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Submitted via IRC for Fnord666
Valve appears to be working on a set of "compatibility tools," called Steam Play, that would allow at least some Windows-based titles to run on Linux-based SteamOS systems.
Yesterday, Reddit users noticed that Steam's GUI files (as captured by SteamDB's Steam Tracker) include a hidden section with unused text related to the unannounced Steam Play system. According to that text, "Steam Play will automatically install compatibility tools that allow you to play games from your library that were built for other operating systems."
Other unused text in the that GUI file suggests Steam Play will offer official compatibility with "supported tiles" while also letting users test compatibility for "games in your library that have not been verified with a supported compatibility tool." That latter use comes with a warning that "this may not work as expected, and can cause issues with your games, including crashes and breaking save games."
Tools that let users run Windows apps in Linux are nothing new; Wine has existed for decades, after all. But an "official" Steam-based compatibility tool, with the resources and backing of Valve behind it, could have a huge impact on the Linux development space that could reach well beyond games. Assuming it worked for a wide range of titles, the Steam Play system could also help ameliorate one of SteamOS' biggest failings—namely, the relative lack of compatible games when compared to Windows.
With all that said, some caution is warranted before getting too excited about these possibilities. For one, we don't know what specific form Steam Play will take. Valve could simply be preparing a wrapper that lets users run existing emulation tools like Wine and DOSBox on top of SteamOS without actively advancing the state of that emulation directly.
(Score: 2) by boltronics on Friday August 17 2018, @03:14AM (3 children)
I hate having to have a separate wineprefix with a separate Steam installation for every... single... Windows game. Also having to do the 2FA thing all the time because you switched between more than 2 or 3 Steam installations gets annoying real fast. It also sucks that controllers don't work correctly under Wine, and the Steam controller doesn't seem to work at all when a GNU/Linux Steam build isn't running (and of course you can't be online in both at the same time). And now there's the whole Chrome sandboxing thing that Steam uses and doesn't work properly under Wine, and you'll see Windows Steam really is a mess on GNU/Linux.
If this provides a way for me to download and run Windows binaries under native Steam by calling my own compiled build of Wine, that'll be such a huge convenience that I might go back to PC gaming. This year I've primarily purchased and played console games - for the first time ever, just because Windows games on Steam is too inconvenient even when the Wine compatibility for the game is there.
It's GNU/Linux dammit!
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday August 17 2018, @01:43PM (2 children)
Not sure about the downloading part, you might need to run Windows Steam to get it to let you install Windows games...but you can certainly run a Windows game through Linux Steam using Wine already. Just add a custom shortcut to the Steam launcher that triggers your Wine command. The games work, the controller works, the steam overlay works...worst case you might need to write a small shell script if you need to do some additional config for wine before it starts up, but otherwise it's pretty simple.
(Score: 2) by boltronics on Monday August 20 2018, @02:28AM (1 child)
So Windows Steam from within GNU/Linux Steam... But doesn't Steam log you out (from the GNU/Linux one in this case) when you fire up a different one? It used to as I recall. Also, what would happen when you press Shift-Tab? :)
I'm not sure it's worth the trouble.
It's GNU/Linux dammit!
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday August 20 2018, @01:16PM
I was thinking you run the game itself from Linux Steam using Wine, not some kind of Steam-ception :)
You run Windows Steam the same way you apparently already do, by using Wine. That lets you download and install the game, since Steam presumably won't let you use a Linux version of Steam to download Windows installers. But once it's installed on your Wine drive, then you don't need that Windows version of Steam anymore because you can use a Linux copy of Steam with custom Wine shortcuts to launch the Windows games directly from the Wine C: drive. The Windows copy of Steam should only be necessary to download and run the installer.
I've never done this myself, as the few Windows games that I've run through Steam weren't downloaded from Steam, so I just installed with regular Wine and then made the shortcut...but once the game is installed it should all be the same. Maybe some kinds of DRM would block it, but in my experience you should have no problem running Steam games without launching the full Steam client.