Valve recently rolled out a new Proton Experimental update, improving game compatibility and fixing several issues, particularly for Steam Deck players. The update introduces fixes and performance improvements across a variety of titles, making games like Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Rivals of Aether 2, Knights of the Old Republic, and I Expect You to Die more stable on Steam Deck.

What does the update bring?

ScarQuest is now fully playable on Steam Deck and Linux systems, delivering a smoother experience for players. Aside from that, Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic no longer launches to a black screen in fullscreen mode, which is a major improvement, especially for those who have been eager to dive into the game. I Expect You to Die is also back to its playable state after recent compatibility issues.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard players on the Steam Deck were also complaining about getting a warning message about the game’s installation on spinning drives, while Star Wars – Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast players were unable to play the single-player campaign on their handheld. Thankfully, the update has fixed both issues, so you can start playing these two games without any issues.

Aside from what’s mentioned above, there are plenty of other changes and improvements, which you can check below:

Proton Experimental changelog

• Now playable: APB Reloaded, Total War: SHOGUN 2, Welcome to Dustown, Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 (requires disabled Steam Overlay), Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2 (AMD GPUs only), Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown, Hard Chip Demo, Conqueror’s Blade, ScarQuest.
• Fixed single player game not working in Star Wars – Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast.
• Fixed Hard Reset Redux crashing with AMD GPUs.
• Fixed Dragon Age: The Veilguard displaying a warning about being installed on a spinning drive.
• Added support for NVIDIA Optical Flow API and DLSS 3 Frame Generation.
• Fixed Astral Ascent hanging when unplugging a controller.
• Fixed keyboard input in Rivals of Aether II.
• Fixed Proton not setting priorities correctly for new threads.
• Fixed Dark and Darker not being playable after a game update.
• Fixed Skull and Bones not exiting cleanly on systems with a Nvidia GPU.
• Fixed Proton Experimental regressions:
  • Moero Chronicle is playable again.
• Fixed Proton 9.0 regressions:
  • I Expect You To Die is playable again.
  • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic no longer launches to a black screen when in fullscreen mode.
  • Fablecraft is playable again.
  • B-17 Flying Fortress is playable again.
  • Multiplayer works again in Hotshot Racing.
• Switched to a new media source implementations (see this for details/issues) that fixes or improves video playback in:
  • Gal*Gun 2
  • SOULCALIBUR VI
  • Call of Cthulhu
  • All-Star Fruit Racing
  • Greedfall
  • Onimusha: Warlords
  • Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
  • Indigo Park: Chapter 1
  • Agony Unrated
  • TELEFORUM
• Fixed playback of videos in The Curse of Brotherhood.
• Fixed FPS drops in Red Dead Redemption 2 when keys are pressed.
• Fixed Korean input in Diablo IV.
• Fixed EA Desktop App setup not being configurable.
• Updated Xalia to 0.4.4 and enabled it for Trackmania United Forever, Trackmania Nations Forever, Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD, Fallout: New Vegas, and WARRIORS ALL-STARS.**
• Fixed Final Fantasy XVI having low FPS due to excessive DLL lookup.
• Fixed Final Fantasy XVI not showing displays in settings.
• Fixed Mary Skelter 2 stuttering on launch.
• Fixed Unreal Engine Crash Report Client not launching properly.
• Fixed multiplayer in SpellForce 3: Versus Edition.
• Fixed font rendering in SpellForce 3: Versus Edition.
• Fixed mod support in DOOM Eternal.
• Fixed Yakuza 6 crash when trying playing Puyo Puyo mini-game.
• Improved video playback in March of Empires and Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition.
• Updated Wine Mono to 9.3.0.
• Fixed Hunt: Showdown 1896 failing to start after a recent game update.
• Fixed full screen in Dog Brew on Steam Deck.
• Fixed support for BattleServer in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.
• Fixed controller support in Clash for Crust.
• Fixed Traditional Chinese font rendering in Mashiroiro Symphony HD -Sana Edition-.
• Improved loading times in Pharaoh Rebirth+.
• Fixed newer Unreal Engine games trying to install redistributables on each launch.
• Fixed voice chat in For Honor and UNO.
• Fixed recent experimental regression that caused replugging to not work in Resident Evil 2 and many other games.
• Added a warning in Proton logs when running on system with low max_map_count.
• Fixed Yakuza 3 and Yakuza 4 not being playable on some setups.
• Fixed issue causing no audio being played while Microsoft Flight Simulator displays developers logos.
• Enabled Xalia for MultiVersus – prerequisite installation can now be done with a controller.
• Fixed video playback in Twisted Sails.
• Fixed extras video playback in Shadow Warrior 2.
• Added hack to allow Steam Overlay to function with EAC EOS games.
• Fixed garbled videos in The Finals.
• Fixed Knowledge, or know Lady crashing about 10 minutes after launch.
• Implemented English speech recognition for Phasmophobia.
• Updated dxvk, dxvk-nvapi and vkd3d-proton to include the latest development work.

About the Author

Abdul Haddi

Abdul is a tech writer and Editor for PC Guide, specializing in all things tech, gaming, and hardware.