Valve has posted Proton 9a new major version of its Wine-based compatibility layer, which makes it easier to run video games compiled for Windows on Linux, and is a very important part of the Steam Deck, especially given the commitment to use Proton as the main video launcher. games ended up replacing native Linux games.

Proton is a veteran development that officially saw the light of day in September 2018. This meant that successive releases had less impact due to the maturation of the compatibility layer itself and the fact that support was concentrated as it could not be. otherwise in the most popular games on Steam, something that involved both Valve and volunteers who decided to get involved in some way.

The first important news of the Proton 9 is that NVAPI, the NVIDIA Development Kit API that allows direct access to the green giant’s graphics and drivers on Windows platforms, is now enabled by default for most games.. Of course, this doesn’t work with Steam Deck, but it’s something that’s aimed at Linux users who use an NVIDIA graphics card. The corporation led by Jensen Huang is somewhat peculiar in its Linux support, requiring personalized and special treatment on many fronts to ensure compatibility.

After all, what stands out most about the new major version of the compatibility layer promoted by Valve are the games that are now officially playable with the stable branch, which include Dinogen online, Photo simulator demo, Game hero George McGeehan, Final, TrueReporter. Mystery of Mistwood, The way to the Vostok demo, THE WITCH IN HOLY NIGHT, The 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 Elf Tavern, Snares of Ruin 2, Insanity’s Blade and Bloody walls. Previously, these games could only be run with Proton Experimental.

How to enable Proton 9 from the Steam client for Linux.

Another interesting detail is that The number of cores that the following older games can see has been reduced to improve their performance: Far Cry 2, Far Cry 4, Enhanced Edition of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marines, 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 and Prototype. In recent years, it is not unlikely that you will come across old games that, far from improving their performance on modern hardware, or at least maintaining it, they end up degrading it.

Otherwise, the corrections that are mainly aimed at specific games stand out the most. Proton 9 is based on Wine 9 and brought DXVK 2.3 translate versions 9, 10 and 11 of Direct3D instructions to Vulkan; VKD3D-Proton 2.11.1 for translating Direct3D 12 instructions to Vulkan; in addition DXVK-NVAPI 0.6.4 to run NVAPI.

The easiest way to get Proton 9 is by using the Steam client for Linux and its implementation for Steam Deck, more specifically in the “Compatibility” section of the “Parameters” section of the application. The compatibility layer can also be obtained independently with other Linux applications such as Bottles.