Proton 8.0-1 is here! More games now run on Steam Play

Valve and CodeWeavers have recently released the latest version of Proton, namely Proton 8.0-1. Proton is an open source software package based on Wine and developed by Valve. It allows Linux users to play Windows games through the Steam platform without requiring a separate Windows installation. With Proton 8.0-1, many improvements and bug fixes have been made to improve the stability and performance of the software.

Some of the major changes include support for the latest DirectX 12 renderer, improvements to Vulkan support, and better integration of Proton with Steam. In addition, many minor bugs that affected compatibility with certain games were also fixed. The release of Proton 8.0-1 is a significant improvement for the Linux gaming community, as it greatly increases the number of games available to run on Linux systems. It also allows gamers to switch to a Linux platform without having to give up their favorite games.

Proton 8.0-1 is an updated version of Proton based on Wine 8.0. This new version brings many improvements and makes it possible to play a variety of games that were previously incompatible with Proton.

Games that are now playable with Proton 8.0-1 include some hotly anticipated titles like:

Forspoken, Samurai Maiden and Dead Space (2023). Also, some previously released games are now playable with Proton 8.0-1, such as Creativerse, Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4, Atelier Meruru, Atelier Lydie & Suelle The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings, Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book DX, Blue Reflection, Atelier Rorona The Alchemist of Arland DX, Disney Dreamlight Valley, ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS XIV, ToGather:Island, WARRIORS OROCHI 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition, Exceed – Gun Bullet Children, Gungrave G.O.R.E., and Chex Quest HD.

An issue with the 2K Launcher has been fixed, which will benefit many players who had trouble launching games from 2K Games. Support for CJK fonts has also been improved, which will benefit many players from the Asian region, as many games from this region use these fonts. Fixed the suspend/resume issue with Tiny Tina’s Wonderland on the Steam deck, which will increase the stability of the game. Multi-touch support has also been improved, allowing gamers to play their games on touchscreens. Rendering issues in Splinter Cell have been fixed, which will result in better graphics quality. Alt + Tab handling with GNOME 43 has also been improved, which will make it easier for players to switch between different applications.

Fixed a crash in Football Manager 2023, which increases the stability of the game. Ray tracing for Crysis Remastered has also been fixed, allowing for better graphics quality and gameplay experience. Along with these improvements, NVIDIA NVAPI support has also been enabled for many games, allowing gamers with NVIDIA graphics cards to get better performance. Proton 8.0-1 also includes a newer DXVK Git snapshot that further improves the performance of the software.

The updated versions of Wine-Mono and DXVK-NVAPI also contribute to better performance. For gamers, this means they now have even more options for playing their favorite games on Linux systems. Proton 8.0-1 makes playing games on Linux easier and more user-friendly than ever before. This re-release of Proton is an important step for the gaming community on Linux systems and will hopefully help attract more gamers to this platform.

It is perhaps important to mention that Proton 8.0 requires a graphics processor that supports Vulkan 1.3.

Source: Phoronix, Github