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After the first two runs the game crashed, I switched from Proton Experimental to Proton 9.0-4 which required a proton update in Steam. I then successfully launched the game. I subsequently switched back to Esperimental and the game has been running without issue ever since.
The game is really unoptimized, and Unreal Engine 5 hasn't been handled well by GSC, which will be a problem on both Linux and Windows. After dozens of graphics settings changes (in-game, without scripts or mods), I'm finally satisfied with how the game runs. It's nowhere near the first STALKER, but it's playable.
Game crashes at startscreen
I had 3500 FPS on the start screen, and then the game crashed.
Launches for 5 seconds, then errors out with a Wine C++ Runtime Library error
Game is able to start, but then an error pops up stating:
Assertion failed!
Program: \SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 Heart of Chornobyl\Stalker2\Binaries\Win64\Stalker2-Win64-Shipping.exe File: ./src-wine/dlls/winevulkan/loader_thunks.c Line: 2899
Expression "!status && 'vkCreateComputerPipelines'"
Tried gamemoderun, and numerous other commands. Still not able to launch. Game is broken on Linux.
VKD3D_VULKAN_DEVICE=0 %command%
Works with envvar fixes
Works with some mods ootb. Just used GE Proton because i always do, it feels more optimized.
WINEDLLOVERRIDES="version=n,b" %COMMAND% -xgeshadercompile -nothreadtimeout -NoVerifyGC -dx12
Mod pack https://t.me/ckopoxog7977/43
Works out of the box!
The first time I started the game, the cinematic ended abruptly and the game ended up rendering the world, but not responding to inputs. I had to restart the game, but after that it was smooth sailing.
It's no different from playing it on Windows
Game is rather poorly optimized, I suggest look for some settings tweaks to make it fully enjoyable.
VKD3D_DISABLE_EXTENSIONS=VK_KHR_present_wait gamescope -f -W 5120 -H 1440 --hdr-enabled --force-grab-cursor -- %command%
Roughly 60fps without FG outside of settlements (100-120 with FG) but it doesn't feel responsive.
Video output freezes after a few minutes of gameplay when using gamescope (for HDR in my case). Resolved with VKD3D_DISABLE_EXTENSIONS=VK_KHR_present_wait
Overall works great out of the box. Frame generation is a little iffy.
Some audio crackling has been observed.
I believe this is universal, but serious slowdowns in settlements. In the open world performance is relatively stable at ultra settings.
Not a linux issue perse, but the game has many quest breaking bugs (have not extensively tested since the major update yesterday and today 2/13 and 2/14/2025)
Most bugs related to stalker 2 are mirrored to Windows as well. You will have largely the same experience and problems on windows (except for the small audio crackles in my experience).
Got an issue with Dx12 RHI missing (or wrong graphics adapter)
VKD3D_VULKAN_DEVICE=0 gamemoderun %command%
Tried forcing gpu through vulkan device, no effect.
force_vk_vendor=-1 DXVK_CONFIG="dxgi.customVendorId = 10de" %command%
When enabling NVIDIA Frame Generation, the HUD is noticeably ghosting.
Game runs well with these commands and GE Proton 9.23. DLSS Frame Generation adds noticeable UI ghosting regardless of the settings.
Use this engine.ini tweak after compiling shaders once, even if on windows, do this, itll save you so much time. [SystemSettings] r.PSOWarmup.WarmupMaterials=0
This game is not well optimized on all platforms, it runs about the same on either platform. Lower settings also look, very, very bad.
VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/var/run/opengl-driver/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json LD_PRELOAD="" %command%
Was experiencing crash after starting new game from main menu of the game until forced radeon_icd.x86_64.json into VK_ICD_FILENAMES . While playing for more than 40 minutes saw spiky/jagged frame time without much impact on FPS until force-dropped Steam overlay library injection by clearing LD_PRELOAD .
MANGOHUD=1 game-performance gamescope -W 3440 -H 1440 -f --force-grab-cursor --hdr-enabled -- %command%
you need Fullscreen for HDR to work
--force-grab-cursor is necessary when you use the launch command lines
if you dont need HDR, it works fine without the launch commands
gamemoderun %command% -d3d12
I had one instance where the whole audio stream would fade out and in repeatably, not reproducable and was fixed with restarting the game.
With FSR3.1. on I have stable > 60 FPS but in dark areas specles of white pixels come and go. Doesn't affect gameplay and doesn't bother me too much.
The input is very laggy and floaty out of the box. When i set the launch commands with FSR on balanced the framerate number and stability improved and the lag was bought way down but still slightly present.
I've modded the game. I tweaked the aforementioned file as well as Engine.ini in the same folder. This caused my game to break and crash with a UE5 error report. Thereafter the mod "Project Itemization" broke and uninstalling the game made the game load again but my save file was corrupt.
I mean to say: be veeeeeeery careful editing config files and installing mods. It can break the game and saves.
This game doesn't run well out of the box. Forcing Dx12 is required, gamemoderun helped. I am able to play on the graphics settings profile 'high' With FSR 3.1 on balanced and FSR3.1 checkbox marked enabled
The game will freeze up and needs to be forced closed at every shader warm up attempt on boot.
It will toggle a line in /steam/steamapps/compatdata/1643320/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Local/Stalker2/Saved/Config/Windows/Game.ini to false.
[/Script/Stalker2.OptimizationSettings]bPSOWarmupStarted=False
Then the game loads with a warning it will skip the shader warm up which can be clicked ok where as the game loads to the main menu.
When you close the game this time the line above will turn to True again. At this time I don't attempt to revoke write rights to this file as messing with these files caused my game to irrepairibly crash and corrupt my save file because mods can't be used anymore before the shader warm up. So try this at your own risk.
I've had a main quest trigger break and had to reload before the last quest trigger to fix it. This caused me to lose 3 hours of gameplay due to me raiding stashes and doing side quests.
Main quest step: "Visit the old mill" (Garbage main quest step). This doesn't spoil anything and can't really direct you in the game except when you go googling this.
Use graphical improvement mods at your own risk. They can modify configuration files in the proton prefix that could theorethically irrepairibly break your game.
Radeon 7900 XTX on Ultra settings gets around 45-50 FPS. No issues using Proton.
gamemoderun %command%
Performance as good as windows (even has the same issues like the memory leak in Rostok), runs perfect :3
launchoption is for only use my physical cores
force_vk_vendor=-1 DXVK_CONFIG="dxgi.customVendorId = 10de" %command%
Didnt work from straight but after adding launch option it worked with no problem
Expect crashes when compiling shaders. Its fine.
Гра не працює
Після останнього патчу (1.1.3) гра не здатна пройти компіляцію шейдерів.
mangohud gamemoderun %command%
HUD elements sometimes start ghosting when moving the camera, but only when you have DLSS framegen enabled. And you want it enabled to play this game.
Performance is noticeably worse on Kubuntu 24.04 compared to Windows 11 on the same machine with same settings. Around 20-30% less FPS overall and it just feels more choppy, less responsive and smooth.
So far I've tried almost every launch argument posted here since launch, tried other linux distros, X11 vs Wayland, different Proton versions and Nvidia drivers - no change. I suppose the performance penalty is due to DX12 issues on Nvidia GPUs and vkd3d. The issue is not with FPS themselves, they are still plentiful on my setup even with the penalty, but it seems like frametimes and consistency of them is really poor and can be seen in mangohud. Launching this game in Windows after spending a few hours in Linux feels like you've done a significant upgrade to your setup. Still playable though but it's a huge bummer.
force_vk_vendor=-1 DXVK_CONFIG="dxgi.customVendorId = 10de" %command%
Game almost worked perfect out of the box. Installation, game start, menu, performance no problems. There was a problem while palying - after few minutes it would freeze and eventually crash. Nothing helped until I found the command for game's launch options and now it works flawless, even better than windows
DXVK_CONFIG="dxgi.customVendorId = 1002" GAMEMODERUNEXEC=prime-run gamemoderun %command%
Using PRIME (display cable plugged into Intel GPU, Nvidia as secondary GPU)
MANGOHUD_CONFIG="cpu_temp,gpu_temp,gpu_core_clock,gpu_mem_clock,cpu_mhz,cpu_power,gpu_power,gpu_mem_temp,ram,vram" mangohud %command%
While Windows users report memory leaks, I haven't experienced any issues even after dozens of hours of gameplay - RAM usage stays consistent at 11-12 GB including other system applications. With DLSS and Frame Generation enabled, it maintains a steady 100+ FPS, occasionally dipping to 90+ in some areas.
Good experience
Game runs slower in places than expected, but this is for sure down to the game and nothing to do with Linux. Certain places in the game tank FPS, for the most part it runs at 60fps. I'm using medium/high settings with balanced DLSS at 1440p.
If you are running Gnome with autohide top bar extension, be sure to disable the setting that shows the top bar in fullscreen, else it will pop up when looking up.
No crashes, very playable. The game just needs optimisations quite badly.
VKD3D_VULKAN_DEVICE=0 gamemoderun %command%
If you get a "DX12 RHI required" error you might need to force vkd3d to use the correct graphics device with VKD3D_VULKAN_DEVICE=X, where X is the zero based index of the device on your system you want to use (usually 0 or 1 assuming you have 1 integrated gpu & 1 dedicated gpu)
Runs fine just out of the box.
I'm happy I've switched to AMD hardware one year ago.
Unable to launch: "DX12 RHI required" failure
Tried various tweaks. Forcing vender. Gamescope. Various changes to sway. No luck.
Гра просто працює, але наскільки я розумію гра загалом не дуже оптимізована
FPS дуже не постійний, у населених пунктах падає до 30, загалом десь біля 60, найвищий десь 90
Базована українська гра з українською озвучкою
