Warhammer: Chaosbane (774241)

Compatibility Report

• Name of the game with compatibility issues: Warhammer: Chaosbane
• Steam AppID of the game: 774241

System Information

• GPU: NVIDIA GTX 1650 Super
• Driver/LLVM version: 510.54
• Kernel version: 5.15.23
• Link to full system information report as Gist:
• Proton version: 7.0-1, Experimental

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.

steam-774241.zip

Symptoms:

The game runs relatively well in most areas, but in the cemetery area (roughly 2 hours into the game), the framerate drops from 60 into the 10s/20s and GPU usage jumps from the usual 55-60% to 100%. Moving back to the hub area causes the framerate to get stuck at ~30 FPS until reboot. Using PROTON_USE_WINED3D fixes this issue completely, but also causes the HUD to disappear on 7.0-1. Proton 5.0-10 + PROTON_USE_WINED3D eliminates the framerate issues with no HUD side-effects. I'm posting this here as it seems to possibly be a regression with newer Proton.

EDIT: Some more information after testing with more Proton versions:

Proton 5.13: Works the same as Proton 5.0, no discernible difference.

Proton 6.3: Problem areas drop from 60 to 30 FPS, but do not spike GPU usage to 100% as with Proton 7.0. HUD is not missing when using WineD3D.

Additionally, further testing on 7.0 with a new character reveals that the framerate and GPU issues actually start before the cemetery area. Perhaps I just wasn't looking for them at the time, or chalked it up to the game itself rather than Proton, but in outdoor areas (but not the hub area), the FPS drops noticeably (but not as bad as the cemetery) and GPU usage spikes to 100%. Using Proton 5.0 or 5.13 with WineD3D similarly eliminates the issues in these areas, as well.

Reproduction

Play the game until the cemetery section using Proton 7.0-1 or Experimental.

Start by reproducing the cemetery and outdoor-area performance drops with Proton 7.0-1 or Experimental, using the attached steam-774241.zip report. Compare behavior against Proton 5.0-10, 5.13, and 6.3, including the PROTON_USE_WINED3D workaround and its HUD side effect. Done means the regression is explained and the affected game runs without the reported FPS or GPU-usage spikes.