World War Z: Aftermath (699130)

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: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/5174#issuecomment-1413177184. @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.

Start with the attached steam-699130-vulkan.log and steam-699130-dx11.log, then reproduce the Vulkan launch sequence from the issue using Proton 7.0-6. Compare the behavior with Proton Experimental experimental-8.0-20230606, where Vulkan support is reported as mostly fixed. Done means Vulkan starts without a black screen and gameplay no longer has the reported graphical glitches.