Wine VS Proton (regular wine works better??)

[Lunaoreitic]

Most games ive tried running using SteamPlay&Proton gave worse results than regular wine. Some of them wouldnt even run under Proton.
Blackwake for example has a really poor performance (1-4fps, some models missing, etc) when run using SteamPlay&Proton. However, Blackwake runs almost flawlessly (only missing some texts) when run via WINE. I was wondering about hat can be done about it since the game seems to work fine via regular WINE.
Going to send a ticket to the Proton developers. Anyone got any opinions or similar result using wine vs proton?

[meheezen]

well, you can tweak some things just like you do in WINE, since Proton is pretty much WINE with a few Valve tweaks and content.

i havent had much issues with it tho, but i don't play that many games (i did have to make some changes to WINE within Proton to get some of them to work tho)

do report your comments to the devs!

[Aoi Blue]

Proton is specifically optimized for game performance, and game compatability as opposed to other applications.

Obviously, the game performance patches will introduce a handful of issues with some games and applications. The game compatability patches may introduce issues for some applications.

[Trapacid]

I've almost given up trying to run PAYDAY 2 with Proton.

I'm having constant FPS stutters and drops, very bad input latency, and enforced 60 FPS cap regardless of resolution and refresh rate.

I've seen videos of players using WINE and their performance is flawless. Proton doesn't wanna cooperate with me on this. I'm going to see if I can get some support on this as I've tried so many options and nothing will work.

[meheezen]

^you can aways create a empty WINE prefix and customize it the way you want instead of using the one Steam creates for you

[Cybertao]

Just a guess, but usually you install other things with winetricks such as DirectX, PhysX, and VC runtime libraries for better compatibility. Proton probably doesn't include those and probably can't because of licensing.

[Trapacid]

Originally posted by meheezen:

^you can aways create a empty WINE prefix and customize it the way you want instead of using the one Steam creates for you

How would I go on about doing that?

My launch options are:

env WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wine32 WINEARCH=win32

Is this correct?
(my 64 bit prefix is .wine)

[meheezen]

^i remember having to do some tweaks to get The Sims 3 to run properly, tho i cannot seem to find the link (will update when i find it), it went something like this:
1- copy proton specific files from the wine prefix Steam made for you (there is some files in the pfx directory and a proton directory inside of program files)
2- delete the prefix
3- create a new one at the same place using wine
4- install .Net and other dependencies
5- copy/move back the proton specific files
6- play

Edit: found it
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/99e0kc/steam_playguide_create_custom_32bit_prefix_to/

you just need to create the syswow64 directory to stop proton from complaining

so delete prefix, create new one with wine, create that syswow64 directory within c:\windows and tweak as you want

[Alexander88207]

its 50 50

[Lunaoreitic]

Originally posted by Cybertao:

Just a guess, but usually you install other things with winetricks such as DirectX, PhysX, and VC runtime libraries for better compatibility. Proton probably doesn't include those and probably can't because of licensing.

Proton is supposed to have its own tools that cover these functions

[Cat on Linux]

Originally posted by meheezen:

^i remember having to do some tweaks to get The Sims 3 to run properly

Sims 3 is not the common game, it needs specific 32bit prefix because of .NET deps. I managed to run it in wine but performance isn't that great (I'm playing with 2 DLCs and full Nraas set of plugins for Story progression and such so it adds up). I figured out same pack works flawlessly on win7 while it struggles to rewrite textures in wine.

for common game you'd better go with 64bit wine prefix

[triple_agent]

Playing on Steam and having your playtime recorded, with all the social features, is loosely like a religion, that is why Steam wins over anything, even if WINE could run better at times.

This is also the reason why developing native Linux games will become even more niche, as Valve certainly will keep perfecting their product. On the other hand, Valve has shown that big industry - which they represent - does care about Linux gaming and does make it happen so that Linux finally became noticed in the gaming world. Perhaps in the future "Linux native" will mean "PROTON highly compatible", making Steam only viable way to the Linux gamers?

But apart from criticizing for the sake of it, I think Valve did a good job making Steam new WINE for the masses. Having Steam DRM installed now does have a solid purpose.

[Lunaoreitic]

The intention of that post was not to critisize but provide feedback (kind of), initiate some kind of debate and maybe someone help me with the issue i describe. Not everything is negative. Stop perceiving thigns that way. Of course SteamPlay and Proton are great for the Linux community.

[triple_agent]

I was talking about myself, but whatever.

[Marlock]

Regular WINE will probably always work better (more stable, compatible with more games, more performant) because Proton is modified from it but with significant version delay...

On the other hand, WINE will only work better for those who configure it properly for each game and then only for those that don't count the time spent configuring as poor user experience when evaluating both.

[triple_agent]

Comp nerd will always at least attempt to configure stuff for himself and good that, as well as good that there are tools for this, but those who do not care, rarely would use Linux in the first place and thus rarely need PROTON by hard, while even if, it should be good enough. Plug and play experience. SteamOS was also aimed at it, the plug and play experience.