Proton 9.0 Beta Makes More Games Playable Under Steam Play, Updates VKD3D-Proton & DXVK

In time for weekend Linux gamers, Valve and their CodeWeavers partners today rolled out their first public beta of Proton 9.0 as their Wine-based software that powers Steam Play for enjoying Windows games on Linux with ease under the Steam client.

Proton 9.0 Beta 11 was released today and is now available for opt-in via the Steam client. While "Beta 11", this is their first public beta of the new version. As implied by the version bump from Proton 8.0, they have re-based from a Wine 8.0 base to the recently released Wine 9.0.

In addition to pulling in the Wine 9.0 codebase, the Proton 9.0 beta also updates its bundled versions of VKD3D-Proton, DXVK, and DXVK-NVAPI against more recent snapshots. Games now known to be playable with this beta Proton 9.0 code are Dinogen Online and the Photography Simulator demo. There is also a number of games previously only playable with Proton Experimental that should work with Proton 9.0: The Finals, George McGeehan Gamer Hero, Road to Vostok demo, True Reporter. Mystery of Mistwood, Witch On The Holy Night, and Lord of the Rings: Gollum.

Proton 9.0 beta also brings many game fixes, improved video playback for numerous games, improved support for input devices having 8+ axes, updated the file distribution method to conserve disk space, and many other changes and enhancements for bettering the Linux -- and SteamOS / Steam Deck -- gaming experience.

Those rolling their own Proton builds can find the 9.0 beta via GitHub along with the official change-log.