Steam gaming on linux

How to Play Windows-only Games on Linux with Steam Play

Game distribution platform Steam has implemented a fork of WINE; it’s called – “Steam Play”. With Steam Play, Linux users can play games available on Windows only. A compatibility tool «Proton» is used for Steam Play to make Windows games work on Linux.

Play Windows-only games in Linux with Steam Play

You need to install Steam first. Steam is available for all major Linux distributions. I have written in detail about installing Steam on Ubuntu, and you may refer to that article if you don’t have Steam installed yet. Once you have Steam installed and you have logged into your Steam account, it’s time to see how to enable Windows games in the Steam Linux client. Suggested Read 📖

Step 1: Go to Account Settings

Run Steam client. On the top left, click on Steam and then on Settings.

Step 2: Enable Steam Play

Now, you’ll see an option Steam Play in the left side panel. Click on it and check the boxes:

• Enable Steam Play for supported titles (This is usually checked by default to let you run supported Windows games seamlessly)
• Enable Steam Play for all titles (With this option, you can try/experiment other games that may not be known to work)

You can also opt to change the version of the compatibility layer (Proton) if you need it. Once you are done selecting the options, hit “OK” and proceed to restart steam in order for the changes to take effect.

To get the latest compatible support, you may want to use «Proton Experimental«. If you want to use a Proton version that is still in the testing phase, Proton Next should be the pick.

In either case, if the game supports a specific version as per your research, you can enable any of the available older versions as well.

For example, I have Age of Empires in my Steam library, which is not available on Linux typically. But after I enabled Steam Play for all Windows titles, it now gives me the option for installing Age of Empires on Linux.

Things to know about Steam Play feature

There are a few things you should know and keep in mind about using Windows-only games on Linux with Steam Play:

• A large number of Window-only games work on Linux using this feature. Some are AAA (triple A) titles, and some are indie games.
• You should not expect for all games to work seamlessly. Some might crash, and some might need a little troubleshooting to make things work with your hardware.
• You can always refer to ProtonDB or Steam Deck verified list to find games that you should try first.
• If you have games downloaded on Windows via Steam, you can save some download data by sharing Steam game files between Linux and Windows.

In addition, you should refer to our Linux gaming guide for more information.

How Do You Identify Games That Work On Steam Play?

I’m sure that you don’t have a lot of free time to download games one by one and test them with Steam Play.

As mentioned earlier, you can visit ProtonDB to check reports/stats contributed by gamers to see what games work and what do not.

Any game that has a rating of silver and above can be tried. However, it would make more sense to try Platinum/Gold-rated games first. The website also lists the games that are Steam Deck verified, which is also an excellent way to know what works on Linux.

You can use that as a reference to decide whether you should download/purchase a particular game.

I hope this tutorial helped you in running Windows-only games on Linux. Which game(s) are you looking forward to playing on Linux?

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Linux Gaming with Ubuntu Desktop Part 1: Steam & Proton

A few years before joining Canonical as the Ubuntu Desktop Product Manager, I was a video game producer (with at least one of my titles getting a native Linux port you’ll be pleased to hear). So improving the gaming experience on Ubuntu is high on my to-do list. With the Linux user base on Steam breaking the 1% ceiling earlier this year- which may or may not be related to the upcoming Linux-based Steam Deck– 2022 is shaping up to be a great year for Linux gaming!

In the first of a mini-series of blogs, I wanted to break down some of the easiest ways to get started with gaming on Ubuntu. With part 1 we start with the obvious; Steam (and Proton).

Installing Steam on Ubuntu Desktop

You can find Steam in the Ubuntu Software app with a quick search, or alternatively install it from the command line with:

Native vs Steam Play

Since Linux gamers are not exactly the dominant demographic in PC gaming, there aren’t that many titles that are developed explicitly for us. Filtering by Linux in the steam store produces around 9,000 results at the time of writing.

That’s not a small number by any means, and while it only represents 15% of all the games available on Steam, it does include some of the most popular PC games of all time. More than enough to get started gaming on Linux!

However, Steam also features a secret weapon – Steam Play. A feature that auto-installs compatibility tools that enable you to play titles that were built for other operating systems.

You can activate Steam Play (if it’s not active already) by going to Steam -> Settings -> Steam Play and checking Enable Steam Play for supported titles and Enable Steam Play for all other titles.

By doing this you’ll see that games previously unsupported on Linux become playable.

Here is one of my favourite games before Steam Play.

(Don’t judge my playtime, I was mostly playing the previous HD edition!)

Is this magic? No, it’s Proton.

What is Proton?

Proton is a compatibility layer built into Steam, it translates Windows APIs into a Linux readable format. This works differently to a traditional emulator approach to gaming (where you might run a virtual Windows machine and play games inside it) since it enables you to fully leverage the benefits of your PC’s hardware. This results in comparable performance to a native build of the game.

Proton is open source and based on a fork of Wine (Wine Is Not an Emulator) which has been in development for around 28 years. Whilst it’s currently in beta and not all Windows titles run successfully via Proton, Valve are heavily promoting Proton support to developers as a way of enabling Steam Deck compatibility. Because of this, we should expect the library of Linux playable titles to increase dramatically over the next year, whether you own a Steam Deck or not!

Check your games on ProtonDB (or contribute your experiences)!

To check whether your favourite game is playable via Proton, you can visit protondb.com. ProtonDB is a site that aggregates gamers’ experiences into an easy-to-view database that lets you look up how well a title performs on Linux.

Currently, there have been close to 150,000 reports submitted, resulting in 17,000 titles confirmed to run well. Whilst this includes games that already included native Linux support, it still roughly doubles the catalogue of available games on Linux. And that percentage is heavily weighted towards the more popular titles on the store.

You can search for games in your library from the home page or link your Steam Account to see the status of all of them in one go. Once linked, you can also contribute your experiences to ProtonDB by filling in a short survey. If your favourite game is currently missing from ProtonDB try it out and let them know how it works!

Note: To contribute to ProtonDB you need to set your profile and games library to public in your profile privacy settings on Steam. In addition you will be asked to provide your system information.

Why Ubuntu Desktop is great for Linux gaming

As the world’s most popular Linux desktop, Ubuntu is often the target platform for native Linux game developers. But it’s also the most common distribution for ProtonDB testing. We feel confident that by gaming on Ubuntu you’ll be getting the most out of your Steam library.

But we don’t want to get complacent, we know there is still a lot more we can do to improve the gaming experience on Ubuntu Desktop. We’re keen to hear from you on the issues or areas we should focus on in 2022.

To accompany this blog series I’ve started a thread in the Ubuntu Desktop Discourse to gather feedback and ideas. Let us know what you think!

You can download Ubuntu Desktop here.

Talk to us today

Interested in running Ubuntu in your organisation?

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