Flickering graphics when using DXVK with Vulkan in Wuthering Waves

[colleirose]

I'm sorry if this issue is not helpful - I've probably made this issue longer than needed and made some silly mistake, and I have no idea if this issue is caused by GE-Proton, DXVK, or something else. I just am not sure how to isolate the issue but have done my best to narrow the issue. I apologize if this issue is vague or I am just doing something very wrong, but I've done my best to provide details on the entire issue.

I have a dedicated Intel Arc B580 GPU and a Ryzen 5 7500F CPU. I'm using Arch Linux with Wayland and using GE-Proton10-25 via Lutris to play Wuthering Waves, a game I downloaded from Steam. I'm using a kernel I compiled myself from the Linux 6.18 branch; I made almost no changes to the kernel configuration besides enabling the option to tune the kernel for my local CPU, disabling NVIDIA and AMD graphics drivers, and disabling kernel module compression to work around an unrelated issue I was having with VirtualBox drivers failing to decompress.

I experienced a lot of strange functional glitches when I first played the game, such as the game failing to capture the mouse cursor unless I alt+tabbed out, and so I have a fairly long configuration for the game now, with this command prefix (I use Wayland for my system but set x11 for this game to fix an issue with not being able to copy from my password manager to the game):

SteamOS=1 STEAMDECK=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 DXVK_ASYNC=1 WINE_GSTREAMER=1 GDK_BACKEND=x11 VK_DRIVER_FILES=/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/intel_icd.x86_64.json

And a dxgi.dll override with the value n,b. I tried removing the override and changing various other settings, as well as restarting my computer and updating everything in the package manager, but had no success.

However, the graphics issues I'm having now were not happening earlier. After installing the game's newest update (released earlier today), I am experiencing a lot of strange graphical issues. Any 3D models in the game besides characters, weapons, and 3D UI elements will have constant flickering brightness whenever they have a source of illumination on them. This doesn't affect characters, cutscenes, UI, etc. Here is a screen recording showing this (the graphics are not actually this fuzzy/low-resolution, I just lowered my screen recorder quality a lot to make sure the file wouldn't become too big):

2025-11-20_22-11-20.mp4

This issue goes away if I switch to OpenGL, but doing so creates massive and constant lag spikes whenever I move around in-game or interact with the environment at all unless I significantly lower my graphics settings. I had issues with Vulkan since I got this computer (corrupted and frozen graphics, extreme lag, etc., none of which I could find any related journalctl or dmesg entries regarding), and I believe I had made some changes to make some applications default to using OpenGL, but this game in particular never had any issues with Vulkan.

Launching the game from Steam itself leads to the virtual desktop window briefly appearing and disappearing and then the game's soundtrack playing in the background after a bit, but the game window never shows up. Here's the journalctl output from when I try to launch the game in Steam:

Steam log

Nov 20 22:17:22 pc steam[628672]: wineserver: NTSync up and running!
Nov 20 22:17:25 pc steam[628672]: chdir "/home/user/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Wuthering Waves"
Nov 20 22:17:25 pc steam[628672]: ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/user/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored.
Nov 20 22:17:25 pc steam[628672]: Game Recording - would start recording game 3513350, but recording for this game is disabled
Nov 20 22:17:25 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640327 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:17:25 pc steam[628672]: ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/user/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored.
Nov 20 22:17:25 pc steam[628672]: ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/user/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64): ignored.
Nov 20 22:17:25 pc steam[628672]: ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/user/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored.
Nov 20 22:17:25 pc steam[628672]: ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/user/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored.
Nov 20 22:17:25 pc steam[628672]: WARNING: discarding _NET_WM_PID 5 as invalid for X11 window - use specialized XCB_X11_TO_PID function!
Nov 20 22:17:25 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640328 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:17:25 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640329 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:17:26 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640417 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:17:27 pc steam[628672]: ProtonFixes[640417] INFO: Running protonfixes on "GE-Proton10-25", build at 2025-11-02 17:27:43+00:00.
Nov 20 22:17:27 pc steam[628672]: ProtonFixes[640417] INFO: Running checks
Nov 20 22:17:27 pc steam[628672]: ProtonFixes[640417] INFO: All checks successful
Nov 20 22:17:27 pc steam[628672]: ProtonFixes[640417] INFO: Using global defaults for "Wuthering Waves" (3513350)
Nov 20 22:17:27 pc steam[628672]: ProtonFixes[640417] INFO: Using global protonfix for "Wuthering Waves" (3513350)
Nov 20 22:17:27 pc steam[628672]: ProtonFixes[640417] INFO: Overriding KRSDKExternal.exe =
Nov 20 22:17:27 pc steam[628672]: ProtonFixes[640417] INFO: Checking if winetricks "sourcehansans" is installed
Nov 20 22:17:27 pc steam[628672]: ProtonFixes[640417] INFO: Checking if winetricks "fakechinese" is installed
Nov 20 22:17:27 pc steam[628672]: ProtonFixes[640417] INFO: Checking if winetricks "corefonts" is installed
Nov 20 22:17:27 pc steam[628672]: ProtonFixes[640417] INFO: Adding env: SteamOS=1
Nov 20 22:17:27 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640418 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:17:27 pc steam[628672]: wineserver: NTSync up and running!
Nov 20 22:17:27 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640419 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:17:27 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640420 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:17:27 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640423 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:17:27 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640425 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:17:27 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640427 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:17:27 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640430 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:17:27 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640441 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:17:28 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640450 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:17:28 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640468 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:17:28 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640485 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:17:29 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640507 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:17:29 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640515 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:17:36 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640578 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:17:52 pc NetworkManager[2453]:  [1763705872.6350] dhcp6 (wlan1): state changed new lease, address=[redacted my MAC address or something]
Nov 20 22:17:52 pc systemd[1]: Starting Network Manager Script Dispatcher Service...
Nov 20 22:17:52 pc systemd[1]: Started Network Manager Script Dispatcher Service.
Nov 20 22:18:02 pc systemd[1]: NetworkManager-dispatcher.service: Deactivated successfully.
Nov 20 22:18:07 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640676 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:18:07 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640692 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:18:07 pc steam[628672]: Fossilize INFO: Overriding serialization path: "/home/user/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/shadercache/3513350/fozpipelinesv6/steamapprun_pipeline_cache".
Nov 20 22:18:12 pc steam[628672]: Adding process 640763 for gameID 3513350
Nov 20 22:18:21 pc steam[628672]: Fossilize WARN: Pipeline library handle 0x00007d17b800a2d0 is not registered.
Nov 20 22:18:21 pc steam[628672]: It has either not been recorded, or it failed to be recorded earlier (which is expected if application uses an extension that is not recognized by Fossilize).
Nov 20 22:19:06 pc NetworkManager[2453]:  [1763705946.3462] device (wlan0): set-hw-addr: set MAC address to [redacted] (scanning)
Nov 20 22:19:06 pc NetworkManager[2453]:  [1763705946.4468] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: inactive -> interface_disabled
Nov 20 22:19:06 pc NetworkManager[2453]:  [1763705946.4468] device (p2p-dev-wlan0): supplicant management interface state: inactive -> interface_disabled
Nov 20 22:19:06 pc NetworkManager[2453]:  [1763705946.4589] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: interface_disabled -> inactive
Nov 20 22:19:06 pc NetworkManager[2453]:  [1763705946.4590] device (p2p-dev-wlan0): supplicant management interface state: interface_disabled -> inactive
Nov 20 22:20:06 pc earlyoom[2452]: mem avail: 12127 of 23809 MiB (50.94%), swap free: 5 of 4095 MiB ( 0.13%)
Nov 20 22:21:48 pc flatpak[5713]: mainScreen.UpdaterEvents: CHECK_FOR_UPDATES UPDATE_NOT_AVAILABLE
Nov 20 22:21:48 pc flatpak[5713]: 11/20/2025, 10:21:48 PM PST [Modules] Host is up to date.
Nov 20 22:21:48 pc flatpak[5713]: 11/20/2025, 10:21:48 PM PST [Modules] Checking for module updates at https://discord.com/api/modules/stable/versions.json
Nov 20 22:21:48 pc flatpak[5713]: 11/20/2025, 10:21:48 PM PST [Modules] No module updates available.
Nov 20 22:21:48 pc flatpak[5713]: legacyModuleUpdater: update-check-finished

Software information

System information

• GPU: Intel Arc B580
• Driver: xe, mesa
• Wine version: GE-Proton10-25
• DXVK version: 2.7.1

Apitrace file(s)

When I first downloaded the apitrace files and put it in the game directory, the issue no longer occurred, but manually downloading and compiling dxvk and putting it in the game folder does not fix the issue. I am not able to find the log file in /home/user/.wine/drive_c/users/user/Desktop/, which is where my prefix folder is:

Documents copied from building dxvk myself:

Documents copied from copying apitrace:

The executable is indeed 64-bit:

After the second attempt with apitrace, still nothing was copied, but this time the issue did reoccur, the same as what was shown in the original screen recording, and once again nothing was copied to the desktop folder:

I have no idea why the issue went away at first. Before using the dxvk build I compiled myself, I had set some DLL overrides in winecfg for various DirectX files to n,b but removing those overrides did not change anything; removing just some led to the issue being the same as before, removing all of them led to the game being very laggy and colors being entirely wrong:

Log files

With Vulkan: vulkan.txt
With OpenGL: opengl.txt

[colleirose]

I spent a while trying to find a reliable way to recreate the error and to get better logs. At some point the issue kept re-occuring and switching to OpenGL didn't fix it anymore, but I've been able to make the issue consistently stop when using these options and the Proton-Experimental runner:

SteamOS=1 STEAMDECK=1 PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 DXVK_ASYNC=1 WINE_GSTREAMER=1 GDK_BACKEND=x11 VK_DRIVER_FILES=/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/intel_icd.x86_64.json %command% -dx11

That still makes cutscenes not work (unrelated issue) but is fixed with GE-Proton10-25.

I still don't know what causes the error or have much more information but I will try to get some more information once I have the time.

[TheEndProd]

Hey! I have the exact same issue on very similar specs, only I'm using the main Arch branch. Mine's a B580 too, everything from mesa to GE-Proton10-25 up to date.

I managed to get my game to work on Steam by adding the INTEL_DEBUG=stall environment variable, which fixed the textures and allowed me to use -dx12 with minor performance impact.

Have tried all the same fixes as you and even tried some other INTEL_DEBUG flags but only INTEL_DEBUG=stall "fixed" it. Issue began after I installed the 2.8 update. However, I have noticed that there are some cutscenes which the character's facial expressions freeze and they start talking without moving their lips or keeping their eyes closed after blinking. My current options set at lauch are:

INTEL_DEBUG=stall DXVK_ASYNC=1 %command% -dx12

Might be worth giving a shot and trying to investigate from there

[nokia8801]

Does adding anv_force_filter_addr_rounding=true help? Add it as a launch argument.

[colleirose]

Does adding anv_force_filter_addr_rounding=true help? Add it as a launch argument.

I'll try this as well once I have time. I'm a bit busy so I can't yet but I'll let you know if this fixes it for me.

I have noticed that there are some cutscenes which the character's facial expressions freeze and they start talking without moving their lips or keeping their eyes closed after blinking.

I could be wrong here, but I'd hazard a guess that this happens in Windows too and is just because the developers didn't have the time to animate some facial expressions.

[dancingmirrors]

If I'm not mistaken DXVK_ASYNC in itself can cause graphical glitches, and INTEL_DEBUG=stall is likely forcing async to not work as intended.

[doitsujin]

Well DXVK_ASYNC simply doesn't do anything because it doesn't exist. Even less so if you use D3D12 because DXVK is barely involved there. Please. Stop. Throwing. Useless. Env vars. At. Everything.

If I'm reading the code correctly then INTEL_DEBUG=stall actually just inserts barriers between all commands, which indicates some sort of GPU synchronization bug either in dxvk or the driver. Would be good to re-test current dxvk master here since I rewrote a bunch of the sync code and fixed some potential bugs in the process, but these types of things aren't exactly easy to debug, especially w/o a way to reproduce.

It's not entirely clear from the comments if the flickering happens in DX12 mode as well, if so then I'm more inclined to say driver issue if it's exactly the same bug.

[colleirose]

Well DXVK_ASYNC simply doesn't do anything because it doesn't exist. Even less so if you use D3D12 because DXVK is barely involved there. Please. Stop. Throwing. Useless. Env vars. At. Everything.

Like I said in the original post, I don't know what causes the issue nor exactly where to report it. I added different environment variables and configuration options that were suggested online without knowing what they do as trial and error because I didn't want to create an unnecessary issue. These worked until the new game update when I couldn't find a clear solution for a while.

If I'm reading the code correctly then INTEL_DEBUG=stall actually just inserts barriers between all commands, which indicates some sort of GPU synchronization bug either in dxvk or the driver.

To be clear I was not the one who tried adding INTEL_DEBUG=stall, and that wasn't what fixed the issue for me. I will try to see if that option changes anything though.

Would be good to re-test current dxvk master here since I rewrote a bunch of the sync code and fixed some potential bugs in the process, but these types of things aren't exactly easy to debug, especially w/o a way to reproduce.

I'll test this with the latest version as soon as I can. I will also try to find more clear reproduction steps.

It's not entirely clear from the comments if the flickering happens in DX12 mode as well, if so then I'm more inclined to say driver issue if it's exactly the same bug.

I believe the game uses DX12 by default unless you add the -dx11 option but I am unsure. It could be that this issue is only caused by DX12 and therefore isn't related to DXVK but I don't have enough time to test this yet, however I should be able to later. Currently I made multiple changes including adding -dx11 that have mostly made the problem go away (I've noticed a few instances of flickering but nothing like the original issue), but I need to see if -dx11 alone fixes it. I didn't realize this until some time after I made the post and learned about the -dx11 option after making some other changes as well, so I don't know which of them fixed it.

[colleirose]

I decided to give this another try today because I had some free time and I can't find any way to reproduce this issue at all anymore, whether with DX11 or DX12.

If I can find some circumstances that can repeatedly reproduce this with DX11, I'll reopen the issue. If @TheEndProd still experiences this then they could reply and I could reopen the issue, otherwise I don't have any idea what caused this.

[xqlenty1]

Hello! I've started to expirience this issue today, after 3.1 update, at first I thought it was mesa-git messing things up(I use git one because it allows for xess in this game) so I rolled back to the stable branch, but it didn't help. I use cachy os and arc b580, this problem did occure before for me, but only with cachyos proton, with protonge it worked fine. I've tried to launch with this flag INTEL_DEBUG=stall and the issue was gone, but my performance was basically halved.
This is without the flag and with glitches

And here it is with the flag, the issue is gone but performance suffered significantly

Any solution to this yet?

[xqlenty1]

Just to clarify, I understand that performance decreased because now GPU is waiting a lot, what I meant by "Any solution" is there any fix to the texture problem, without making my gpu wait for every draw?

[xqlenty1]

Also, the issue only present in dx12, with dx11 and dxvk the problem is absent. Sorry for writing it here since it is dxvk repo, but the issue I face is exactly the same, so I wanted to know if there is a solution

[colleirose]

Can you reproduce this with normal Valve Proton? If so please report it there and also link to this issue given it has background information.

Also, I have no idea how to fix your issue. It just stopped on its own for me after a while. Using DX11 is probably the best solution until there's another solution available.