Valve Software has update Proton's GitHub so that Death Stranding is now playable on Linux, which is pretty cool.
The GitHub page has this statement commenting on the patch, which will be posted in full below:
Hello. A new build has been pushed to the
nextbranch in the Steam client. With this build, Death Stranding is now playable.
The game does require the latest Nvidia and AMD drivers. We've had success on Nvidia with Nvidia drivers 440.100 and 450.57, and on AMD with Mesa 20.1.3 with LLVM 10.0.0. If you are on AMD and experience a graphics error dialog on startup, please restart the Steam client once to ensure you have the latest Proton configuration settings for the game.
In the Steam client, the Proton 5.0 app should have a "next" beta branch in its Properties dialog, which you can choose to start testing the 5.0-10 release candidates. Note that the name of the build in the Steam Settings dialog will not be updated. I will post changes here when we push new builds. The source for the latest RC build is available on the proton_5.0-next branch in these repositories. This branch may receive forced updates.
In this issue, we are interested in problems that are new to the 5.0-10 RC builds, and in feedback about Death Stranding. If you find new problems in the "next" branch, please confirm that the problem does not occur in on the "default" branch before reporting it here.
What is Proton?
Proton is a program that works in conjunction with Steam to bring Windows exclusive games to the Linux platform. In order to do this, it uses Wine, a program that Mac users use in order to play Windows games on Mac systems. In what's also a first for Linux, Direct X12 is now working on Linux. This will have ramifications for future AAA games as it means that they are more likely to be available for Linux gamers.
Speaking of performance, despite what you may think of its storyline or gameplay, Death Stranding is definitely a game that can be used to show off the graphical prowess of your computer. Nvidia's video showing off Death Stranding's capabilities is definitely worth a look:
If you're a Linux user (or a PC gamer in general) and want to check out Death Stranding, you should do so here.
Quick Take
While Linux users comprise of a small fraction of the PC userbase, it is always great to see them receiving the same games as everyone else. Just because they don't want to use Windows doesn't mean they shouldn't get all the perks that PC's have to offer, and I hope that this happens more frequently in the future.
What do you think of this news? Have you played Death Stranding? Do you intend on playing it? Let us know in the comments!
