Linux in its different flavors, which includes Valve’s SteamOS, is not an operating system where game development is preferred. That 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 to others that Linux can understand and perform the same function, in this case the interpreter transforms the DirectX API calls into calls for the Vulkan APIs or OpenGL that can understand the graphics driver under Linux. This process requires additional power in the CPU that can make us lose performance, luckily with the DLSS for Proton we can gain back the lost power.
NVIDIA DLSS on Proton
Through a collaboration between NVIDIA and Valve it has been achieved that by running various games on Steam OS. or any GNU / Linux distribution, you can make use of super-resolution algorithms through deep learning that Jensen Huang’s company called Deep Learning Super Sampling, which increase the frame rate of games to a resolution by generating each frame at a lower resolution and then creating a copy at an output resolution with more pixels.
Because the NVIDIA DLSS is exclusive to NVIDIA hardware, it can only be used on their RTX 20 and RTX 30 graphics cards and not on any GTX model, much less on NVIDIA hardware. This means that the Steam Deck when using an AMD APU will not be able to benefit from LDSS on Proton. Luckily the FidelityFX Super Resolution or FSR has already been available for a few months.
List of compatible games at the moment
The list of games with which we can benefit from DLSS when running on Proton for the moment are the following, have no doubts that the following list will increase in number of titles as time goes by.
- Assassin’s creed
- Breath of Death VI
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II (campaign mode only)
- DEATHLOOP
- FIA European Truck Racing Championship
- Fly’N
- Game Dev Tycoon
- Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered
- GreedFall
- Mafia II (classic version and not the remastering)
- Magicka
- 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 All-Star Brawl
- Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slicked Precipice of Darkness 3
- RiMS Racing
- The Riftbreaker
- Sol Survivor
- TT Isle of Man Ride on the Edge
- TT Isle of Man Ride on the Edge 2
In addition, Valve has not only added support for NVIDIA technology, but they have also added BattleEye, an anti-cheat system that has long been used by games like Conan Exiles, DayZ, Planetside 2, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
