Are you confused on why there's many different versions of Valve's Proton? The compatibility layer that runs Windows games on Linux / SteamOS and Steam Deck. Here's a little guide on what it all means.
If you take a look at ProtonDB, there are many, many examples of people just saying “switch to Experimental”. If Experimental is changing all the time, then this doesn’t make a lot of sense.
If a fix hasn’t made it to Stable yet, then switching to Experimental is the appropriate action to get the game functioning. Just keep in mind that if a ProtonDB review is old but mentions Experimental, then most likely the fix is in Stable by now and switching to Experimental might not be needed anymore. In those cases I’d try the latest Stable first, and then try Experimental if that doesn’t work for some reason.
Keeping note of specific Proton versions is more important if someone says that an older Proton version works better than new ones for reasons. Or if they’re using a forked version of Proton, like GE-Proton, it’s important because that fork explicitly includes things not in normal Proton, like exotic video format support that Valve can’t normally include for legal reasons.
Thanks.
If you take a look at ProtonDB, there are many, many examples of people just saying “switch to Experimental”. If Experimental is changing all the time, then this doesn’t make a lot of sense.
If a fix hasn’t made it to Stable yet, then switching to Experimental is the appropriate action to get the game functioning. Just keep in mind that if a ProtonDB review is old but mentions Experimental, then most likely the fix is in Stable by now and switching to Experimental might not be needed anymore. In those cases I’d try the latest Stable first, and then try Experimental if that doesn’t work for some reason.
Keeping note of specific Proton versions is more important if someone says that an older Proton version works better than new ones for reasons. Or if they’re using a forked version of Proton, like GE-Proton, it’s important because that fork explicitly includes things not in normal Proton, like exotic video format support that Valve can’t normally include for legal reasons.