Steam now lets you play Windows games on Linux

[powerhouse]

I need to check that out on my Linux gaming VM.

[xenopeek]

With today's update to Steam Client you no longer need to opt-in to the beta. The Steam Client now includes Steam Play (what let's you play Windows games on Linux) for all users. It's only available for whitelisted games by default. If you want to (try to) play not yet whitelisted games, also do the following:
- Open the Steam > Settings menu. On the Steam Play page (select it in the left sidebar) tick the "Enable Steam Play for all titles" box.
- Steam Client needs to restart to enable this.

If you've not received the Steam Client update yet, you can choose Check for Steam Client Updates from the Steam menu to get it.

[EdB]

Well, this is certainly encouraging. So far I have tested Dark Souls 3 and Ori and the Blind Forest, and both seem to run perfectly! Am currently downloading DS2 and DS1ptd and see how they do.

Dark Souls Remastered does not work at all. Just a gray rectangle at initialization then gone.

Testing on Mint 19 4.15 with NVIDIA 396.54

[jmcginley]

This is exciting! I was contemplating buying a larger hard drive and running a dual boot with Windows just so that I could game more but the thought of having to run Windows on my custom PC wasn't sitting too great so I think I'll hold off on that for a while and see how this new Steam update handles. I've just installed a couple of games this morning which seem to handle fine but their fairly old games, Sim City 4 and Original Ghost Recon so nothing to taxing. It will be interesting to see how it handles any new high end releases such as Fallout 76 in a couple of months, could be a real deal breaker for a lot of people if Steam can nail gaming on Linux!

[deepakdeshp]

Thank you Xenopeek,
This is one area where Linux was truely lagging.

[xenopeek]

I'm of two minds about it. I have a few games in my library that are Windows-only—which were included in some bundle with Linux games I wanted. Nice that I can play them now, an unexpected bonus, but would I buy them separately if they didn't support Linux natively? I'm not sure.

[jmcginley]

I'm of two minds about it. I have a few games in my library that are Windows-only—which were included in some bundle with Linux games I wanted. Nice that I can play them now, an unexpected bonus, but would I buy them separately if they didn't support Linux natively? I'm not sure.

Yeah that's how im feeling at the moment, for the games that I do own its a nice bonus, but would i risk spending money on a new game that my Windows laptop can't handle on the hope that it will work through Steam on my Linux PC, but still early days.

[MintBean]

Just fired up 'The Walking Dead' which I had only played for 5 minutes when my Windows install infuriated me for the last time and got axed. Runs every bit as well as on Windows. This is a great time for Linux.

[BG405]

This is fantastic news and a great thing for Linux .. another "incompatibility issue" crossed off the list. I'll have to try out the games I've had for years, but have been gathering dust since I've no Windows rig to play them on. One has never even been run, yet.

[Carl]

I have a load of Popcap games which I used to love killing time on but I could only get Feeding Frenzy 2 working under this new feature, they work fine under lutris I'm assuming with some tweaks though that make them work and I do like that the steam implementation seems neater and less buggy when it does work

[BG405]

I have a load of Popcap games which I used to love killing time on

I'd almost forgotten about those! I wonder if Plants vs. Zombies or (IIRC) Bookworm will work?

[Carl]

I have a load of Popcap games which I used to love killing time on

I'd almost forgotten about those! I wonder if Plants vs. Zombies or (IIRC) Bookworm will work?

I tried Plants vs Zombies and it complained with some kind of directory error, works fine through Lutris wine set-up though

***EDIT***

I take it back you can get them to work by adding a "-changedir" to the launch options from the properties menu

https://steamcommunity.com/app/3590/dis ... 010549967/

[Rock Ingersol]

Anyone know if you will always need bleeding edge video drivers for using Proton? I tried using the terminal to install the latest Nvidia drivers but that was a no go and am worried about having to always wait for the drivers to be officially released before being able to use Proton. I hope that will only be a problem early in Proton's development.

[VelcroSquid]

Oh wow, this is awesome! I was worried about my catalogue dropping in size. I haven't ditched my Windows based gaming PC, but it would awesome to play more lower spec games off of Linux!

[Schallaven]

I just hope they a) get the statistics right for the game developers (e.g. not counting SteamPlay as Windows download/user) and b) they allow to filter SteamPlay along Linux/Windows/Mac in future (i.e. not counting SteamPlay as "Linux version"). Personally, it is nice that I can play some games I have in my library now with SteamPlay, but I still don't want to buy games that do not offer a native Linux version.

[xenopeek]

It will count as Linux sale as Liam from GamingOnLinux got confirmed from Valve:

Hey Liam, the normal algorithm is in effect, so if at the end of the two weeks you have more playtime on Linux, it'll be a Linux sale. Proton counts as Linux.

As for how it will be shown in the Steam catalog? Not yet clear. In the first announcement they wrote:

Steam Play whitelisted games will not be offered for purchase or marked as supported on Linux on the Store during the initial Beta period.

Steam Play is out of beta but the officially whitelisted games are only showing the Windows and/or macOS logo—no mention of Linux, Steam Play or SteamOS support. We'll have to wait and see.

If they would list such games as supporting Linux without noting it uses Steam Play, I'm sure some website will pop up for us to check the facts. Worst case scenario you can just request a refund after buying the game when it refuses to install when you've disabled Steam Play in your Steam client.

[gm10]

Well, these were the August 2018 overall numbers for Linux users, maybe they'll see a significant increase now that this feature is out of beta (doubt it, people were already using Wine, but who knows, it's certainly more convenient now):

steam_linux_2018_08.png

edit: September 2018:

steam_linux_2018_09.png

October 2018:

steam_linux_2018_10.png

[Rock Ingersol]

Games seem to be working fine with just the 390 drivers though I have only tested two so far with one being The Witcher 3. The screen tearing though in Cinnamon is horrible. I didn't know Cinnamon was still having issues with tearing otherwise I would have stuck with Mate. Sounds like next release of Cinnamon will address this on desktop at least but not sure about games.

[MintBean]

Sounds like next release of Cinnamon will address this on desktop at least but not sure about games.

Not really. From what I read they're just going to unlock the frame limiting to decrease the perception of lag between mouse and window movement. Working vsync is what's needed.

[MintBean]

(doubt it, people were already using Wine, but who knows, it's certainly more convenient now):

Biiig difference between attempting to configure Wine and 'click and go.' Let's hope it does make the difference.