I’ve seen numerous games in my library that were formerly native switch over to supporting Proton and abandoning the native port. I get that it cuts down on needed time and effort to maintain and we can still play on Proton, but I would really prefer native if there is the opportunity.
@Grangle1 @mr_MADAFAKA The way things are going, one could make the argument that Proton is sort of native if you squint hard enough.
The way I like to think about it is that Proton essentially provides a standard, stable API across both Windows and Linux for gaming (Win32). We typically talk about it as a translation layer, and it is, but also to some degree it’s also “here’s an implementation of Win32 for Linux.”
If game devs can, say, buy a steam deck and know their game works on it, that means it’s gonna work on other steam decks and probably most Linux machines. It’s making it easy for devs to test and develop for Linux, even if it’s not really “on Linux.” Copy the Windows files to the steam deck, run your release checklist, and you’re good to go.
but I would really prefer native if there is the opportunity.
This only makes sense if the native port is better. In the witcher 2, I get better graphics and performance when playing through proton instead of using native. And there are certain games with ‘native’ ports which don’t even run and just crash.
Sad, but true.
That has absolutely 0 relevance to this post lol. Smite has literally always been Windows only.
Smite devs are very mediocre bordering on inept. It took themike a year and a half of multiple attempts to get EAC working for Linux. Crashing is prevalent on both windows and proton in smite 1.
If smite devs took on a native Linux port, it would be an absolute garbage dumpster fire filled with never fixed bugs, incompatibility, probably an unusable amount of crashes. I’d rather play decently through proton than experience that BS.
Most of the time if I see a game has a native port I force it to use the windows version under proton anyway
I’ve found proton generally works a lot better than the half-assed native port most companies put out
I would really prefer native if there is the opportunity
I prefer native apps too, but I’ll still use websites and some electron apps, and I’ll still use applications built in C#, Java, Python, etc. None of those are really native either. Proton is analogous to a virtual environment for running an interpreter. Potentially, it’s slower and has issues a la Python, but if the program can work, then I don’t care about the theoretical problems; it works despite them. So I think it’s fine.
If it means more games for Linux and a standard that developers can target, encouraging them to “support Linux,” then that’s a win I think. Like I said in another comment, a studio can buy a steam deck, throw the same Windows export on it, and then have someone run through the same set of tests they’d normally go through. If it works there, it’ll work on most Linux machines. Having a standard API is not a bad thing imo
Potentially, it’s slower
Apparently there are a number of instances where it outperforms the native Windows version.
I’m inclined to agree – it seems Proton has reached the point where your Windows game will now play essentially the same on Linux as it does on Windows, with a few edge-cases. Why make extra work to maintain a native Linux version?
Some crappy DX9 titles run better with DXVK across the board, Windows included. It never occured to me that you can use DXVK on Windows too, but games like GTA 4 run so much better with it.
Was it native before?
Or Windows-only?
Windows only. It currently has a silver rating on protondb.
Played it a shit ton. It was always window-only.
It was plagued with EAC issues for years because the devs just couldn’t figure out at all how to enable EAC properly.
Other than that it runs fine and that issue has been fixed for a year or so.
Newbie here: is proton a bad thing?
Proton is just the compatibility layer, which allows you to play Windows games on Linux.
It’s one of the main reasons so many people switched to Linux in the last months and years, since Proton gets even better from week to week. Something, games designed for Windows run even better on Linux (Proton) than on Windows!
From what I’ve heard, requiring Proton isn’t that bad, especially for the devs. Often, games engineered for Windows run better on Linux than the same ones for Linux.
Yeah i use it for ESO and it works well for me. I am just wandering why this is posted here
I thought it was interesting that in system requirements says Proton for Non Native game
It is. If well maintained, upstream/identical in features compared to the Windows one, and have some same degrees of support possible with it; I think it’s better than running it via Proton. But both is good, was still worth showcasing that find.
Did it go from Linux native to Proton only? Only reason I would think assuming headline is accurate.
Yes and No.
In the short term the answer is a clear “yes”, as it allows players to play nearly all Windows games on Linux without modifications, and game developers to ship their games on Linux without any extra costs.
In the long term it might have a bad effect on the market, as it further helps to cement Microsoft’s control over multimedia APIs, since game developers now have little incentive now to target anything other than DirectX…
In this case it’s a bit weird though, as the game lists Linux as supported platform, but obviously just ships the Windows build with Proton instead of having a native Linux build that uses open cross-platform APIs.
In the long term it might have a bad effect on the market, as it further helps to cement Microsoft’s control over multimedia APIs, since game developers now have little incentive now to target anything other than DirectX…
However, there are others that would argue that Microsoft’s control over multimedia APIs was fully cemented since decades ago, and developers have never had much incentive to target anything other than DX since then.
Back in 2014, Valve tried to bring Linux gaming to the spotlight by offering solid and targetable APIs for developers to port their games. This approach failed hard, and most games had serious deficiencies because most publishers would rather stick a half-assed DX wrapper (like DXVK only infinitely worse) than actually do the work for a proper port.
So, with only a handful of games and what did appear was usually worse than on Windows, releases stopped coming after a year or so.
This is why we have DXVK and Proton today.
In this case it’s a bit weird though, as the game lists Linux as supported platform, but obviously just ships the Windows build with Proton instead of having a native Linux build that uses open cross-platform APIs.
It being under supported platforms might mean that the developer officially supports proton and thus Linux. Hopefully they’d provide fixes if they somehow break the game on proton (e.g. they won’t add an unnecessary launcher which breaks the game).
This is especially important for smite, because smite 1 is still incompatible on Linux due to them not enabling EAC
In the short term the answer is a clear “yes”, as it allows players to play nearly all Windows games on Linux without modifications, and game developers to ship their games on Linux without any extra costs.
How does that make Proton bad?
It’s the dual-edged sword of making it more accessible now with a workaround, which disincentives developers from building with actual support in mind.
So Proton is allowing more people to switch to Linux for gaming, which is good! However, instead of putting pressure on developers to make Linux versions of games and software they can just use Proton, so they will continue making only Windows versions, which is bad.
Wow, now you’ve got me imagining this weird future where everyone has switched to Linux for desktop use because of how bad windows has become, but developers still make games only for windows because of Proton. 😵💫
When Linux has comparable market share we will have some Linux-only games and Windows runs them in WSL
I was focusing on that paragraph specifically. It’s written like accessibility is a clear bad thing. I was wondering if it was a typo.
Sorry, I was a bit confuse. I meant, in the short term Proton is definitely a good thing.
In the long term it might have a bad effect on the market, as it further helps to cement Microsoft’s control over multimedia APIs, since game developers now have little incentive now to target anything other than DirectX…
You’re not wrong, but people have been saying this for >20 years. We’re living in that future.
Very interesting thank you!
I think it could be argued that Proton actually gives Linux and Valve control over directx instead of M$. Since, the only directx features and implementation that developers targeting Linux can use is the implementation from Proton. M$ has no say over what Proton users can use.
Furthermore, it reduces the barrier to entry for developers to support fully native Linux+opengl/vulkan, breaking developers out of Microsoft’walled garden.
I understand that the Linux community was worried about wine wrappers before, but I think Valve has shown everyone how good wine wrappers can be.
I wouldn’t call it WINE Wrapper. While I agree that this is the correct usage of the term, I’ve mostly seen it used online to describe tools like winelib or eON, meaning tools that allow to target Windows APIs at compile time.
Wait, so you’re telling me there’s a MOBA without kernel-level, permanently running anti-cheat? Sign me up!
(Yes, I know, every MOBA except LoL doesn’t require kernel level anti-cheat soon)
System requirements are identical to Windows, except they replaced “GTX 1050” with “GTX 1060”, but oddly enough the Radeon card is the same model. In my experience Proton runs games at pretty much native performance, so I’d be surprised if it was different here.
