7 Days to Die Alpha 21 broke EAC Linux proton

[gameslayer]

Hey everyone I wanted to report a issue where EAC is broken in Linux proton ever since the Alpha 21 came out. I verified the game integrity and it still wont run via proton 8,0-2 or Experimental without running into this issue when I go on server or even will warn me while in Single player.

 

Edited July 19, 2023 by gameslayer (see edit history)

[gameslayer]

[meganoth]

Probably nothing that "General Support" can help you with. You can make a bug report (see red banner). And another candidate to report it to might be steam as they try to make their proton environment EAC compatible.

 

Edited July 19, 2023 by meganoth (see edit history)

[Jugginator]

For what it's worth, the game should run without Proton or anything. My linux machine runs the game out of the box with no other packages like that.

[gameslayer]

16 hours ago, meganoth said:

Probably nothing that "General Support" can help you with. You can make a bug report (see red banner). And another candidate to report it to might be steam as they try to make their proton environment EAC compatible.

 

Hey, I've made a report but I've sadly haven't heard anything from them while reaching out on here and on the Steam community page reporting the issue

12 hours ago, Jugginator said:

For what it's worth, the game should run without Proton or anything. My linux machine runs the game out of the box with no other packages like that.

Yeah it does but in the past I've had performance issues with the native version and the Vulkan implementation is still incomplete so I've been playing the game through proton until now.

 

At the moment I can't even get it to properly download the native version on Steam and it keeps trying to update the game back to the Windows version even tho I haven't ticked the box to use proton. I've already reported that issue to Valves Steam Linux GitHub repo

 

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/9875

 

 

Edited July 20, 2023 by gameslayer (see edit history)

[Jugginator]

8 hours ago, gameslayer said:

Hey, I've made a report but I've sadly haven't heard anything from them while reaching out on here and on the Steam community page reporting the issue

Yeah it does but in the past I've had performance issues with the native version and the Vulkan implementation is still incomplete so I've been playing the game through proton until now.

 

At the moment I can't even get it to properly download the native version on Steam and it keeps trying to update the game back to the Windows version even tho I haven't ticked the box to use proton. I've already reported that issue to Valves Steam Linux GitHub repo

 

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/9875

 

 

 

Hmm, I'll have a look at that when I get done with some other things on my Linux machine. Yeah, I've looked at your report too, I'm not sure if it's a Linux issue or Valve or the game, to be honest, I've had a TON more trouble with Linux lately for some reason than I used to. I had to do a bunch of stuff I shouldn't have had to just to get a proper GPU driver installed on Ubuntu. I was having weird issues with Proton myself, it seemed Steam wasn't installing it properly, then trying to NOT use proton was a pain, it kept doing what it was doing to you lol. Anyway, I'll have another look at it soon.

[gameslayer]

On 7/21/2023 at 1:41 AM, Jugginator said:

 

Hmm, I'll have a look at that when I get done with some other things on my Linux machine. Yeah, I've looked at your report too, I'm not sure if it's a Linux issue or Valve or the game, to be honest, I've had a TON more trouble with Linux lately for some reason than I used to. I had to do a bunch of stuff I shouldn't have had to just to get a proper GPU driver installed on Ubuntu. I was having weird issues with Proton myself, it seemed Steam wasn't installing it properly, then trying to NOT use proton was a pain, it kept doing what it was doing to you lol. Anyway, I'll have another look at it soon.

Thanks!

 

[gameslayer]

As for proton I have only had a EAC issue with this game and been playing this game only on Linux since 2015 as for GPU's Ubuntu has a tool for gpus that will install the driver quicker and easier than Windows if you have a Nvidia card and Radeon cards are out of the box.

 

This game itself has suffered a lot of issues with performance, memory leaks but now the game is unplayable for me on Linux via proton because of this and the native version is a joke and should be far better quality because the OpenGL performance on the game is terrible..

[Crater Creator]

On 7/20/2023 at 10:41 AM, Jugginator said:

...I've looked at your report too...

 

I wasn’t able to find that report, so I’m cross-posting this here from the help desk on gameslayer’s behalf to make sure QA sees it.

 

Edit: Since Jugginator reacted with a confused emoji, let me try to be clearer. gameslayer sent in a ticket to the help desk that sounds related to this topic. This is what they said:

 

Quote

Here you go
https://pastebin.com/BfjnYYAE

 

By the way you might want to update your report log info as it's missing the information for proton users.

the log files for proton users  are stored in

~/.steam/steamapps/compatdata/251570/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/7DaysToDie/logs

Edited August 5, 2023 by Crater Creator
clarity (see edit history)

[Beelzybub]

On 7/22/2023 at 4:57 AM, gameslayer said:

native version is a joke and should be far better quality because the OpenGL performance on the game is terrible

I don't have any issues running the native Linux version with OpenGL.

[gameslayer]

14 hours ago, Crater Creator said:

 

I wasn’t able to find that report, so I’m cross-posting this here from the help desk on gameslayer’s behalf to make sure QA sees it.

 

Edit: Since Jugginator reacted with a confused emoji, let me try to be clearer. gameslayer sent in a ticket to the help desk that sounds related to this topic. This is what they said:

 

Okay thanks you for that.

9 hours ago, Beelzybub said:

I don't have any issues running the native Linux version with OpenGL.

I'll have to try it again but on the last update the performance was more than half the FPS I was getting with DXVK on proton and laggy, even in the past the performance hasn't been very good and should be way better than it has been on native Linux which is why I prefer to play the game through proton.

[gameslayer]

Ok the native version's OpenGL performance is defiantly a lot better, would be great to have Vulkan as a fully workable option, is there any news on when it will be out of experimental?

 

Hopefully EAC will be fixed for people who use proton soon

[chibbsy]

I started a similar thread as well, but.... lately (within the last 6 days I can't even get the game to launch. Anyone else having this?

[gameslayer]

8 hours ago, chibbsy said:

I started a similar thread as well, but.... lately (within the last 6 days I can't even get the game to launch. Anyone else having this?

 

Hey switch to the native version, right now EAC is broken for the game when using proton and I haven't heard any updates on when it will be fixed

[chibbsy]

1 hour ago, gameslayer said:

 

Hey switch to the native version, right now EAC is broken for the game when using proton and I haven't heard any updates on when it will be fixed

Actually, that's what I was referring to when I mention the last 6 days. EAC has been broken since A21 with no word on any efforts to resolve, and now it seems it's worse. I can't even play the native version.

[Jugginator]

24 minutes ago, chibbsy said:

Actually, that's what I was referring to when I mention the last 6 days. EAC has been broken since A21 with no word on any efforts to resolve, and now it seems it's worse. I can't even play the native version.

 

You can't run it native either? Linux has been a nightmare lately. I've wiped/installed various Ubuntu versions and they all have a weird thing about them, but EAC has been working as of late unless I try using Proton, which usually doesn't work. What distro are you using so I can install the same one you have and check it out

[chibbsy]

9 hours ago, Jugginator said:

 

You can't run it native either? Linux has been a nightmare lately. I've wiped/installed various Ubuntu versions and they all have a weird thing about them, but EAC has been working as of late unless I try using Proton, which usually doesn't work. What distro are you using so I can install the same one you have and check it out

Hello, thanks for the response. It's good to not always feel like the lone guy doing this. I'm running Manjaro. Using Cinnamon DE, X11. I also have an install of Nobara on the 6.4 kernel with Wayland on this system. The main is Manjaro though and tried different kernels, but currently on 6.5.1-1.

Not sure my recent issues are necessarily EAC, though that's still an issue in Proton. Yes, I've gotten the iphlpapi.dll EAC error and another file  (unity3d.something), but as you say only when attempting Proton. That's been broken since A21 started. But I could always launch the game and either avoid EAC servers, or play in native mode. So long as in native mode and using GLCore I was fine. Native + Vulkan would play, but crash and performance was actually worse than GL.  Then, recently, I swapped my nvidia 1080 for a new-ish amd 6900xt. The game played fine (native, GL) the first few days then it stopped being able to launch at all. At least for me.

[Jugginator]

3 hours ago, chibbsy said:

Hello, thanks for the response. It's good to not always feel like the lone guy doing this. I'm running Manjaro. Using Cinnamon DE, X11. I also have an install of Nobara on the 6.4 kernel with Wayland on this system. The main is Manjaro though and tried different kernels, but currently on 6.5.1-1.

Not sure my recent issues are necessarily EAC, though that's still an issue in Proton. Yes, I've gotten the iphlpapi.dll EAC error and another file  (unity3d.something), but as you say only when attempting Proton. That's been broken since A21 started. But I could always launch the game and either avoid EAC servers, or play in native mode. So long as in native mode and using GLCore I was fine. Native + Vulkan would play, but crash and performance was actually worse than GL.  Then, recently, I swapped my nvidia 1080 for a new-ish amd 6900xt. The game played fine (native, GL) the first few days then it stopped being able to launch at all. At least for me.

 

Ah thanks for that information. I'll have to install those and have a look. A log file in a session where you can't launch may have some clues

[chibbsy]

20 hours ago, Jugginator said:

 

Ah thanks for that information. I'll have to install those and have a look. A log file in a session where you can't launch may have some clues

So, last night I dug around and dug around. Did you know that Steam/TFP creates a file called "prefs" under ~/home/user/.config/unity3d/'The Fun Pimps'/'7 Days to Die'/  ? Deleting the file, it doesn't get recreated on re-install of the game. Neither does it get recreated on a files validation. Not sure if that's in any way related, but seemed interesting.

Found other bits and pieces in /.local and /.config and even under wine's structure. Though I'm not sure if that's from older usage, or attempts to use, Proton.

Manjaro being a rolling release and this system being effectively 6 or 7 years old (though updated hardware several times), there's a lot of detritus laying around. So, in the end, I uninstalled Steam and removed any references to it that I could find. Then re-installed Steam and the game and Yay!, it works. At least in GLCore.
The upgraded hardware (video card, mobo, ram all replaced in the last month) makes it seem fast even with the lack of optimizations.. well, mostly. Horde nights still tend towards a slideshow on a high-ish pop server.

I suspect my issues came from a regular attempt to see if TFP had fixed anything on the proton side. It seems something gets left on the system while switching back and forth that eventually causes an issue. That's my guess, but I don't have the patience to try to reproduce or try variants to gather evidence. Guess it's just wait and hope they both fix it and put something in release notes. I don't think I ever saw anything in a20 when it started working suddenly there.

[Jugginator]

Linux is just pure chaos for gaming lol. Currently my... array of workspace computer setups are all setup for much needed tasks, but I should be able to allocate a rig to a slew of different linux OS's and I'll look at this too, need to test some other things on Linux anyway, should be able to set it up this weekend. Thanks for giving me your distros you use and that information there, certainly helps speed up the process knowing what I need to check for exactly

On 9/13/2023 at 1:40 PM, chibbsy said:

So, last night I dug around and dug around. Did you know that Steam/TFP creates a file called "prefs" under ~/home/user/.config/unity3d/'The Fun Pimps'/'7 Days to Die'/  ? Deleting the file, it doesn't get recreated on re-install of the game. Neither does it get recreated on a files validation. Not sure if that's in any way related, but seemed interesting.

Found other bits and pieces in /.local and /.config and even under wine's structure. Though I'm not sure if that's from older usage, or attempts to use, Proton.

Manjaro being a rolling release and this system being effectively 6 or 7 years old (though updated hardware several times), there's a lot of detritus laying around. So, in the end, I uninstalled Steam and removed any references to it that I could find. Then re-installed Steam and the game and Yay!, it works. At least in GLCore.
The upgraded hardware (video card, mobo, ram all replaced in the last month) makes it seem fast even with the lack of optimizations.. well, mostly. Horde nights still tend towards a slideshow on a high-ish pop server.

I suspect my issues came from a regular attempt to see if TFP had fixed anything on the proton side. It seems something gets left on the system while switching back and forth that eventually causes an issue. That's my guess, but I don't have the patience to try to reproduce or try variants to gather evidence. Guess it's just wait and hope they both fix it and put something in release notes. I don't think I ever saw anything in a20 when it started working suddenly there.

 

[chibbsy]

14 minutes ago, Jugginator said:

Linux is just pure chaos for gaming lol. Currently my... array of workspace computer setups are all setup for much needed tasks, but I should be able to allocate a rig to a slew of different linux OS's and I'll look at this too, need to test some other things on Linux anyway, should be able to set it up this weekend. Thanks for giving me your distros you use and that information there, certainly helps speed up the process knowing what I need to check for exactly

 

If you like, reach out to me on DM and I would gladly give you my contact info (discord maybe?), and would be willing to help. My Linux knowledge only goes so far, deeper than some, but not an "expert". But I do know others I could reach out to if we need.

[gameslayer]

On 9/16/2023 at 3:35 AM, Jugginator said:

Linux is just pure chaos for gaming lol.

 

Lol no it's not, gaming on Linux is great, why this issue exists is on the develops end of why it broke in proton specifically and not with Linux itself, the game run fine until the update came out.

On 9/16/2023 at 4:00 AM, chibbsy said:

If you like, reach out to me on DM and I would gladly give you my contact info (discord maybe?), and would be willing to help. My Linux knowledge only goes so far, deeper than some, but not an "expert". But I do know others I could reach out to if we need.

 

Has there been any updates on why the games EAC broke after the update?

[chibbsy]

9 hours ago, gameslayer said:

Lol no it's not, gaming on Linux is great, why this issue exists is on the develops end of why it broke in proton specifically and not with Linux itself, the game run fine until the update came out.

 

Has there been any updates on why the games EAC broke after the update?

Not that I've seen announced. Though, TBH I haven't made any attempt lately. Last time it was a quiet fix, if it had been in an announcement, it was missed by me. I'm assuming you've tried recently and got the same EAC error?