World War Z: Aftermath (699130)

[cbs228]

Compatibility Report

• Name of the game with compatibility issues: World War Z: Aftermath
• Steam AppID of the game: 699130

System Information

• GPU: GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
• Driver/LLVM version: nvidia 525.78.01
• Kernel version: 5.15.0-58-generic
• Link to full system information report as Gist: https://gist.github.com/cbs228/cdea684c68632e856083b53e5be0238a
• Proton version: 7.0-6

I confirm:

• that I haven't found an existing compatibility report for this game.
• that I have checked whether there are updates for my system available.

Symptoms

This game worked well in vulkan mode prior to the January 31 2023 Hotfix. After the hotfix, vulkan mode results in a black screen on startup. The game loads and plays audio, and input devices appear to work, but the video is black.

The game will start normally in DX11 mode, but performance is unplayably bad on my hardware. The hardware in this compatibility report is nearly a decade old.

I have a more powerful / more recent computer that can run this game in DX11 mode. This newer hardware also used to run this game in vulkan mode, but now only DX11 is selectable. A Compatibility Report for my newer hardware is available on request.

Logs:

• Starting in vulkan mode: steam-699130-vulkan.log
• Starting in DX11 mode: steam-699130-dx11.log

Reproduction

1. From the main menu, choose Settings→Video→Graphics API, and toggle the selector from DIRECTX11 to VULKAN. Accept the dialogue box and restart the game.

2. Note that the video display is black. Exit with ALT-F4.

3. There is no option to switch back to DIRECTX11 mode. Setting a Steam Launch Option of

   PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%

   will cause the game to fall back to DX11.

Related Issues

Recent comments in other Compatibility Reports indicate trouble with vulkan mode on Steam Deck: #5174 (comment). @FerLuisxd, would you care to elaborate on your report?

Fix / Workaround

Vulkan support appears to be mostly fixed in "Proton - Experimental" version experimental-8.0-20230606, but some users continue to report graphical glitches during gameplay.

[FerLuisxd]

Yes, though my case is not for the steam version of the game, I was using the heroic game launcher to play the epic version. Is there a way I can send logs of this version of the game?

[cbs228]

Is there a way I can send logs of this version of the game?

@FerLuisxd, just add PROTON_LOG=1 to the environment variables for your game. There are some instructions on reddit, but I cannot vouch for them. Log files are written to $HOME/steam-$APPID.log. For further reading, see Heroic-Games-Launcher/HeroicGamesLauncher#1355.

If you can obtain a log file, please attach it to a comment.

EDIT: It would also help to know if this game ever worked in vulkan mode for you on your device.

[marco-calautti]

I can confirm that the game worked perfectly fine some months ago using the vulkan API on my Fedora 37 machine. With recent updates to the game, Vulkan now gives me a black screen, with sound and input working. Switching to DX11 seems to be the only option to make the game run.

[noctis150]

I can confirm I have the same issue and December from 2022 this game was working perfectly on Vulkan API.

Right now, it's not working due to blank screen. You can't see anything, but you can hear it and navigate onto menu.

In my case, if I press in "win" key and I select again the World War Z window I can see slooowly the game. Steam's fps hud says it runs to 60 but visually seems like to 10 fps.

Tested in Proton 7.0.6 and Proton-GE7.50.

System.
OS: Ubuntu 22.04 - Linux 5.19
CPU: AMD Ryzer 7 4000.
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5600m.

[Legion495]

I can confirm this behaviour but a little bit more insight.
The game when it starts with Vulkan appears to run the rendered window out of bounds.
It does not confine to the window set for the game.

I happen to have a Ultrawide and above a smaller 1080p display.
On the 1080p display I clearly see the game rendering the menu and everything.
Even if moving the upper display I can see the menu and all but the game does not appear to update correctly.
I am unable to access the settings in this state.

Did open a bug report on the Saber Support Website seeing if they will take any action here.
Edit: Figures they state to not support it despite SteamDeck verification.

System:
OS: Fedora 37
CPU: 58003DX
GPU: Radeon 6800XT

[marco-calautti]

The issue still persists... Directx11 performance is abysmal compared to Vulkan for this game.

[noctis150]

I saw AMD fixed something about this in their drivers for Windows.
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-23-4-3
But don't know if that implies the official drivers and if it would fix this issue in Linux.

[marco-calautti]

I have latest mesa, and the issue is still present, so I guess they are unrelated.

[Hadrianneue]

So i was going to try getting some useful log messages yesterday night, because in the morning i did a quick test and the game was still presenting the same issues mentioned above by other users, and to my surprise the game was running fine... with dx11, here's my log:
wwz-dx11.log

it runs with vulkan with good fps but it crashes on the benchmark:
wwz-vulkan.log

tried installing vcrun 2010 to 2022, still crashing:

its the EGS version running with legendary with WINE-GE 7.43 and dxvk 2.2 - mesa-git as of testing.

i hope i'm wrong but seems like trying again and again + rebooting may cause different results...

EDIT
Running fine with AMDVLK (Q2.1-2) still waiting for next release since git is broken on aur..., got about the same log message as the ones above:
wwz-amdvlk.log.txt

[cbs228]

@Hadrianneue, it has always run OK in DX11 for me, but the performance was not as good as in Vulkan. (When Vulkan used to work.)

Have the Mesa updates improved DX11 performance?

[Hadrianneue]

@Hadrianneue, it has always run OK in DX11 for me, but the performance was not as good as in Vulkan. (When Vulkan used to work.)

Have the Mesa updates improved DX11 performance?

i'm not sure since i havent been playing this game in the last few months, still very CPU bound on DX11 and since im GPU bottlenecked (rx 6500 xt - ryzen 5 5600) it performs slight better in DX11 in my limited testing since RADV is crashing...

AMDVLK is the winner here though, you should give it a try.