You can now Run Steam Games with Proton on an ARM PC Thanks to Progress Made on Box86!

I am big fan of Box86 and Box64 (as well as pretty much everything PtitSeb does) and a few months ago he made it possible to run some Linux Games on Steam (using the mini-mode, the full client is not yet supported). And the latest development, and that’s a major one, is that Box86 can now run some Windows games on Steam by using Proton! Here’s a video of two of such games: Geometry Dash and Among Us on a ARM mini PC (Pythium D2000 + AMD Rx550):

You can also see some compatibility reports that are now available at the following repository:

https://github.com/ptitSeb/box86-compatibility-list/issues

Especially relevant are the ones tagged with “SteamPlay” since they are using Proton (and therefore Vulkan and DXVK). Here’s another example with Garfield Kart reported working just fine:

Not only do several games work on Phythium D2000 equipped with a regular GPU (RX550), some reports showcase some games working on a Raspberry Pi 4 with its own Vulkan driver!

This being said, the Raspberry Pi 4 is going to have major limitations, because its Vulkan driver is still experimental as far as I know, and it has too little video memory to actually handle any demanding game. But evne if it were limited to older games, that would open up a huge gaming library on the small ARM SBC.

On the other hand, Box86 is a revolution in the making. People are now excited by the possibility of X86 gaming on handhelds with the Steam Deck and the Aya Neo, but with such technology x86 gaming is now going to be possible on ARM portable machines (whether phones or specific gaming handhelds) which are not limited by two vendors (AMD or Intel) anymore.

Very, very exciting.

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