Dafuq is a proton
BartyDeCanter@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months ago
Now can we get proton support for GoG that is as convient and reliable as it is in Steam?
Banichan@dormi.zone 2 months ago
officermike@lemmy.world 2 months ago
A proton is a positively charged subatomic particle doing in the nucleus of an atom. But in this context, Proton is a translation layer that allows games that were built for Windows to run on Linux.
_Sprite@lemmy.world 2 months ago
it’s what people on linux use to play windows games on linux
Blaiz0r@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
That’s Wine
IronKrill@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Are you being purposefully obtuse? Proton is based on Wine yes, but it is it’s own distinct entity.
Draghetta@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Yes, that is the upstream. Valve’s downstream of wine is called proton.
ulkesh@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Lutris + GE-Proton + umu works. If you use GE-Proton as the runner, Lutris automatically uses umu to launch the game which launches within the Steam Pressure Vessel container.
You can manage GE-Proton downloads using Protonplus. The latest version, last I checked, is GE-Proton9-15.
Aceticon@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’ve been playing more GoG games with Lutris + Wine in Linux than Steam games with Proton and I even have one situation of a game were the copy I bought in Steam doesn’t work with Proton, but the pirated copy I downloaded to see if that would work runs absolutely fine with Lutris + Wine.
For me at least it’s actually easier to sort problems out with games when using Lutris + Wine than it is with Proton and I can even make sure all games I run from Lutris are wrapped in a “firejail” sandbox, which amongst other things blocks all network access, something I can’t do with Proton.
It’s a vendor-tied solution meant to keep you in the Steam ecosystem, so for all the great work they did in past with it, the future is not Proton, it’s Wine.
BartyDeCanter@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months ago
I’m not saying it doesn’t work. I’ve set several things from GoG up using Lutris. But in Steam it’s a two step process:
- Click Install
- Click Play
I want that level of ease from GoG.
Aceticon@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Lutris has GoG integration and it’s exactly that same 2 step process if you use it (I believe it passes you through 3 dialogs were you invariably do nothing but click “Continue”)
The difference is that when it does NOT just work, it’s easier to figure out and there are more options to fix it with Lutris + Wine.
I even have some weird weird cases on Steam - like Borderlands 2 were Steam would often and randomly, before actually starting the game spend almost 1h doing shader conversions that if you stopped it the game would fail to start (the solution was to force an older Proton versionand now you just get random downloads from the Internet that last a few minutes before the game starts).
IMHO, here too what one sees is the general design philosophy difference between open source software and corporate solutions - the former gives you tons of options and lots of ways to tune it so it looks more complicated to use and has a steeper learning curve but that also means when things go wrong you have a lot more ways to try to fix it whilst the latter is click & play until things go wrong and then you have very little into and just a few things you can change to try and fix it.
Mind you, Lutris itself seems to be an attempt to also be click & play (hence why you generally get a steam-like experience if you use its GoG integration) but all the “buttons and knobs” are still there (those 3 dialogs that’s usually fine to just press “Continue” on) just in case you want to muck about with them, making it look daunting to use.
MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
Heroic gets a lot closer in this regard.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Proton in Steam is absolutely easier. Lutris just automates work that some other user did, and if you’re doing it in something like Heroic launcher instead, you have to figure that out yourself. It often involves things like installing other Microsoft components that are bundled with the application on Steam, and in one case, even though the game was verified on Steam, there was no Lutris script, and I just couldn’t get it working on the GOG version.
Aceticon@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Proton too just automates the work that somebody did in the form of install instructions, same as Lutris.
The difference is that those making the install scripts for Proton are paid for and you don’t get the option to fix them or make your own, which means that there are in fact fewer games with Steam install instructions (i.e. Steam Support) than games with Lutris install scripts.
Further, there are fewer things you can tweak in Proton and they’re all either changing the proton version or some badly documented text parameters that get fed to its command line, whilst Lutris actually has most such options in menus: the learning curve for just starting a game is lower in Steam that in Lutris when it works but the learning curve for fixing it when it does not work is lower in Lutris and sometimes you simply don’t have access to do the needed to fix it in Steam but you do in Lutris.
If you use Lutris with its GoG integration the experience is generally the same kind of Click & Play as Proton of Steam and whilst the rate of problems seems to still be a bit bigger in Lutris, surprisingly (at least for me) it’s not by much.
For me in Lutris having to go and install Microsoft components using Winetricks is generally only needed for some standalone installer executables, not when using GoG integration.
Steam is great when it works and a massive headache and pretty limited on what you can do when it doesn’t, whilst at least with GoG integration Lutris is great when it works and still a headache when it doesn’t but not as much as Steam and it gives you a lot more options to try and get it to work, plus the coverage of pre-made installer scripts in Lutris (which is what makes games “just work” in it) seems to be broader than in Steam, including covering older and more obscure titles, plus that coverage is probably growing faster because the scripts are user contributed rather than the work that can be done adding support being limited by how many people Valve (who are notorious for having very few employees for a company that size) hired to work on it.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Paying someone else to do it and verify that it works is exactly part of why I parted with my money in the first place. At least GOG has a very generous refund policy, but it’s a lot more work on my end.
MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
Remember when they said Galaxy would get linux support?
That said, Heroic is unofficial but has worked quite well.
brrt@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Heroic giving GOG an excuse not to get their shit together.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 months ago
If you buy through Heroic, Heroic gets a cut. So it creates a data point that they can use to see how big that market is, so they know what they have to do to get 100% of my sale in their own pocket.