4 ms·
I actually prefer for devs to target Wine/Proton compatibility instead of providing native builds. Native games can break over time. I have lots of older propr
by babypuncher 5y ago
I actually prefer for devs to target Wine/Proton compatibility instead of providing native builds.
Native games can break over time. I have lots of older proprietary Linux games that aren't super straightforward to get running on modern Linux distros, usually because they rely on libraries that aren't included by default anymore (and sometimes not even maintained). The Steam runtime smooths this over a bit, but I still run into native games from only 4 or 5 years ago that are now broken out of the box.
Proton has the benefit of being a "framework" that isn't likely to be abandoned anytime soon. It is essentially a re-implementation of a platform whose primary selling point is long-term backwards compatibility and API stability. It abstracts (or outright eliminates) most of the variability between Linux distros.
Plus, games running in it can run mods that rely on DLL injection.
- some-guy 5y agoIronically, many games I install on Steam run better in Linux under Proton than Windows 10 (especially from the 98/XP era)
- babypuncher 5y agoI think this usually boils down to incomplete or buggy support for older 3D apis in modern graphics cards, as the fixes for these games almost always end up being to use a wrapper that translates them to modern Vulkan or DirectX like dgvoodoo or nGlide, similar to what Proton already has to do for these games.
- techrat 5y agoEven brand new ones. On my Windows 10 system, Katamari Reroll wouldn't even launch. Just a black scfeen. In Proton on my xUbuntu desktop, it runs flawlessly. I tend to expect older games to run better due to Microsoft depreciating older Windows libraries and apis, but a native newly released title was surprising.
- babypuncher 5y agoKatamari Damacy Reroll fails to install a dependency that is fairly common in Windows but not included by default, and gets fulfilled automatically within Proton. So the problem here is less Microsoft's fault and more the developer not doing their due diligence.
- vkazanov 5y agoWell... Games are such a pain to support or port exactly because of the nature of development. For most games post-release life cycle is supershort, i.e. nobody cares about long-term polishing, bug-fixing, proper platform support. This is why Proton/Wine are such a massive undertaking.
- KiranRao0 5y agoI remember a Linus Torvalds video on this exact problem. I found it both blunt at insightful: Linus Torvalds on why desktop Linux sucks : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzl1B7nB9Kc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzl1B7nB9Kc
- AussieWog93 5y agoOh my God, Linus hit the nail on the head there. Prior to stabilising on a policy of "AppImage or GTFO", this was by far the biggest headache when it came to supporting Linux.
- schmorptron 5y agoSteam uses flatpak-like runtimes now that should hopefully make backwards compatibility a non-issue going forward. https://gitlab.steamos.cloud/steamrt/steamrt/-/wikis/Soldier-release-notes https://gitlab.steamos.cloud/steamrt/steamrt/-/wikis/Soldier...
- rodgerd 5y agoIt's a sad irony that we rely on a Windows userland to get games that work for more than a few years on a Linux distro.
- babypuncher 5y agoIt's even more amusing when you realize that a reverse engineered open source re-implementation of the Windows userland for *nix systems has better compatibility with legacy software than actual Windows.
- fragileone 5y agoNot the case anymore with Steam Linux Runtime (AKA Pressure Vessel AKA Flatpak)