It's been a long time coming but with Valve rolling out Proton 4.11 Waves is finally playable on Linux via emulation.

Waves uses DirectX 9c which previously wasn't supported by Proton but 4.11 has added DX9 support finally making this (and presumably many other Unreal 3 based games) playable.

I personally tested it on Ubuntu 18.04 using the latest stable nVidia drivers (430) and it ran buttery smooth with no issues.

This has required no code updates from me so it will not affect anybody already running the game on Windows.

Oh and if you enjoy the game I'd really appreciate it if you check out the Sequel: Waves 2: Notorious which is in Early Access right now. #shamelessplug

https://store.steampowered.com/app/217120/Waves_2_Notorious/