Linux Port – Feedback, Known Issues, and FAQ

I still don't have any launch menu, even though I restarted steam a few times already and verified the game files. Launching BNG without forcing a compatibility tool just launches the windows version

 

Most cross-platform games use approach when linux and windows share resource files and each has own binary files through means of steam depots.
So linux version has .so libraries and ELF binaries and windows has .dll's and PE binaries, and both share the same resources.
It's a bit unusual to see that current approach for BeamNG has both windows and linux binaries in windows depot.

 

It's still highly experimental and thus creating a whole own depot for a version that might be a bit too overboard considering that they could kill that version at any time if there is no staff able to maintain it.

 

Understandable, and this also requires re-structuring the game files, but at current stage it becomes a bit of a problem.
Totally fine for experimental solution though, no complains about this right now.

Killing version at current stage would be very weird, considering how well it can perform even at current stage, there is a lot of potential.
Linux version specifically just needs a bit tweaking here and there and it will work nicely, and fixing other stuff mostly comes down to vulkan backend, which is not related to linux directly.

No need to rush there with exp. version, we will be there for any additional testing and info to help you out guys.

 

Yes, I even get like 5-10% performance improvement with the native version, both in the banana-bench and ingame, performance with multiple vehicles also seems to be a lot better, with proton I can barely get 30fps with 15 cars as traffic, and you can see my specs underneath

 

Yeah, I feel most of the problems experienced are more due to the experimental Vulkan backend, especially the graphics crashes. Honestly, for me, apart from these, it has been flawless, game performs great even in this experimental state! It would be a shame if it gets abandonned, but I would still understand, its a lot of work maintaining for Linux since there is so many possibilities of people having tweaked systems that cause problems. Maybe for that reason officially supporting only immutable distros, like Fedora silverblue or the Steam deck OS.

Also don't forget, people having issues when running on systems like Arch, gentoo or the like are very likely able to do some documentation research (and the more inclined ones to tweak their systems in sketchy ways), so setting up a documentation page/wiki that people can edit similar to the arch wiki would be useful for sharing fixes.

So that would mean immutable distro users and people who dont modify everything in their system will have a running game and its up to those who mess it up to fix it by themselves.

I would also like to add @tdev that it might seem like there are a lot of bugs, which maybe there is, but I think the Linux/open source community is a VERY vocal one and one that is passionate about software in general, so we like to report it for it to get fixed. As you can see, many of the reports in this thread are very constructive and many try finding fixes for the issues. (referencing to the post of the game dev that mentionned he had over 400 bug reports from linux users but only 3 were OS specific, in this case it would likely be higher since it is an experimental alpha of an alpha )

I am by no means a professionnal game dev, and maybe that would never work in real life, but I feel this could work. I really want to see this branch of the game succeed because its already so good!!

 

Why are the devs not using the Steam runtime though? wouldn't that be better so we all could have a unified set of libraries (and things like Vulkan shader caching)?

 

Yes i've had this before, I think it's from the game using waaaay too much memory. Also I've run into a memory leak issue where I have to restart after closing the game because of the leaked memory.

 

This is happening to me as well.

Just my speculation but I imagine there might be an interest in decoupling BeamNG.drive from Steam so that custom versions of the software could be provided for non-gaming use cases that do not need/require Windows. See also: https://beamng.tech/

 

Tbf I would really fancy an open-sourced BeamNG client on a platform like Github or Gitlab. This would come with the added benefit of a bugtracker and bug fixes from the community.

 

The launch menu still isn't working either...

 

You can avoid a reboot.

When it hangs upon exit do this

Code:

killall -9 BeamNG.drive.x64
echo 3 | sudo tee /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

 

the game acts weirdly in tiling wm (i3) (to get the game to load you need to move the window)
also the game crashes if any of the graphics settings are changed
otherwise works fine

 

Code:

][ v6 |  (unknown) built Thu Jun 16 13:06:45 2022 | now: Sunday Sun Jun 19 17:33:21 2022
][  | RAM: 12.5 GB | ][  | 12 cores | 0 MHz
   +----------+----------+
   | MBeams/s | % Realt  |
---+----------+----------+
 1 |   63.932 |   693.86 |
 2 |  107.355 |   582.57 |
 3 |  145.351 |   525.84 |
 4 |  184.109 |   499.54 |
 5 |  217.731 |   472.61 |
 6 |  219.887 |   397.74 |
 7 |  221.158 |   342.89 |
 8 |  243.878 |   330.85 |
 9 |  268.963 |   324.34 |
10 |  274.861 |   298.31 |
11 |  292.840 |   288.93 |
12 |  296.456 |   268.12 |
13 |  243.573 |   203.35 |
14 |  248.034 |   192.28 |
15 |  255.539 |   184.89 |
16 |  269.143 |   182.56 |
17 |  271.732 |   173.48 |
18 |  286.476 |   172.73 |
19 |  277.631 |   158.59 |
20 |  286.031 |   155.22 |
Max Mbeams/s:   296.456 Mbeams/s

 BANANAA!!!
 .______,#
 \ -----'/
  `-----'

Here's my current rig and probably every bit of information you need from it.
Seems to be unable to get bordeless or even FullScreen mode from it.

Code:

╰─ ./BeamNG.drive.x64
  0.11894|I|initFS| Virtual Filesystem: user path: /home/pm/.local/share/BeamNG.drive/0.25/
  0.11896|D|initFS|  - user path reason: Default path
  0.11896|D|initFS|  - user mods path: /home/pm/.local/share/BeamNG.drive/0.25/mods/
  0.11896|D|initFS|  - game mods path: /mnt/Yak/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/BeamNG.drive/content/
  0.11898|D|main| H2 067D2504BF6B95B21CC79AE2F4449406A915
>   0.13679|I|init| Initializing platform...
  0.13694|D|initializeSystem| initializing 87 modules (only displaying anything above 0.1 s)...
  0.13741|I|init| SFXFMODProvider - FMOD API version: 2.2.5
  0.14383|I|initChannels| SFXSystem initChannels called.....
  0.14397|D|createDevice| Using default audio device: Starship/Matisse HD Audio Controller Stéréo analogique
  0.17839|D|createDevice| SFXSystem::createDevice - created FMOD device 'Starship/Matisse HD Audio Controller Stéréo analogique'
  0.17842|D|createDevice|    CAPS_VoiceManagement
  0.17868|D|finalizeInitialization|    Provider: FMOD
  0.17869|D|finalizeInitialization|    Hardware: Yes
  0.17870|D|finalizeInitialization|    Buffers: 16
[S_API] SteamAPI_Init(): Loaded '/home/pm/.local/share/Steam/linux64/steamclient.so' OK.
[S_API FAIL] SteamAPI_Init() failed; no appID found.
Either launch the game from Steam, or put the file steam_appid.txt containing the correct appID in your game folder.
  0.23540|D|init| Could not initialize Steam functions
  0.24524|I|GELua.| ============== Game Engine Lua VM started ==============
  0.26593|D|GELua.core_gamestate.gamestate| see if ui is loaded
  0.29555|D|GELua.core_activityManager.| Loaded 12 condition types from 3 files.
  0.29911|D|GELua.gameplay_missions_progress.| Loaded 0 condition types from 0 files.
  0.29946|D|GELua.gameplay_missions_missions.| Loaded 2 procedural Mission Generators from 2 files.
  0.30009|D|GELua.gameplay_missions_unlocks.| Loaded 8 condition types from 3 files.
  0.30093|D|init| GFX Init:
  0.30094|D|_GFXInitReportAdapters|    Null device found
  0.30111|D|initializeSystem| ... all modules loaded in 0.164170768 seconds
  0.30142|D|TS| command line args:
  0.30143|D|TS|  - 0 = ./BeamNG.drive.x64
  0.31868|D|onAdd| Available adapters: 2
  0.31870|D|onAdd|  - name:GPU (VK), outputName:\\.\DISPLAY1, gfx:Vk, gpu:GPU
  0.31870|D|onAdd|  - name:GFX Null Device, outputName:, gfx:, gpu:
  0.31871|D|createDevice| Attempting to create GFX device 0: GPU (VK) [with output \\.\DISPLAY1]
  0.31871|D|createDevice| shader model: 5.0 , available video modes: 30
  0.31872|D|createDevice| Device created, setting adapter and enumerating modes
  0.34255|W|createWindow| Window Icon path is empty, window will be created without an icon.
  0.34366|I|init| Vk Layers:
  0.34367|I|init|     VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_overlay_32
  0.34367|I|init|     VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_overlay_64
  0.34368|I|init|     VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_fossilize_32
  0.34368|I|init|     VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_fossilize_64
  0.34369|I|init|     VK_LAYER_MANGOHUD_overlay
  0.34369|I|init|     VK_LAYER_MESA_device_select
  0.34370|I|init|     VK_LAYER_MESA_overlay
  0.34370|D|init| Attempting to create vulkan instance with the following extensions:
  0.34371|D|init|     VK_KHR_get_physical_device_properties2
  0.34371|D|init|     VK_EXT_debug_utils
  0.34372|D|init|     VK_KHR_surface
  0.34372|D|init|     VK_KHR_xlib_surface
  0.34944|D|init| Available vulkan devices:
  0.34946|D|init|    name:AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (RADV NAVI21) vendor:4098 version:92278883 type:Discrete
  0.36198|D|init| Created Vulkan device from AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (RADV NAVI21)
  0.36229|D|init|  -  () [0 MB] ver
  0.36230|D|setCapability| GFXCardProfiler (VK) - Setting capability 'maxTextureWidth' to 8192.
  0.36230|D|setCapability| GFXCardProfiler (VK) - Setting capability 'maxTextureHeight' to 8192.
  0.36230|D|setCapability| GFXCardProfiler (VK) - Setting capability 'maxTextureSize' to 8192.
  0.36231|D|setCapability| GFXCardProfiler (VK) - Setting capability 'autoMipMapLevel' to 1.
  0.36231|D|setCapability| GFXCardProfiler (VK) - Setting capability 'lerpDetailBlend' to 1.
  0.36231|D|setCapability| GFXCardProfiler (VK) - Setting capability 'fourStageDetailBlend' to 1.
  0.36293|D|sanitizePathAsStr| Empty path will be resolved to root but should not be used
  0.36294|D|sanitizePathAsStr| Empty path will be resolved to root but should not be used
  0.36295|D|sanitizePathAsStr| Empty path will be resolved to root but should not be used
  0.36297|D|sanitizePathAsStr| Empty path will be resolved to root but should not be used
  0.36300|I|init| Vulkan render initialized
  1.75696|D|TS| initClient start...
  1.75707|D|TS| initBaseClient start...
  1.75739|D|TS| initRenderManager
  1.75741|D|TS| initRenderManager
  1.75742|D|TS| --------- Initializing Lighting Systems ---------
  1.75742|D|TS|    Finding all the system files
  1.75745|D|TS|    exec: /core/scripts/client/lighting/shadowMaps/init.cs
  1.75749|D|TS|    exec: /core/scripts/client/lighting/advanced/init.cs
  1.76051|D|TS|    exec: /core/scripts/client/lighting/basic/init.cs
  1.76086|D|TS|    Finished with system files
  1.76187|D|TS| initPostEffects start...
  1.76888|D|TS| ... initPostEffects done
  1.76889|D|TS| Initialize the post effect manager
  1.77047|D|TS| % - PostFX Manager - Executing settings/default.postfxpreset.cs
  1.77055|D|TS| % - PostFX Manager - Applying from preset
  1.77057|D|TS| % - PostFX Manager - PostFX enabled
  1.77058|D|TS| ... initBaseClient done
  1.77252|D|TS| Attempting to set resolution to "1280 720 Window 32 75 0"
  1.77254|D|TS| Accepted Mode: 1280 720 Window 32 75 0
  1.81968|D|_setPersistentID| Setting a new persistent ID on an object that already has a persistent ID assigned: ind_metal_trim [1479]. Old UUID: 71c5d891-3f3d-4cf2-8b9b-b263a3a3c8ad. New UUID: 6fc54099-1c9a-4a9b-995f-74b5a831e70c
  1.81974|D|_setPersistentID| Setting a new persistent ID on an object that already has a persistent ID assigned: ind_plywood_old [1480]. Old UUID: 6d97386b-478b-4a09-ac85-8020d10b822f. New UUID: 22466117-6eb1-4877-b075-846ede29108b
  1.82125|D|_setPersistentID| Setting a new persistent ID on an object that already has a persistent ID assigned: ind_metal_trim [1479]. Old UUID: 6fc54099-1c9a-4a9b-995f-74b5a831e70c. New UUID: 71c5d891-3f3d-4cf2-8b9b-b263a3a3c8ad
  1.82142|D|TS| ... initClient done
  1.88804|D|run| Started up in 2.73 seconds: fs:863,9ms, fs:94,26ms, singletonThread:17,73ms, modules:164,2ms, TScmdline:1520,ms, cef2:66,09ms
  1.89570|D|GELua.core_cameraModes_relative.core_camera.relative| No refNodes found, using default fallback
  2.02152|D|acquire| SFXFMODProject: Opened project '/art/sound/fmod/desktop/main_preload.assets.bank' in 0.086261897 seconds. Preload sample data = true.
  2.08000|D|acquire| SFXFMODProject: Opened project '/art/sound/fmod/desktop/main_preload.streams.bank' in 0.058387269 seconds. Preload sample data = true.
  2.13923|D|acquire| SFXFMODProject: Opened project '/art/sound/fmod/desktop/vehicle_preload.assets.bank' in 0.059172084 seconds. Preload sample data = true.
  2.21332|D|acquire| SFXFMODProject: Opened project '/art/sound/fmod/desktop/vehicle_preload.streams.bank' in 0.074007952 seconds. Preload sample data = true.
  2.25709|D|acquire| SFXFMODProject: Opened project '/art/sound/fmod/desktop/ambient_maps.streams.bank' in 0.043665972 seconds. Preload sample data = false.
  2.28664|D|acquire| SFXFMODProject: Opened project '/art/sound/fmod/desktop/music.assets.bank' in 0.029497926 seconds. Preload sample data = false.
  2.33098|D|acquire| SFXFMODProject: Opened project '/art/sound/fmod/desktop/music.streams.bank' in 0.044309155 seconds. Preload sample data = false.
  2.37533|D|acquire| SFXFMODProject: Opened project '/art/sound/fmod/desktop/ui.assets.bank' in 0.044250054 seconds. Preload sample data = false.
  2.41959|D|acquire| SFXFMODProject: Opened project '/art/sound/fmod/desktop/ui.streams.bank' in 0.044195414 seconds. Preload sample data = false.
  2.46440|D|acquire| SFXFMODProject: Opened project '/art/sound/fmod/desktop/vehicle.assets.bank' in 0.044762378 seconds. Preload sample data = false.
  2.50822|D|acquire| SFXFMODProject: Opened project '/art/sound/fmod/desktop/vehicle.streams.bank' in 0.043745902 seconds. Preload sample data = false.
  2.59779|D|acquire| SFXFMODProject: Opened project '/art/sound/fmod/desktop/main_preload.strings.bank' in 0.089479585 seconds. Preload sample data = true.
  2.66450|D|acquire| SFXFMODProject: Opened project '/art/sound/fmod/desktop/main_preload.bank' in 0.065688859 seconds. Preload sample data = true.
  2.77907|D|acquire| SFXFMODProject: Opened project '/art/sound/fmod/desktop/vehicle_preload.bank' in 0.113803915 seconds. Preload sample data = true.
  2.80377|D|acquire| SFXFMODProject: Opened project '/art/sound/fmod/desktop/music.bank' in 0.023769356 seconds. Preload sample data = false.
  2.84826|D|acquire| SFXFMODProject: Opened project '/art/sound/fmod/desktop/ui.bank' in 0.044381207 seconds. Preload sample data = false.
  2.91018|D|acquire| SFXFMODProject: Opened project '/art/sound/fmod/desktop/vehicle.bank' in 0.061489836 seconds. Preload sample data = false.
  2.93264|E|bind| Could not create a description for binding keyboard0::*
  2.93572|D|GELua.core_input_bindings.bindings| Loaded 247 bindings for device keyboard0
  2.93608|D|GELua.core_input_bindings.bindings| Loaded 18 bindings for device mouse0
  2.94362|D|createDevice| Using default audio device: Starship/Matisse HD Audio Controller Stéréo analogique
  2.94573|D|GELua.core_settings_settings.setting| refreshLanguages called: oldLanguage = ""  appliedLanguage = "" userLanguage = ""
  2.94574|D|GELua.core_settings_settings.setting|        switching language.
  2.98997|D|reloadLanguages| Could not load any language, falling back to 'en-US'
  2.98998|I|reloadLanguages| Switched from '' language to 'en-US' (as fallback, after trying '')
  2.99174|D|GELua.core_settings_graphic.graphic| Applying graphic settings: \\.\DISPLAY1, Window, 1280 x 720 75 Hz
  3.00764|D|GELua.core_settings_graphic.graphic| Available Video Modes : { "3440 1440", "2560 1080", "1920 1440", "1920 1200", "1920 1080", "1680 1050", "1600 1200", "1600 900", "1440 900", "1280 1024", "1280 800", "1280 720", "1152 864", "1024 768", "832 624", "800 600", "720 576", "720 480", "640 480" }
  3.00780|D|createDevice| Using default audio device: Starship/Matisse HD Audio Controller Stéréo analogique
  3.01296|E|bind| Could not create a description for binding keyboard0::*
  3.01496|D|GELua.core_input_bindings.bindings| Loaded 247 bindings for device keyboard0
  3.01512|D|GELua.core_input_bindings.bindings| Loaded 18 bindings for device mouse0
  3.38059|D|GELua.core_gamestate.gamestate| show main menu (true)
  3.39006|D|GELua.core_gamestate.gamestate| ui finished loading
  3.39041|W|GELua.core_levels.| info.json missing: /levels/GridMap/info.json
  3.39048|E|GELua.core_levels.| No entry point for level found: /levels/GridMap. Ignoring level.
  3.41357|D|GELua.core_modmanager.initDB| Notification : took 0.00092ms to reorganise 0 files
  3.41362|D|GELua.core_modmanager.initDB| Notification : took 0.05724ms to callback
  3.41582|E|GELua.core_hardwareinfo.core_hwinfo| unsupported linux distribution
{
  bits = 0,
  buildNumber = 0,
  fullname = "Arch Linux BUILD_ID=rolling",
  gamearch = "x64",
  shortname = "Arch Linux",
  type = "linux",
  versionMajor = 0,
  versionMinor = 0,
  warnings = { {
      msg = "unsupportedlinuxdist",
      type = "warn"
    } }
}
  3.45869|D|CEF.MainGEUI#local://local/ui/modules/apps/app-container.js:153| Expected AppLayout but didn't get one :-(
  6.54053|E|GELua.core_hardwareinfo.core_hwinfo| unsupported linux distribution
{
  bits = 0,
  buildNumber = 0,
  fullname = "Arch Linux BUILD_ID=rolling",
  gamearch = "x64",
  shortname = "Arch Linux",
  type = "linux",
  versionMajor = 0,
  versionMinor = 0,
  warnings = { {
      msg = "unsupportedlinuxdist",
      type = "warn"
    } }
}
 12.37587|D|CEF.MainGEUI#local://local/ui/modules/apps/app-container.js:153| Expected AppLayout but didn't get one :-(
 13.52712|D|GELua.core_settings_settings.setting| refreshLanguages called: oldLanguage = "en-US"  appliedLanguage = "en-US" userLanguage = ""
 13.57087|D|reloadLanguages| Could not load any language, falling back to 'en-US'
 16.78256|D|GELua.core_settings_graphic.graphic| Sanitizing display - //./DISPLAY1: Passed.
 16.78259|D|GELua.core_settings_graphic.graphic| Sanitizing display mode - Fullscreen: Passed.
 16.78287|D|GELua.core_settings_graphic.graphic| Sanitizing display resolution - 3440 1440: Passed.
 16.78298|D|GELua.core_settings_graphic.graphic| Sanitizing refresh rate - 75: Passed.
 18.39561|D|GELua.core_settings_graphic.graphic| Applying graphic settings: \\.\DISPLAY1, Fullscreen, 3440 x 1440 75 Hz
/* Then it get stuck that way */

Have a ''Barcode Rendering'' issue however. Performance is fine however and i've noticed no other problems so far.

 

The bug where you have to move the window for the game to load is a known issue no matter which WM/DE you're using. Also are you trying to change graphics settings in game? Maybe there might be some Nvidia specific issue as most of the time my game doesn't crash when changing settings on an AMD GPU but I recommend trying to set them in the main menu before loading a map.

 

For me it also crashes when changing settings after loading on a 5700 XT

 

the post processing settings like aa and filtering work fine even when changed ingame
however options like textures and shadows freeze the game
if i set them in the main menu before loading into the game the game will look like its on defaults despite all the graphics in settings set to max

 

I tried BeamNG.drive on KDE Plasma 5.25 Wayland and it seems that unlike with X11 I do not have the extreme stuttering issues when moving the mouse pointer. I still have to resize the window to start the game.

As for the severe performance issue I previously reported with my Radeon RX480 I think the reason is that the Linux version of BeamNG is using all of the available VRAM (4GB), according to radeontop, with typical normal quality settings on the Italy runway map that normally don't cause any problem. For some reason it requires more VRAM than the Windows version via Proton.

EDIT: Gridmap seems fine.

 

So to sum it up, basically the main issues we have until now are:

• Crashes/freezes when changing some video settings (Now that I think of it, might be related to RAM consumption, further testing required then)
  
• Uses way too much video memory/system memory and then crashes/freezes the system
  
• Fullscreen/borderless is broken
  
• Have to move the window for the game to start
• Issues with steering wheels/controllers, but this is already in the known issues
• Crashes when loading certain maps/changing maps
• Barcode rendering (maybe a Vulkan issue?)

Which is honestly not that much and pretty good for a very experimental build! Congrats and thanks to the BeamNG.team!!
(I skipped a few but these are the main ones pretty much everyone is experiencing)

 

It often occurred to me when changing certain Graphics settings before loading a map (tuning details down, so they would take less RAM and VRAM), then loading a map.

It doesn't seem to be a matter of system memory as far as I could check with "free". The BeamNG log window reported losing sync with the GPU (I only vaguely recall; could be wrong), then the dGPU would turn off (I have a dGPU+iGPU configuration and the dGPU also has an LED so I can see when it turns on/off) and the entire desktop environment would lock up. Before that happens, it is possible to go into a virtual terminal (Ctrl+Alt+F5) and trying to recover the system from there, but it is not possible to kill the BeamNG process (marked as "Defunct" via "ps"). Unlike in out of memory situations (OOM) the system is quite responsive here. Going back to the desktop environment at this point however then leads to certain system freeze.

It looks like it is locking up the GPU in a way that makes the graphical system become unresponsive; could possibly be a Vulkan issue.

This on a Radeon RX480 4GB, openSUSE Tumbleweed with Mesa 22.1.1 and kernel 5.18.4 .


EDIT: also, checking with "radeontop", some maps like East Coast appeared to use too much GPU memory (VRAM+GTT combined over 7-8 GB) and the made the game crash, but didn't cause a GPU freeze: I could restart the game afterwards.