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Have graphical distortions in Unity games with NVIDIA? Here's a workaround

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It seems a lot of Unity games upgrading to later versions of Unity are suffering from graphical distortions on Linux with an NVIDIA GPU. There is a workaround available.

The issue has so far affected these titles:

  • Project Hospital
  • Fluffy Horde
  • Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark
  • The Fertile Crescent
  • Dead Dungeon

No doubt there's plenty more too that I haven't tried and there will likely be more as other games upgrade their version of Unity used. To be clear though, I'm not sure if this is a bug in Unity or NVIDIA drivers. I have not seen the issue on Intel, so it's a little unclear right now as it's also only in Unity games.

For an example of how bad it looks, here's two shots:



I don't think I need to explain the issue here.

I did reach out to Unity, NVIDIA and a few others involved. So far Unity and NVIDIA haven't replied to me on this issue. However, one developer did reply on the Unity forum thread I'm involved in to note that using Vulkan actually fixes it. Another different developer mentioned it fixed it for a user who tested it too.

I tested it myself and surprisingly so, it does. If you also see some distortions in Unity games like those above, try this as a launch option:

-force-vulkan

To do so, right click on the game in your Steam library and then go to Properties. From there, hit the Set Launch Options button and put that in. Nothing else is needed.

Whatever it is, it only seems to affect the OpenGL builds of Unity games and only on the lower part of the screen. Hopefully with me highlighting this, it will help users and give Unity/NVIDIA a tip on the bug itself. It might not work on all games, but every one I tried it worked.

Also, as a reminder, if you have issues with keyboard input in some older Unity games there's also a workaround for that.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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15 comments
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iiari Dec 11, 2018
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  • Supporter Plus
Quoting: OrkultusTannenberg was also giving me this issue, thanks for the work around.

-Minty-Linux-
It actually in the end didn't work for me for Tannenberg. I'm on the same GPU. What is your full launch string?
Expalphalog Dec 11, 2018
Been having that same sort of graphics issue with Throne of Lies. Looking forward to trying this when I get home tonight.
Marc Di Luzio Dec 12, 2018
  • Game Dev
  • Supporter Plus
As a heads up, we're tracking this internally. As with other bugs that show up in multiple Unity games, what would especially help is to report these issues to the game developer and ask them to get in touch with Unity directly with details.

You can also get in touch with Unity, but please try and provide details of the Unity version of the game in question (found in ~/.config/unity3d/[PUBLISHER]/[GAME]/Player.log).

https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/issues/linux-nvidia-graphical-corruption-in-many-games-possible-regression


Last edited by Marc Di Luzio on 13 December 2018 at 10:14 am UTC
musojon74 Dec 18, 2018
Ahh. I’ve had this on my loading screens ( in the game I’m building ) on occasion. Hasn’t affected gameplay yet though. I too am nvidia. Time to make my game vulkan only I guess.
Marc Di Luzio Dec 20, 2018
  • Game Dev
  • Supporter Plus
Dropping in again :)

Another workaround for this is to use the command line arguments "-force-glcore42 -force-clamped". It's probably better for games where Vulkan is unstable, or when a game doesn't require modern graphical features (things in GL 4.3 and newer).


Last edited by Marc Di Luzio on 20 December 2018 at 2:22 pm UTC
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