I'll look Games natively developed for Deck

[BOBTOMAS]

Hello
Are there any games developed specifically for the deck?
Games that don't use proton, but directly the steam OS resources?

Thank you.

[Dynamonic]

To be honest, Proton in most cases appears to run games better than their native Linux equivalents. (Black Mesa as one example) Native Linux versions of games are often lagging behind in game updates, and are often abandoned by developers.

By design, Proton is a tool which enables developers to not need to think about building multiple versions of games for different operating systems, so you'll definitely be robbing yourself if you only want to target Linux native games.
There's quite a few around, but they can often be inferior to their Windows counterparts.

There's lots of games out there which are built with the Deck in mind too, but they typically will still use Proton.

[WarnerCK]

Originally posted by EFFE:

Hello
Are there any games developed specifically for the deck?
Games that don't use proton, but directly the steam OS resources?

Thank you.

These are not the same thing.

"Developed specifically for the Deck" needs to take all the limitations of the hardware into account: the small screen, the controller, the limited (and battery operated) performance capabilities, and so on.

"Not using Proton" just means that there's a native Linux build, which is easily filtered on the store (although not on the Deck itself where the store interface is kinda lacking).

Some (not "most" as Dynamonic asserts) games will use Proton on the Deck even if there's a Linux build available, if that's what Valve's testing picks as the best version for the Deck.

[shadowboy813]

The real truth: This kind of specific desire is limiting. There really is no point.

Some games really DO run better with the Windows version through proton. Case in point: Bioshock Infinite. Bioshock Infinite has a native linux version and I've tested it against the Windows version via proton. While the native linux version did have a slightly higher frame rate, it was based on an older build and it also had worse stuttering, leading to an inferior experience.

Another advantage to using Windows versions via proton over their native linux counterparts is cloud saves.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider has a native linux version and the deck prefers this as it really does run better on the deck than the Windows version. I still use the Windows version (by forcing proton) so I can cloud sync my saves to play the same save file across my Windows desktop and my deck (The linux and windows version do not cross-sync saves, even if the saves are compatible).

That said, Aperture Desk Job was made specifically for the Deck (although it does run on desktop PCs)

[1337Dude]

Nope, and there never will be.

[Haruspex]

Proton has strongly reduced the incentive for developers to natively support Linux, much to the chagrin of Linux purists. Even many games that do have native Linux ports have seen their native ports development reduced or even ended in favor of just testing the Windows version against Proton.

[WarnerCK]

Originally posted by Haruspex:

Proton has strongly reduced the incentive for developers to natively support Linux, much to the chagrin of Linux purists. Even many games that do have native Linux ports have seen their native ports development reduced or even ended in favor of just testing the Windows version against Proton.

Not really. The proportion of games that are released on Steam that have a native Linux build has been steady, or perhaps started going up a bit, since the release of Proton, following the plummet after the Steam Machines failed to take off.

The market for paying a third-party porting house to take your Windows-only game and make it work on Linux has absolutely disappeared - because Valve will do that for free.

[deaddoof]

All games uses libraries. WINE is just turning Windows runtime into a system library. WINE just ports many Windows design decisions onto Linux.

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2024/01/proposed-windows-nt-sync-driver-brings-big-wine-proton-performance-improvements/


https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/17x0sh/john_carmack_asks_why_wine_isnt_good_enough/

wish Linux well, but the reality is that it barely makes it into my top ten priorities (Burn the heretic!); I use Linux for the flight computers at Armadillo Aerospace, but not for any regular desktop work. I was happy to hear that Rage ran in Wine, but no special effort was made to support it.

I do get tempted to port to Linux for technical reasons – I would like to use Valgrind again, and Nvidia has told me that some experimental GPU features I would like to use for R&D would be easier to prove out on Linux. Working on open source Linux OpenGL drivers again would also be fun if I ever had the time.

However, I don’t think that a good business case can be made for officially supporting Linux for mainstream games today, and Zenimax doesn’t have any policy of “unofficial binaries” like Id used to have. I have argued for their value (mostly in the context of experimental Windows features, but Linux would also benefit), but my forceful internal pushes have been for the continuation of Id Software’s open source code releases, which I feel have broader benefits than unsupported Linux binaries.

I can’t speak for the executives at Zenimax, but they don’t even publish Mac titles (they partner with Aspyr), so I would be stunned if they showed an interest in officially publishing and supporting a Linux title. A port could be up and running in a week or two, but there is so much work to do beyond that for official support. The conventional wisdom is that native Linux games are not a good market. Id Software tested the conventional wisdom twice, with Quake Arena and Quake Live. The conventional wisdom proved correct. Arguments can be made that neither one was an optimal test case, but they were honest tries.

If you fervently believe that there is an actual business case to be made for Linux ports, you can make a business offer to a publisher – offer a guarantee and be willing to do the work and support. This is what Aspyr does for the Mac, and what Loki did for Linux. However, you probably can’t even get an email returned if you are offering less than six figures to a top ten publisher. This may sound ridiculous – “Who would turn away $20,000?” but the reality is that many of the same legal, financial, executive, and support resources need to be brought to bear on every single deal, regardless of size, and taking time away from something that is in the tens of millions of dollars range is often not justifiable.

I truly do feel that emulation of some sort is a proper technical direction for gaming on Linux. It is obviously pragmatic in the range of possible support, but it shouldn’t have the technical stigma that it does. There really isn’t much of anything special that a native port does – we still make OpenGL calls, winsock is just BSD sockets, windows threads become pthreads, and the translation of input and audio interfaces don’t make much difference (XInput and Xaudio2 are good APIs!). A good shim layer should have far less impact on performance than the variability in driver quality.

Translating from D3D to OpenGL would involve more inefficiencies, but figuring out exactly what the difficulties are and making some form of “D3D interop” extension for OpenGL to smooth it out is a lot easier than making dozens of completely refactored, high performance native ports.

Ideally, following a set of best practice guidelines could allow developers to get Linux versions with little more effort than supporting, say, Windows XP.

Properly evangelized, with Steam as a monetized distribution platform, this is a plausible path forward.

John Carmack

--john carmack

[BOBTOMAS]

This demo, according to the shop page, is designed to take full advantage of the "deck" features?
Personally, I don't know how to evaluate this demo.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1902490/Aperture_Desk_Job/

[MISO4EVER]

Originally posted by EFFE:

Hello
Are there any games developed specifically for the deck?
Games that don't use proton, but directly the steam OS resources?

Thank you.

There isn’t. None of them are and even the “verified” ones half the time work like sh*t.

It’s not a Nintendo switch where games are specifically optimized to run on the console.

[Haruspex]

Originally posted by deaddoof:

Originally posted by John Carmack:

I truly do feel that emulation of some sort is a proper technical direction for gaming on Linux...

Properly evangelized, with Steam as a monetized distribution platform, this is a plausible path forward.

From 2013. Dude absolutely called it. Wouldn't expect anything less from the man who basically invented modern PC gaming. (With some help, among others of course.)