Proton is a fork of Wine; the famous compatibility layer for Unix-like operating systems that allows running Windows applications. Proton is included inside Steam itself and is optimized for running games so that Linux gamers can directly play the games they want on Linux even if they were not originally released for Linux.
Version 9.0 of Proton was released today with the following changes according to Valve:
Previously, the following games were only playable with Proton Experimental, and now they are supported:
- Dinogen Online
- Photography Simulator Demo
- George McGeehan Gamer Hero
- The Finals
- True Reporter. Mystery of Mistwood
- Road to Vostok Demo
- WITCH ON THE HOLY NIGHT
- Lord of the Rings: Gollum
- Sonic Colors: Ultimate
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and Yuri’s Revenge
- Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun and Firestorm
- Aisling and the Tavern of Elves
- Snares of Ruin 2
- Insanity’s Blade
- Bloody Walls
Additionally, the following games now have a limited number of cores, making them playable on high core count CPUs:
- Far Cry 2
- Far Cry 4
- The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition
- Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Retribution
- Outcast - Second Contact
- Prototype
Other improvements and fixes have been made, including:
- Enabling nvapi by default for most games
- Ignoring system mouse acceleration in games using raw input API
- Fixing security certificate warning in Brawhalla
- Fixing audio issues in BOOMEROAD, DORONKO WANKO, NOTTOLOT
- Fixing Civilization V Touch Only option in the launcher
- Improving cutscene synchronization in Immortals Fenyx Rising
- Fixing crashes in various games such as TouHou Makuka Sai, Disaster Report 4, and Super Robot Wars 30
- Improving video playback in BIOMUTANT, Lords of the Fallen, Harvestella, Wayfinder, Sea of Thieves, and KING OF FIGHTERS XV
- Fixing scaling for The Last Game on Steam Deck
- Fixing audio issues in Airborne Kingdom and Bayonetta
- Fixing minimized window issues in Escape from Monkey Island
- Updating various components such as vkd3d-proton, dxvk, and dxvk-nvapi
- Adding support for Steamworks SDK 1.59.
You can get the new release of Proton from Steam Play options in Steam settings:
In case you didn’t know, there is a website called protondb.com that allows you to see the current compatibility of each game on Steam with Proton so that you decide whether to purchase it or not. You can also see how other Linux users succeeded in running the games that interest you.