux and using it exclusively on my personal PCs, I don't want to switch back to windows. No reason for it. In fact, Linux feels way smoother and more stable. And also, if a program completely hangs in Windows, it can cause a full ahng of the system. In Linux I open terminal and kill the process. It might open slowly, sure, but it always works.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Why do they take credit for ~25 years of opensource community wine development.
What does proton bring except a nicer package for already existing software?

Probably less than apple or Google did, they're not selling it after all and are cooperating with those devs afaik.

 

[WikiFM]

Honestly, since I started dabbling in Linux and using it exclusively on my personal PCs, I don't want to switch back to windows. No reason for it. In fact, Linux feels way smoother and more stable. And also, if a program completely hangs in Windows, it can cause a full ahng of the system. In Linux I open terminal and kill the process. It might open slowly, sure, but it always works.

We are talking exclusively about playing games, do you find a reason to play in Linux?

 

[Steevo]

Honestly, since I started dabbling in Linux and using it exclusively on my personal PCs, I don't want to switch back to windows. No reason for it. In fact, Linux feels way smoother and more stable. And also, if a program completely hangs in Windows, it can cause a full ahng of the system. In Linux I open terminal and kill the process. It might open slowly, sure, but it always works.

Unless you are running a really odd configuration of cheap componenets that were never supposed to be together its a hardware fault and not Windows since about XP SP2. I hate 8 and despise 10 but I run 10 as its modern and allows for DX11/12 to work with my hardware, which are the major games rendering path without a 30% loss of performance. I can use all the benefits of opensource software without the questions if my system is performing as well as it should.

 

[Salty_sandwich]

I moved from Windows 10 to Linux just to have a mess around with, after a few days I decided I don't really need to go back to windows 10, so decided to stick with Linux Mint.
Steam Play saves the user or newbie having to mess around with wine, to make it more of a click and play through steam play, well that's the idea behind it I think.
I say Windows 10 to those who need it and Linux is an option if you dont.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Super cool. If this takes off, and continues support, I wouldn't mind switching my main rigs at home to a unix based OS

Wait, Unix? Proton is Linux. But if it does run on Unix then porting to MacOS would likely be easy. That would be a "Welcome to Gaming on MacOS!" moment..

 

[Patriot]

Wait, Unix? Proton is Linux. But if it does run on Unix then porting to MacOS would likely be easy. That would be a "Welcome to Gaming on MacOS!" moment..

OSX is also, not unix...

 

[lexluthermiester]

OSX is also, not unix...

Apple bought Nextstep, which is Unix based, in the mid 90's and MacOS was based on that. Apple is using a BSD variant for current OSX, which is a Unix environment.

EDIT; iOS is also a Unix variant.

 

[Solaris17]

This is awesome!

 

[Patriot]

Apple bought Nextstep, which is Unix based, in the mid 90's and MacOS was based on that. Apple is using a BSD variant for current OSX, which is a Unix environment.

EDIT; iOS is also a Unix variant.

OSX is a Unix derivative at best, which is why it is called, Unix-like, in the same way that Linux is Unix-like.
Linux being a ground up approach, OSX being a bastard of several derivations... and is just as far from the source as Linux. Neither are Unix environments.
Novel (Suse distro) had their hands on Unix dev as well... doesn't make linux unix.

Don't take my world for it, https://github.com/apple/darwin-xnu
Apple doesn't even consider it Unix.

Random note: PS4 runs a BSD variant... its all about the drivers and frameworks and OSX has ended easy porting.


Now, can we go back to enjoying more choice in which platforms we can game on?

 

[lexluthermiester]

Apple doesn't even consider it Unix.

It is irrelevant what Apple considers it. When most Unix shell commands still work in OSX and it shares other base code similarities, it's Unix based.

Now, can we go back to enjoying more choice in which platforms we can game on?

Sure, game on!

 

[Xpect]

We are talking exclusively about playing games, do you find a reason to play in Linux?

Well, yes. I play on Linux exactly the same games as I would on Windows. With most of the time, since my main rig got stolen and I just have some cheap components now, better performance than in Windows.

Unless you are running a really odd configuration of cheap componenets that were never supposed to be together its a hardware fault and not Windows since about XP SP2.

I hate 8 and despise 10 but I run 10 as its modern and allows for DX11/12 to work with my hardware, which are the major games rendering path without a 30% loss of performance. I can use all the benefits of opensource software without the questions if my system is performing as well as it should.

First part: Well, then I guess the i5-6500, 16GB of Kingston RAM, MSI Z150A Krait Gaming Motherboard and the HD7970 are considered odd and cheap now. And the Hardware otherwise was just fine. Stuff like that happened mostly in heavily modded games like Skyrim. Or when there were some Software component running at the same time the system didn't want them to.

Second part: If games were not made for proprietary DX but for the more open and mostly more modern OpenGL, you wouldn't think that way. Actually, I was dreaming of games using OpenGL more heavily for like 10 years now. Since I first heard of it and Linux. And even then I just moved completely to Linux this year.

I moved from Windows 10 to Linux just to have a mess around with, after a few days I decided I don't really need to go back to windows 10, so decided to stick with Linux Mint.
Steam Play saves the user or newbie having to mess around with wine, to make it more of a click and play through steam play, well that's the idea behind it I think.
I say Windows 10 to those who need it and Linux is an option if you dont.

That is the way I went also. The most awkward quirk was to get my Mad Catz M.M.O.TE to work properly, since for some reason the onboard software of that mouse sends the active profile of the three available profiles as a continous button press. And The DWM doesn't like that. So I had to play in the configuration to disable those three "buttons". Mouse works as intended still.

Don't take my world for it, https://github.com/apple/darwin-xnu
Apple doesn't even consider it Unix.

https://developer.apple.com/library...erview/SystemTechnology/SystemTechnology.html In the section "The Kernel" they are calling it UNIX-based.
And if you look at the right hand vertical column in the following link, The bottom most thing with "Darwin Technologies" says "Beneath the easy-to-use interface of macOS is a rock-solid, UNIX foundation."
So, well, they DO mention and consider it UNIX.

Of course, the OS is not just the Kernel, be it Linux, Unix, Darwin or Windows NT but the complete mix of technologies, programs and DWM on top of it. So something being UNIX or Linux doesn'T mean it's compatible or easily portable, if the other components of the OS are completely incompatible.

 

[Salty_sandwich]

Quote: |Xpect
"That is the way I went also. The most awkward quirk was to get my Mad Catz M.M.O.TE to work properly, since for some reason the onboard software of that mouse sends the active profile of the three available profiles as a continous button press. And The DWM doesn't like that. So I had to play in the configuration to disable those three "buttons". Mouse works as intended still."

In me younger years I had the elitism attitude, rather than open minded, so I just jumped on the hype train and ran with the crowd, it was fun at the time.

As the years past I found that I out grew the elitism attitude, (which really just gets pushed by the self appointed Self-righteous i'm better than you type, more and more,the British Class System mentality springs to mind) and realized I don't even need most of it, Linux fits the bill for my needs perfectly.

after staying with Mint, I cant help but feeling, Microsoft are using my PC for more than I do with Windows 10.

so it's not about what others say is better, it's about what fits your needs. why i say if you really need Windows then stick with it, if you don't then there are plenty of options.

most people (probs the younger crowd, as they do know it all already lol) will go with whats being shouted the loudest, rather than try something that's different to them.

 

[Fx]

Super cool. If this takes off, and continues support, I wouldn't mind switching my main rigs at home to a unix based OS. Everything else at home is already on unix, just the personal PC's would be the last step and gaming is one of the main pain points.

Yep! I'm in the same boat, in the same dilemma and I'll be right there with ya during the switchover if they keep this momentum up.

 

[WikiFM]

Well, yes. I play on Linux exactly the same games as I would on Windows. With most of the time, since my main rig got stolen and I just have some cheap components now, better performance than in Windows.

I would like to see some of your own benchmarks (FPS), because I find it hard to believe it that is faster in Linux, unless is a game written in Linux instead of using Wine. When you say better performance than Windows you mean FPS or what are your metrics?

 

[Salty_sandwich]

I would like to see some of your own benchmarks (FPS), because I find it hard to believe it that is faster in Linux, unless is a game written in Linux instead of using Wine. When you say better performance than Windows you mean FPS or what are your metrics?

I think they have to be thinking Linux game, even then ... From my experience windows runs games faster, although that should be expected, there has been a lot more investment in windows O/S for gaming than in Linux O/S like AAA games for example.

 

[Tartaros]

What does proton bring except a nicer package for already existing software?

Ease of use, what I asked 10 years ago when I tried it. I haven't touched wine for a very long time, but making that thing run was a pain in the ass and of course you had to connect the dots via bad explained tutorials to make it work. I would have gone full linux if I had this back then.

 

[cyneater]

I thought it would be much worse, anyway I still watched like a 30% slower performance compared to windows.

so if your running windows 10 it would be about the same

 

[lexluthermiester]

so if your running windows 10 it would be about the same

While I'm no fan of Windows 10, credit where it's due, Microsoft has made gaming on 10 a good experience where performance is concerned..