Frequently Asked Questions

VMDB is a free, community-powered compatibility database for games, covering both virtual machines (VMware, VirtualBox, QEMU/KVM, Hyper-V, Parallels) and native Linux gaming via Proton. Users test games in their own setup and share their results, so you know what to expect before you try.

Yes, completely free. No subscription, no paywalls. Browsing reports and submitting your own experience costs nothing.

No. Anyone can search for games and read all community reports without registering.

Yes. VMDB provides a free, read only REST API for developers, tools, and AI agents. It is designed especially for members of the VMDB community who want to use VMDB data with their own tools, assistants, and agents. It requires no account or API key and provides structured access to the same public compatibility data already available on VMDB.

This allows community members to integrate VMDB into their own projects and let their agents query compatibility information directly instead of relying on website scraping. The API includes the game catalogue, compatibility aggregates, VM and Proton report summaries, individual report context, and platform statistics.

Community notes and Proton launch options are available through targeted single report requests and are clearly marked as untrusted user generated content. VMDB account and profile fields are never included, and submissions remain website only.

See the API documentation or the Markdown version for agents.

VMDB combines its original VM compatibility reports with Proton/Linux reports in one place, using the same community and rating system. On each game page, switch between the "VM Reports" and "Proton Reports" tabs. VMDB also includes My Setup, which personalises the reports shown first.

My Setup personalises the reports on every game page. Choose your CPU and GPU manufacturer and anti-cheat preference, then optionally add your VM type, host OS, GPU mode, and guest OS for VM reports, and/or your default Proton version, Linux distro, and display server for Proton reports. VMDB puts reports matching your VM type and GPU mode, or your Proton distro and display server, first; matching hardware, operating systems, and Proton version further refine their order. When you create a report, matching setup fields are also prefilled for you to review and can always be changed for that report. Your anti-cheat preference keeps anti-cheat notices relevant to you but is not copied into reports, since each game may use different anti-cheat software. My Setup also shows a compatibility summary when exact matches are available and can open the report tab you prefer by default. Your setup is stored on your device only after you allow functional storage. When you are logged in, it is also synced to your VMDB account so it can be used on other devices. You can update or clear it at any time.

No, VMDB is closed-source, for a few reasons:

• Protecting the rating system: makes it harder for bad actors to reverse-engineer and game votes and reports, for example bot-driven upvotes or automated spam.
• Protecting the algorithms: the exact logic behind rating calculations, vote weighting, and other core mechanisms took real work to build. The report data itself is open, but not the method behind it, which someone could otherwise copy wholesale into a competing service.
• Keeping abuse-prevention details private: measures like rate limits on votes and flags, spam detection, and ban criteria stay effective only as long as their exact thresholds aren't public knowledge.

The database content itself is fully open though: every report is public and freely browsable.

• Platinum: Runs flawlessly with no tweaks required.
• Gold: Runs well; only minor issues or cosmetic glitches.
• Silver: Runs, but requires workarounds to get it working properly.
• Bronze: Runs, but with notable issues that significantly affect gameplay.
• Borked: Does not run or crashes immediately. The game is unplayable.

Every game has two independent overall ratings: one for VM compatibility and one for Proton compatibility. Each is calculated only from reports of that type. VMDB combines community feedback with report quality and other safeguards to produce a useful overall result. The detailed calculation is intentionally kept private to protect the system from manipulation. Both ratings are recalculated automatically whenever reports or votes change.

Yes. Every new report and every vote can shift the overall rating. If a VM software update improves compatibility, fresh reports will reflect that and the rating may improve.

No. You can submit a report anonymously without registering. However, creating a free account lets you edit your reports later, add new games to the database, and receive notifications.

Yes. On the VM side, you can submit one report per VM type per game, for example a separate report for VMware and another for QEMU/KVM. Proton reports work the same way, one per setup, e.g. a separate report for Proton Experimental and another for Proton-GE. VM and Proton reports are entirely independent of each other, so you can submit both for the same game.

Immediately. There is no moderation queue: your report is public as soon as it is submitted. Quality is managed retroactively through the voting and flagging system.

You can submit reports for VMware, VirtualBox, QEMU/KVM, Hyper-V, Parallels, and Other. If your VM software isn't listed, choose "Other" and describe it in the notes.

The Proton Version field is free text with autocomplete suggestions pulled from the latest official Proton and Proton-GE releases, so unusual, older, or custom builds (Proton-TKG, self-compiled, EOL versions) are still valid answers, not just what's suggested. Distro is a fixed list covering the most popular gaming distros right now: Arch and its derivatives (CachyOS, Garuda, EndeavourOS, Manjaro), Ubuntu-based distros, Fedora, gaming-focused distros like Bazzite and Nobara, and SteamOS. Pick "Other" and mention yours in the notes if it isn't listed.

Yes, if you submitted while logged in. Visit the game's page, find your report, and click the Edit button. You can still edit a report you chose to display anonymously while logged in. Reports submitted as a guest cannot be edited after submission.

You need a verified account to add new games. After registering and verifying your email, you can add a game via the Steam import tool, which automatically fills in the title, developer, and other metadata from Steam.

Be as specific as possible. Mention what worked, what didn't, and any steps you took to get the game running. The dedicated fields (Anti-Cheat, Graphics, Performance, Input, Required Tweaks, and General) help other users find the information most relevant to them.

Keeping the barrier to entry low is intentional: the more reports, the more useful the database. Quality is managed through the voting system: inaccurate or unhelpful reports get downvoted and carry less weight, while well-received reports rise to the top.

GPU passthrough is a technique where a physical GPU is assigned directly to a virtual machine, giving it near-native graphics performance. It is most commonly used with QEMU/KVM on Linux hosts. Without passthrough, the VM relies on emulated or virtual graphics, which is usually too slow for 3D games.

GPU passthrough dedicates an entire physical GPU exclusively to one VM. vGPU (Virtual GPU) splits one physical GPU into multiple virtual slices that can be shared across several VMs simultaneously. This is typically found in professional/server hardware like NVIDIA vGPU-capable cards.

It depends on your setup and operating system. QEMU/KVM with GPU passthrough on Linux generally offers the strongest gaming performance. VMware Workstation is a common choice on Windows and Linux, while VMware Fusion and Parallels are designed for macOS. Parallels is particularly well optimised for Apple Silicon. Check the reports for a specific game to see which setups other users have had success with.

Many games use anti-cheat systems (e.g. Easy Anti-Cheat, BattlEye, Vanguard) or DRM that actively detect virtualization and block the game from starting. This is the most common cause of a Borked rating. Some can be bypassed with advanced configuration; the "Required Tweaks" and "Anti-Cheat" note fields in reports often contain useful workarounds.

Proton is Valve's compatibility layer (built on Wine) that lets Windows games run natively on Linux, most famously powering the Steam Deck. VMDB tracks how well individual games run through it, separately from VM compatibility, since it's a fundamentally different technique.

A VM fully virtualizes a guest OS (often Windows) inside your host OS, so the game thinks it's running on real Windows hardware. Proton instead translates Windows API calls to Linux equivalents in real time, so the game runs directly on Linux without a second OS underneath it. Proton is typically faster and lighter than a VM, but compatibility varies game by game, which is exactly what the Proton reports on VMDB track.

It depends entirely on the game and anti-cheat vendor. Some, like Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye, offer opt-in Linux/Proton support that the game's developer has to enable. When they do, many games work fine. Others, like Riot's Vanguard, block Linux environments outright, with no workaround possible. Check a game's Proton reports and the Anti-Cheat note field before buying if this matters to you.

Official Proton ships with Steam and is maintained by Valve and CodeWeavers. Proton-GE (GloriousEggroll) is a popular community fork that often includes extra patches, codecs, and game-specific fixes ahead of the official release, useful for games that don't work on stock Proton yet. Both are valid answers in the Proton Version field.

Officially, yes. Proton ships with Steam's Linux client and is enabled per-game in each game's Compatibility settings. Community tools like Lutris or Bottles can also run Proton (or Wine) for non-Steam games, but that's a different setup than what a typical VMDB Proton report assumes, so mention it in your notes if that's what you used.

Upvoting a report marks it as helpful and accurate. Downvoting marks it as inaccurate or unhelpful. The vote score is displayed publicly on the report, and reports with a higher score carry more weight when calculating a game's overall rating. This ensures the most trusted reports have the greatest influence.

Yes. Voting requires a registered account that is at least 7 days old to help prevent abuse. Registration is free.

Every report has a Flag button. Click it, choose the reason (e.g. inaccurate information, spam, or wrong game), and optionally add details. The moderation team will review flagged reports and remove them if they violate the community guidelines.

The flag is sent to the moderation team for review. If you submitted it while logged in, you will receive an in-app notification when it is reviewed. You can also enable email notifications for flag reviews in your profile settings. Guest submissions cannot receive a follow-up. If a report is removed, it disappears from the listing without a public notice.

Email verification is required to add new games to the database. You can browse reports and submit reports without verification, but adding games is restricted to verified accounts to reduce spam.

Yes, two ways. VMDB supports passkeys (Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello, or a hardware security key) for both registration and login. Choose "Prefer a passkey instead of a password?" when creating an account, or "Sign in with Passkey" on the login page. You can also sign in with your Discord account. Either way, you can still use a traditional password if you prefer.

Yes. Use "Sign in with Discord" (or "Sign up with Discord" when registering) to create or access your account using your Discord identity instead of a password. You can also connect or disconnect Discord from an existing account at any time in your profile settings. We only request your Discord user ID, username, and email address, and nothing else on your Discord account is accessed.

Yes. In your profile settings you can request a full export of all data associated with your account, including your reports and profile information. Since this is a sensitive action, you'll first need to re-confirm your password or passkey. A download link is then emailed to you. It expires after 10 minutes and can only be used once, so request a fresh one if it lapses.

Yes. After re-confirming your password or passkey, you can delete your account from your profile settings. Your account is deactivated immediately and your submitted reports remain on the platform but become anonymous. Your personal data (name and email) is then kept in a deactivated state for up to 2 years before being permanently and automatically erased, in line with GDPR data retention requirements.

You will be notified when the moderation team reviews a report you flagged, sends you a message about one of your reports, publishes an admin announcement, or replies to a support ticket. There are no automatic notifications for votes on your own reports or for new reports by other users. You can choose which categories are also delivered by email in your profile settings.