The big new release of Mass Effect Legendary Edition from BioWare and EA is only supported for Windows on PC, but with Proton GE you should now be able to play it on Linux. Should being the keyword, as Proton can be a little fiddly at times.

If you're not clear on what Proton and Steam Play are, be sure to check out our constantly updated dedicated page . It's a special compatibility layer for running Windows games and apps from Steam on Linux. Proton GE is the community-made version which has a number of extras.

Proton-6.8-GE-2 is officially out now with these changes:

• Mass Effect Legendary Edition Launcher and ME1 fixes added. All 3 games should be playable.
• DOOM Eternal should no longer hang and resolution change should work again
• Forza Horizon 4 frequency patch added, however this does not seem to improve the crashing :/
• RE8 REENGINE Logo audio is fixed and no longer plays static (game is still crashy)
• RE8 Display menu fixes ported from proton experimental
• Nioh 2 hang fixed (videos still don't play)
• Fallout: New Vegas audio looping fixed
• 2k Launcher fixes ported from proton experimental (fixes mafia, mafia II, and others)
• Yakuza 0 - fsync disabled (thanks tgurr!)
• Yakuza Kiwami - fsync disabled (thanks tgurr!)
• LEGO The Lord of the Rings d3dx9_41 override added (thanks alkazar and FigoFrago!)

Also of note is that you may need to remove your Wine/Proton prefix for Persona 4 Golden to work, see how to do that in our previous article .

To use it here's what you do:

1. Download the Proton-6.8-GE-2.tar.gz file from the release notes .
2. If this folder does not exist, create it: ~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d/
3. Extract the archive downloaded in Step 1, and place the contents into the above directory.
4. Restart Steam if it's open which refreshes the Steam Play list for Proton-6.8-GE-2 to show up.
5. Right click on your game, go to Properties, Compatibility and ensure the box is ticked named "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool" then select it from the dropdown box that appears.

Want to see how Mass Effect Legendary Edition runs on Linux with Proton GE? See below:

Watch video on YouTube.com

Note: the stuttering you see is pretty common for running Windows games through Proton, as it needs to manually build up a cache to pull from. Usually not an issue on Windows, as games are directly made for it and build it themselves. Over time it becomes smoother and this is what the Steam Shader Pre-Caching system is supposed to be helping with.

Spoiler alert though for older players: apparently the face of Tali was changed from a stock photo you could see in-game to a unique and more appropriate image, it does make me laugh that such a small change has generated big headlines across the major gaming sites.

For me, Mass Effect is one series that holds an immensely special place. I played through the entire series back when I was a big console gaming fan (before truly diving fully into Linux) and I loved the story and the whole experience. Being able to do it again, enhanced and on Linux is just beautiful.

You can buy it on Steam , just remember though that running it in this way on Linux is not actually supported. The usual caveats apply: it can break any time and the developer doesn't need to ensure it continues working this way.

Valve / CodeWeavers have releases another update to the current stable Proton series with the 6.3-4 release.

If you're not clear on what Proton and Steam Play are, be sure to check out our constantly updated dedicated page . It's a special compatibility layer for running Windows games and apps from Steam on Linux.

Proton 6.3-4 is a small update that just focuses on fixing up a few annoyances including:

Valve and CodeWeavers have once again updated Proton Experimental, bringing with it a needed fix for Resident Evil Village running on Linux.

It was only a few days ago Proton Experimental was updated to get RE Village working but it came with one big drawback. Previously you couldn't change any graphics settings in-game but as of the latest May 12 build, this has now been solved with Proton Experimental. So that marks another AAA Windows-supported game working nicely on Linux thanks to the Proton compatibility layer - such fast paced improvements!

The latest build of Proton Experimental also fixed up the latest 2K Games launcher, to give even more titles a better experience when played on Linux.

If you're not clear on what Proton and Steam Play are, be sure to check out our constantly updated dedicated page . It's a special compatibility layer for running Windows games and apps from Steam on Linux.

Need to know how to actually use Proton Experimental? Make sure it's installed by searching for it in your Steam Library, then select it from the Compatibility menu in the Properties section of a game. See our quick video below:

You can buy Resident Evil Village from Humble Store and Steam .

Excited to play Resident Evil Village? It may not support Linux but that isn't stopping Valve with a new Proton Experimental update out now.

The latest update to Proton Experimental 07/05/2021 has a single line added in the changelog which notes "Beginnings of Resident Evil Village support.". With that in mind then, Valve's partner CodeWeavers and their Wine hackers are already hooking up whatever they can to get it working.

From initial few reports , it looks like you can actually get in-game now thanks to Proton Experimental but there are plenty of issues like settings not being able to change and videos not yet showing up. So keep that in mind if you were planning to pick it up to play it on Linux.

Like a number of other big titles, it probably won't be too long before it becomes much more playable given the progress on the Proton compatibility layer.

If you're not clear on what Proton and Steam Play are, be sure to check out our constantly updated dedicated page . It's a special compatibility layer for running Windows games and apps from Steam on Linux.

You can buy Resident Evil Village from Humble Store and Steam .

After a rather short testing period with the release candidates only being announced a few days ago, Valve has now pushed out the official release of Steam Play Proton 5.13-6.

If you're not clear on what Proton and Steam Play are, be sure to check out our constantly updated dedicated page . It's a special compatibility layer for running Windows games and apps from Steam on Linux.

What's new and improved in Proton 5.13-6? Here's the improvements and fixes to be found:

• Previously in Experimental: Fixed Cyberpunk 2077 world sound issues
• Previously in Experimental: Improved controller support and hotplugging in Yakuza Like a Dragon, Subnautica, DOOM (2016), and Virginia
• Nioh 2 is now playable
• Fixed black screen on focus loss in DOOM Eternal on AMD
• Restored VR support in No Man's Sky
• Voice chat in Deep Rock Galactic is now functional
• Better support for PlayStation 5 controllers
• Sound in Dark Sector is working now
• Fixed Need for Speed (2015) hang on AMD
• More fixes for game input being active while the Steam overlay is up

The full Proton changelog can be viewed here as normal.

How to update? Simply ensure you have Proton 5.13 installed on Steam, it will update as other apps and games do normally through Steam directly.

Irdeto, the company behind Denuvo and the newer Denuvo Anti-Cheat have announced that developers on Steam can now get direct anti-cheat integration through Steamworks. Denuvo is one of the most popular DRM solutions, with it often appearing in Windows releases of popular AAA games. Now with this Anti-Cheat easily available direct through Steam no doubt many developers will look to use it.

The question is: how will this affect Linux compatibility of games both native Linux builds and Windows games run through the Steam Play Proton compatibility layer? Back in May, we reported that the Denuvo team did mention they were aiming for support of Proton.

After shooting a message over to Irdeto here's what Reinhard Blaukovitsch, Managing Director of Denuvo by Irdeto, said in reply:

We can confirm that future deployments of Denuvo Anti-Cheat will not prohibit Linux users from accessing single-player and non-competitive multiplayer features of their games. For example, campaigns or custom multiplayer game matches. Linux users will not be required to install a kernel-mode driver, and the lack of anti-cheat software will not prevent their game from starting.

Even though there is no kernel-mode driver on Linux, the userspace game process performs significant cheat detection. Linux users accessing multiplayer will be reported to online services as running at lower integrity. Some game developers may choose to prevent Linux users from accessing ranked or competitive game modes. We'll do our best to convince developers and publishers to allow Linux users to participate in competitive modes. Still, we must be honest with them and disclose our reduced detection capability on Linux.

We'll communicate concrete plans for growing Linux detection capability and how the community can contribute as our userbase grows.

In a further clarification to us, we asked if this was only for Windows games in the Proton compatibility layer or if it will have the same kind of support for native Linux builds to which they replied "This is for Windows games in Proton".

When asked for their plans (if any) to support native Linux builds of games, here's what they said:

We have not yet been engaged by an organization expressing interest in native anti-cheat support for Linux. Once there is demand, we’d have no hesitation to take on that task. It’s worth noting that we’ve had anti-cheat technology on consoles for many years now.  Our experience with Linux-like environments on the Nintendo Switch and Sony PlayStation 4 & 5 indicates that effective native Linux anti-cheat would require a from-the-ground-up effort and not just a port. Denuvo Anti-Cheat is heavily dependent on hardware security features which makes it fairly kernel-agnostic, so it’s just a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’. Our best bang-for-the-buck in the short term is Proton.

So there you have it. If demand comes, they will do it too and it's only a matter of time. Nice to see them being so open about it and happy to chat with us on it so clearly.

The Proton compatibility layer for running Windows games on Steam for Linux has levelled up some more with the latest Proton 5.13-5 now available to everyone.

Pulling in some of the bigger changes from the Proton Experimental testing area, it has some impressive increased compatibility. You will find that Red Dead Online and the online features directly in Red Dead Redemption 2 will now work. This is something we showcased before which you can see below:

Watch video on YouTube.com

Here's what else is new apart from that:

• Previously in Experimental: Support new OpenXR virtual reality API. Microsoft Flight Simulator's VR mode is now usable on AMD hardware
• Previously in Experimental: Update vkd3d-proton to v2.1.
• Previously in Experimental: Fixed world sounds in Cyberpunk 2077.
• Fix hangs or crashes in Gears Tactics, Fallout 76, Kingdoms Reborn, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit, and Conan Exiles.
• Screenshot function is now usable in Fallout 76 and Path of Exile.
• Most games will now stop accepting input while the Steam game overlay is up.
• Fix missing text in Lumberjack's Destiny.
• Fix display resolution issue in DLC Quest and other XNA games.

You can find the full changelog on GitHub . It will appear in your Steam client as an update for Proton 5.13.

Need help with Steam Play Proton? Check out our dedicated area .

A fresh update to Proton Experimental has gone live, the special version of the Proton compatibility layer where all the latest features appear first. Seems like quite a big one, especially if you have a VR kit.

Need more info on what Steam Play and Proton are? It's a compatibility layer that allows you to run Windows games on Linux. See our dedicated page for more.

In the update released January 7, Proton Experimental gained support for the new OpenXR virtual reality API which now means that Microsoft Flight Simulator can work in VR mode with compatible headsets and they specifically mention "AMD hardware.

Gamepad support has been improved too with hotplugging working nicer with Subnautica, many other Unity titles and DOOM (2016). Yakuza: Like a Dragon should also see improved Xbox controller support. Additionally they now support setting thread priorities via RTKit, or Unix priorities if your user has permissions.

That's all on top of the existing additions in Proton Experimental. Here's the full list of what's in it now:

• Beginnings of Wine architectural work to reduce CPU overhead and improve performance in scenarios related to input and windowing.
• Memory allocator performance improvements.
• Implemented the Spatial Audio sound API, fixing Cyberpunk 2077 world sounds.
• Updated vkd3d-proton to 2.1, fixing Cyberpunk 2077 facial animations.
• Improvements for non-US keyboard layouts.
• Better support for Red Dead Online, Kingdoms Reborn, and Anno 1404 - History Edition.
• Improved video support, including infrastructure work for supporting video playback from Media Foundation. You may see test pattern videos. This is normal.
• Support new OpenXR virtual reality API. Microsoft Flight Simulator's VR mode is now usable on AMD hardware.
• Support setting thread priorities via RTKit, or Unix priorities if your user has permissions.
• Improvements to controller hotplugging in Subnautica and other Unity titles; and DOOM (2016).
• Improvements to Xbox controller support in Yakuza: Like a Dragon.
• All other changes from 5.13-4.

Proton Experimental is the new testing area where Valve and their partner CodeWeavers continue rolling out extra fixes and improvements to the Proton translation layer for Steam Play .

This work follows on from what was done to get Cyberpunk 2077 working and in a better state on Linux, and they're clearly not done yet. In the latest updates to Proton Experimental they added "better support for Red Dead Online, Kingdoms Reborn, and Anno 1404 - History Edition" and also newly improved video support with "infrastructure work for supporting video playback from Media Foundation".

Here's a quick look at Red Dead Online running on Linux with Proton Experimental:

Watch video on YouTube.com

Video - Red Dead Online running on EndeavourOS with an Intel i7 5960x and NVIDIA 1080.

I should note that I've seen some issues with it. Valve do note "better" support and so don't expect a perfect experience just yet, especially with it being an online only game it could easily break on the next update - but progress is clear and it works. Still, I've seen some crashes and black screens but when it works it seems to run quite well overall.

As always you can find Proton info on GitHub and on our dedicated page .