this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2024
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I've seen numerous games in my library that were formerly native switch over to supporting Proton and abandoning the native port. I get that it cuts down on needed time and effort to maintain and we can still play on Proton, but I would really prefer native if there is the opportunity.
@Grangle1 @mr_MADAFAKA The way things are going, one could make the argument that Proton is sort of native if you squint hard enough.
The way I like to think about it is that Proton essentially provides a standard, stable API across both Windows and Linux for gaming (Win32). We typically talk about it as a translation layer, and it is, but also to some degree it's also "here's an implementation of Win32 for Linux."
If game devs can, say, buy a steam deck and know their game works on it, that means it's gonna work on other steam decks and probably most Linux machines. It's making it easy for devs to test and develop for Linux, even if it's not really "on Linux." Copy the Windows files to the steam deck, run your release checklist, and you're good to go.
This only makes sense if the native port is better. In the witcher 2, I get better graphics and performance when playing through proton instead of using native. And there are certain games with 'native' ports which don't even run and just crash.
Sad, but true.
That has absolutely 0 relevance to this post lol. Smite has literally always been Windows only.
Smite devs are very mediocre bordering on inept. It took themike a year and a half of multiple attempts to get EAC working for Linux. Crashing is prevalent on both windows and proton in smite 1.
If smite devs took on a native Linux port, it would be an absolute garbage dumpster fire filled with never fixed bugs, incompatibility, probably an unusable amount of crashes. I'd rather play decently through proton than experience that BS.
Most of the time if I see a game has a native port I force it to use the windows version under proton anyway
I've found proton generally works a lot better than the half-assed native port most companies put out
I prefer native apps too, but I'll still use websites and some electron apps, and I'll still use applications built in C#, Java, Python, etc. None of those are really native either. Proton is analogous to a virtual environment for running an interpreter. Potentially, it's slower and has issues a la Python, but if the program can work, then I don't care about the theoretical problems; it works despite them. So I think it's fine.
If it means more games for Linux and a standard that developers can target, encouraging them to "support Linux," then that's a win I think. Like I said in another comment, a studio can buy a steam deck, throw the same Windows export on it, and then have someone run through the same set of tests they'd normally go through. If it works there, it'll work on most Linux machines. Having a standard API is not a bad thing imo
Apparently there are a number of instances where it outperforms the native Windows version.
I'm inclined to agree -- it seems Proton has reached the point where your Windows game will now play essentially the same on Linux as it does on Windows, with a few edge-cases. Why make extra work to maintain a native Linux version?
Some crappy DX9 titles run better with DXVK across the board, Windows included. It never occured to me that you can use DXVK on Windows too, but games like GTA 4 run so much better with it.