Wine Reviews has release information and reviews of Windows applications and games running on Linux macOS and ChromeOS using Wine from Winehq.org Proton Lutris Q4Wine PlayOnLinux PlayOnMac WineBottler WineSkin WineTricks and Wine-Staging.
Lutris helps you install and play video games from all eras and from most
gaming systems. By leveraging and combining existing emulators, engine
re-implementations and compatibility layers, it gives you a central interface
to launch all your games.
The client can connect with existing services like Humble Bundle, GOG and Steam
to make your game libraries easily available. Game downloads and installations
are automated and can be modified through user made scripts.
Add new window to add games to Lutris, with searches from the website,
scanning a folder for previously installed games, installing a Windows
game from a setup file, installing from a YAML script or configuring a
single game manually.
Move the search for Lutris installers from a tab in the Lutris service
to the window for adding games.
Add a coverart format
Add integration with EA Origin
Add integration with Ubisoft Connect
Download missing media on startup
Remove Winesteam runner (install Steam for Windows in Lutris instead)
PC (Linux and Windows) games have their own dedicated Nvidia shader cache
Add dgvoodoo2 option
Add option to enable BattleEye anti-cheat support
Default to Retroarch cores in ~/.config/retroarch/cores if available
Add support for downloading patches and DLC for GOG games
Add --export and --import command line flags to export a game a lutris
game and re-import it (requires --dest for the destination path)
Add command line flags to manage runners: --install-runner, --uninstall-runners,
--list-runners, --list-wine-versions
Change behavior of the "Stop" button, remove "Kill all Wine processes" action
Gamescope option is now disabled on Nvidia GPUs
Enable F-Sync by default
Run Microsoft Windows Applications and Games on Mac, Linux or ChromeOS save up to 20% off CodeWeavers CrossOver+ today.
The Wine maintenance release 6.0.3 is now available.
What's new in this release:
Various bug fixes
The source is available now.
Binary packages are in the process of being built, and will appear soon at their respective download locations.
Bugs fixed in 6.0.3 (total 46):
30244 Might & Magic Clash of Heroes: fails to start 36887 Trusteer Rapport setup crashes on unimplemented function ntoskrnl.exe.PsGetCurrentProcessSessionId 37592 Filenames in themed file dialog change size 39142 Roblox Client/Server connection is dropped with error "This server has shut down." 41292 Nexton LC-ScriptEngine freezes, possibly bad dsound notifications 47047 Multiple kernel drivers crash due to missing 'ntoskrnl.exe.MmGetPhysicalAddress' semi-stub (64-bit MRAC Anti-Cheat (My.Com Warface) kernel service, DELL BIOS flash utility, BattlEye Anti-Cheat) 47505 Levelhead: Fatal error when attempting to access the game's servers when logged in 47791 Inconsistent %ERRORLEVEL% after setting env var value in cmd.exe 48891 Bash from Cygwin/msys2 terminates after first command 49625 winedbg --command 'info wnd' fails with Exception c0000005 49726 ChrisPC Free VPN Connection 2.x crashes on unimplemented function rasapi32.dll.RasSetCredentialsA when clicking 'Connect to VPN' 50041 Amnesia: Rebirth crashes with builtin vcomp140 50113 Total Commander 9.51: when using a third-party theme with Windows XP, the drive buttons and function buttons at the bottom of the window (F5 Copy) are not displayed 50244 Melodyne 5: activation via internet fails with 12152 error 50272 Melodyne 5: activation via internet produces "Unknown Error" 50404 Sims 4 crashes on startup with builtin msvcrt 50412 Wrong check for needed access rights in QueryServiceConfig2 50603 WiX Toolset v3.11 installer crashes when loading update feed XML 50615 Excel 2007 needs ICreateTypeInfo2::DeleteFuncDesc() 50735 MSBuild fails to launch FileTracker 51221 Dangerous Water crash when starting a Multiplayer game (requires IDirectPlay8Server_EnumServiceProviders implementation) 51244 Frostpunk doesn't launch with builtin msvcr120 51264 GUI exe receives invalid StdOutput HANDLE if launched via ShellExecuteEx 51267 Rise of Legends Demo crashes with null pointer exception inside SAXReader::parseURL 51291 Youkoso! Sukebe Elf no Mori e (demo) doesn't show thumbnail image in monitor settings. 51302 NASCAR '15 Victory Edition gets in infinite loop on launch 51303 Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes needs d3d11_swapchain_GetLastPresentCount implementation 51348 uxtheme.SetWindowTheme should use SendMessage to send WM_THEMECHANGED 51358 Civilization 4: XML load error when trying to start 51382 NetEase Cloud Music crashes on zh_CN.UTF-8 locale. 51435 iostream float formatting broken since Wine 5.12-170-g1bc6f0c8617 51452 oleaut32:varformat fails in Wine when the currency sign has two characters or more 51465 EVE Online launcher crashes 51503 vbscript parser error in expression with # char 51505 MIDISelector's MIDI mapper configuration doesn't take effect 51506 Disabled controls are not greyed out when theming is active 51535 Native Access 1.13.3 crashes on unimplemented function virtdisk.dll.DetachVirtualDisk 51553 Purple bitmap should be transparent in scrollbar theming 51574 swscanf_s with %zu fails for valid value 51576 Click-N-Type 3.03 virtual keyboard installer sometimes has two task panes 51590 services:service fails when the KDE taskbar is at the top 51591 AFxW: file list panes aren't updated at start-up 51635 wine fails to build with glibc 2.34 51728 copypasta in pwcache.c:ctox() 51894 ucrtbase:misc fails on some Windows 10 1607 and 1709 51932 wine-stable 6.0.2 build fails in Ubuntu 21.10
Run Microsoft Windows Applications and Games on Mac, Linux or ChromeOS save up to 20% off CodeWeavers CrossOver+ today.
The Wine development release 7.3 is now available.
What's new in this release:
More large scale cleanups to support 'long' type.
Proper support for API sets.
Progress on the PE conversion of USER32 and WineALSA.
A number of HID joystick fixes.
Various bug fixes.
The source is available now.
Binary packages are in the process of being built, and will appear soon at their respective download locations.
Bugs fixed in 7.3 (total 15):
38210 WshScriptExec's StdIn StdOut and StdErr are missing. 41386 Motocross Madness 2 crashes on start 44635 Multiple games need ID3DXEffect CloneEffect (Gray Matter, Black and White 2) 44658 Multiple Win7+ APIset lookup/resolver tools need 'ApiSetMap' field in PEB (ApiSetView, Dependencies) 48096 Mulle Meck: Unhandled exception when starting game 48201 Unimplemented function KERNEL32.dll.SetCurrentConsoleFontEx 48733 Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 web-installer needs ncrypt.dll.NCryptOpenStorageProvider implementation 48760 ConEmu shows 'GetConsoleProcessList failed' at startup 51103 d3d11:d3d11 crashes on Windows + NVidia 52155 kernel32:pipe times out on 64-bit Wine 52290 Playground Sessions crashes on startup 52434 Light Blue theme has rendering errors in tree views 52526 Trails to Azure (Geofront patch) crashes on unimplemented function KERNEL32.dll.InitializeContext 52561 d3dx9_36:math crashes on Windows 8.1 and cw-rx460 52583 ApiSetView does not display export ordinals correctly
Run Microsoft Windows Applications and Games on Mac, Linux or ChromeOS save up to 20% off CodeWeavers CrossOver+ today.
This is the 412th issue of World Wine News. Its main goal is to inform
you of what's going on around Wine.
Wine is an open-source implementation of the Windows API on top
of X and Unix. Think of it as a Windows compatibility layer.
Wine does not require Microsoft Windows, as it is a completely
alternative implementation consisting of 100% Microsoft-free code.
Lutris helps you install and play video games from all eras and from most
gaming systems. By leveraging and combining existing emulators, engine
re-implementations and compatibility layers, it gives you a central interface
to launch all your games.
The client can connect with existing services like Humble Bundle, GOG and Steam
to make your game libraries easily available. Game downloads and installations
are automated and can be modified through user made scripts.
Add new window to add games to Lutris, with searches from the website,
scanning a folder for previously installed games, installing a Windows
game from a setup file, installing from a YAML script or configuring a
single game manually.
Move the search for Lutris installers from a tab in the Lutris service
to the window for adding games.
Add a coverart format
Add integration with EA Origin
Add integration with Ubisoft Connect
Download missing media on startup
Remove Winesteam runner (install Steam for Windows in Lutris instead)
PC (Linux and Windows) games have their own dedicated Nvidia shader cache
Add dgvoodoo2 option
Add option to enable BattleEye anti-cheat support
Run Microsoft Windows Applications and Games on Mac, Linux or ChromeOS save up to 20% off CodeWeavers CrossOver+ today.
The Wine development release 7.2 is now available.
What's new in this release:
Large scale cleanup to support 'long' type with MSVCRT.
Mono engine updated to version 7.1.1.
More theming fixes in common controls.
Beginnings of a WMA decoder.
Support for 64-bit time_t.
Various bug fixes.
The source is available now.
Binary packages are in the process of being built, and will appear soon at their respective download locations.
Bugs fixed in 7.2 (total 23):
12732 Nota Bene crashes on install 33086 QQ 2013 Beta2: text in input box can't display normally 34326 uplive.exe from TypeEasy crashes 36566 Half-Life's (CD Version) Menu refuses to work after a while 37609 Macromedia Freehand 9 demo hangs during startup 38809 QQ 7.3 Light crashes randomly 40827 VMWare VSphere 4.x/5.x/6.x clients fail to install 44202 undname.c fails to parse symbols with rvalue-reference semantics '&&' 46284 Call of Juarez crashes with unimplemented function d3dx9_29.dll.D3DXSHProjectCubeMap 47463 QQ 9.1.5 crash on start. 48815 user32:win "unexpected 0x738 message" Windows 10 failures 50352 Maximum sockets per process is set very low 50842 The 64-bit msado15:msado15 test crashes 51130 user32:win test_SetActiveWindow() has 2 failures on Vista to Windows 8.1 51392 user32:monitor breaks user32:win 51513 Multiple applications (PG Offline 4.0.907, lessmsi v1.10.0, MIDIopsy 1.2, Quickroute) crash on start with IndexOutOfRangeException with Wine-Mono 51754 Iris Down CountDown Crash at start - dotnet4.5 51798 MAmidiMEmo doesn't start up ("System.resources" is required) 52433 TASInput (Mupen64-RR-Lua): checkbox is not cleared correctly 52436 In Light Blue theme, checkable toggle buttons (BS_AUTOCHECKBOX) look unchecked when hovered 52490 Clipboard.GetText() doesn't work 52494 shell32 progman_dde tests crash if run immediately after prefix creation 52510 alt:V mod for Grand Theft Auto V fails due to missing concrt140._Byte_reverse_table@details@Concurrency@@3QBEB
Run Microsoft Windows Applications and Games on Mac, Linux or ChromeOS save up to 20% off CodeWeavers CrossOver+ today.
What is Valve Proton? The Steam Deck’s live-or-die Linux software, explained
The Steam Deck's success will hinge on Proton, a Valve technology
that lets Windows games run on Linux. Here's what you need to know.
Looking at the spec sheet alone, the $399 Steam Deck gaming handheld should be a winner—and early Steam Deck reviews
certainly suggest Valve nailed it on the hardware front. The PC-centric
Nintendo Switch rival features a big 7-inch touchscreen, plenty of
control inputs, an all-AMD chip based on the same hardware inside the
Xbox Series S|X and PlayStation 5, and the ability to double as a
full-fledged Linux PC. But forget the hardware. While it’s impressive
indeed, the Steam Deck will sink or swim based on its software, and that
means Valve awesome Proton technology is about to be thrust into the
spotlight.
The Steam Deck
will sprint to a larger software library than most gaming handhelds
because you’ll be able to tap into decades of existing PC games through
your Steam account, rather than having to wait for new releases made
specifically for the fresh hardware. But most of those games were
created for Windows, and the Steam Deck runs on Valve’s Linux-based
SteamOS operating system instead. Proton (via Steam Play) lets Windows
games run on Linux. It works very well much of the time, but
it’s not perfect—and the Steam Deck’s success probably depends on just
how much Valve can polish up Proton before the handheld’s February 25
launch. The best hardware in the world is only as good as the software
that runs on it, after all.
Here’s a high-level look at what you need to know about Proton, the Steam Deck’s secret software sauce.
What is Steam Proton?
At a high level, Proton is a compatibility layer that allows Windows
games to run on Linux-based operating systems (such as the Steam Deck’s
SteamOS). In the past, playing PC games on Linux required you to run
Steam games through software called Wine (an acronym for “Wine is not an
emulator.”). Valve worked with CodeWeavers developers to build Proton
as a fork of Wine, then baked the technology right into Steam itself as
part of Steam Play, the company’s “buy once, play on any PC platform”
endeavor.
Valve created Proton after its living room-focused Steam Machine initiative failed, partly because of their reliance on the much-smaller Linux gaming library. “There was always kind of this classic chicken and egg problem with the Steam Machine,” designer Scott Dalton told IGN. “That led us down this path of Proton, where now there’s all these games that actually run.”
If you’re interested in industry inside baseball, Proton and SteamOS also double as a potential escape hatch from Windows if Valve ever needs it.
How do you set up Steam Proton?
Hey Valve: This should just work, with Proton support activated by default on the Steam Deck.
Currently, Steam for Linux does not flip on Proton by
default. You need to manually enable it or stick to games that offer a
native Linux port. Considering how few games offer native Linux
versions, we’re strongly hoping Valve makes Proton/Steam Play enabled by
default on the Steam Deck, or there will be a lot of unhappy customers.
If you’re already using Linux, you can turn on Proton by opening your
Steam settings and clicking on the “Steam Play” option at the bottom of
the navigation pane. (The option won’t be visible on Windows PCs.)
There, you’ll see a box you can check to “Enable Steam Play for
supported titles.” That turns on Proton for games confirmed to work well
with the technology, added to a whitelist by Valve. You’ll also see an
advanced option to “Enable Steam Play for all other titles,” which will
flip on Proton for everything after you restart the client.
Will all my games work on Steam Deck with Proton?
Will all games work? That’s the million dollar question.
Notice that none of the games in this Steam Deck promotional image are massively popular multiplayer titles.
Valve has been steadily improving Proton ever since it launched in 2018, and many—most,
even—Windows games run pretty well via Steam Play with little to no
tinkering. Your best resource for determining how a game runs is the
utterly fantastic ProtonDB,
a community-made treasure trove of information that currently tracks
almost 19,000 games, of which over 15,000 work on Linux. The site also
maintains a very helpful troubleshooting FAQ for Proton games. (Be sure to leave reports of your own if you use Proton and Steam Play!)
As those numbers indicate, some games are just plain “borked” on
Linux, to borrow ProtonDB’s term. The most common casualties? Sadly, the
most popular games around—battle royale games and esports titles.
Proton’s compatibility layer tweaks don’t play nice with the anti-cheat
software deployed in widely played online games. Valve made sure to get
its own Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Team Fortress 2 running on Linux, but heavy hitters like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, New World, Apex Legends, and Destiny 2 still won’t run.
Screenshot of ProtonDB.com
That’s a massive bummer, and as you can see from the ProtonDB stats
about game compatibility above, it means that many of the most popular
games in the world couldn’t be played on a Steam Deck currently. Epic
recently stated it won’t work to support Fortnite on the Steam
Deck either. (Notice how the percentage of red “borked” games in the top
ten is much, much, much higher than in the top 100 and top 1000—that’s
because those multiplayer games dominate the top-played charts.)
Valve understands what a huge roadblock this could be. While BattlEye
and the Epic-owned Easy Anti-Cheat lacked Proton support whatsoever
when the Steam Deck was announced, but Valve has worked with those
developers to get the technology up and running on SteamOS. At the end
of January 2022, in a Steam Deck Anti-Cheat Update,
Valve declared that “Our team has been working with Epic on Easy
Anti-Cheat + Proton support over the last few months, and we’re happy to
announce that adding Steam Deck support to your existing EAC games is
now a simple process, and doesn’t require updating game binaries, SDK
versions, or integration of EOS. Alongside our BattlEye updates from
last year, this means that the two largest anti-cheat services are now
easily supported on Proton and Steam Deck.”
Developers still need to update their games to support the
technologies on SteamOS, but with BattlEye and Easy Anti-Cheat now
playing nice with Proton, the Steam Deck will launch with its biggest
hurdle already cleared. That doesn’t mean everything is roses and
sunshine though. As you see in the ProtonDB screenshot above, about 20
percent of the top 100 and 1000 games on Steam lack a Gold+
compatibility rating with Proton, and Linus Tech Tips noticed that Forza Horizon 5
suffered from some bizarre physics and lighting effects even when
running at 60 frames per second. The vast majority of games run very
well on Proton already, and that’s a monumental success for Valve and
Linux gaming alike, but every hiccup and pain point could potentially be
a deal-breaker for casual users enticed by the Steam Deck’s juicy $400
selling price.
All the appealing hardware
and just-as-appealing prices won’t matter if PC gamers can’t play their
favorite games on Valve’s handheld. As a general consumer device, the
Steam Deck will live or die on the back on Proton—and whether Steam Play
can indeed coax multiplayer developers into supporting it. Fingers
crossed.
Run Microsoft Windows Applications and Games on Mac, Linux or ChromeOS save up to 20% off CodeWeavers CrossOver+ today.
This is the 411th issue of World Wine News. Its main goal is to inform
you of what's going on around Wine.
Wine is an open-source implementation of the Windows API on top
of X and Unix. Think of it as a Windows compatibility layer.
Wine does not require Microsoft Windows, as it is a completely
alternative implementation consisting of 100% Microsoft-free code.
