
Proton 5.0, a package to run Windows games on Linux - SomeSnail
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/wiki/Changelog
======
axaxs
As a 20 or so year long linux as a desktop user, I've had my hopes up so many
times that more people would embrace Linux. It's always been about the games,
largely. Hell we had id's stuff running, and there was even a company porting
Blizzard stuff if I remember right. This is the first time I've been genuinely
enthused that "it's happenening", and I cannot be more thankful to the Wine
team and Valve.

~~~
IshKebab
I would say it _used_ to be about games. But now many people use laptops and
Linux has pretty terrible support for most of them. It often "works", but
you'll usually have some issue with bluetooth or wifi or the trackpad, and
good luck getting anywhere near as good battery life as Windows or Mac.

~~~
jay_kyburz
Yeah but I found we all have the same problems with Windows these days.

I watched a friend struggle to get slack to use the correct camera work on his
windows 10 laptop. Another occasion, on a desktop machine problems with
microphones.

A few months ago I woke up and my Windows 10 desktop just decided to lock up
about 10 seconds after showing the desktop. There was nothing I could do to
fix it and had to reinstall windows.

------
dylz
Actual link:
[https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/wiki/Changelog](https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/wiki/Changelog)

This blog spam is serving drive by malware.
[https://i.imgur.com/DpYTX0d.png](https://i.imgur.com/DpYTX0d.png) appears to
be the trigger, for people interested.

------
bdefore
In case anyone is curious about specific game compatibility, I've created a
community resource for it here:
[https://www.protondb.com](https://www.protondb.com). Notably this release
fixes games that required DRM enforced through the Steam client.

~~~
xfalcox
Thanks for protondb! Is it open source?

~~~
bdefore
Not at this time. Although anyone interested in helping translate the site
would be welcome to help here:
[https://github.com/bdefore/protondb-i18n](https://github.com/bdefore/protondb-i18n)

------
void_nill
For me as a Linux only user, Proton is an incredible relief. I have all my
games on Steam and can turn on Proton with a checkbox. I often use it to play
old classics like The Eldar Scrolls Morrowind or Oblivion. For me Proton is a
gamechanger, because a few years ago I had a second laptop running Windows and
I played my games on it. I haven't had that for three years.

------
randomer666
I've recently switched my desktop to Linux and almost every game I need runs
without any problem using proton. The biggest problem Linux gaming has is the
EasyAntiCheat. Most games using it don't work at all.

~~~
MagnumPIG
Is that the DRM bdefore mentioned? Because if so, they fixed it.

~~~
bdefore
No, EAC/BattlEye are unfortunately much trickier problems, since they are
effectively rootkits that can't play nice with Wine translations of Windows
APIs. This is arguably Proton's biggest challenge at the moment, since it
affects the marquis popular multiplayer games such as Fortnite.

------
2bitencryption
One thing I've always wondered is how much "per-game fine-tuning" Proton
requires.

I know for some console emulators, it's not uncommon to require some per-game
profiles that tweak the emulation for better compatibility for that specific
game.

Heck, even GPU firmware updates will mention specific games in the patch
notes.[0]

Is this necessary for something like Proton?

[0]
[https://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/156781](https://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/156781)
"...provides the latest performance optimizations, profiles, and bug fixes for
Zombie Army: Dead War 4. In addition, this release also provides optimal
support for Apex Legends Season 4 and Metro Exodus: Sam’s Story..."

~~~
jdc
ProtonDB can give you a good idea of how well games work without tuning.

[http://protondb.com](http://protondb.com)

~~~
simion314
Exactly and if the game is not here check the wine database , so for example
last time I checked Space Engineer is not working
[https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=applicatio...](https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=16019)
so not everything just works, some games though work perfectly including more
Unity and Unreal Engine games.

------
brylie
WARNING: clicking that link leads to a vortex of notification permission
prompts.

Please remove the link from HN.

~~~
theclaw
It sends me to endless ‘appsflyer.com’ redirects and prompts to install Norton
VPN apps from the app store on ios. Wtf.

------
tmpz22
I can’t be the only one who put Linux on his home desktop to discourage
gaming... darn you valve.

~~~
gchamonlive
Why do you want to discourage gaming? And who do you want to discourage?

~~~
jasongill
They want to discourage themselves so they can be more productive.

------
Insanity
Proton works amazingly well for me, on my Debian install. I recommend people
try it out :)

~~~
mapcars
It works properly only with AMD video cards right?

~~~
fjorgemota
nope, it also works VERY well with NVIDIA.

You only need a GPU that works fine with Vulkan, tho, like those reported on
this page (if your GPU is made by NVIDIA, ofc):
[https://developer.nvidia.com/vulkan-
driver](https://developer.nvidia.com/vulkan-driver)

On Intel iGPUs it works if it has Vulkan support but, as always, the
performance isn't that good (as with any Intel iGPU).

The unique thing made by Valve that only run on AMD is ACO, a shader compiler
for Vulkan that's faster than LLVM, which is used by the open-source stack

~~~
Fnoord
Wait, you're telling us you don't have to use Nouveau or the proprietary
Nvidia driver?

~~~
fjorgemota
No, you need to use at least one of them, otherwise the GPU itself will not
work, right?

What i'm trying to say is that Proton itself doesn't work only on AMD, as
NVIDIA can run Proton games very well too, and Intel can run it too.

In the end, only ACO needs an AMD GPU to run, but it doesn't a lot to do with
Proton itself.

~~~
Fnoord
Nvidia still doesn't work with Wayland AFAIK, and Nouveau doesn't work for 900
series or later AFAIK.

I still recommend everyone who wants to run Linux to go for AMD graphics
cards. Their FOSS drivers work well, and you can get good performance on 1080p
and 1440p. More and more games work with Proton, and Lutris allows one to
download profiles which are supposed to work.

CPU-wise, AMD gives the best bang for the buck since Ryzen 2. So that is a no-
brainer.

In both decisions though, you support the viable underdog.

~~~
fjorgemota
We're talking about Proton, not about wayland, tho.

And I also recommend AMD graphics cards, my RX 580 and my Ryzen 7 1700 works
fine with Linux...so yeah.

------
pizza
I'm guessing this doesn't work on arm64 as, classically, wine is not an
emulator.. Been trying many different ways to get gaming to work on my Jetson
Nano

\- moonlight-embedded (works, kinda janky though, and the only GPU vps
provider that I've used which works is paperspace, and I'd rather not spend
about a dollar an hour to play games this way, plus paperspace's west servers
are in norcal and I'm in socal so the latency is just enough for certain games
to not be that fun to play)

\- using qemu + virtgl to run the nvidia geforce now android app (still
figuring this one out)

\- anbox + geforce now (anbox flat out didn't work)

\- parsec (wouldn't start)

~~~
rhn_mk1
You may have better luck with qemu-user-static. This is more like a container
than a full OS, so you might be able to get away with using the OpenGL driver
directly.

------
nearmuse
So far everything I run works (with only a couple exceptions). I am really
happy to see this because some remasters are not paying their due respect to
the original (looking at you, WC Reforged, although it hasn't got anything to
do with Steam anyway), so being able to easily run the later is important.

------
jammygit
Anybody with experience launching a unity game on Linux? If so, we’re there
any complications that made the process difficult?

------
haunter
Wonder how does it work with Clear Linux

