cageymaru

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The Linux PC gaming community received a nice surprise with the release of the latest Steam Beta client. Steam Play now works on non-Steam game shortcuts which allows Linux PC gamers to use Proton to play games from other services. For example, the author of the article was able to get a copy of The Witcher 3 from GOG to work with Proton.

The second part of the update allows native Linux games to run under Proton. This allows abandoned native Linux games to run under Vulkan and Linux users can now connect with Windows users in multiplayer! For example, running Company of Heroes 2 under Steam Play allows Linux users to play with Windows users whereas the native Linux client didn't allow this. Of course since this is a beta, there are bugs to work out. The biggest bug noted so far is that some games have issues detecting and using game controllers. Good job Valve!

Forcing Proton for native games that don't work properly or are unsupported for any reason is a great alternative. Proton keeps evolving so you are likely to get more and more performance out of it as time goes, and that will benefit all games, the old like the new. The added bonus is that it will unveil how poorly ports are usually done when you can just install in parallel the Windows version and demonstrate it runs better than the "native" one... There are still games like Rise of the Tomb Raider where Feral's port performs actually better than Proton, so Proton is not a one size fits all solution, but by far and large we have had more badly optimized ports than the contrary.
 
I would rather have proper Linux ports. Proton is good for when game devs don't port, but if the Linux ports are left broken then they should be fixed. Using the Windows version isn't something I'd be promoting. Also, I'm still waiting for a proper Linux port of the Witcher 3.
 
I would rather have proper Linux ports. Proton is good for when game devs don't port, but if the Linux ports are left broken then they should be fixed. Using the Windows version isn't something I'd be promoting. Also, I'm still waiting for a proper Linux port of the Witcher 3.
This is kind of short sighted. Fortunately, Valve isn't. You'll be waiting forever for native Linux versions of AAA's since the ROI isn't there for publishers. Only way to create the ROI for them is growing userbase. Proton is a massive multiplier since it hits every windows game at once.

People always say "I'd go Linux if I can play every one of my windows games there". That day will never come without Proton.
 
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Like to see native Linux support in all games but until then Proton is a nice band aid especially for older games that don't require as much horsepower.
 
This is very short sighted. Fortunately, Valve isn't. You'll be waiting forever for native Linux versions of AAA's since the ROI isn't there for publishers. Only way to create the ROI for them is growing userbase. Proton is a massive multiplier since it hits every windows game at once.

People always say "I'd go Linux if I can play every one of my windows games there". That day will never come without Proton.

Look past the idealism.
Don't get me wrong, I've been saying that Valve should make something like Proton long before Proton was a thing, but ultimately we want Linux ports. If game companies don't want to make Linux ports then we have proton but if they do then please support the ports with patches and fixes. Don't abandon your ports. Also, don't limit Linux game ports to linux multiplayer only. There's no difference between a keyboard and mouse on Linux vs Windows.
 
I posted some videos of people playing Battlefield V with Proton on the front page awhile ago.

That's a big improvement since last I checked, used to be lots of stutter and a hefty fps penalty. tbo last game I played was Witcher 3, I checked into Linux playability back then and it wasn't up to snuff.
 
That's a big improvement since last I checked, used to be lots of stutter and a hefty fps penalty. tbo last game I played was Witcher 3, I checked into Linux playability back then and it wasn't up to snuff.
If you're using DXVK keep in mind that the first run will process some shaders. So it takes a while before the stutters are gone.
 
At first I was a "Port it or take a walk" type as well. Then I started thinking about it in another way. Wine is not in anyway an emulator or anything. There is no implied performance hit. Its simply an unofficial client side API translator. Nothing different from what windows itself does... accept that MS wrote the API and so their OS has the official version of the API translation. As most Linux gamers already know older windows titles tend to run better on Linux then older versions of windows. The wine layer does a better job in many cases then Microsofts own "compatibility mode" as MS is basically running older software in a VM... rather then include older APIs in their main libraries. (which makes sense if they included the older libraries that developers already well know.. chances of them moving to MS newer APIs is low... instead MS says if you use that it end users will have fun installing it and it will run in a VM and run like ass)

Anyway I guess I'm saying. Go proton. I have changed my position on this. Proton is at a point today that darn near every windows game will run and run well. There are still a few acceptions... and windows Malware DRM schemes are still a PITA. However for the most part as long as you have a decently recent system... and realistic expectations, you can easily dump windows. Of course if your system is barely hitting 40 FPS at 4k in windows... its not going to be playable under proton. However if your gaming at 1080 or 1440 and under windows your system is pushing things at 70+fps... almost without a doubt you'll be able to play it under Linux. With the first few versions of DXVK we where seeing 30+% performance hits, but everything looked right which was a big step forward over older OpenGL translations.... by the end of 2018 a lot of major titles where seeing single digit performance hits. Now they are cleaning up things like initial shader compiling ect that are not game breaking but can be smoother. I have little doubt that by mid year we start seeing some actual performance gains in major titles. That is already true for the odd title using Vulkan native.... Proton/Wine isn't where the performance hit happens. Its the translation layer. So Vulkan native games where nothing is being translated at all, can start hitting parity and perhaps even performance gains.

2019 is going to be a big year for gaming on Linux. If developers just ship their windows compiled binaries so be it. For myself I don't care if the binaries are in .exe format as long as I can get parity in terms of performance. At this point I would rather have a well supported proton with developer presets..... over bad third party ports that drop the same single digit performance anyway with 6 month game shipment delays. I think that is the next BIG thing coming from Valve. They have teased that developers could provide "proton presets"... I expect at some point this year they will start announcing some big developer preset support. It might not be a "native port" but if a game says on its sales page... Linux support and lists the requirements. Who cares if its doing it with a .sh launcher or if its running via proton and vulkan/dxvk.
 
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Forget ports guys. Its simply not economical for game companies to make Linux ports for old games. The market return would be way too low.

However, as stated people do not want to switch from winblows because they don't want to sacrifice all their old software/games. I absolutely hate win10 but run it because I like my games. I work shifts and have a 2 year old in the house. I don't have the time anymore to tinker with emulation software. I need quick and easy or I simply can't do it.

As soon as we have a way to easily run everything on Linux with minimal bugs and minimal performance loss we will be able to dump windows into the dumpster where it belongs. Proton is well along that path.

Once this happens, ports won't matter. Devs will start making games for Linux.
 
At this rate I will be Windows free sooner than I ever thought. Now I just need to stop buying Microsoft exclusive games on the Microsoft Store...

Halo 6, Crackdown 3, Forza 9000, Gears of War 4, Sea of Thieves are all titles I want to play.

Then there is uPlay games like Rainbow 6 Siege.

I can't wait to leave Windows, but it will take some sacrifices! :)
 
Nothing but good in this happening. The salt here isn't founded. There's a laundry list of games that the developer's spend no more money on any more, so this can bring those games to Linux. Hell, there's even examples of games that don't run on newer versions of Windows, but run great on Linux!
 
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