Back in late 2016, we started sponsoring the work of open-source graphics driver engineers[lists.freedesktop.org], creating the foundation for the Valve open-source graphics group. By leveraging the open development model of the Mesa driver codebase, we were able to provide direct support for Steam and its functionality to Intel and AMD graphics users. At the time, we got a ton of help from the community[www.gamingonlinux.com]; folks rallied together and produced a very valuable list of games that didn't work on Mesa, as well as many other bugs affecting Steam games.

So far, that project has been very successful: through the combined efforts of all parties working on Mesa, we think the user experience when playing high-end Steam games has greatly improved over the past few years.

The team has since continued to grow over time; earlier last year, we were able to take a step back and think about larger development efforts, rather than having to put all of our focus on incoming bugs and feature requests. So far, the majority of the work we have done around game performance and functionality has turned out to be related to the driver's shader compiler. Likewise, we think the majority of the regressions encoutered by users originated from the shader compiler.

The AMD OpenGL and Vulkan drivers currently use a shader compiler that is part of the upstream LLVM project. That project is massive, and has many different goals, with online compilation of game shaders only being one of them. That can result in development tradeoffs, where improving gaming-specific functionality is harder than it otherwise would, or where gaming-specific features would often accidentally get broken by LLVM developers working on other things. In particular, shader compilation speed is one such example: it's not really a critical factor in most other scenarios, just a nice-to-have. But for gaming, compile time is critical, and slow shader compilation can result in near-unplayable stutter.

With that in mind, and our newfound resources from last year, we decided to embark on an experiment. Could we make a shader compiler that is, at its core, designed and engineered with only gaming in mind? Would it provide a significant experience difference for our users?

To answer that question, we started working on ACO, a new Mesa shader compiler for AMD hardware[github.com]. Its main two goals are best-possible code generation for game shaders, and fastest-possible compilation speed. Starting with radv, we initially got the shaders for a single game to compile and render properly, then worked through the bringup of additional games.

We've recently gotten to the point where it's able to run a wide variety of games without issues, letting us take an initial stab at optimization and testing our initial theories. Below are some quick highlights from the results.

As expected, keeping a focus on compile times throughout development let us make a lot of progress on that aspect:

Right now, ACO only handles pixel and compute shader stages. When the rest of the stages are implemented, we expect the compile times will be reduced even further.

July 29th update: the chart above has been updated to reflect improved compile times now that ACO has vertex shader support.

On the in-game performance side, we've also been able to get great results, sometimes exceeding our initial expectations:

Most other games we've tested appear mostly unaffected in terms of runtime performance, but still benefit from the compilation time improvements.

Today, we are posting the ACO source tree for discussion and review by the Mesa developers. More importantly, we think it's also ready for consumption by users, as many games run stably and demonstrate noticeable stutter reduction in our own testing. In turn, getting issue reports from users testing a wide variety of games and applications will greatly help direct the development effort. To facilitate testing, we are preparing packages for select distributions, and a dedicated bug tracker. If you run Vulkan games on AMD hardware, please check out this forum thread for details!

We are looking forward to your testing feedback, as well as comments from the Mesa community; they will help inform our next steps for this project.

For more information on the compiler, please refer to Daniel's email to the Mesa list[lists.freedesktop.org].

For more details on the performance results, see this document[gist.github.com].

2010 年我們宣布了 Steam Play：一種讓 Steam 使用者進行單筆購買時可存取 Windows、Max、Linux 版本的 Steam 遊戲的方式。自宣布以來，已有超過三千款上架 Steam 的遊戲支援 Linux，現在每天仍有新產品加入這個行列。打從那時起，我們就不停地尋找能讓 Linux 使用者能接觸到更多產品的方法，

因此兩年前我們便著手改善 Steam 遊戲的 Windows 相容性解決方案之品質與效能。我們在支援 Wine[www.winehq.org] 和其他既存的相容性專案上花了很多功夫，也在持續把這些工具整合進 Staem 用戶端，希望 Steam 能像許多 Linux 的普通遊戲一樣，提供簡簡單單隨插即玩的體驗。

我們的目標是讓 Linux Steam 使用者能輕鬆存取更多過去的產品。我們認為開發人員也能利用這些成果，未來能夠輕鬆地把產品從其他平台搬移至 Linux，同時也能選擇把精力投注於其他方面，像是支援 Vulkan[www.khronos.org] 這種對所有使用者的經驗而言更具意義的議題。

我們今天將分享目前的工作成果，發表改良過後的新版 Steam Play 的測試版，供所有 Linux 使用者使用。此測試版包含了名為「Proton」的 Wine 分發修改版，可為 Windows 遊戲產品提供相容性。以下是一些我們完成的改良：

• 目前尚不支援 Linux 的 Windows 遊戲現在能安裝並可直接於 Linux Steam 用戶端中運作，帶原生 Steamworks 與 OpenVR 支援，更加完整。
  
• DirectX11 與 12 實作現在以 Vulkan 為基礎，改善了遊戲相容性並減少效能影響。
  
• 改善全螢幕支援：可配合選定的螢幕完美調整全螢幕遊戲，不干擾原生螢幕解析度，無需使用虛擬桌面。
  
• 改善遊戲控制器支援：遊戲會自動辨識所有 Steam 支援的控制器。即買即用的盒裝控制器相容性提升，甚至可能比原版遊戲的支援更加優秀。
  
• 多執行緒遊戲之效能相較一般的 Wine 大幅提升。

以上與正在進行的整個 Steam 收藏的測試工程關係緊密，為辨識哪些遊戲目前在相容性環境中運作良好，同時挑出問題並修正之。本次釋出的初步測試版首批支援的遊戲如下：

• Beat Saber
  
• Bejeweled 2 Deluxe
  
• Doki Doki Literature Club!
  
• DOOM
  
• DOOM II: Hell on Earth
  
• DOOM VFR
  
• Fallout Shelter
  
• FATE
  
• FINAL FANTASY VI
  
• Geometry Dash
  
• Google Earth VR
  
• Into The Breach
  
• Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012
  
• Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013
  
• Mount & Blade
  
• Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword
  
• NieR: Automata
  
• PAYDAY: The Heist
  
• QUAKE
  
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
  
• Star Wars: Battlefront 2
  
• Tekken 7
  
• The Last Remnant
  
• Tropico 4
  
• Ultimate Doom
  
• Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War® - Dark Crusade
  
• Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War® - Soulstorm

隨著測試結果出爐、開發持續推進，不久後來我們將支援更多遊戲。在那之前，對此特別感興趣的使用者也能使用 Steam 用戶端中的覆寫開關玩玩看尚未被列入白名單中的遊戲。未來使用者將能透過平台願望清單投票，讓最喜愛的遊戲被囊括進 Steam Play。

初步測試期間，Steam Play 白名單中的遊戲將無法在商店中標為支援 Linux。

Steam Play 使用的 Windows 相容性工具「Proton」含有自訂版本的 Wine，以及其他同時開發的程式庫。Proton 完全開源，現在可在 GitHub 上取得[github.com]！

如果你對製作開源專案駕輕就熟，甚至還可以製作自己本機的 Proton 組建。Steam 用戶端支援使用你自製的組建，取代內建的版本來執行遊戲。前往問題追蹤加入討論，並跟社群中其他人分享你的修補程式和測試結果！

問：我該如何開始使用？

並不太難，以下為一些須留意的地方：

• 參與 Linux Steam 用戶端測試版
  
• 確認你的驅動程式為最新版本。如果你並非在 SteamOS 上執行，請依照其他分發版本的快速入門中的指示[github.com]操作
  
• 完成！安裝並進行遊戲

問：Proton 究竟是什麼？與一般的 Wine 有什麼不同？有誰參與了製作？

Proton 是以 Wine 的修改版本為基礎，製作出的工具分發。當中針對 Wine 做出的改良是由 Valve 設計並投注資金、與 CodeWeavers 共同開發而成的。以下為我們從 2016 年以來協力製作出的一些功能：

• vkd3d[source.winehq.org]，一項以 Vulkan 為基礎的 Direct3D 12 實作
  
• OpenVR 和 Steamworks 原生 API 橋接
  
• wined3d 多項針對 Direct3D 9 和 Direct3D 11 的效能提升和功能修正
  
• 翻修後的全螢幕和手把支援
  
• 用於加強多執行緒效能的「
• esync[github.com]」修補程式集

當中符合 Wine 專案整體目標與需求的修改成果已提交至上游。也就是說，許多 Wine 使用者已經就該部分的成果受益一年以上。其餘則是做為 Proton 和其模組的開源碼存放庫的一部分開放使用。

另外，我們也持續支援著 DXVK[github.com] 的開發，這是一項以 Vulkan 為基礎的 Direct3D 11 實作。支援方面包括：

• 於 2018 年 2 月雇用了我們開源圖形群組中的 DXVK 開發者
  
• 我們的開源圖形群組為修正影響 DXVK 的 Mesa 驅動程式問題直接提供了支援，並提供 Vulkan 全新功能的原型實作，以加強 DXVK 的功能
  
• 與我們在 Khronos、NVIDIA、Intel，和 AMD 的夥伴合作開發 Vulkan 功能和驅動程式支援

問：效能如何？

需要重譯圖形 API 的遊戲會有可預期的效能差異，但從根本上來說，Vulkan 遊戲沒有理由執行速度較慢。

問：有任何完全無法使用 Proton 執行的遊戲嗎？

如果遊戲裝載有複雜的 DRM 或反作弊系統，支援起來可能相當困難，甚至不可能支援。

問：什麼時候會將其他遊戲標記為與新版 Steam Play 相容？

我們會根據測試進展將新遊戲分批納入白名單，但尚無規劃的時程。新遊戲加入系統時，Steam 用戶端無須更新。

問：我可以使用 Proton 執行尚未標記為相容的遊戲嗎？

可以。前往 Steam 用戶端中的 Steam Play 選項，即可替所有遊戲啟用 Proton。

問：有任何支援 macOS 的計畫嗎？

由於 Wine 和 Proton 可以在 Mac 上使用，我們現階段沒有在 macOS 上支援新 Steam Play 的計畫。

問：我是開發者。如果我的遊戲本來就支援 Linux，新功能會對我的遊戲有影響嗎？

應該不會。如果你已經傳輸了通用碼，或使用支援 Linux 的引擎，請繼續保持原有的做法，無須另做改動。

問：我是開發者。我原先沒有製作 Linux 版的計畫。我如何能讓新的 Steam Play 發揮出最大功效？

我們建議以原生 Vulkan 進行製作，以求在所有平台上的最佳效能，或如果可能的話，至少做為額外選項提供。另外，侵入式的第三方 DRM 中介軟體為達其功效偶爾會阻止相容功能運作，因此最好避免使用此類軟體。

問：我是開發者。我的遊戲被納入 Steam Play 白名單了。這表示我必須額外支援其他平台嗎？

不需要。如果你的遊戲經過我們測試而被納入白名單，我們已確定兩者的遊戲體驗是相同的（可承受預期內的小幅效能影響）。如果有使用者通過 Steam Play 遊玩而遇到了 Linux 方面的問題，請讓他們向 Steam 尋求支援。值得注意的一點是，使用者可能本來就在使用 Wine 遊玩你的遊戲了，而你現在獲得了進一步了解的機會。

----

如果你有任何上面沒回答到的問題，請前往 Steam 社群開始討論吧！
- Pierre-Loup

We have made changes to the wishlist aiming to improve developers' visibility of any interest in their title coming from Steam users playing on platforms they're not currently targeting.

If a user only has one platform filter selected in their Steam store preferences, adding a game to their wishlist will result in it being specially reported to the developer in a new platform-specific breakdown of the wishlist report:

If you want to signal your interest in a given title becoming available for your platform of choice, just make sure your store preferences are set appropriately and wishlist away!

We have just made Portal 2 available in Beta form on Linux; to access it, you need to opt into the Beta from the Portal 2 properties in your Steam Library.

We look forward to your feedback; head to our dedicated tracker to report issues and look at know issues:

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/portal2/issues

We have made Counter-Strike: Condition Zero available in Beta form on Linux, just go to your library list and double click the game to install.

The Steam client is now available to download for free from the Ubuntu Software Center. Ubuntu is the most popular distribution of Linux used by millions of people globally and known for its well-designed, easy-to-use customer experience.

“The introduction of Steam to Ubuntu demonstrates growing demand for open systems from gamers and game developers,” said David Pitkin, Director of Consumer Applications at Canonical. “We expect a growing number of game developers to include Ubuntu among their target platforms. We’re looking forward to seeing AAA games developed with Ubuntu in mind as part of a multi-platform day and date release on Steam.”

“We’re huge fans of Linux. It’s like the indie OS–a perfect home for our indie game,” said Alen Ladavac, CTO of Croteam, creator of the Serious Sam franchise of games. “And who better to lead the charge into Linux gaming than Valve? With Steam distribution on Windows, Mac OS, and now Linux, plus the buy-once, play-anywhere promise of Steam Play, our games are available to everyone, regardless what type of computer they’re running. That’s huge.”

Team Fortress 2, the Free to Play game, is also now available on Steam for Linux. For a limited time, Steam users who play the game on Linux will automatically receive a free, exclusive in-game item: Tux, the Linux mascot, can be carried by any of the game’s classes and traded between players. Additional Valve titles available on Steam for Linux include Half-Life, Counter-Strike 1.6, and Counter-Strike: Source.

In addition to games, the Steam for Linux client includes Big Picture, the new mode of Steam designed for use with a TV and game controller. With Steam for Linux and Big Picture mode, Valve anticipates a growing number of gamers will use Steam in the living room.

Steam is a leading platform for the delivery and management of PC and Mac games with over 50 million accounts around the world and over 2,000 titles offered. More details regarding Steam for Linux, including community discussion, official announcements and syndicated news can all be tracked on the Steam for Linux Community Hub at http://steamcommunity.com/linux.

If you would like to follow details on the updates we are doing to these games, please head over to the Half-Life 1 Game Hub.

We have released an update for both games, fixes include:

• Fixed server browser favorites not being added or able to be deleted
  
• Fixed clipboard not pasting enough characters under OSX and LINUX
  
• Fixed window title not matching the game you are launching
  
• Switched to using key scan code to better support alternate keyboard layouts
  
• Fixed double-click not working in the server browser
  
• Fixed keypad enter not submitting a console command

Hot on the heels of Half-Life 1, Counter-Strike 1.6 is now available as a Beta for your testing pleasure on Linux (and OS X).