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Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds

(arstechnica.com)
402 points _JamesA_ | 2 comments | 25 Jun 25 19:40 UTC | HN request time: 0.57s | source
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PaulHoule ◴[25 Jun 25 19:52 UTC] No.44381245[source]▶
Might be unfair to call Proton a "translation layer" because the Win32 API is not defined in terms of system calls but rather a set of functions exported from a DLL.

Proton supplies a DLL that implements the Win32 API using Linux syscalls. Windows supplies a DLL that implements that Win32 API using Windows syscalls that you're not really supposed to use directly.

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1. anthk ◴[26 Jun 25 09:52 UTC] No.44385780[source]▶
Wine/Proton it's just another Win32 implementation for Unix. Win32 it's a subsystem on top of Windows NT too.
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2. WorldMaker ◴[26 Jun 25 16:09 UTC] No.44388737[source]▶
Also, most games are still 32-bit EXEs, so on most PCs today they are running not just in the Win32 subsystem, but the WOW64 subsystem (Windows-on-Windows 64) the compatibility layer of running 32-bit Windows applications on top of 64-bit Windows and its Win32 subsystem (it's still called Win32 on 64-bit, an unfortunate naming bug from massive compatibility break differences between Win16 and Win32 that didn't exist in the 64-bit transition, 64-bit didn't get a new API subsystem, it just upgraded the existing one, mostly).