Linux Version 2.3 (b9) Vulkan support is broken (Proton)

Version
v2.3 (b9)
Platform
Linux
Upon launching the game with Vulkan — running under Proton Experimental on Linux — the game freezes completely before it can reach the main menu.

Some additional information:

• The game does not provide logs in the corresponding folder — not the data folder, nor the unity3d folder.
• It worked fine on version 2.2, only breaking after updating to version 2.3
• The game launches normally without Proton while using Vulkan; however the native version's performance is atrocious and unplayable
• The game also freezes while using Proton 9.0-4 — it also does not provide a log in the corresponding folder
• The game crashes while using Proton 8.0-5 — once again, it does not provide a log in the corresponding folder
• The game launches fine under both DirectX 11 & GLCore
 
Reproduction Steps
Launch the game with Vulkan, using Proton Experimental and running Linux.

Launcher settings are as follows:

• Graphics Jobs enabled
• Exclusive Fullscreen Mode disabled
• EAC disabled
• Use Native Input Module disabled
• Vulkan as the renderer

The game proceeds to freeze before reaching the main menu.
Link to Logs
https://community.thefunpimps.com/forums/bugs-7dtd/post-thread
Link to Screenshot/Video
https://imgur.com/a/gmv0lOb
As mentioned in the report, the native version's performance is atrocious and unplayable. That isn't the point of the post either: the point is what worked flawlessly in v2.2 no longer works in v2.3.

Yes, but we are assuming that the company won't support any bugfixing in respect to proton when they already have a solution, a native client, supported. Most other game companies do not officially support proton even without a native client and I bet you won't find any at all that has a native client already to do that support.

Meanwhile I have been playing with the native version and vulkan for years now and the performance was always good, even though it was always called experimental support. I did not check out 2.3 yet though. Can you give us FPS numbers, and the hardware specifics?

I have an AMD GPU though and I think I heard different reports about nvidia vulkan support being "spotty". So I assume you have an nvidia card? Maybe try an older driver and see if it changes anything. Or turn off some graphics features, maybe the performace drag is just from some specific function in the driver.

By the way, I think I had "Graphics Jobs" disabled, it wasn't working for me on linux
 
Yes, but we are assuming that the company won't support any bugfixing in respect to proton when they already have a solution, a native client, supported. Most other game companies do not officially support proton even without a native client and I bet you won't find any at all that has a native client already to do that support.

Meanwhile I have been playing with the native version and vulkan for years now and the performance was always good, even though it was always called experimental support. I did not check out 2.3 yet though. Can you give us FPS numbers, and the hardware specifics?

I have an AMD GPU though and I think I heard different reports about nvidia vulkan support being "spotty". So I assume you have an nvidia card? Maybe try an older driver and see if it changes anything. Or turn off some graphics features, maybe the performace drag is just from some specific function in the driver.

By the way, I think I had "Graphics Jobs" disabled, it wasn't working for me on linux
Thanks for the reply.

I tried disabling Graphics Jobs on the native client and the performance increased from being completely unplayable to being semi-playable.
Using Vulkan, it hovers unstably around 70-80FPS with incessant micro-stuttering. Prior to disabling Graphics Jobs, there would be massive stutters when moving the player character or rotating the camera. While using Proton with Vulkan (v2.2) the performance was incredibly stable and usually hovered around 120-140FPS.

Hardware specifications:

CPU: Ryzen 9 5900X
GPU: Radeon RX 6800XT
RAM: 32GB, DDR4 3600 MHz
 
Thanks for the reply.

I tried disabling Graphics Jobs on the native client and the performance increased from being completely unplayable to being semi-playable.
Using Vulkan, it hovers unstably around 70-80FPS with incessant micro-stuttering. Prior to disabling Graphics Jobs, there would be massive stutters when moving the player character or rotating the camera. While using Proton with Vulkan (v2.2) the performance was incredibly stable and usually hovered around 120-140FPS.

Hardware specifications:

CPU: Ryzen 9 5900X
GPU: Radeon RX 6800XT
RAM: 32GB, DDR4 3600 MHz
Now I am curious.

What flavor of Linux are you using?

I've used Debian 12, and Ubuntu 22.04 and not had this issue. My hardware isn't that different.

R9 5950X
RX 7800XT
32GB DDR4 3600MHz
 
Thanks for the reply.

I tried disabling Graphics Jobs on the native client and the performance increased from being completely unplayable to being semi-playable.
Using Vulkan, it hovers unstably around 70-80FPS with incessant micro-stuttering. Prior to disabling Graphics Jobs, there would be massive stutters when moving the player character or rotating the camera. While using Proton with Vulkan (v2.2) the performance was incredibly stable and usually hovered around 120-140FPS.

Hardware specifications:

CPU: Ryzen 9 5900X
GPU: Radeon RX 6800XT
RAM: 32GB, DDR4 3600 MHz

I had those stutters as well, but only sometimes after at least an hour of playing.
 
Now I am curious.

What flavor of Linux are you using?

I've used Debian 12, and Ubuntu 22.04 and not had this issue. My hardware isn't that different.

R9 5950X
RX 7800XT
32GB DDR4 3600MHz
I'm currently using Arch Linux — kernel 6.16.5.

What is your performance like on the native client running Debian/Ubuntu?
 
Arch has always had issues.

I'm getting 100FPS average at 1440p with FSR3 and Ultra settings.
Interesting. I suppose I'm kind of boned then unless I figure out what the problem is or the Proton situation gets fixed. Really strange how it suddenly stopped working for Vulkan in particular.
 
Interesting. I suppose I'm kind of boned then unless I figure out what the problem is or the Proton situation gets fixed. Really strange how it suddenly stopped working for Vulkan in particular.
Just curious, did you try adding --force-vulkan in the Launch Options?
 
Yeah, I just tried — it exhibits the same behaviour as before.
Did you check the Proton database website for help? (protondb.com)
If you search for 7 Days to Die, lots of users posts how they were able to make the game work under different situations.
Maybe you will find a solution there?
 
I seem to have narrowed it down somewhat. I decided to switch to an X11 session, and it appears to work now.

Not sure what the problem is with Wayland, or if anyone else has the same issue — but swapping seems to have solved it for me.
Under Wayland, v2.2 runs fine — it's just v2.3 which has issues.
 
This talk got me nervous, so I played the current version for 5 hours. I had around 170 FPS with Full-HD and some graphics options off. With ryzen 7 5800x3d, radeon 6700xt, ubuntu 22.04/wayland/ . 7days native with vulkan

No stutter even after 5 hours. Vulkan and native game work perfectly well on my machine
 
I seem to have narrowed it down somewhat. I decided to switch to an X11 session, and it appears to work now.

Not sure what the problem is with Wayland, or if anyone else has the same issue — but swapping seems to have solved it for me.
Under Wayland, v2.2 runs fine — it's just v2.3 which has issues.
Wayland has always had these issues. It's public, but still very much in Alpha development.
 
Further update: Vulkan runs fine under both Wayland and Proton if exclusive fullscreen is enabled.

I doubt anyone else has the same issue, but if they do they can try enabling exclusive fullscreen to skirt around it.
 
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