Linux in its various versions, which includes Valve’s SteamOS, is not an operating system where game development is preferred. This is why an interpreter is used to be able to use the games programmed for Windows in the free operating system. Well, NVIDIA just announced DLSS for Proton. What games support it?
Proton is based on Wine, it is an application that converts system calls for Windows into others that Linux can understand and perform the same function, in this case the interpreter transforms DirectX API calls into calls for Vulkan APIs or OpenGL which can understand the graphics driver in Linux. This process requires extra power in the processor which can cause us to lose performance, luckily with DLSS for Proton we can recover the lost power.
NVIDIA DLSS and Proton
Thanks to a collaboration between NVIDIA and Valve, this was made possible by running various games on Steam OS. or any GNU / Linux distribution, you can use super-resolution algorithms through deep learning that Jensen Huang’s company called Deep Learning Super Sampling, which increase the frame rate of games to resolution by generating each image at a lower resolution, then creating a copy at an output resolution with more pixels.
Since NVIDIA DLSS is exclusive to NVIDIA hardware, it can only be used on their RTX 20 and RTX 30 graphics cards and not any GTX model, let alone NVIDIA hardware. This means that the Steam Deck when using an AMD APU will not be able to benefit from LDSS on Proton. Fortunately, the FidelityFX Super Resolution or FSR has already been available for a few months.
List of compatible games for the moment
The list of games that we can benefit from DLSS with when running on Proton at the moment is as follows, have no doubt that the following list will increase in number of titles over time.
- Assassin’s Creed
- Breath of Death VI
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II (campaign mode only)
- DEATH BUCKLE
- FIA European Truck Racing Championship
- Fly’N
- Game Dev Tycoon
- Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered
- greed
- Mafia II (classic version and not the remastering)
- Magic
- Mass Effect Legendary Edition, although the first game at the moment does not support audio.
- Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom
- Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Video Game
- Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Video Game 2
- Nickelodeon Star Brawl
- Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slicked Precipice of Darkness 3
- RiMS Racing
- The fault breaker
- Sol Survivor
- TT Isle of Man Ride on the Edge
- TT Isle of Man Ride on the Edge 2
Additionally, Valve not only added support for NVIDIA technology, but they also added BattleEye, an anti-cheat system long used by games like Conan Exiles, DayZ, Planetside 2, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
