The Witcher 3 (292030)

[StructByLightning]

1. Rotfiends are invisible. Still present with Nvidia 396.
2. The Wild Hunt hounds (battle in the elven ruins with Keira Metz) are invisible.
3. When in bordered window mode (1600x900), alt-tabbing out of the window works. However, the mouse cursor occasionally reverts back to the Witcher cursor if the Witcher window is underneath the foremost window. When it does this, the Witcher window does not have focus and I can't click on the foremost window. Still present with Nvidia 396.
4. Clicking to focus on the Witcher window works, but the cursor is no longer locked to the window. Minimizing the Witcher window and then bringing it back up temporarily solves the issue. Still present with Nvidia 396. However, if you click the black menu (but not on a button) when clicking to focus the Witcher window, the cursor will become locked again once you resume the game. Super weird. I don't think it worked that way before. The menu fix doesn't always work either.
5. Audio occasionally becomes staticky and distorted. Restarting the game fixes the issue.
6. Some buttons have weird hit boxes. For example, the slider to bet during a Gwent game requires you to click below the graphic. Still present with Nvidia 396.

[kisak-valve]

Hello @StructByLightning, please copy your system information from steam (Steam -> Help -> System Information) and put it in a gist, then include a link to the gist in this issue report. Also, are you testing the GOTY edition?

[StructByLightning]

Link. I don't think I'm using the GOTY version. I think I bought the base game first and then the expansion pass, but I don't remember for sure. Is there a way to tell? In my library it's titled "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt".

[kisak-valve]

You may see better behavior with nvidia 396.51 or newer.

[StructByLightning]

Updated and you're right. Performance is much better, I'm staying locked at 60FPS nearly constantly now, with the occasional momentary drop to 50. I'll edit my original post as I find out which issues still apply.

[Warrengbrn]

My performance seems to be about 70% of what I get on windows 10. The frame rates are playable, but the frame times spike up very high every couple of seconds making navigating around the map a choppy experience. Every red tick on the graph was a moment where the game stuttered briefly.

Ubuntu 18.04
Ryzen 1700
GTX 1070 with driver 396.54

[ArekPiekarz]

@Warrengbrn What software are you using to display these stats? Or are they built into the game?

[SamStrongg]

Rotfiends are invisible because Stream Output is not supported by Vulkan.
doitsujin/dxvk#135

[valeth]

@ArekPiekarz Those can be enabled for DXVK via an environment variable
https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk#hud

[Warrengbrn]

@ArekPiekarz

/home/'user'/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/'Proton folder'

Rename user_settings.sample.py to user_settings.py and you can configure the performance hud from that file with the comments listed in the link @valeth sent.

[ghost]

Nvidia HairWorks does not work.

[Jimmy1500]

Nvidia HairWorks worked for a week after updated Nvidia driver to 396.54 then stop working.

OS: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Graphic card: Geforce GTX 1070 (driver 396.54)
CPU: i7-8700 @ 3.70 Ghz

[ahallrq]

Is anyone else having no audio at all with TW3? I'm not sure if I've somehow mangled my audio or something but the game plays no sound whatsoever.

Fedora 28
Ryzen 7 1700 / GTX 1080 (driver 396.45) - probably not relevant but whatever
pulseaudio 12.1-1, alsa-lib 1.1.6-2

[triffid]

Audio works fine for me on both Mint 18.3 and Gentoo..

I am suddenly having a weird issue though, last night TW3 worked fine but today it deadlocks a few seconds after loading my game.. I have to force kill it to regain control of my desktop

Doesn't do that in Wine-3.15+dxvk-0.71, but the performance is much poorer for some reason.

Log attached, freeze happens at time ~49412 where it starts loading and unloading dinput a few times. Using Proton 3.7-6 Beta
steam-292030.log

[Tuuvimer]

Audio will corrupt occasionally, restart of game 'fixes' it.
Invisible enemies are not just related to vulkan stream output not supported (doitsujin/dxvk#135), there's also some oddities occuring when running with wined3d (some rotfiends are invisible, others are not, hounds of the hunt are invisible, in both dxvk and wined3d).

Odd keyboard inconsistencies when running with vulkan compared to PROTON_USE_WINED3D11=1 mode - I'd like someone to confirm or reject this:

In the game context, casting a spell is by pressing Q, once an 'alternative spell mode' is active and equipped, you hold Q to cast the alternative mode. When I run in wined3d mode, this works. When I run without it (dxvk/vulkan translation), for some reason this doesn't work. While holding the key, it just casts it normally. Tested so far is window vs fullscreen vs borderless etc, no change. (there are no ingame key bind options for changing this, unless I missed it)

Update: I ended up reproducing an old game bug that's still around.
Reference and fix: CD Project Red forum thread on it.

Adding a 'bug' here, I don't know what it is but it's consistent (on my system):
Running the game through the steam client will at some point reach a state that I thought initially was a memory leak (jittery/laggy fps that never clears). Config file settings for increasing memory/texture memory didn't make any difference. It always happens (no exceptions), during a long play session.

In an attempt to track down at least a nice error log, I then ran it with PROTON_DUMP_DEBUG_COMMANDS=1 %command%, and ran it via the run script it generates. The 'problem' was, it never occurs again. I then played about 20 (?) combined hours with it using the run script, never happens. Figuring a sneak update and bad timing on my part, I ran it in the steam client interface again, just now. 'Bug' hit about 20 minutes in.

There's an FPS drop (towards needing a restart to clear, not something you'd want to play with) due to unknown reasons that only occurs when running it through the steam client at random times (20 minutes in if you're lucky, looking to find it, or an hour or more in), that does not appear at all when running it in a terminal with the run script generated through the debug command option.

Something about what steam hooks into it, or the steam API <-> proton <-> this game? I'm clueless.
(Steam Beta client, have not tested this in non-beta)

[StructByLightning]

I get the staticky audio corruption bug too.

I'm not sure what my settings are but under the default plug and play I can use the normal mode and alt mode just fine.

[ahallrq]

@triffid @Tuuvimer Cheers for the responses. Seems as it may just be an issue with my setup as it now appears to happen in some other games. Maybe a bug in Fedora or something. That said, when I do get sound in TW3 it's not too staticy and I haven't gotten any major audio corruption yet.

[ghost]

The Earth Elemental (Contract: Doors Slamming Shut) is invisible.

[michaldybczak]

Audio will corrupt occasionally, restart of game 'fixes' it.

It happens to me sometimes too and I noticed, it's a depends on... Steam Controller being on. When I disable Steam Controller, restart steam, launch the game, sound issue is gone and then I can enable Steam Controller again. Weirdly enough, this happens only rarely. For the most time, Steam Controller or Big Picture Mode are fine and are not causing a sound issue. So all in all, this is an easy workaround.

My experience with Witcher 3 is:

• I have in average 20% lower FPS than on Win10, which is expected by dxvk so it's all right
• lags can happen sometimes but it's a matter of hardware catching up, so that's not a software related in my case, 99% of time game is fluent and 100% playable with ultra settings on gtx 970M (Manjaro), which is subjectively comparable to windows, so it's almost like native-like experience, when one forgets stats and some minor bugs
• nvidia hairworks don't work, not a big deal in the end effect, it would be nice if it worked but it's not crucial
• some monsters are invisible, also not a big deal, they can still be easily defeated, so for me, those are high-level earth elementals (low-level ones are visible) and sirens. Maybe once or twice, I had some other rare monster being invisible. Other than that it's all fine.
• in some locations water animation glitches, so I can see straight cracks of the surface and beneath is as there was no water, but for most of the time water is rendered correctly
• the game may freeze but that happened twice for a 2-week gameplay so that's like a non-issue

In my opinion, the game is perfectly playable on Proton. There are some glitches here and there that may be ironed out with time but all in all, it's a fantastic experience.

[triffid]

I use neither steam controller nor big picture mode, and my sound will become gritty and echoey after several hours of gameplay (exact time varies). Simply restarting TW3 fixes it.

The sound issue is thus not related to steam controller or steam big picture mode.

[michaldybczak]

@triffid, then we have different sound issues. Once the game launches with correct sound, it stays ok all the time.
It would be nice to see if some kind of bugs happen more often on certain distros then others. This could tell us if the issue is with package versions.
From what I saw, Ubuntu users on average have more issues with Witcher 3 than Arch/Manjaro ones but that may be a flawed observation.

[ghost]

• Trees shake too much in Linux
• Higher GPU fan noise in Linux compared to Windows (GPU: R9 390, FPS: locked at 30)

[Jimmy1500]

Regarding the staticky audio corruption issue, here is what I found:

1. Playing a game session continuously for extended period of time (more than 2-3 hours for me, but I imagine this can vary depending on the machine) consistently reproduces the issue.
2. Same issue can be reliably reproduced using the method above in more than one games (Witcher 3, Endless Space 2)
3. Like many people mentioned before, for both games in which I found the issue, it can be reliably "resolved" (temporarily at least) by restarting the game session one way or another, until the ongoing session lasted extended period of time again.

If I am to take a wild guess, it sure feels like some kind of memory buffer overflow problem to me.

Peripheries of my machine:
Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS
GeForce GTX 1080 Driver Version: 396.54
Intel i7-8700

[michaldybczak]

The audio issue seems to be gone. Anyway, on Manjaro I haven't experienced the audio problem since I described it here (23 days ago). I was playing quite often recently (just finished the game) and audio was fine. There were so many Witcher 3, Steam and Proton updates so I assumed this problem was fixed during one of them.

Also, it looks like the problem was not identical to all people. For me, it was quite opposite to what was described above. The issue happened only at the beginning, but when I managed to run the game correctly, it was just fine no matter how long the game was on. But the sounds were "staticky" so the description is accurate.

So basically the only issue left for me was the lack of some monsters or even faces (rarely). The water issue was gone as well.

Once in a while game crashed after a load but as I recall games in overall were also crashy on Windows, so one crash for 2 days is not standing out ;) - everything within a norm IMO.

In general Witcher 3 runs great. Just fix the missing textures bug and all is fine.

[doitsujin]

@michaldybczak what "missing textures" bug? That description is rather ambiguous, people call literally everything "missing textures".

Invisible monsters should be fixed with Proton 3.16 if you have a Vulkan driver that supports the new Transform Feedback extension.

[michaldybczak]

Missing textures aka invisible monsters (sometimes vampire faces).

Thanks for the info about when the bug will be squashed. I use Manjaro so I will rather have a driver that will support it, providing the driver support for it will show at the same time.

[hswhite33]

My $0.02 using Proton 3.16-1 beta

• Mouse sensitivity is unplayably high - moving the mouse the smallest amount possible to the left or right spins the camera almost 360 degrees (with the in-game mouse sensitivity turned down to the minimum). For reference I'm using a Logitech G502 and I've tested at 125Hz and 1000Hz polling rates and a range of DPI settings
• FPS is noticeably lower than in Windows, but still playable
• Geralt's hair doesn't render

I would have tested some more (combat, etc) but the mouse issue makes it completely unplayable. Worth mentioning that this particular issue did not occur in Proton 3.7

System info

[tomaszg7]

It won't start for me with Proton 3.16-1 beta and Nvidia 410.57. Worked quite well with older version.

[HanPrower]

Proton 3.16-1 beta works well for me and everything seems to be rendering everything correctly after patching mesa with the RADV patches for VK_EXT_transform_feedback.

Like others, however, I do get the sound going crackly sometimes. Sometimes after hours of play, sometimes only in cutscenes, sometimes only on the main menu. Relaunching the game sometimes fixes the issue, sometimes the issue just moves to another part of the game.

I haven't figured out any specific reason, or any events that cause it.

System Info

[1basti1]

Try protonGE 8-17 that worked flawlessly and let me finish the game.

[nshank63]

Okay I'll try it after work thanks. I just install it like I would the latest Proton GE? I.e. using protonup-qt?

[1basti1]

Yes, you can choose what version you want to install. And 8-17 was published right at the time when stock proton 8.0-4 released and that works.

[nshank63]

okay I'll give it a shot and report back in about 8 hours

[nshank63]

Do we know if this is only happening on OLED steam decks? I have an OLED and some people above mentioned they have an OLED.

Someone on reddit said he has been playing Witcher 3 DX12 for many hours the last few days on an LCD deck and doesn't have any freezing issues in the menu.

[1basti1]

I mean I still had a couple crashes but no freezes. Mostly because of some depth of field effects I think. fyi

I also use OLED. No idea if LCD has the same problems.

[1basti1]

Ah no.. @Mohandevir wrote that he uses an LCD deck

#607 (comment)

[Mohandevir]

Got the exact same freeze on stock lcd Deck and PC with Holoiso. Solved it with Proton 8.4-GE. Le mar. 13 févr. 2024, 9 h 37 a.m., nshank63 ***@***.***> a écrit :

…

Do we know if this is only happening on OLED steam decks? I have an OLED and some people above mentioned they have an OLED. Someone on reddit said he has been playing Witcher 3 DX12 for many hours the last few days on an LCD deck and doesn't have any freezing issues in the menu. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#607 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABQFRY7TE5BP67WRZXF2MSLYTN3CBAVCNFSM4FRSLUZ2U5DIOJSWCZC7NNSXTN2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQ5TCOJUGE3DKNBSGU4A> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[nshank63]

thanks. so strange. Between this and the mass effect legendary edition no longer working on steam deck since the latest EA update its like the universe doesn't want me to play my favorite games lol.

I'll try the proton versions suggested later today hopefully they resolve my issue as they did yours.

[matheusfaustino]

I can also testify that Proton 8.4-GE is the only version (with HDR support) that works. If I use DX12 with a proton version without HDR, it also works without issue. The problem starts to happen when I use a Proton version that supports HDR.

[nshank63]

Sorry forgot to report back yesterday

proton ge 8-17 worked for me

running dx12 for many hours no issues

[ianwhiscombe]

Another vote for 8-17. Fixed the issue.

[Mohandevir]

Partially fixed with 8-4GE and 8-17GE. I get lots of crashes.
This said, I think I discovered that the initial problem is linked to the in-game fps cap. If it is set to unlimited, this is where the game freeze happen, with official Proton 8-5. Did a delete proton file and set the in-game fps cap to 60 (even if Gamescope is set to 45fps)... It's seems rock solid.

[moonman5]

@Mohandevir I tried to do as you wrote (official 8.0-5 proton, deleted proton files, set the in-game fps cap to 60 and Gamescope cap to 45 fps) and at first it actually worked. The game did not freeze during gwent and in the bestiary. Unfortunately, after a short while it began to freeze again, but this time after entering any menu.

[Mohandevir]

Yep! Same here. Sad... I Tought I was on to something... Back to GE-Proton-8.4, with in-game fps cap. GE-Proton-8.17 is crashing way too often and randomly. Le ven. 22 mars 2024, 7 h 32 p.m., moonman5 ***@***.***> a écrit :

…

@Mohandevir <https://github.com/Mohandevir> I tried to do as you wrote (official 8.0-5 proton, deleted proton files, set the in-game fps cap to 60 and Gamescope cap to 45 fps) and at first it actually worked. The game did not freeze during gwent and in the bestiary. Unfortunately, after a short while it began to freeze again, but this time after entering any menu. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#607 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABQFRY75Y6BUGKSSSP7772TYZS5RNAVCNFSM4FRSLUZ2U5DIOJSWCZC7NNSXTN2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQ5TEMBRGYYTGMBXGM2Q> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[simifor]

@rariema from your logs it seems you're using dx11 mode so that's what I used, and I couldn't reproduce your issue. I tried a few sessions, one of them half an hour as you didn't specify how long a while is, but I never managed to reproduce the issue, both gamepad and m&kb remained functional through my testing.

Of possible note is the fact that you have amdvlk installed and that the launcher is using it. If you don't have it installed for any particular reason, I'd suggest uninstalling it to see if anything changes.

[rariema]

@simifor thx for looking into it. i'm using dx12, never had this with dx11/dxvk.

after i reported this, i got the same issue on proton8. dont know why it never happend on my playthrough the weeks before.
tried much, uninstalled the 32bit amdvlk, skipped the launcher, tried x11 (normally i use plasma (6) on wayland), gnome, lts kernel, older mesa, reinstalled the game. still same issue. finally i started a gamescope session from sddm, and baam, no freeze.

turns out its an issue with the mangohud framelimiter, if its active, game freezes in inventory, normally after a few clicks of doing random stuff.

without it beeing active at game startup, the witcher 3 runs fine on proton8.0.5c an 9.0-beta16.
if the limiter is enabled later on, the issue does not occur, until you alt-tab out and in again.

so its not proton9 related, not the best report and a wrong guess :)

thx for all the work on linux gaming to everyone involved, really appreciate it.

[moonman5]

I can confirm what @rariema found out. Turning off gamescope framelimiter before starting game from launcher and turning it on while the game is already running does help. No freezes and everything works like it should.

Edit: After some more testing the game froze while checking the map. It looks like gamescope framelimiter must be turned off and the issue occurs only when it's turned on.

[RaduAvramescu]

I'd like to add additional information, based on this issue: flightlessmango/MangoHud#1302 (comment)

With Mangohud's framelimiter, I also had the freezing issues with Fedora 40 KDE (either with Proton Experimental, or GE-Proton 9-4, didn't try others). With a fresh install of Fedora Workstation 40 (so, Gnome), the game no longer freezes.

I'm thinking maybe it has something to do with KDE. That said, you said you had these issues with Gnome @rariema? Was it a fresh install or you installed it side-by-side with, say, KDE?

[rariema]

All my testing was done on my main installation, an EndevourOS based KDE installation with Gnome and gamescope-session-git installed alongside.

[oakad]

Exactly the same crash issue happens with Nvidia v550.78.0/6.9.1 kernel.
(arn:seh:dispatch_exception EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION exception (code=c0000005))

Interestingly enough, the game starts in the dx12 mode, and even works, but screen stutter is pretty aggressive, making it unplayable.

[zaps166]

After recent game update it crashes with DX11+HairWorks (game issue, also on Radeon). Turn off HairWorks and try again.

DX12 is running about 2x slower than DX11 to me (game issue).

[oakad]

Hairworks it is. Thank you.