Windows on Linux: Wine 10 relies on Wayland

Windows on Linux: Wine 10 relies on Wayland 15 comments

Image: Valve

Wine is used to translate Windows system calls into commands that Linux can understand. This allows Windows applications to run on Linux without emulation. Proton is particularly taking advantage of this by bringing Windows games to Linux. With Wine 10.0 comes Wayland and other improvements.

Summary :

Wayland becomes the norm

While Wine previously handled X11 by default and graphics output under Wayland was handled via XWayland, the performance drawbacks had to be accepted. As a result, a Wayland implementation for Wine has been in the works for some time and with version 10.0 it will now become standard, although the previous X11 driver is still included. Ideally, Wine now provides the highest performance regardless of the display server. Therefore, OpenGL is also supported and pop-ups should be positioned correctly in most cases.

It doesn’t always have to be x86 – ARM64 with Wine 10

A lot of work on Wine 10 also went into implementing the ARM64 architecture. The Wine code itself is executed natively, while the necessary x86 emulation is done by third-party software via an interface. The developers focus on the FEX emulator, which uses the interface. This particularly benefits projects that run Windows titles and programs on a Raspberry Pi or Apple-run devices with an M processor under the free operating system.

Practical features and work on Direct3D implementations

High DPI support has been extended and Vulkan is implemented up to version 1.4.303, which also includes the Vulkan video extension. A new desktop control panel can be used to adjust display settings and, for example, set the virtual desktop resolution. Many new features have been implemented, especially for older DirectX 9 titles, and the Vulkan rendering engine is receiving several “dynamic state extensions” in an effort to prevent stuttering in games. In addition to the previous GStreamer backend, version 10 also includes an optional FFmpeg-based backend. The DirectMusic module is now also capable of loading MIDI files.

The manufacturers provide a complete list of only a portion of the more than 6,000 individual changes made by the update on Gitlab. The new version is expected to become part of the distribution package sources in the near future and integrated into Proton.

Topics: Operating Systems Open Source Linux Games Proton Vulkan Source: WineHQ