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 .

Wine, the compatibility layer designed to run Windows games and applications on other systems has a big 6.0 release now officially available with thousands of improvements.

This is the main tech behind the Steam Play Proton compatibility layer. Plenty of improvements came as a result of CodeWeavers (who back the Wine project) working with Valve on that since they get Proton changes upstreamed whenever possible into Wine directly.

Here's some quick highlights of Wine 6.0:

• Core modules in PE format - this is to help "a number of copy protection schemes that check that the DLL files on disk match the in-memory contents".
• Vulkan backend for WineD3D - experimental Vulkan renderer for WineD3D, much like DXVK. Currently the Vulkan backend supports shader model 4 and 5 so it should work with Direct3D 10 and 11.
• DirectShow and Media Foundation support - allowing many more types of media from Windows games and applications to actually work.
• XACT3 support provided through FAudio.
• Mouse position history is implemented "for games that want more precise mouse positions".
• Better multi-monitor support with display settings pulled from XRandR 1.4 if available.
• Text console redesign.
• WebSocket API is now implemented.
• Newer Unicode support.

If you've been using one of the biweekly Wine 5.x development releases, it's not a big change but for anyone who stick with the main stable releases of Wine it's going to be a huge difference.

See the Wine 6.0 release announcement here for the full expanded details.

Wine compatibility layer leader Alexandre Julliard announced the sixth release candidate for Wine 6.0 and it looks like this will be the last before a final release.

It's not set in stone that the next will be the big 6.0 release but it will be if they don't see any big last minute issues. If they do manage to keep to the schedule it will make Wine 6.0 join Wine 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 with a January release, whereas Wine 1.0 had a June release.

Keeping in mind Wine is currently in a feature-freeze, meaning no new features are going in it's only bug fixes until the flood gates open for the 6.x development series. For the RC6 release only 10 bugs were noted as fixed including issues like Commandos 2: Men of Courage hanging after launch and World of Tanks not working with some locales and a SteelSeries Engine application crash.

See the release announcement here .

What is Wine? It's a compatibility layer for running various Windows-only applications and games on Linux and other operating systems. Tons of people work on it, with some sponsored or employed directly by CodeWeavers who have their special version with the CrossOver application. Wine is also the backbone of Steam Play Proton .

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.

No squashed grapes here as the Wine team continue cleaning up ready for a huge new release of the Windows compatibility layer with Wine 6.0 Release Candidate 5 out now.

Currently in a feature-freeze, this means no big new features go in, only the fixes needed for the release.

What is Wine? It's a compatibility layer for running various Windows-only applications and games on Linux and other operating systems. Tons of people work on it, with some sponsored or employed directly by CodeWeavers who have their special version with the CrossOver application. Wine is also the backbone of Steam Play Proton .

As of this update the team noted 21 bugs solved. Our usual reminder: in Wine release announcements the list of bugs fixed isn't always those fixed with this release, it's often older bugs that finally saw someone confirm it was solved at some point. In the list checked off it mentions issues solved for: Heroes of Might and Magic V, Monkey Island Special Edition Collection, The Song of Saya, Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition.

Going by past releases we might see 1 - 2 more Release Candidates before the final 6.0 of Wine.

Full release announcement can be seen here .

Currently in a feature-freeze while as many lingering issues are solved as possible for the next big stable release, Wine has a fourth Release Candidate up now.

What is Wine? It's a compatibility layer for running various Windows-only applications and games on Linux and other operating systems. Tons of people work on it, with some sponsored or employed directly by CodeWeavers who have their special version with the CrossOver application. Wine is also the backbone of Steam Play Proton .

As of this update the team noted 29 bugs solved. Our usual reminder: in Wine release announcements the list of bugs fixed isn't always those fixed with this release, it's often older bugs that finally saw someone confirm it was solved at some point. In the list checked off it mentions issues solved for: Children of Morta, Settlers III, World of Warships, Battlefield 3, Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag, Kingdom Come Deliverance, World of Warcraft Classic, Elite Dangerous Horizons and more.

Full release announcement can be seen here .

Reaching that little bit closer towards the next major release, the Wine compatibility layer project has another Release Candidate that needs testing for Wine 6.0. As they continue to be in a feature freeze, no big new bits are going in right now, only the needed bug fixes to get things into a good state for the final version.

What is Wine? It's a compatibility layer for running various Windows-only applications and games on Linux and other operating systems. Tons of people work on it, with some sponsored or employed directly by CodeWeavers who have their special version with the CrossOver application. Wine is also the backbone of Steam Play Proton .

For Wine 6.0-rc3, on the surface it seems like a quiet release with a total of 19 bugs being marked as fixed including issues solved for: winetricks, ConEmu, Crysis, Sniper Elite V2, Banished and a few other assorted bugs.

See the release notes here . Not long now until the final 6.0 which we expect early in January 2021.

The Wine compatibility layer for running Windows apps and games on Linux currently needs X11 or XWayland but that looks like it could change with a new Wayland driver for Wine.

Announced by the open source consulting firm Collabora, one of the companies that works with Valve, their Alexandros Frantzis wrote in a blog post about the work. Frantzis mentions how the current setup of X11/XWayland is "a source of complexity and possible inefficiencies. It would be ideal if Wine could talk directly to Wayland to enable a leaner and more efficient stack on modern systems" and so that's the aim here.

Currently it works but it is limited. It supports OpenGL, a single display, mouse cursor, QWERTY only for keyboard input, window resizing and more but there's plenty still to be done like: minimising support, different keyboard layouts, Vulkan (there's another project for that they hope to work with) and so on.

Here's a video of it in action, keeping in mind it's far from finished:

Watch video on YouTube.com

There's now an RFC (Request for comments) submitted to the Wine project to get things moving.

A good start and very promising but far from production ready. Either way, with most distributions likely to move to Wayland over the next few years the work needs to be done and ready so it's good to see it moving.

With Cyberpunk 2077 being the hot new thing in gaming, Valve and CodeWeavers are trying to ensure it can run nicely through the Steam Play Proton compatibility layer since it doesn't support Linux directly.

Valve recently set up a new branch of Proton named "Proton Experimental" along with the release of Proton 5.13-4 . It appears to be the version of Proton where Valve will be adding in fixes quicker, and more newer features. Yesterday, December 14, Valve developer Pierre-Loup Griffais mentioned the newest updates to Proton Experimental implements the Spatial Audio sound API which should fix Cyberpunk 2077 world sounds. Additionally there's more CPU performance improvements, which should help Path of Exile too.

Currently though, NVIDIA still has issues with it crashing and sometimes entirely locking systems on Linux. I tried it myself today thanks to a gift from a reader and the experience for me on an NVIDIA 1080 wasn't great. Ensuring to set my CPU into performance mode with High game settings it gave 30FPS and below, Medium gave a total freeze on the loading screen but a good 10FPS increase to between 30-40FPS in game when it does work (a little higher in more confined spaces).

Safe to say, you need a really high-powered computer for it right now, especially on Linux and not NVIDIA. That will change over time of course as CDPR optimize the game, as Valve optimise Proton and when NVIDIA sort the driver situation out. Even so, incredible it was working so soon with Proton on Linux.

Here's all the current additions in Proton Experimental:

• 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.
• All other changes from 5.13-4.

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