Google will hold a session at its Google for Games Developer Summit on the technology it has developed to run unmodified Windows games on Stadia. Judging by the title of the session, it is a Windows emulator for Linux.
During a session on the Cloud Games and Infrastructure Track on March 15, Google will clarify how the company can run unmodified Windows games on Stadia. Marcin Undak of the Stadia Porting Platform conducts the session entitled ‘How to write a Windows emulator for Linux from scratch?’
Google’s Stadia platform runs on Linux, and developers must port games to Linux to make them available through the service. It is unclear what role technology will play in Google’s plans for Stadia. There have been reports for some time that Google is adjusting its strategy with Stadia and wanting to offer the service as a white label product to third parties, who can then use the streaming capabilities for their own offering.
There are multiple ways to run Windows games on Linux. For example, Valve has developed its own compatibility layer called Proton. The company has adapted the Wine software for this. For example, thousands of Windows games can run on Valve’s SteamOS, which is also based on Linux. The implementations of DirectX 11 and 12 at Proton are based on Vulkan, with DXVK and vkd3d providing compatibility with Direct3D 11 and 12 respectively.