Possible line of interest from the log:
fixme:d3dx:d3dx9_mesh_OptimizeInplace D3DXMESHOPT_ATTRSORT vertex reordering not implemented.
System Information
Retest Compatibility Report
Same problems persist with newer Proton and Mesa.
The configuration tools fonts are just boxes, and the game won't launch. Launching the game a black window opens up and then immediately exits. Tried also with d9vk, on launch I could see a black window with the d9vk overlay and then it exited.
steam-283840-proton-4.11-3.log
steam-283840-proton-4.11-3-d9vk.log
system_info.txt
Possible line of interest from the log: fixme:d3dx:d3dx9_mesh_OptimizeInplace D3DXMESHOPT_ATTRSORT vertex reordering not implemented
The game is now working with the latest version of Proton (4.11-11), installing dxsdk_jun2010 using Protontricks and disabling Steam Input to allow the controller to work.
Note that DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010) would also work but it is no longer available as a trick. It can be downloaded from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109






System Information
Retest Compatibility Report
Same problems remain with Proton 5.0-5, out of the box game does not launch. And the characters on the configuration tool are not readable.
Game is working now out of the box, configuration tool is also readable.

including log and system info for reference
steam-283840.log
system_info.txt
Closing this issue as I'm no longer seeing any problems.
proton 7.0-3x1 2022-06proton 5.0-5x1 2020-03proton 4.11-3x1 2019-08
Compatibility Report
System Information
Distro: Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa (64 bit)
GPU: Vega 56
Driver/LLVM version: Mesa 19.1.0-devel/9.0.0
Kernel version: 5.0.10-050010-lowlatency
Proton version: 4.2-3
I confirm:
Symptoms
The game won't launch, window just opens up and exits immediately.
The config tool does launch but the characters are just boxes like with the developers previous game #2625. Suspecting either locale is detected wrong or some ANSI/UTF character set problem.

steam-283840.log
steam-283840-configtool.log
system_info.txt
sislog.txt
Reproduction
Just launch the game or the config tool