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      Mass Effect Legendary Edition now playable on Linux with Proton GE

      Liam Dawe · news.movim.eu / GamingOnLinux · Monday, 17 May, 2021 - 15:04 · 2 minutes

    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:

    youtube video thumbnail
    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.

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      Resident Evil Village gets better on Linux with the latest Proton Experimental

      Liam Dawe · news.movim.eu / GamingOnLinux · Thursday, 13 May, 2021 - 08:30 · 1 minute

    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!

    8869234841620894205gol1.jpg

    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 .

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      Time for a brewed awakening with the Wine 6.8 release out now

      Liam Dawe · news.movim.eu / GamingOnLinux · Saturday, 8 May, 2021 - 16:18 · 1 minute

    Wine, that glorious bit of tasty open source software has a new 6.8 development release now available.

    For newer readers and Linux users here's a refresher - Wine is a compatibility layer built for operating systems like Linux, macOS and BSD. The idea is to allow other platforms to run games and applications only built and supported for Windows. It's also part of what makes up Steam Play Proton . Once a year or so, a new stable release is made.

    Here's the highlights of what's new in this release:

    • Libraries installed into architecture-specific subdirectories.
    • Secur32 library converted to PE.
    • Support for Map object in JavaScript.
    • Various bug fixes.

    Also of note are 35 bugs marked as solved. As per usual: some are bugs being fixed now, some were fixed a while ago and recently got noticed as actually being sorted. Some of the improved items include: Crysis Wars, The Sims Complete Collection, Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, FIFA 11, Age of Empires II, Sacred Gold, Diablo 1, Star Citizen and more.

    For the full bottle ingredients see the release notes .

    Like a good bottle of wine - software and my puns improve with time. I never miss my winedow of opportunity. Please email all complaints to winepuns@gamingonlinux.com.

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      Steam Play Proton 5.13-6 is now officially out

      Liam Dawe · news.movim.eu / GamingOnLinux · Saturday, 13 February, 2021 - 07:45 · 1 minute

    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.

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      Windows compatibility layer Wine 6.2 is out now

      Liam Dawe · news.movim.eu / GamingOnLinux · Friday, 12 February, 2021 - 21:17 · 1 minute

    A fresh biweekly development release is out for the Windows compatibility layer Wine with Wine 6.2 bundling up more of the latest and greatest into a suitable release for you to try.

    For newer readers and Linux users here's a refresher - Wine is a compatibility layer built for operating systems like Linux, macOS and BSD. The idea is to allow other platforms to run games and applications only built and supported for Windows. It's also part of what makes up Steam Play Proton . Once a year or so, all the development is bundled into a stable release.

    Here's what's new in Wine 6.2:

    • Mono engine updated to version 6.0.0, with DirectX support.
    • Support for NTDLL debugger APIs.
    • More WinRT support in WIDL.
    • Xbox One controller fixes on Mac.
    • Various bug fixes.

    On the subject of bug fixes they noted 51 as solved, one of them dating back to 2007 - although a lot of older bugs were fixed some time ago, each release sees them noted as solved since being checked over. Some of the newer fixes include: Game Protect Kit protected games fixes, World of Tanks, Hitman: Absolution, Ryse: Son of Rome, Shadow Warrior 2, WRC 5 and multiple more.

    See the release notes here .

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      Wine 6.1 released beginning another year of improvements

      Liam Dawe · news.movim.eu / GamingOnLinux · Friday, 29 January, 2021 - 22:57

    Now that the big stable Wine 6.0 release is out for the Windows compatibility layer, work begins again on another year of pulling in major new features with Wine 6.1 out now.

    For newer readers and Linux users here's a refresher - Wine is a compatibility layer built for operating systems like Linux, macOS and BSD. The idea is to allow other platforms to run games and applications only built and supported for Windows. It's also part of what makes up Steam Play Proton . Once a year or so, all the development is bundled into a stable release.

    This is a fresh development release which includes these highlights:

    • Arabic text shaping.
    • More WinRT support in WIDL.
    • VKD3D version 1.2 is used for Direct3D 12.
    • Support for Rosetta's memory layout on M1 Macs.
    • Support for Thumb-2 mode on ARM.
    • Various bug fixes.

    They also noted 37 bug fixes including problems solved for the likes of: Banished, The Witcher 3, Sniper Elite V2, Batman: Arkham Origins, The Sims 3, Battle.net, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 and others.

    See the release announcement here .

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      Using the Epic Store on Linux is even easier with the latest Heroic Games Launcher updates

      Liam Dawe · news.movim.eu / GamingOnLinux · Thursday, 28 January, 2021 - 14:03 · 1 minute

    Epic Games don't support Linux with their store, so the community continues building around it with the Heroic Games Launcher that can run plenty of games from the Epic Store. It does so thanks to the power of the Wine compatibility layer, giving you as many options as possible to keep on gaming on Linux no matter where your games are from. A great free and open source project.

    New features added in recently released versions include: the ability to repair installed games, notifications support, a tray icon with the ability to close to the tray, it will remember the filters used, a warning on closing when downloading, a download time estimate on game pages, styling tweaks for light and dark themes, new options to enable extra features like MangoHud, the ability to add launch options and more.

    Here's what it currently looks like:

    1528058011611842379gol1.png

    The amount of improvements and overall work going into the Heroic Games Launcher really is impressive. It seems to be quite smooth, and makes using the EGS mostly painless.

    Note: while it currently supports the Epic Games Store thanks to using another bit of open source named Legendary , they do have plans to expand to cover other stores too so that it can become an all-in-one solution for gaming on Linux. So, eventually it might be a bit like Lutris.

    Find it up on GitHub .

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      Wine compat layer devs discuss new Kernel interface to better match Windows NT

      Liam Dawe · news.movim.eu / GamingOnLinux · Monday, 18 January, 2021 - 10:24 · 1 minute

    Wine developer Zebediah Figura has sent in a proposal to work on a new Linux Kernel interface for Wine synchronization primitives, one that gets closer to performance and behaviour of Windows NT.

    The basic idea is that the Wine team are "looking to introduce a kernel API that will allow us to implement Windows NT synchronization object API with at most one syscall per operation, and without managing object state in user managed shared memory, for the sake of performance". This might sound familiar if you follow Wine and Steam Play Proton closely, as it's part of what both esync and fsync were supposed to help with.

    What's the deal? As Figura explained, modern games that need high performance make heavy use of multiple threads and synchronization primitives which Wine needs to work with in a way that's accurate and performs well. Both esync and fsync can give big boosts to performance of Windows games on Linux through Wine but it's mentioned that each also has big problems of their own.

    Figura goes on to give a proposal of what the interface could look like, to gather feedback. Since this is in the very early stages, we're likely some time away from seeing it come to fruition.

    The full post on the mailing list which goes into the deep details can be read here .

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      Proton 5.13-5 is now up bringing in some of the experimental changes

      Liam Dawe · news.movim.eu / GamingOnLinux · Friday, 15 January, 2021 - 09:36 · 1 minute

    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:

    youtube video thumbnail
    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 .

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