Don't play this game if you're using proton

[c]

TL/DR banned from online play for all EA games on this steam account without ever actually being able to launch the game. Don't give EA your money.

I tried several times to play and the game simply wouldn't not launch. I later bought "it takes 2" and was prompted on startup that my EA account as been banned for violating the terms of service or the terms of use without specifying which once i violated and why I was being banned. I can no long play any EA game on this steam account online. I sent several appeals all responded with the same copy paste response stating i was banned for violating the terms of service or terms of use and not giving any evidence, I have never successfully launched an EA game and now I'm banned.

Needless to say, If the game is a single player EA game, you're morally obligated "not pay for it".

Edit - i'm referring to Steam's Proton comparability layer. BF4 has a gold rating on protonDB.. I was also using a vpn when i created the EA account, but if they will ban me for that, without ever having played the game, and paying for the game on a 10+year old steam account, ♥♥♥♥ them. Also Steam doesn't get enough ♥♥♥♥ for this, I paid for the game, not for steam to give away my data. Why do we have no control over accounts externally linked, it flagged all EA games i own on this account

[usa423]

What is proton?

[gran autismo™]

Originally posted by usa423:

What is proton?

vpn or some ♥♥♥♥

[usa423]

Originally posted by gran autismo:

Originally posted by usa423:

What is proton?

vpn or some ♥♥♥♥

Ahh I see. I mean, ones ping would certainly take a hit using such. But seriously, a permaban for a VPN use?

[Master_Frag]

Originally posted by Tactical Toast:

TL/DR banned from online play for all EA games on this steam account without ever actually being able to launch the game. Don't give EA your money.

I tried several times to play and the game simply wouldn't not launch. I later bought "it takes 2" and was prompted on startup that my EA account as been banned for violating the terms of service or the terms of use without specifying which once i violated and why I was being banned. I can no long play any EA game on this steam account online. I sent several appeals all responded with the same copy paste response stating i was banned for violating the terms of service or terms of use and not giving any evidence, I have never successfully launched an EA game and now I'm banned.

Needless to say, If the game is a single player EA game, you're morally obligated "not pay for it".

Unless something has changed, it's been working fine for me under Arch with no issues. Though seeing this does sketch me out a bit. Were you using any extra addons, mangohud, gamemode, etc?

Edit: Also, you DO have to manually update Punkbuster via protontricks for anti-cheat to work, so that MIGHT have been the issue. Though I can't really say for sure.

Originally posted by usa423:

What is proton?

Originally posted by gran autismo:

Originally posted by usa423:

What is proton?

vpn or some ♥♥♥♥

Proton is Valve's improved version of the wine compatibility layer for Linux, which allows Windows applications to run under Linux (and particularly on Steam Deck in recent times).

[usa423]

Originally posted by Master_Frag:

Originally posted by Tactical Toast:

TL/DR banned from online play for all EA games on this steam account without ever actually being able to launch the game. Don't give EA your money.

I tried several times to play and the game simply wouldn't not launch. I later bought "it takes 2" and was prompted on startup that my EA account as been banned for violating the terms of service or the terms of use without specifying which once i violated and why I was being banned. I can no long play any EA game on this steam account online. I sent several appeals all responded with the same copy paste response stating i was banned for violating the terms of service or terms of use and not giving any evidence, I have never successfully launched an EA game and now I'm banned.

Needless to say, If the game is a single player EA game, you're morally obligated "not pay for it".

Unless something has changed, it's been working fine for me under Arch with no issues. Though seeing this does sketch me out a bit. Were you using any extra addons, mangohud, gamemode, etc?

Originally posted by usa423:

What is proton?

Originally posted by gran autismo:

vpn or some ♥♥♥♥

Proton is Valve's improved version of the wine compatibility layer for Linux, which allows Windows applications to run under Linux (and particularly on Steam Deck in recent times).

To me it is really impressive when a machine can emulate another machine.....and especially play a game @ the original frame rate it first launched with. I think lag would have to exist though....unless the CPU speed was just incredibly fast.

[Master_Frag]

Originally posted by usa423:

Originally posted by Master_Frag:

<snip>
Proton is Valve's improved version of the wine compatibility layer for Linux, which allows Windows applications to run under Linux (and particularly on Steam Deck in recent times).

To me it is really impressive when a machine can emulate another machine.....and especially play a game @ the original frame rate it first launched with. I think lag would have to exist though....unless the CPU speed was just incredibly fast.

It's not actually emulation, it's more akin to something Windows itself already does, Windows has a subsystem called Windows on Windows, internally called WoW64, which is a compatibility layer to allow 32-bit applications to run on the 64-bit version of Windows.

It basically works by translating the Win32/Win64 API calls (basically instructions that a program give to the OS to then execute on the hardware) to the native Linux versions of those API calls. So Direct3D calls get translated to OpenGL or Vulkan, for instance.
In practice, the performance on modern versions of Proton and wine is near-native Windows performance, or sometimes even better.

The Steam Deck basically relies on it entirely, if performance was bad under Proton, the Deck wouldn't be a success.

The upshot of this is that switching to Linux has been made a helluva lot easier in recent times. I'm a recent convert, and for the most part, once I got my OS set up the way I want it, everything just works, sometimes it needs a bit of tweaking (like the manual upgrading of Punkbuster for BF4) but on the whole, even games outside of Steam work well. I basically got Diablo 2 Resurrected working with a few clicks via Lutris (another tool for game compatibility), for instance.

[FedEx Noelle]

Yeah man just don't use a VPN when you play video games.

[c]

Originally posted by usa423:

Originally posted by gran autismo:

vpn or some ♥♥♥♥

Ahh I see. I mean, ones ping would certainly take a hit using such. But seriously, a permaban for a VPN use?

I was also using a vpn when i created the EA account, I use a vpn plug in so I always have a VPN for web browsing. Either proton vpn or proton compatibility layer honestly could be the reason why. I've also played FPS games with a vpn on system wide on accident and never noticed a performance hit ( < 50 ms ping ). VPN's can be hit or miss with ping.

[c]

Originally posted by Master_Frag:

Originally posted by Tactical Toast:

TL/DR banned from online play for all EA games on this steam account without ever actually being able to launch the game. Don't give EA your money.

I tried several times to play and the game simply wouldn't not launch. I later bought "it takes 2" and was prompted on startup that my EA account as been banned for violating the terms of service or the terms of use without specifying which once i violated and why I was being banned. I can no long play any EA game on this steam account online. I sent several appeals all responded with the same copy paste response stating i was banned for violating the terms of service or terms of use and not giving any evidence, I have never successfully launched an EA game and now I'm banned.

Needless to say, If the game is a single player EA game, you're morally obligated "not pay for it".

Unless something has changed, it's been working fine for me under Arch with no issues. Though seeing this does sketch me out a bit. Were you using any extra addons, mangohud, gamemode, etc?

Edit: Also, you DO have to manually update Punkbuster via protontricks for anti-cheat to work, so that MIGHT have been the issue. Though I can't really say for sure.

Originally posted by usa423:

What is proton?

Originally posted by gran autismo:

vpn or some ♥♥♥♥

Proton is Valve's improved version of the wine compatibility layer for Linux, which allows Windows applications to run under Linux (and particularly on Steam Deck in recent times).

I haven't even gotten to that point since i can't get a real person at EA to look at my account and unban me, I'm about to send my 4th message to customer service, but every time i try get back copy pasted replies saying i broke terms of service. I'm literally just going to go the rest of my life convincing people to sail the high seas with EA games. It used to be that ♥♥♥♥ roles down hill with bad reviews.

[usa423]

Originally posted by Master_Frag:

Originally posted by usa423:

To me it is really impressive when a machine can emulate another machine.....and especially play a game @ the original frame rate it first launched with. I think lag would have to exist though....unless the CPU speed was just incredibly fast.

It's not actually emulation, it's more akin to something Windows itself already does, Windows has a subsystem called Windows on Windows, internally called WoW64, which is a compatibility layer to allow 32-bit applications to run on the 64-bit version of Windows.

It basically works by translating the Win32/Win64 API calls (basically instructions that a program give to the OS to then execute on the hardware) to the native Linux versions of those API calls. So Direct3D calls get translated to OpenGL or Vulkan, for instance.
In practice, the performance on modern versions of Proton and wine is near-native Windows performance, or sometimes even better.

The Steam Deck basically relies on it entirely, if performance was bad under Proton, the Deck wouldn't be a success.

The upshot of this is that switching to Linux has been made a helluva lot easier in recent times. I'm a recent convert, and for the most part, once I got my OS set up the way I want it, everything just works, sometimes it needs a bit of tweaking (like the manual upgrading of Punkbuster for BF4) but on the whole, even games outside of Steam work well. I basically got Diablo 2 Resurrected working with a few clicks via Lutris (another tool for game compatibility), for instance.

Thanks for the in depth and detailed explanation of the susbsystems.