How to Enable Steam Play on Linux to Run Windows Games

Today, Valve released a new beta version of Steam Play which includes a technology called “Proton”. Proton is a modified distribution of Wine that enables you to run Windows games on Linux, and it’s integrated directly inside Steam itself, which will enable you to run all Windows-only Steam games natively on Linux.

This is a huge deal, because thousands of users around the world were prevented before from fully switching to Linux due to the limitations of the gaming experience on Linux. Some big titles were never ported to Linux and remained Windows-only, and those which were ported had many glitches. But today, you can start expecting a pure gaming experience on Linux just like on Windows. Valve said it will make sure all games on the store will be eventually supported under Steam Play for Linux.

Now, in this tutorial, we’ll explain how to enable Steam Play with Proton, how to adjust its preferences and how to debug non-working games. We’ll also run Age of Empires 2 HD on Linux as an example test case.

Enabling Steam Play on Linux

To do this, open your Steam settings, and go to Steam Play, and enable the checkbox “Enable Steam Play for all other titles”:

You’ll be required to restart Steam.

Now, you can head to the Steam store and try to run any Windows game you would like and see your luck. In its announcement, Valve mentioned some titles to be working fully under Steam Play, but even if your game is not among these, you may still try installing and running it to see what happens. Valve plans on reviewing the entire Steam catalog to make it Steam Play compatible, but this process may take time, so it’s better that you try your luck now.

You’ll find the install button now available on your previous Windows-only games, click it to start installing:

Enabling Proton Configuration File & Logs

If you head to HOME/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Proton\ 3.7/, you’ll find the Proton’s configuration files. There’s a file with the name user_settings_sample.py. Change its name to user_settings.py and then open the file in a text editor.

This file the configuration file for Proton, which is the modified Wine distribution shipped inside Steam itself. You can tweak many stuff from there.

Here are the contents of the file by default:

#!/usr/bin/python2.7

#to enable these settings, name this file "user_settings.py"

user_settings = {
    #logs are saved to $HOME/steam-$STEAM_APP_ID.log, overwriting any previous log with that name
    "WINEDEBUG": "+timestamp,+pid,+tid,+seh,+debugstr,+module",

    "DXVK_LOG_LEVEL": "info",

    #Enable DXVK's HUD
#    "DXVK_HUD": "devinfo,fps",

    #Use wined3d for d3d11 instead of dxvk
#    "PROTON_USE_WINED3D11": "1",

    #Disable d3d11 entirely
#    "PROTON_NO_D3D11": "1",

    #Disable in-process synchronization primitives
#    "PROTON_NO_ESYNC": "1",
}

In order to get more information about any possible game crash, change "DXVK_LOG_LEVEL" to "debug" and save the file and exit. If you would like to test stuff, you may try enabling other options in the file such as disabling D3D11 or enabling DXVK’s HUD by simply removing the # symbol from the beginning of the line. Don’t forget to restart Steam after any change to the file.

Now, whenever you try to install a Windows-only game on your Linux client and if that game crashes, you’ll find a log file named something like steam-221380.log in your home directory. This log file contains all the information associated with that game while it was trying to run and why it crashed. From there you can simply Google the error message until you find the solution.

What most people don’t realize while trying to run Windows games via Steam Play is that most of these issues may not be caused your local machine or Linux system. Even Windows users on a lot of different hardware face many bugs and issues while trying to run games. So if a game doesn’t work with you via Proton on Steam Play, just check the forums or online discussions for other people who may have faced the same issue.

You should try running your favorite games on Linux from now, there’s no need to wait.

Example Use Case: Age of Empires 2 HD

The iconic Age of Empires 2 is one of the best strategy games out there. I was happy to have it on Windows but sadly it doesn’t have a Linux version. So I simply wasn’t able to play it when I detached Windows from my machine.

After installing the game on my Linux machine (Thinkpad x260 with Linux Mint 19) using Steam Play, the game simply crashed on boot. Googling the error message in the log file led to this discussion on Steam, which indeed gives a working solution:

1. Add NoStartUp in launch options.
2. Remove Launcher.exe from your game files.
3. Rename AoK HD.exe into Launcher.exe.
4. Start the game from Steam.

You may also notice that the game is stuck on subscriptions validation.. Just close the game and start it again, and Voala! The game is working perfectly:

And you’ll notice that your previous profile, saved games and any other settings are all saved from your Windows machine. It’s just exactly as if you were running it on Windows. There are no lags or glitches in the gameplay.

Conclusion

Proton’s integration via Steam Play should allow you to run tons of top-tier games on your Linux machine natively. The technology right now is still in beta stage and it’s too early to judge on it from now, but it will be a game changing for a lot of people. Many gamers will now be able to detach Windows fully and switch to Linux.

Valve made huge contributions to Linux gaming. Proton contains a lot of improvements and patches which do enhance the gaming experience better than just running it on a plain Wine. Many of these patches are also shared to the upstream to enhance the gaming experience for other Wine users too.

If you would like to follow the latest news and development of Steam Play & Proton, keep in touch with the Steam for Linux community. Also follow the issues page on Proton. Additionally, there’s a user-list of tested games on Steam Play beside notes on how it went.