Submitted 3 days ago by steam@programming.dev to [deleted]
Yes. We should want native ports for sure but, that isn’t likely going to happen. It increases development costs maintaining two entire ecosystems. Until enough of the market is on Linux that developers start making native releases, proton is the best we got at this time. It’s easier to have a compatibility layer that the game devs only have to minorly adhere to, then have to pay for an entire different system on top of the windows environment.
Until developers make and maintain, consistently, linux ports of games I’ll take what I can get. This is a huge step up from keeping winehq on hand before purchasing any game disks.
The guarantee by the steam when they list a game as compatible is so far the best linux gaming guarantee I’ve ever seen.
That said I regularly buy games because they have a working native linux binary.
Microsoft does change its API. And then Proton/Wine just changes with it.
Yes and no.
If the goal is to have the best support for all future games, sure.
But that’s not what protons main goal is.
The main goal is to get all the hundreds of thousands of games that have already been made, to work.
Making one game for linux, only produces one game.
Getting proton right, gets every past game that has ever worked on windows, to work on linux.
That a lot of future games will also work thanks to this, and hence require less work to run on linux, is a bonus. Not the main goal.
Hence, proton is ABSOLUTELY worth it. Even if microsoft released directx 13 tomorrow, that wouldn’t break any of the games that already work. The alternative is to go back port each game one at a time. Proton isn’t happening instead of linux ports. It’s happening instead of porting all old games.
If you REALLY want appimages, the best way would be to package indovidual games and a proton wrapper with all the dependencies, and compile that up into a neat appimage. Then you’d have a “future proof” executable file for that one game to keep and run in the future.
But that’s ignoring the fact that appimages and flatpaks aren’t truly that agnostic. Changes in graphics APIs happen on linux, too.
And it makes way more sense to use the same proton for multiple games, instead of bundling of an extra copy of proton with each game.
Any time windows changes their gaming stuff they have to inform the industry with plenty of leeway so their games will work with the changes. to boot game vendors will want it to work with older versions as much as possible. this helps get linux as the base for gaming. If linux gets to like 25% then what you are talking about is feasible and definately at 50%.
i mean if microsoft changed its api linux gaming would halt
so would gaming on windows, as all games (and programs in general) have been built against the same APIs as wine/proton is.
I mean, ideally, sure. I think native ports will come as Linux market share continues to increase though, and Proton is an amazing tool both to have in the meantime and to drive the growth necessary for comparies to start catering to Linux gamers’ needs.
the_abecedarian@piefed.social 3 days ago
more Linux users for gaming = more native Linux games
proton = more Linux gamers
fubbernuckin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
This. Linux use has always been a chicken and the egg scenario between users and development. Solving one half will cause the other to follow.