Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Valve's Proton Has Enabled 7000 Windows Games on Linux

boilingsteam.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 333 posts

Re: Valve's Proton Has Enabled 7000 Windows Games on Linux

#81

Post by checkyoursudo »

tapoxi wrote: post #28

Proton is neat for sure, but unfortunately modern anti-cheat solutions expect Windows and will not allow Linux clients to connect. There's also a few games that I expected to work but simply won't launch for me, like Elder Scrolls Online. I'm a fan of the Linux desktop, but for me the easiest solution is to have a dedicated Linux PC (right now an XPS 13 Developer) and a Windows machine for playing video games. I don'…

My complaint is similar. There are a couple of games that I really wish I could play using proton. However, while I used to dual boot, now I don't even do that and I simply forego playing those games.

I have too many games in my library to worry about not being able to play a couple more, I guess. But, if I could, then I would. So I just stick with whatever can run with proton.

Re: Valve's Proton Has Enabled 7000 Windows Games on Linux

#82

Post by cacois »

sandworm101 wrote: post #59
neogodless wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> making devs lazy when it comes to developing native ports Is this first order thinking? Whereas second order thinking might be "with Proton enabling an order of magnitude more users that enjoy PC gaming to move to Linux, studios might consider improving the PC gaming experience further with more native ports/testing directly on Linux?" I don't know if that's how things could play out, but it seems logical to me.

Because Proton creates a dangerous market pressure. The linux+proton user is the ideal customer for a game developer: someone paying full price but to whom you owe absolutely no obligations. Bug reports from Proton users can be safely ignored. They should feel lucky if the game even started under their not-supported hack of an operating system. But those who purchase a native linux client (KSP, Factorio, Prison Archi…

Conversely, if proton is creating a much larger linux gamer market (its on of the big reasons I switched to linux as my daily driver), might this new market not soon be able to exert pressure on developers for first-class linux ports?

Bit of a potential chicken and egg problem with developers supporting linux natively that proton might help solve.

Re: Valve's Proton Has Enabled 7000 Windows Games on Linux

#83

Post by cf »

mewse wrote: post #74
cf wrote: post #58

The problem with Proton is it is leading many game developers to actually drop Linux support. They basically say players seem to be able to get the game to work on Proton and that's that. But with no official support there is no guarantee it will continue to work with updates. There is no promise to even try to make it work if it breaks. And that's the major stuff. Imagine spending 20, 30, or 60 dollars on a game tha…

I have a game on Steam, developed primarily on Linux, and providing a Linux build (in addition to Windows and Mac). Linux makes up approximately 0.5% of my sales. (Mac is about 2%, and Windows is the other ~97%) And from conversations with other developers, these are pretty standard percentages. I make and offer a native Linux build because I wanted to do it, but the financials really aren’t there to justify it from…

Basic question, if someone buys a game to run it through Proton do they look like a Windows or Linux user on your end?

How would you feel about games being made available for free to Linux users if it uses Proton. If the game contributes basically nothing to your bottom line and you don't plan to support them anyways, why not? It will only grow the audience more quickly.

Re: Valve's Proton Has Enabled 7000 Windows Games on Linux

#85

Post by lukeschlather »

Barrin92 wrote: post #70
bryanlarsen wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Market share is king. With Linux at 1% Linux gamers are screwed, Proton or not.

also from several game devs I've talked to, not only is the market share negligible, the bug reports aren't. Common sentiment was that Linux was ~1% of their sales but a third of complaints.

This probably reflects the character of Linux users more than Linux. To really unpack that you need to properly categorize the complaints: (Linux platform bug, Cross-platform bug, User error.) If 50% of the bugs are real cross-platform issues, then ditching Linux saves a lot less than you think (and you're potentially losing some high-quality free QA.)

Re: Valve's Proton Has Enabled 7000 Windows Games on Linux

#86

Post by CoolGuySteve »

kevincox wrote: post #45
rPlayer6554 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would not count steam machines out just yet. I wouldn't be surprised if the number one complaint about Steam Machines/OS was the limited library of games. Maybe they decided to just take some time and focus on Proton and then consider reviving the Steam Machines.

Yup. Valve is putting serious effort into Proton and there are a number of reasons I can think of including Valve loves Linux, Valve thinks that the Linux market is/can be profitable, Valve wants to keep its non-Windows options available if only to threaten Microsoft. However a next generation of Steam machines definitely seems like it would be present on that list.

I think a streaming service with a Linux backend is more likely than another Steam machine push.

One of the biggest problems with Stadia and the like is that you have to buy another copy of the game whereas Steam already knows what you own and will let you play it locally.

Re: Valve's Proton Has Enabled 7000 Windows Games on Linux

#87

Post by lukeschlather »

reader_mode wrote: post #66
cf wrote: post #58

The problem with Proton is it is leading many game developers to actually drop Linux support. They basically say players seem to be able to get the game to work on Proton and that's that. But with no official support there is no guarantee it will continue to work with updates. There is no promise to even try to make it work if it breaks. And that's the major stuff. Imagine spending 20, 30, or 60 dollars on a game tha…

> Imagine spending 20, 30, or 60 dollars on a game that can break at any moment and know there will be zero support waiting for you. So spending Multiplayer games that need to be up-to-date and competitive games would probably be annoying to hardcore gamers - but frankly if you're into that you'll be sensitive to performance as well and you should just get on a supported platform.

I am sensitive to performance, but part of that is being able to alt-tab over to my Linux desktop rather than having to switch machines to do things other than play this one Windows exclusive. Actually the main part is that. "Gaming device" is a secondary function of my computer.

Re: Valve's Proton Has Enabled 7000 Windows Games on Linux

#88

Post by kemonocode »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #56
tempest_ wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that was a large reason. Additionally the OUYA had some mind share and Valve was pushing Steam Machines and their Steam link so a non windows OS to run on them made sense. On reflection perhaps the Steam Machines and link were a response to the Windows Store as well but I cant remember the timelines that well.

SteamOS, Steam Machines, and Steam Link all occurred at about the same time and they were definitely a response to the perceived threat of Microsoft locking Windows down to only Windows Store applications. Good news is that didn't happen and Valve continued to improve gaming on Linux for everyone for free anyways.

Epic would be a bigger threat to Valve's market dominance these days. If only they (Epic) decided to support Linux in a similar fashion...

Re: Valve's Proton Has Enabled 7000 Windows Games on Linux

#89

Post by pixelbath »

I'm not really sure what went wrong on my Xubuntu 20.04 system; I was never able to get a single game running under Proton. Attempting to do so would essentially soft-lock the entire Steam platform until I killed every process related to Steam, pressure-vessel, and Proton.

In the end, I ended up reinstalling Windows because of some other system-related issues, but I'd have loved to be one of the happy Proton users playing Windows games on Linux.

Re: Valve's Proton Has Enabled 7000 Windows Games on Linux

#90

Post by ekianjo »

k__ wrote: post #6
ThaDood wrote: post #4

Proton is the reason I moved from a Windows + MacOS machine to GNU/Linux full time. I understand the concern that some hardcore enthusiasts might have about it making devs lazy when it comes to developing native ports but to be honest I don't care. I am just glad to have a simple method of gaming on GNU/Linux. Proton plus Lutris and the slew other tools that have come out in recent years has made the transition to GN…

How good does this work with things like Oculus Quest, SteamVR, etc.? Are there any performance implications?

This should answer your questions https://boilingsteam.com/the-state-of-virtual-reality-on-lin...
Post reply on HN