YouTube video: https://youtu.be/uScsmjvdwyo
Invidious video from YouTube without YouTube: https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=uScsmjvdwyo or https://invidious.nerdvpn.de/watch?v=uScsmjvdwyo
PeerTube, alternative video hosting platform based on Fediverse: https://subscribeto.me/w/isv3e2tfTJyGeAT6RRSR6M
Video description:
It’s clear there are some people who don’t understand Proton. So let’s talk about it. #Proton #SteamPlay #CompatibilityLayer
00:00 Introduction
00:41 The basics of a computer
01:46 What Proton is not
03:04 What is an emulator
04:32 Proton acts like a map
05:25 Proton translates API and system calls
06:18 Proton provides a Windows-like software environment
06:55 Why are some games incompatible?
08:52 Shouldn't we demand native Linux games?
11:07 Conclusion
I recognize the importance of Proton to bridge the gap and bring users over who would never switch if they can’t play all their Windows games.
But I won’t ever agree that Proton should just replace proper native support.
If games go linux native, how long until Microsoft gets wsl working for games?
There’s really nothing preventing that now. Used to be you just forwarded X (mobaXterm is great); looks like there’s an MS offering now.
As for Linux-exclusive games, there are some (eg this publisher) but really only because no one has bothered to make a Windows port. tbh you could probably get them running on macOS without much trouble because the toolchain’s all the same.
You mean to play Linux games through WSL? Well, Microsoft doesn’t have any reason to, as all games are available for Windows. Or do you suggest the Frankenstein’s Gaming playing Linux games with Proton through WSL on Windows? That would be truly marvelous. xD
No, I meant what I said.
If games do become linux exclusives, microsoft will have a reason
Ah, you mean in a future where Linux overtakes Windows as the primary gaming machine. But hard to believe this will become true in the near future. Especially if we talk about commercial games to abandon Windows. I would like to see such a feature, but doubt it would happen in my lifetime honestly (i’m no longer young BTW). In such a scenario, Microsoft probably would start supporting games with WSL, if they don’t have a different strategy.
In my experience, even when a game has a native Linux version, the Windows version run via Proton can often be the better choice.
In Tabletop Simulator, I wasn’t able to join my friends’ multiplayer sessions with the native Linux version. No problem with the Windows version via Proton.
The Linux version of Human Fall Flat isn’t feature complete/outdated.
There are better examples though. Valheim runs fantastic aside from a bug that it picks the first instead of the default audio device for sound output on startup. It even supports mods and r2modman supports Linux as well.
Didn’t have any problems with Spiritfarer either.
I think a huge reason for this is how fragmented the linux ecosystem is.
A hundred ways to do simple things and even mundane things are suggested as “You can’t do X with tool X easily. Just install package Y instead because it can also do it”
But now you have another program installed.
Also some parts of linux have much drama around it (https://www.phoronix.com/news/Bcachefs-Fixes-Two-Choices). This adds uncertainty.
This is irrelevant with Steam though. Steam offers a runtime with preconfigured versions of everything that is needed to give the devs a consistent environment for their games to run no matter how fragmented the linux install base might be. This runtime is also what proton uses for ship its different versions.
Yeah, it’s unfortunately common to have games running better through proton than the native port. We’ve seen a lot of devs drop their linux port recently because the proton version ran better with fewer issues.
Obviously a well executed native linux port is preferable, but a lot of smaller devs have trouble justifying spending a lot of time working out kinks for a linux port if the game already runs great through proton.
Another thing that wasn’t mentioned in the video that Proton does is it also – sometimes, depending on the game – checks a list of known requirements for a game and installs them through winetricks, or makes other recommended changes to game files that are known to make the game work.
When Proton is updated and the patch notes mention that a game was fixed, it’s something to do with this part of the process. A certain library, or whatever was missing and Proton installs it for you behind the scenes.
It also runs WINE through Steam’s launcher (aka Steam Linux Runtime) which has some common redistributables (aka Steamworks SDK Redist) built right into it, and it also runs appropriate anti-cheat solutions (aka Proton EasyAntiCheat Runtime or Proton BattlEye Runtime).
I actually didn’t know the Steam Linux Runtime was WINE. Nice. (Note, I’m not the author of the video.)
It is not just WINE. The Steam Linux Runtime is a stack of linux native libraries, binaries and tools designed to give game devs a consistent version of things to develop games against. Recently they moved this to be container based and I believe proton (which contains wine) is run inside this runtime as well.
