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
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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
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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.
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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.
