Wine 7.16 improves Windows games compatibility on Linux

[Alfonso Maruccia]

In a nutshell: The Wine community has released a new version of the eponymous software, an essential for gamers using a Linux-based OS as well as for the Steam Deck console from Valve. Wine 7.16 includes a lot of fixes for gaming related bugs and other issues, improving compatibility with software (and not just games) designed to run on Windows.

Wine 7.16 includes many bug fixes for software designed to run on Windows. Several issues with games are fixed as well, which will surely make Linux users happy.

As the developers used to point out in the past, Wine "is not an emulator" but an open-source compatibility layer for users that need to run Windows software on Linux and other Unix-like operating systems.

The "trick" behind the magic: Wine implements the Windows API by using 100% non-Microsoft code, even though users can provide external DLL files -- even the ones included with Windows.

The Wine 7.16 release highlights include Wow64 (Microsoft's 64-bit compatibility layer for 32-bit applications) support in X11 driver, session storage in MSHTML, Unicode regexp fixes in MSXML, IME improvements in edit control and "various bug fixes." The complete list of fixes is indeed huge, gathering the work by several Wine developers since the previous 7.15 release.

The most interesting bug fixes are, of course, the gaming-related ones: Wine solves a crash issue with Saint's Row, a false positive for Ragnarok Online anti-cheat technology, a bug that made playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain past chapter one impossible, and a freeze bug in Star Citizen's launcher.

Wine features include compatibility with Win64, Win32, Win16 and DOS, DirectX support, printing and a full-featured debugger. Wine is also an essential component of Proton, the compatibility layer used by Valve in its Steam Deck console's operating system (SteamOS).

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https://www.techspot.com/news/95871-wine-716-improves-windows-games-compatibility-linux.html

 

[Darth Shiv]

Ok so Steam Deck is driving Wine updates cycle? Until Wine is at the stage of "I feel like playing AAA title -> play AAA title + no ****ing around" then it's still a huge liability for mainstream.

 

[psycros]

Ok so Steam Deck is driving Wine updates cycle? Until Wine is at the stage of "I feel like playing AAA title -> play AAA title + no ****ing around" then it's still a huge liability for mainstream.

I'd really like to understand your reasoning. Steam Deck is easily the best-selling portable PC console ever designed and the only one supported by not just a major company, but the largest game distributor on Earth. What exactly was driving Windows game support on Linux *before* Steam got on board?

 

[yRaz]

I'd really like to understand your reasoning. Steam Deck is easily the best-selling portable PC console ever designed and the only one supported by not just a major company, but the largest game distributor on Earth. What exactly was driving Windows game support on Linux *before* Steam got on board?

The only real issue with Linux gaming is outside obstructionist behavior of developers through the use of DRM. Many games, like ESO and EvE online take a hands off approach to people trying to game on Linux. It's not officially supported but they let the community do their own thing.

Others outright constantly update their DRM to block Linux work arounds. Let's think about that for a second, they have an internal Linux development team specifically for making their products NOT work on Linux

 

[VaRmeNsI]

The only real issue with Linux gaming is outside obstructionist behavior of developers through the use of DRM. Many games, like ESO and EvE online take a hands off approach to people trying to game on Linux. It's not officially supported but they let the community do their own thing.

Others outright constantly update their DRM to block Linux work arounds. Let's think about that for a second, they have an internal Linux development team specifically for making their products NOT work on Linux

Quite simple, do not buy said products and they will adapt/die out.

 

[BigRedPDX]

I'd really like to understand your reasoning. Steam Deck is easily the best-selling portable PC console ever designed and the only one supported by not just a major company, but the largest game distributor on Earth. What exactly was driving Windows game support on Linux *before* Steam got on board?

Just the open source community. Wine had very little support prior to Steam OS. In all of the years that I've used Linux, Wine has been terrible.

 

[yRaz]

Just the open source community. Wine had very little support prior to Steam OS. In all of the years that I've used Linux, Wine has been terrible.

I wouldn't say Wine support has been terrible, but many of the people in the linux community don't like to share this stuff because it made them feel smart to know something YOU didn't. Valve turned that on it's head because the Linux elitists now compete to get recognition for fixing major problems in proton and wine.

 

[woofer]

It would be nice if this update finally allows running an old "official" Scrabble game originally designed to run on Window 3.1 and 95. Its requirement for running in 256 color mode has so far thwarted Linux/Wine. As a result, I have kept Windows PC's around more than I care to so my wife and I can play against each other on the computers ;-}

 

[Darth Shiv]

The only real issue with Linux gaming is outside obstructionist behavior of developers through the use of DRM. Many games, like ESO and EvE online take a hands off approach to people trying to game on Linux. It's not officially supported but they let the community do their own thing.

Others outright constantly update their DRM to block Linux work arounds. Let's think about that for a second, they have an internal Linux development team specifically for making their products NOT work on Linux

I think you are way overestimating that. They don't have a team stopping it working on Linux. They have like 1 guy who throws some check in every now and then when management "whines" about it.
No AAA Windows platform game company is paying a Linux team of devs to stop it working on Linux.
And let's be honest here. The reason they are making stuff stop working at all is literally because they don't want to support Wine. The effort is not worth the return.

 

[yRaz]

I think you are way overestimating that. They don't have a team stopping it working on Linux. They have like 1 guy who throws some check in every now and then when management "whines" about it.
No AAA Windows platform game company is paying a Linux team of devs to stop it working on Linux.
And let's be honest here. The reason they are making stuff stop working at all is literally because they don't want to support Wine. The effort is not worth the return.

Okay, you gave me a good laugh with "whines" about it. But, yeah, you're right. It's probably not even a guy or two, it's probably one of the devs who already knows some Linux and just throws some code in there. But that fact remains that someone on company time is still working prevent their games from running on Linux. Considering it's all open source, it probably isn't even a lot of work for a Dev to go in there, see the work around and patch it.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Okay, you gave me a good laugh with "whines" about it. But, yeah, you're right. It's probably not even a guy or two, it's probably one of the devs who already knows some Linux and just throws some code in there. But that fact remains that someone on company time is still working prevent their games from running on Linux. Considering it's all open source, it probably isn't even a lot of work for a Dev to go in there, see the work around and patch it.

I'm just saying that when a bunch of Linux people start complaining about bug X, Y, Z on Wine, they don't want to have a bar of working on it. It's simply not worth any percentage of their time to work on it because the $$$ and the customer numbers aren't on wine.

Disabling support is basically the "officially piss off guys - we don't want your bug reports".