There’s a new version of the Proton Experimental, which comes with a long list of updates and fixes for games, including Resident Evil 2 and 7, Crashlands 2, The First Berserker: Khazan, and more. The update became available to download on July 1st via GitHub, retaining all previous changes from Proton 10.0-1.

Seasoned Steam Deck owners or Linux users will probably know that game compatibility on the handheld sometimes requires a little extra work. This is often performed by changing the compatibility mode for certain games, with Proton Experimental being a popular choice for the most up-to-date updates for games that need some help running correctly.

Proton Experimental patch notes (July 1)

Here’s a select list of patch notes for the latest version of Proton Experimental. If you want to see the extended patch notes, you can do so right here. As we can see from the patch notes, Resident Evil 7 video playback is now playing at normal speed on the Steam Deck, while Resident Evil 2 should more smoothly switch between full-screen resolutions.

• All changes from Proton 10.0-1.
• Now playable: Stardust Skate, STAR OCEAN THE DIVINE FORCE, Champions of Anteria, IL-2 Sturmovik Cliffs of Dover, Click&Fight, Tunnet, WRC Generations, The Riftbreaker: Multiplayer Playtest, Post Mortem.
• Disabled Xalia for Rockstar Launcher – after a recent update it got native contoller support which resulted in registering events twice.
• Disabled Xalia for winforms applications (e.g. Imperiums: Greek Wars launcher) due to compatibility issues.
• Fixed The First Berserker: Khazan wrongly displaying a warning about the drive the game is installed on.
• Fixed seeking through videos in VRChat when using AVPro.
• Fixed rendering issues in VR Slots 3D.
• Fixed Proton 10 regressions:
  • Digseum is playable again.
  • Resident Evil 2 should no longers have issues when changing resolutions on GNOME.
  • Crashlands 2 intro video is no longer distorted.
  • Malody V is playable again.
  • Videos in Resident Evil 7 Biohazard should play at a normal speed again on Steam Decks.
  • Ride 2 is playable again.
  • Warframe launcher should no longer have issues displaying titlebar elements.
  • Resident Evil 2 no longer struggles with switching full-screen resolutions.
  • Enshrouded no longer crash when refreshing server list.
  • OpenVR is working with 32 bit games again.
  • VRChat video playback issue that affected some instances is fixed.
  • The Sims 2 Legacy Collection is playable again.
  • RAGE no longer has focus issues when Alt-Tabbing on KDE Wayland.
  • Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land is playable again.
  • Dishonored 2 window can be dragged on Gnome again.
  • Forza Horizon 4 and 5 no longer require focus change to not have black screen.
  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion® Game of the Year Edition (2009) no longer has problems minimizing after Alt-Tabbing.
  • Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition no longer has issues with keyboard registration after refocusing the game.
  • Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD setting launcher renders correctly again.
  • Fixed scaling in Imperiums: Greek Wars in fullscreen mode.
  • Fixed VRChat crashing on some setups when h264 playback is attempted.

Source: GitHub

In addition to these changes, there is also a fix to a late-game crash in Crysis 2 Remastered, a fix for missing DLSS frame generation options in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, fixed touch screen support in No Man’s Sky, and many more.

How to enable Proton Experimental

Proton is Valve’s compatibility layer to make Windows games run smoothly on Linux (SteamOS is Linux-based), and it works out of the box for the most part. Proton Experimental is the most recent version and can come in handy if the stable or beta versions are lacking a specific patch, but it can be unstable – hence the ‘experimental’. We would only recommend using Proton Experimental if you’re trying to fix a specific issue; here’s how to enable it on the Steam Deck:

1. Go to your Steam game library
2. Find the game you want to enable Proton Experimental on
3. Hit the three lines (burger menu) button and open the game’s properties
4. Go to the compatibility tab
5. Check the ‘Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool’ box
6. Select Proton Experimental from the dropdown menu

About the Author

Charlie Noon

Charlie is the Affiliate manager for PC Guide. He has a vast understanding of most PC hardware and consumer essentials, using his knowledge to provide the best products and the biggest deals.