One of the best things about Valve’s Steam Deck is its regular updates, all of which help improve the handheld experience. Aside from SteamOS specifically, advancements to gaming on Linux are always being made. The development of Proton, a compatibility layer that allows Windows games to run on Linux-based systems, has gone hand-in-hand with the Steam Deck, and it has just hit a milestone – Proton 10 is now out in its beta version.

Proton 10.0-1 (beta) is now available to download via Valve’s GitHub and brings forth a bunch of important changes. First of all, it cements support for 14 games that were previously working on the Proton Experimental branch. On top of that, there are a lot of bug fixes to check out, from game crashes to behavior with external game launchers.

Proton 10.0-1 (beta) patch notes

Let’s jump straight into the patch notes. Several games, such as Batman: Arkham Asylum, Factorio, and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, have moved on from the Experimental brand. You’ll find bug fixes down below.

• Now playable (previously worked with Proton Experimental):
  • Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition
  • Black Ink
  • Factorio
  • Ignited Entry
  • Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
  • MySims Kingdom
  • No Man’s Sky in VR mode (regressed after a game update)
  • Rising Storm 2: Vietnam
  • Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army
  • Soul Interface
  • THE KING OF FIGHTERS XIII GLOBAL MATCH
  • VIDEO GAME (924310)
  • Willful
  • X Rebirth VR Edition
• Fixed / improved video playback in:
  • Agony Unrated
  • All-Star Fruit Racing
  • Audiosurf
  • Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
  • Gal*Gun 2
  • Greedfall
  • Indigo Park: Chapter 1
  • Omensight
  • SOULCALIBUR VI
  • TELEFORUM
  • Tintin Reporter – Cigars of the Pharaoh
  • Zero Escape: The Nonary Games
• Reinstated hack from Proton 7 that helped with SpellForce: Platinum Edition, NieR: Automata, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and DARK SOULS III crashing with monitors exposing too many possible resolutions.
• Improved performance in Dirt Rally 2.0.
• Fixed Final Fantasy XVI demo displaying driver warning on launch.
• Fixed Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced launcher hang and the game crashing on launch as well as not being possible to uninstall it via Steam.
• Fixed XCOM 2 erroring out when trying to connect to my2K.
• Fixed network issues in Hunt: Showdown 1896 after a game update.
• Fixed Rivals of Aether II, Stalker 2, The Axis Unseen, Beyond Handwell, Marvel Rivals, The Finals, Creatures of Ava crashing with Intel GPUs.
• Added support for game mods that load via custom dinput8.dll.
• Fixed input not working with Studio System : Guardian Angel.
• Fixed cursor not working in the menu of Amerzone: The Explorer’s Legacy (1999).
• Fixed Deviator crashing with AMD GPUs shortly after launching.
• Fixed Warhammer: Vermintide 2 showing prerequisite installer on every launch.
• Re-enabled nvapi for Neverwinter, Star Trek Online and Champions Online.
• Fixed full screen mode in The Bright Star Of Seraph-Katis.
• Improved situation with audio crackling in Assassin's Creed Shadows on Steam Deck.
• Improved reliability of Proton Prefix creation.
• Fixed Supermarket Together not detecting DLC on some systems.
• Fixed extras video playback in Shadow Warrior 2.
• Fixed VR mode in Evochron Legacy SE.
• Fixed non-Steam Battle.net installations.
• Fixed Sea of Thieves Xbox login window not working.
• Fixed graphics scaling in Master Magistrate.
• Fixed interface elements in Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two showing as solid green color.
• Included initial work on speech synthesis – requires manual installation of Proton Voice Files (steam://install/3086180), confirmed to work with The Thief, the Witch, the Toad, and the Mushroom.
• Fixed video playback in Twisted Sails.
• Improved video playback in Max: The Curse of Brotherhood.
• Added hack to allow Steam Overlay to function with EAC EOS games.
• Fixed CPU topology override issues on machines with more than 32 logical cores.
• Fixed Proton sometimes creating an empty window when running via XWayland.
• Fixed Marvel Rivals displaying OS/drivers out of date warning.
• Fixed desync issue with 60FPS AVPro videos in VRChat.
• Fixed intermittent freezing in Spirit Hunter: NG.
• Fixed The Finals crashing after a recent game update.
• Improved Ubisoft Connect behavior when switching between Proton versions.
• Improved video playback in Locoland on NVIDIA GPUs.
• Improved video playback in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
• Fixed Tiny Cauldron freezing when selecting some resolutions.
• Fixed various crashes affecting Final Fantasy XIV launcher.
• Fixed broken account creation in Final Fantasy XIV.
• Fixed Nioh: Complete Edition hanging on a black screen when skipping videos.
• Fixed Killsquad freezing on character selection screen.
• Fixed Dread X Collection 3 Bete Grise minigame.
• Fixed video playback in ATRI – My Dear Moments-.
• Fixed Dark and Darker not being playable after a game update.
• Updated libvkd3d-shader to vkd3d-1.15-179-g21e08955d3c3.
• Updated dxvk to v2.6.1.
• Updated dxvk-nvapi to v0.9.0.
• Updated vkd3d-proton to v2.14.1-153-ga7159b80e165.
• Updated wine-mono to 9.4.0.
• Updated Xalia to 0.4.5 and enabled it for The TakeOver, Floppy Heroes, Whiskered Away, Himno, Survirus, The Adventure of Ninomae Ina’nis.
• Rebased Wine on top of wine-10.0.
• Added Steamworks SDK 1.62 support.

Valve Software Proton releases

The milestone update is a massive boost for Steam Deck users and Linux gamers in general. With (Linux-based) SteamOS coming to more handheld devices this May, starting with the Lenovo Legion Go S, we’re happy to see the continued development of Proton. We’re yet to see a widespread release of Valve’s operating system, but it’s on the way and will no doubt provide a new OS of choice for those who want to stop gaming on Windows.

About the Author

Abdul Haddi

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