How feasible is Linux support in the future?

[ZippyZolton]

I recently made the switch to Linux and I was wondering how feasible using this with Wine or Proton would be in the future when this is more complete. It seems that there has been decent progress with WinRT to the point where some people are saying apps work, but since I can't find any concrete evidence I wanted to ask here since this would be what I'd be doing most with UWPs. What roadblocks might there be to (currently) running WinDurango with a game on Linux? Would the compatibility layer on Linux have to explicitly work with d3d11_x? Is there something unique about Xbox UWPs that have to be explicitly implemented? Not the greatest questions, but I wanted to at least start the topic.

[JanluOfficial]

My assumption is that it could one day be possible, but take at least one or two years. As of now, there is no fully functional translation layer that allows running UWP (Universal Windows Platform) apps on Linux in the same way Wine enables running classic Win32 apps. This would definitely one of, if not the biggest issue.

As for Direct3D 11X (d3d11_x), every instruction would have to be translated to a different renderer like Vulkan or OpenGL (though preferably the first one for performance). Valve already does this with Proton for regular DirectX 11 and I think DirectX 12 games, but since Direct 3D11X differs from regular Direct3D 11, it's not unreasonable that the entire translation layer would need a rewrite, or that you need to shove a translation layer in front of the existing Direct3D 11 to Vulkan translator.

I would love to see regular UWP apps in general run on Linux one day, but we're far away from that, and Xbox One games running on Linux is going to be even further away.

[DaZombieKiller]

Linux support is possible (we implemented it in XWine1, another Xbox One translation layer), but it is by no means trivial to implement. You essentially need to reimplement the WinRT and UWP infrastructure in terms of Win32 (ensuring you only use APIs that are also implemented in Wine). Wine has next to nothing for you to rely on as far as WinRT/UWP goes, so you have to implement everything yourself.

[DexrnZacAttack]

When XWine1 gets released, will the WinRT compat impl be turned into it's own project?
That would benefit the Linux (and macOS) community a lot, and I'm sure is part of the reason why some people haven't switched from Windows.

[DaZombieKiller]

It's not currently planned. UWP on Xbox is not the same as UWP on desktop, so they would essentially be different projects.

[ZippyZolton]

Thanks for the clarification!