Proton 10.0-2 (beta) is out now, bringing multiple enhancements for Linux gamers. If you haven"t heard about it, Proton is a compatibility layer developed by Valve that allows Windows games to run on Linux. It is the technology that powers a massive part of the Steam Deck"s magic, translating Windows API calls on the fly into native Linux/Vulkan instructions with minimal performance hit.
When 10.0-1 (beta) launched back in April, it brought proper support for games like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, No Man"s Sky in VR, and THE KING OF FIGHTERS XIII GLOBAL MATCH.
The latest beta updates key background components. For example, it re-bases to Wine-Mono 10.0.0, the open-source implementation of the .NET framework that many game launchers and utilities depend on to even start. It also has updated versions of vkd3d-proton and DXVK, the libraries responsible for the difficult job of translating DirectX 11 and 12 graphics calls into something the Linux-native Vulkan API can understand.
Valve says the following games are "now playable" with 10.0-2 (beta):
- Stardust Skate
- STAR OCEAN THE DIVINE FORCE
- Champions of Anteria
- IL-2 Sturmovik Cliffs of Dover
- Click&Fight
- Tunnet
- WRC Generations
- Post Mortem
As for bug fixes, this release cleans up a mountain of regressions and long-standing issues. The black screen issue in Forza Horizon 4 and 5 is gone, and you no longer have to alt-tab to get the game to render. The Warframe launcher displays correctly again, and games like The Sims 2 Legacy Collection and Enshrouded are back in working order.
Nvidia HairWorks will no longer vanish in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the radio in Fallout 3: GOTY actually plays music now, and a crash late in Crysis 2 Remastered has been squashed. On the more technical side, NVAPI has been enabled for The Last of Us Part 2, OpenSSL issues on newer Intel CPUs have been mitigated for games like SMITE, and a fix has been rolled out for games using DirectStorage on Intel GPUs.
Controller support also got some work, with fixes for trigger input in Space Engineers and better handling for devices that only have buttons. A big change is that Xalia, a tool for improving controller navigation in game launchers, is now on by default, except for the Rockstar Launcher, which recently got its own native support.
You can find the full changelog here.