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FvJ

Nov 29, 2020 @ 6:42am

Linux (through Proton) support thread

After discussing this matter in the middle of another thread, where it had nothing to do, with another Linux player, it seemed a better idea to create a specific topic for it.

So here is a Linux (through Proton) support thread, to share your success, your problems or your tricks to (try to) play UBOAT with Proton on your Linux box.

///////////////////////////////// 2024.1 (Official Release) /////////////////////////////////////////////

Here we are, with this version, the game is officially released and get regular patches whith bugfixes and enhancements. No point to keep track of those, unless one suddenly breaks things on Linux...
But so far, things look rather good:
- The only Linux/Proton specific bug is not even in the game, but in the launcher! There is a panel were announcements and patch notes can be seen in Windows, but it stays blank for now on Linux. No big deal, as all this can be found in the Steam's forum...
- Performance is way better than before, being almost on par with Windows now (even with my old GTX 1660 Super).
- Still, the game's engine (Unity) was updated, but not the specs on the shop's page, so taking the recommended GPU as a bare minimum (GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB or AMD equivalents) is necessary now, as it is more ressources hungry!
- Speaking of GPUs, there was a bug affecting the whole GTX 10XX family that started with UPDATE 2022.1, but luckily it seems to have been solved for good with one the recent patches of the games.
- In case if you want to troubleshoot a weird behaviour of the game or do a clean install to start from fresh, continue reading below or post a message in the thread...
Good hunting!

///////////////////////////////// UPDATE 2022.1 NOTES /////////////////////////////////////////////

Lot of Linux players, myself included, had a very bad freeze after installing the last update.
So, in short, what you have to do to get it working back is:
1) Deleting the game entirely, and even deleting /home/your_user_name/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/UBOAT if it's still there.
2) Deleting the directory /home/your_user_name/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/494840
3) Unsuscribing any mods (I had TDC, but not activated, unsuscribed just to be sure)
4) Redownload and install UBOAT, check the game's files integrity with Steam once it is installed.
5) In Steam settings, disable, then enable back Vulkan Shaders, so that fresh copies are downloaded and installed (see NOTE 3 a bit below).
6) Enjoy

Note: the version of Proton I'm using at the time of writing this is 7.0-4.
WARNING: If you still got some freezes, switching to Proton experimental seems to solve it (for now)!
WARNING-2: now (as in May 2023), Proton Experimental crashes the game and a switch to 8.0-2 solves the problem (for me, at least).

///////////////////////////////// PLAYING WITH MODS ON LINUX ///////////////////////////////
The Launcher now activate or desactivate mods on Linux too, but some could still be troublesome! Editing the description in the manifest can fix the issue.
More details in this post (thanks DECAFBAD):
https://steamcommunity.com/app/494840/discussions/0/2968398218087600431/?ctp=20#c2958293022034713148

---------------- OBSOLETE: NOT NEEDED ANYMORE, FOR INFO ONLY -----------------
The Launcher activate or desactivate mods on Windows, but doesn't work on Linux. So check this post on how to do it manually anyway: https://steamcommunity.com/app/494840/discussions/0/2968398218087600431/#c3113643744793586434
And the original thread where all the Magic happened (thanks captainpanda34 & Cironian)
https://steamcommunity.com/app/494840/discussions/0/3012312119204839446/
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

///////////// GAME FREEZE WITH GPU WITHOUT DEDICATED MEMORY //////////////
If you have a laptop and the GPU doesn't have it's own VRAM, you will need to check in your BIOS if there is a possibility to allocate more to it or the game may freeze on you!
More details in this post (thanks pappl):
https://steamcommunity.com/app/494840/discussions/0/2968398218087600431/?ctp=7#c3112530528184503472
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

//////////////////////// COMPLETE REINSTALL (WITH WINEPREFIX) ////////////////////////
Complete reinstall doesn't alter the wineprefix, so in case of problems, it might be useful to backup, then delete it before proceding further.
More details in this post (thanks DECAFBAD):
https://steamcommunity.com/app/494840/discussions/0/2968398218087600431/?ctp=21#c3198114775603443737
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

///////////////////////////////// ACTUAL BUGS PER VERSION ////////////////////////////////////
If you are in a hurry and don't want to read all the posts to decide if you want to try playing U-Boat on Linux, here is a summary of the actual bugs per version:

2024.1 (Official Release):
- Launcher still not showing the news in its main windows (but working otherwise).

Update 2022.1 patch 4 & 5:
- Launcher not showing the news in its main windows anymore (but working otherwise).
- If the game freezes with Proton 7.0-4, switching to Proton experimental seems to help.

B131 Hotfix 1:
- performance loss compared to the Windows version, but lesser and lesser with each Preview.
In my case, "Extreme" preset on Windows, but only personalized between "Good" and "High" on Linux, or the FPS are dropping to a crawl.

B129:
- graphical glitch "transparent sea" bug for NVIDIA GPU users fixed!
- performance loss compared to the Windows version, but lesser and lesser with each Preview.
In my case, "Extreme" preset on Windows, but only personalized between "Good" and "High" on Linux, or the FPS are dropping to a crawl.

B128:
- performance loss compared to the Windows version.
In my case, "Extreme" preset on Windows, but only "Good" on Linux, or the FPS are dropping to a crawl.
- graphical glitches happening only on Linux (especially on the map) and "transparent sea" bug, coming from time to time...
See this post for screenshots:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/494840/discussions/0/2968398218087600431/#c2968398218088170859
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

DISCLAIMER 1: UBOAT neither support natively Linux nor is it planned in the near future (as far as I know). If you want to ask them / beg them / pay them to do it, make your own thread.

DISCLAIMER 2: the devs of UBOAT doesn't support playing the game with Proton. No need then to bother them with bug reports for Proton or Linux.

DISCLAIMER 3: please check that you are using the last available Steam client before reporting something in this thread. You should at least have a working Steam and some other games functionning correctly too, just to confirm that your computer is working correctly ;-)

DISCLAIMER 4: please check that you have downloaded the last version / hotfix of UBOAT, after that, check your files integrity, and even delete the content of the folders Cache and Data Sheets in the UBOAT folder each time there is an update (or if your have a weird behaviour).
The location of this folder is: /home/your_user_name/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/494840/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/LocalLow/Deep Water Studio/UBOAT.
That's also the place where your saved games are to be found, under the... Saves folder ;-) but anyway, they are synchronised with the Windows 's version, if you have activated Steam Cloud.

DISCLAIMER 5: please check that your hardware meets the requirement for the game. It shouldn't be needed to be said, but better safe than sorry...

NOTE 1: the official Protondb page for UBOAT is https://www.protondb.com/app/494840. It's recommanded to have a look there to see the various success, failures or tricks used by others players, but beware that the informations can be outdated or not relevant to your case / distro / hardware...
You're welcome to share your own experience there, for the Greater Good :-)

NOTE 2: for NVIDIA GPU users, a lot of stuttering can often happen if you are using the energy savings. So go to your NVIDIA Settings Panel and choose "Prefer max performance" to reduce it. With Windows, you can do that per game (meaning .exe), in Linux not, so if you have a laptop and want your battery not going empty too quickly, don't forget to switch back to "Automatic" after playing.

NOTE 3: if you need to rebuild your Vulkan Shaders, you can go to Steam Settings > Shaders Pre-Caching > untick the box "Enable Shaders Pre-Caching" > select it again > Steam will redownload pre-compiled GPU shaders matching your system and start rebuilding per game (you can even see the progress there).
Disabling/enabling Vulkan Shaders in Steam: https://www.technipages.com/how-to-disable-shader-pre-caching-in-steam

NOTE 4: you can write Steam in a Terminal and launch it from there with "Enter". Doing so, you can see everything that's going on in the background and with a click to start UBOAT from the Steam interface as usual, you may see some error messages pointing you in the right direction.

NOTE 5: If you see this message in Steam's console output

ERROR: ld.so: object '~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored.

you can safely ignore it. Source and details here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Steam/Troubleshooting#Wrong_ELF_class.

So, that being said, let us share our experiences / problems / tricks here with UBOAT and Proton :-)

Edit November 5, 2024: status of the official release.
Edit May 9, 2023: warning about Proton Experimental and switch to 8.0-2.
Edit October 18, 2022: warning about freezes and switch to Proton experimental.
Edit October 17, 2022: fixed typos, added link for disabling/enabling Shaders and step for game's files integrity check.
Edit October 16, 2022: added note about Update 2022.1 and fixed typo.
Edit January 22, 2022: updated bug list to B131h1, added new infos and fixed typos.
Edit June 6, 2021: added warning for VRAM and bug list for B129p3.
Edit June 17, 2021: updated bug list to B129p6.
Edit July 9, 2021: updated bug list to B129p12.
Edit July 20, 2021: updated bug list to B129p14.
Edit August 17, 2021: updated bug list to B129p20.

Last edited by FvJ; Nov 5, 2024 @ 10:46am

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Showing 1-15 of 672 comments

FvJ

Nov 29, 2020 @ 6:47am

So, let's begin it:

Linux Distro = Manjaro Linux 20.2 Nibia
Kernel = 5.4.80-2 x86_64
GPU = NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super 6 GB GDDR6, 1920 x 1080 @75Hz
Driver = 455.45.01
Desktop = Cinnamon
CPU = Intel Core i7-3770K @3,50 GHz
RAM = 16 GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance Pro @1600 MHz
SSD = Samsung 850 Pro 256 GB

So, I've just done the test with B128 Hotfix 4 and without any special launch options, it works:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2294008480

I can load a game as usual:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2294008907

Everything looks fine in the port of La Rochelle;

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2294009299

And inside the sub too:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2294009615

I've just noticed that it lags performance wise behind the Windows version, and much more than B127! I didn't test the various graphic settings combined together to find the one causing the most lag, but it was at first at "Extreme" preset, then I went to "High" and finally, "Good" is the most fluid, sadly :-(
It could be related to the new Unity engine, but it's a bit early for me to draw some conclusions...

To install it, I chose Proton 5.13 and then, it also downloaded automatically Steamworks Common Redistibutables and Steam Linux Runtime - Soldier (first time I see this one).

The first launch needed a long time, to build the Vulkan Shaders. I even closed myself the building windows, because the progression bar was full and there was no more disk or CPU activity.

To be sure that was not a reason for the lag, I have forced a rebuild just to be sure (see NOTE 3 upward)...

One last thing: the game starts directly, that means it seems to bypass completely the launcher (and both videos at the beginning). That also means, should you get it to work decently on your box, I see no easy way to add / play with (a) mod(s)...

Edit: screenshots are from Hotfix 2, but there are no changes, in good or in bad, with Hotfix 4.
Edit 2 : Added PC specs.

Last edited by FvJ; Nov 29, 2020 @ 9:41am

captainpanda34 has UBOAT

Nov 29, 2020 @ 8:04am

Hello, Thanks for the initiative for linux users !
I could not launch since B128 update...
i've changed manually steam to last Proton version, now starts without problem.
Sad indeed for mods... maybe some feedback from some dev on how they are activated could help us activate them (with some work maybe), without the need of game launcher.

FvJ

Nov 29, 2020 @ 8:30am

Originally posted by captainpanda34:
Hello, Thanks for the initiative for linux users !
I could not launch since B128 update...
i've changed manually steam to last Proton version, now starts without problem.
Sad indeed for mods... maybe some feedback from some dev on how they are activated could help us activate them (with some work maybe), without the need of game launcher.

Hi, you're welcome !
How is your performance ?
I have now taken the time to test every single graphical settings and in my case, I found the following :
- Reflections = SSR is a no-go, it reduces a lot the performances.
- Antialiasing = Temporal looks nice, FXAA looks like crap.
- Temporal Antialiasing Style = Intense makes some weird shadows, so Subtle is better.
- I had to reduce the following from "Extreme" (that I can use in the Windows version) to "Very Good" = Water, Shadows, Textures Resolution and Effects.
- Same for Contact Shadows = Enabled (All), I had to reduce it to "Enabled (Sunlight)".
With these settings, it's OK to play, even if less nice and fluid than the Windows version (that hurts to say, but that the truth)...
Regarding the mods, it would be perhaps better to get in touch directly with the people doing the ones you're interested in. Usually, installing a mod is just copying a few folders and files in the install directory of the game. But the real question is how to activate it, which part is modified to launch the modded game and not the vanilla version...

captainpanda34 has UBOAT

Nov 29, 2020 @ 9:03am

Thanks for the test results, avoid wasting time making all of them by myself.... performance is now terrible in the harbour (it was not the case few weeks ago), but correct at sea (25 fps on average), but my PC is very old (5.5 years), with a more recent graphical card.
i'm using lower settings currently (just re-installed vanilla after finding the trick of proton version), but will try to see what i can increase without reducing fps (may differ from pc to pc or graphical card to graphical card)

Marque du processeur : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4460S CPU @ 2.90GHz
: 3400 Mhz

Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS (64 bits)

NVIDIA Corporation GeForce GTX 1050 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
1920 x 1080
video Memory : 4096 Mo
RAM : 15953 Mo

I quit windows last year once for all after 10 years with 2 HDs, so i can't compare versions :D.
Did you see if it was necessary to restart game to check changes in graphical settings ?
Thanks

FvJ

Nov 29, 2020 @ 9:51am

Originally posted by captainpanda34:
Thanks for the test results, avoid wasting time making all of them by myself.... performance is now terrible in the harbour (it was not the case few weeks ago), but correct at sea (25 fps on average), but my PC is very old (5.5 years), with a more recent graphical card.
i'm using lower settings currently (just re-installed vanilla after finding the trick of proton version), but will try to see what i can increase without reducing fps (may differ from pc to pc or graphical card to graphical card)

Marque du processeur : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4460S CPU @ 2.90GHz
: 3400 Mhz

Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS (64 bits)

NVIDIA Corporation GeForce GTX 1050 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
1920 x 1080
video Memory : 4096 Mo
RAM : 15953 Mo

I quit windows last year once for all after 10 years with 2 HDs, so i can't compare versions :D.
Did you see if it was necessary to restart game to check changes in graphical settings ?
Thanks

You're welcome! Doing so is the only real way to find the bottleneck, but it's neither fun nor quick. I always begin with the lowest settings, get one higher, test quickly, get to the next one and so on until I notice what is really slowing it down !
The usual suspects are postprocessing, antialiasing, motion blur, shadows, textures level to high if you haven't enough RAM on the GPU...

Very old is relative, outside of my GPU, the rest of my hardware is from 2012 ;-) nevertheless, it runs greatlty every game I throw at it, for now at least (I updated my first message with the specs) !

You didn't mentionned your driver version, it's important it's not too old. I have also 2 other installs of Ubuntu, but they are 16.04 and 18.04, so I don't know what is the latest you get with 20.04 and if you need to add the graphics-drivers PPA to have something more recent....

I'm always dual-booting my machines with Windows if it's still updated (means Windows 10), for the occasions where I need it, but each to his own ;-)

Lastly, no you don't need to restart the game between each changes you are making in the graphic settings, you can test it immediatly.
Have fun !

Last edited by FvJ; Nov 29, 2020 @ 9:52am

FvJ

Nov 29, 2020 @ 10:25am

Well, that isn't going well

When finding a convoy, I got a graphical glitch:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2303231250

A real big graphical glitch:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2303231903

The file output_log.txt is clearly giving a clue that something went wrong:

"Entering: Convoy #1221
Game version: b128 Hotfix 4
System.NullReferenceException
at (wrapper managed-to-native) UnityEngine.Behaviour.set_enabled(UnityEngine.Behaviour,bool)
at UBOAT.Game.UI.ShipControlGUINew.AnimateAlarm () [0x00000] in <4fc93ff614044d768086a195d5ecb1c8>:0
at UBOAT.Game.Core.ExecutionQueue.RunTimedUpdates (DWS.Common.Collections.Heap`1[T] heap, System.Int64 ticks) [0x00009] in <4fc93ff614044d768086a195d5ecb1c8>:0"

So I think this means the end of my tests for now, but that's why I'm also keeping a copy of Windows, just for this kind of things...

captainpanda34 has UBOAT

Nov 29, 2020 @ 11:41am

Oh, i often have also flying uboat (and fishes :D), since i got the game. This comes back if you load again usually ;)

FvJ

Nov 29, 2020 @ 11:53am

Originally posted by captainpanda34:
Oh, i often have also flying uboat (and fishes :D), since i got the game. This comes back if you load again usually ;)

Good to know :-) I've reloaded and restarted, but it didn't helped... It's OK, I will give another try next week-end, I think... Sometimes, it's best to know when to stop tinkering ;-)

captainpanda34 has UBOAT

Dec 5, 2020 @ 7:40am

hello,
now have 40-60 fps (with minimal graphical settings)... i will increase slowly :)

FvJ

Dec 5, 2020 @ 9:24am

Originally posted by captainpanda34:
hello,
now have 40-60 fps (with minimal graphical settings)... i will increase slowly :)

Hi,
I've just checked and that is also what I've got with the "Good" preset, but with peaks until 75 fps when I don't move (in F1 and F3 views).
If I change to "High" preset, the fps drops a lot (like 20 fps most of the time).

The weird thing is that, if I go back to "Good" preset, I won't get back my fps...
For that to happens, I need to quit to Menu and reload!!! So, beware of that, when you are testing...

I wil try now a mission and see if the water still disappears when I come near a convoy. If this happens again, that will be a "show stopper" for me and I think that I will have to forget it (at least until the next update).... We shall see ;-) Have fun!

#10

captainpanda34 has UBOAT

Dec 6, 2020 @ 9:08am

good to know. i had a lot of transparent sea evants before B128... however. it was often when close to targets in my experience, but actually was quite random, and would come back to normal sometimes when restarting the game.

#11

FvJ

Dec 6, 2020 @ 11:40pm

Originally posted by captainpanda34:
good to know. i had a lot of transparent sea evants before B128... however. it was often when close to targets in my experience, but actually was quite random, and would come back to normal sometimes when restarting the game.

Yes, the transparent sea happened when I neared a convoy, but it didn't go away when I reloaded or when restarting, even after deleting the contents of the Cache and Data Sheets folders...

But I have good news! I don't know if it comes from an update of Steam Linux Soldier that was available and that was installed before I started playing, but I had two good runs Saturday and Sunday, without transparent sea!!! There was a few light graphical glitches (on the map), but nothing really bad...
So, there is hope ;-)

#12

FvJ

Jan 13, 2021 @ 2:18am

///////////////////////////////// PLAYING WITH MODS ON LINUX /////////////////////////////////////////////////
Thank to the invaluable infos that Cironian provided, captainpanda34 find a way and after testing it myself, I can confirm it works and sum it up here:

Step 1) Go to the Workshop and suscribe to the desired mod.
The files will then be downloaded by Steam in the /home/user/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/workshop/content/494840/ folder. There is now a new folder, with a number as name (like "2283105437" for the Compass Navigation mod).

Step 2) In the folder /home/user/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/494840/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/LocalLow/Deep Water Studio/UBOAT/, create an empty file named "modlist.txt".

Step 3) Edit the file "modlist.txt" and simply add "steam:2283105437" for the Compass Navigation mod, as an exemple. Repeat Step 1 to 3 for any other mod you want.

Step 4) Start the game and enjoy :-D

#13