Hello @otikscypi, can you check how this game behaves with Proton experimental-8.0-20230822 (today's update)?
EDIT: Oops, didn't realize that build hasn't been pushed out with Steam yet. Please retest after it becomes available.
Hi @kisak-valve, will do.
In the meantime I managed to find a workaround. I already shared it on steam community forum, appears to be working for more people: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1084160/discussions/0/3810661765912984419/
I will retest it with Medium/High reflection when new experimental proton arrives.
It appears the problem is only in the MainMenu files and only on a single setting - Reflection.
To get around it follow steps below:
- Open the game folder (right click on the game, properties -> installed files -> browse)
- Navigate to Packs/Maps folder.
- Create some folder, name it as you like - i.e. bak or temp
- Find all the files with names starting with "MainMenu_"
- Move all those files to the folder you created in step 3.
- Launch the game. Game should launch to the menu but instead of the background with your mercs, it will be black.
- Open Options -> Video and change Reflections to anything other than Medium or High. Off, Low and Ultra are ok. Apply the change. Don't try to play yet. You do not have some necessary files.
- Close the game.
- Restore the "MainMenu_" files to their previous location.
- Restart the game.
- Game should now go to the main menu, background with mercs should be there.
It may be that in your case Reflections is not the problematic option. We need more reports to confirm that. If you will still have problems, repeat the steps 4 to 6, but instead of changing the Reflections only, manually change all options to the lowest possible setting. Then close the game, restore "MainMenu_" files, restart the game. If it launches to the menu you are almost there. Now try to setting up your options one by one, applying the change after every single one. If it crashes again, just restart game (that last change should not stick and it should launch) and skip that option or try different level.
I tested it a moment ago with new proton experimental. Game still crashes with reflections on medium or high.
I also have this problem. (I launched game with the latest proton experimental)
Workaround from above helped.
Faced a similar crash-before-menu but with a different workaround. The crash took place right after the first splash screen, before reaching the company logo videos.
I had to report a non-Intel GPU for it to work, as debugging it showed that Intel XESS was crashing it (SIGSEGV in xessD3D12BuildPipelines()). Created a dxvk.conf file in the working directory of the game with the line dxgi.hideIntelGpu = True in it.
After that, the game works but has some minor visible shader glitches and performance is bad. For example, after changing the resolution the game will run at 30-40 FPS for a short while, but then drops to 10-20 FPS. Edit: The "resolution change FPS boost" also takes place when switching to another workspace (Sway WM) and then back to the one containing the game.
Edit: The crash-before-menu and fix also worked the same under X11, but under X11 the game performance was much worse, 10-20 FPS in menu.
GPU: Intel Xe Graphics (i7-1185G7)
Mesa and Intel Vulkan version: 23.1.8
Kernel version: 6.5.4
Proton version: Proton Experimental
This still happens today on 3090. Switching reflections to Ultra fixed things.
The game when running in fullscreen mode, registers mouse input with an offset relative to the real mouse position. It seems to me like it counts the window's titlebar size even if they are not displayed in fullscreen mode.
I've tested the game with Proton 9.0-2 and Proton Experimental (up-to-date version at 2024-08-01).
In ProtonDB, there are comments citing this issue as well (like this).
BTW: I rarely had this issue in other games as well (currently, I don't remember which ones), so it may not be a specific issue of this game but something weird in Proton / Wine.
Proton: 9.0-2; Experimental
Operating System: Arch Linux (x86_64)
KDE Plasma Version: 6.1.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.4.0
Qt Version: 6.7.2
Kernel Version: 6.10.2-arch1-1 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 24 × AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12-Core Processor
Memory: 31.2 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT (radeonsi, navi31, LLVM 18.1.8, DRM 3.57, 6.10.2-arch1-1)
Mesa 24.1.4-arch1.2
@tesfabpel I was unable to reproduce this issue or the crashing mentioned on protondb when using fullscreen with either proton 9 or experimental. Tested on plasma xorg and plasma wayland 6.1.4. Are you still seeing this issue?
Simpler fix (without restarting game)
Edit file:
~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/1084160/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/Jagged Alliance 3/LocalStorage.lua
And add lines
Resolution = point(1920, 1080),
+ SSR = "Off",
+ VideoPreset = "Custom",
Upscaling = "FSR2",
fixups_meta = {
still crashes during initial load (on both experimental and 10.0-beta), but that "LocalStorage.lua" fix did work
system:
Operating System: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20250531
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.80
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.15.0
Qt Version: 6.9.0
Kernel Version: 6.14.6-2-default (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × AMD Ryzen 7 5700G with Radeon Graphics
Memory: 48 GiB of RAM (46.8 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
Driver version: 570.153.02
Jagged Alliance 3 Failed to initiate graphics subsystem
Issue transferred from https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/9204.
@lukec85 posted on 2025-11-10T00:38:16:
I have started a community discussion about this on steam - I have uploaded screenshots and explained the problem. https://steamcommunity.com/app/1084160/discussions/0/667222425710426529/
The game will not start with either Hotfix or proton experimental. It comes up with an error message saying "Failed to initialize graphics subsystem" I forced the game to run Proton 8 and 9. I am able to get to the loading screen at which point the game freezes.
Short video clips showing the problem
Hello @lukec85, the NVIDIA 535 series video driver is missing features required by VKD3D-Proton bundled with Proton Experimental. If you want to tinker with newer Proton versions, you'll need to update your video driver.
Also, see past discussion on this compatibility report for similar load time notes.
Hello @lukec85, the NVIDIA 535 series video driver is missing features required by VKD3D-Proton bundled with Proton Experimental. If you want to tinker with newer Proton versions, you'll need to update your video driver.
Also, see past discussion on this compatibility report for similar load time notes.
Hi, Thank you for the reply. I am relatively new to this whole Linux thing and after some googling - i found the "sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall" This updated a BUNCH of things including graphics driver. However, this did not fix the problem. I was able to get to the loading screen using the latest proton, but the game crashed again right before the menu screen. Same thing with other proton versions.
I tried the fix posted on December 17 2024 by user "pktiuk" above and lo and behold, I am finally in game.
proton experimentalx8 2025-11proton 9.0-2x1 2024-08
Compatibility Report
System Information
I confirm:
Proton log: steam-1084160.log
Symptoms
Game was working great for me on proton until devs released patch 1.1.0. Now it just crashes to the desktop instead of showing the menu.
Problem appears to be limited to nvidia GPUs. Game still works on steam deck. There are also no reports about it not working on AMD GPUs on a desktop. There is however a number of nvidia GPUs users with similar problems, using different GPUs and different drivers: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1084160/discussions/0/3810661765912984419/
Comparing proton log from steam deck and desktop, the main difference is following failling assertion:
Assertion failed: !status && "vkCreateComputePipelines", file ../src-wine/dlls/winevulkan/loader_thunks.c, line 2604Reproduction