Valve has announced a new version of Steam Play that allows Linux users to play Windows games on Linux called Proton. Proton is based on Wine, which is a Windows-to-Linux compatibility layer and will also DXVK, the Direct3D-to-Vulkan wrapper. Some more details are below:

As a result of this work, today we are releasing the Beta of a new and improved version of Steam Play to all Linux users! It includes a modified distribution of Wine, called Proton, to provide compatibility with Windows game titles. Here are some of the improvements it brings to the table:

• Windows games with no Linux version currently available can now be installed and run directly from the Linux Steam client, complete with native Steamworks and OpenVR support.
• DirectX 11 and 12 implementations are now based on Vulkan, resulting in improved game compatibility and reduced performance impact.
• Fullscreen support has been improved: fullscreen games will be seamlessly stretched to the desired display without interfering with the native monitor resolution or requiring the use of a virtual desktop.
• Improved game controller support: games will automatically recognize all controllers supported by Steam. Expect more out-of-the-box controller compatibility than even the original version of the game.
• Performance for multi-threaded games has been greatly improved compared to vanilla Wine.

This is actually pretty big, wine has really come a long way.

Thanks for sharing this message.
Well, I am playing my games on Windows only, but good to know for the future purpose.

Sounds pretty cool, question is, when they say Windows games, are they just referring to the DX12 games? Or the actual Win10 X1 games? Because from as far as i know, Win10 games require an Xbox Live account and Win10. Might be worthless if X1 Win10 games are not compatible.