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[SOLVED] Unity games downloaded from Steam not working on Linux Mint (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by biofaust@lemmy.world to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.world
17 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Since a few weeks my Unity games are not working anymore on Steam (not flatpak) on Linux Mint.

I have tried Stick It to the Stickman, Olija and Dystopika. They all behave the same, with the audio starting playing fine, but still on a black screen. After that, nothing happens and even trying to switch window doesn't work or is extremely slow, requiring a few minutes to have anything happening.

Adding the same games to another launcher (Heroic), makes them work a bit, but eventually they stop at some loading screen and remain there forever.

I am on the latest OS version, I have the latest proprietary drivers from Nvidia, I have tried switching Proton versions and my GOG Unity games all work fine on Heroic.

I don't know if there are any logs I can submit, but I am all ears for any suggestions.

UPDATE: Solved! The problem was with the fractional scaling feature in Cinnamon. Once disabled, everything went back to work perfectly.

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[–] tal@lemmy.today 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Typically when (some) 3D games don't work, I've found that 3D library support for one of the 32-bit or 64-bit binaries isn't present

Steam relies on the systemwide libraries

and the game bails or tries to do software rendering. I've hit some other users on here who have had the same issue.

It looks like the full versions of those are all run through Proton, are Windows binaries, though there are Linux-native demo binaries.

I have Dystopika myself.

installs

$ file Dystopika.exe 
Dystopika.exe: PE32+ executable for MS Windows 6.00 (GUI), x86-64, 7 sections
$

So probably 64-bit.

There's some environment variable that will force Proton to use the older Direct3D backend based on OpenGL (WineD3D) instead of Vulkan (DXVK). Let me see if I can find that.

searches

You want:

PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%

In the Steam launch properties for the game; that'll force it to use OpenGL instead of Vulkan. Here, it will run with or without it. Does that magically make it work?

One useful tool for debugging 3D issues is mangohud. If you stick it in the Steam launch properties before "%command%" and it can display anything at all, it'll show an overlay showing which API (WineD3D or DXVK) is being used as well as what the rendering device being used is, which will let you know whether it's trying to render using software or hardware. So MANGOHUD_CONFIG=full mangohud %command%.

On my system, Dystopika appears able to render in pure software (not at a great framerate, mind):

PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 MANGOHUD_CONFIG=full mangohud %command%

So I don't know if it'd be falling back to software causing that. Rendering in software is listed in the mangohud overlay as being "llvmpipe".

Another way to check that each path functions is to run the following programs, see if they display correctly and at a reasonable clip. They're in the mesa-utils-bin:i386 and mesa-utils-bin:amd64 packages on Debian, so probably same for Mint:

$ glxgears.i386-linux-gnu
$ glxgears.x86_64-linux-gnu
$ vkgears.i386-linux-gnu
$ vkgears.x86_64-linux-gnu

That'll be a simple test of all of the OpenGL and Vulkan 32-bit and 64-bit interfaces.

[–] ArgentRaven@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Whether this fixes the OPs issue or not, this is a valuable post and my future self thanks you for making it as I'm sure I'll hit similar problems eventually. And I thank you now!

[–] Auster@thebrainbin.org 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Heroic has a log tab in the settings iirc. Also this same log is generated when running from the terminal. You can launch them from Wine or forks, or through steam steam://launch/appid_goes_here/Dialog

[–] biofaust@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I could start the games using steam steam://launch/appid_goes_here/Dialog, getting the same experience, but nothing was printed in the terminal and I cannot find any log files.

[–] rem26_art@fedia.io 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

for Steam, you can right click the game, go to Properties, and under Launch Command, enter PROTON_LOG=1 %command%, then run the game to have it generate a log file in you home folder that will have the appid in the filename.

Are you running the games on the default Steam Proton version, or have you tried other versions, like GE-Proton/Proton-cachyOS?

[–] biofaust@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I have tried experimental, hotfix and running them in Heroic uses GE, which may account for the slightly better experience.

Doing a fresh install on Steam on my Ubuntu laptop runs Olija no problem. I have no dedicated graphics on that laptop so running the others is pointless.

[–] rem26_art@fedia.io 2 points 6 days ago

Hmm maybe there's something off with a recent GPU driver update? If anything, maybe try an older version of Proton, like Proton-9.0-4. That should be one of the I think there was a minor update to Proton-10.0 at least a few weeks ago, maybe it's not playing nice with something on your system? idk

[–] nublug@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

you can exit steam entirely, launch steam from a terminal with the 'steam' command, then try to launch the game, tab out, and see what errors pop up in that terminal's live feed of steam's logs.

you can do the same with heroic, prolly. don't think i remember ever having to, tho.

[–] biofaust@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

I did that. The games started in the same problematic way, but no logs appeared in the terminal. I also tried with /Dialog after the app ID.

[–] Ordoviz@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Logs are probably in ~/.config/unity3d/. If not, check https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/

[–] biofaust@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

No logs there nor in the directories shown on the Wiki.

[–] ogeist@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Can you tell me which Nvidia card you have? Your comment "since a few weeks" makes me wonder, were all working fine before?

If your other games in GOG work then you could try disabling the Steam Runtime environment. In my computer I would be using Steamtinkerlaunch for that, so you could try it.

[–] biofaust@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Thanks, I will try.

After I posted I also tried Olija on my Ubuntu laptop and it works just fine, so it seems to be something with my machine.

I have an RTX 4060Ti, I tried looking for driver updates, but it is on the latest.

On the Steam forums though, they found I am on an old BIOS and a slightly older Linux kernel (6.8 instead of 6.14).

Could it be that?

[–] ogeist@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Might as well be, are you in an older Linux Mint version? Although if the Heroic games are running fine there shouldn't be a problem.

Btw, if you run steam from the terminal you can probably see if there are some errors reported when running the game.

You might also try running your game through gamescope that might work even faster.

[–] Cort@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

Isn't heroic still running on a depreciated flatpak framework? I remember something about them using the old framework so that steaminput runs correctly. I think the beta version of heroic is recommended if the game doesn't launch.

Just going off of a vague memory from a few months ago, so I could be totally wrong.