Compatibility Report

I have a very similar issue, although I'm not sure how similar my proton log is: https://gist.github.com/Caeglathatur/bf697a27b8cfd0120d5983e49ded807d

Additionally, when I attempt to bypass the launcher using launch options "/home/username/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Cities Skylines II/Cities2.exe" %command%, the game starts, but just shows a black screen for a while and then shuts down. In this scenario it appears that nothing is written to the proton log file.

• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070
• Video driver version: NVIDIA 535.113.01
• Kernel version: 6.5.8-arch1-1
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
• RAM: 32 GB

Same here. Running on Arch.
Fun fact - you can launch Launcher under wine and it even starts game but after several seconds game crashing with blackscreen. All logs nearly same like comment up, so I dont provide them

UPD
Using Proton 7 or 6 allows to start Launcher. But still have blackscreen crash after 5 seconds of game launch

@pzim-devdata said:

GPU: Intel Mesa Intel Xe (TGL GT2)

It is perhaps worth noting that this is an integrated graphics system, well below the minimum specs for the game (Passmark scores of similar chips suggest it has very roughly a third of the graphics power of the RX480). FYI the CEO of the developer has explicitly stated:

If you only have integrated graphics please refund the game. Cities: Skylines II needs a dedicated graphic card with at least 8gb of VRAM to run. If you want to play the game please make sure you have a suitable GPU.

We all hope the Proton devs can work a miracle but even if the launcher works, it is far from certain that the game will run on OP's system.

since PROTON_LOG=1 doesn't work if bypassing the launcher, best could get was the terminal output from running the game via terminal steam steam://rungameid/949230 &> ~/log1.txt log is from GE-Proton-21, but same results in 7, 8 and experimental.

https://gist.github.com/ToastedWookiee/dbeaaffa73c58acff0c7eb94582e8cb9

• OS: EndeavourOS Linux
• KERNEL: 6.5.8-zen1-1-zen
• CPU: Intel Core i9-9900K
• GPU: Intel Mesa Intel Arc A770 (DG2) 16GB
• GPU DRIVER: 4.6 Mesa 23.3.0-devel (git-3bf1b7deba)
• RAM: 64 GB

Using Proton 7 or 6 allows to start Launcher. But still have blackscreen crash after 5 seconds of game launch

Tried this with Proton 7 and got the same result. Proton log (originally 2 MB, of which I deleted about 1 MB of repetitive messages just to able to upload): https://gist.github.com/Caeglathatur/d7b577ba3c7fb6d99cd249d31d863175

@MatthewForrester Yes, I know that integrated graphics are not supported for now, but my integrated graphics card has 16gb of VRAM and CS2 works well without the yellow page bug. The team also said “not supported for now,” so I still hope they will optimize the game and correct the yellow page bug in the future. Furthermore, CS2 would likely work much better on Linux. ;)

EDIT : It's working now without any launch option on Steam :-)

There is a temporary fix for the yellow page bug for Intel Xe Iris Graphics:

From the steam forum :

1. On Steam, right click Cities:Skylines 2 --> Properties. In the General tab, add --developerMode into the launch options.

2. Load into your savegame or start a new city

3. After loading your city, keep pressing Tab. After a few seconds of freezing, a slightly transparent black window will pop up on the left.

4. Click on GameRendering (2nd row, 3rd option).

5. Scroll down using scrollwheel or touchpad, dropdown arrow with name "Custom passes". Click on the arrow to open it.

6. 2nd checkbox, uncheck Tunnel Pass. This will get rid of the invisible yellow tint, but underground roads will NOT be visible

You can hide the debug window by pressing Tab again."

This is how I fixed my issue.

Following the suggestions in this ProtonDB report, I was able to run and update the launcher in Proton Experimental. The game still does not start properly for me, as it apparently did for them.

EDIT: Some console output from attempting to run the game executable from the command line in a similar fashion:

Command: STEAM_COMPAT_DATA_PATH=~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/949230 STEAM_COMPAT_CLIENT_INSTALL_PATH=~/.local/share/Steam PROTON_LOG=1 ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Proton\ -\ Experimental/proton waitforexitandrun ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Cities\ Skylines\ II/Cities2.exe

Output: https://gist.github.com/Caeglathatur/8d7c73464b8f0f66918ceb32067a107c

Replying to https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/7197#issuecomment-1781592389

Can confirm, in my instance it fixed my launcher issue and starts up the game.

I was able to get the Launcher to open once, set to beta and let it restart to update, but haven't been able to get it to open since. Steam just quietly stops the game with no errors.
If I use the console command as above, all I get now is the repeating lines until it pops up error window:

ERR: Display.cpp:1066 (initialize): ANGLE Display::initialize error 12289: WGL_NV_DX_interop2 is required but not present.
[1392:1026/153437.176:ERROR:gl_display.cc(520)] EGL Driver message (Critical) eglInitialize: WGL_NV_DX_interop2 is required but not present.
[1392:1026/153437.176:ERROR:gl_display.cc(790)] eglInitialize OpenGL failed with error EGL_NOT_INITIALIZED
[1392:1026/153437.176:ERROR:gl_display.cc(824)] Initialization of all EGL display types failed.
[1392:1026/153437.176:ERROR:gl_initializer_win.cc(134)] GLDisplayEGL::Initialize failed.

Game itself still just opens to black screen, mouse changes to game cursor then crash after few seconds.

Update: Can open launcher using normal wine, set to beta and updated. Game still refuses to launch, can open launcher no problem in wine. No changes in Steam, launcher refuses to open in any version of Proton.

Found some more logs, this time from the game itself, with "FATAL" and "CRITICAL" messages.

1. Start the launcher from command line with the following command. I had updated the launcher to beta version earlier, as well as played around with the game settings in the laucher, which seem to have no effect.

STEAM_COMPAT_DATA_PATH=~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/949230 STEAM_COMPAT_CLIENT_INSTALL_PATH=~/.local/share/Steam PROTON_LOG=1 ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Proton\ -\ Experimental/proton waitforexitandrun ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Cities\ Skylines\ II/Launcher/dowser.exe

1. Launch the game.

2. While the game is showing the black screen, the following log is printed to .steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/949230/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/LocalLow/Colossal Order/Cities Skylines II/Logs/SceneFlow.log. The last message coincides with the game exiting. https://gist.github.com/Caeglathatur/22235985118f9ea9d1ec067d3971d07c

EDIT: I might add that when the launcher starts, it pops up an error message:

Steam runtime communication error

We had trouble communicating with Steam. Verify that Steam is running, doesn't have administrator privileges and try opening this game directly through Steam. If the issue persists, contact support. You can also ignore the error and proceed to the game, but certain functionalities may not work.

I wonder if this is related to the game's log saying "A platform service integration failed to initialize" and

AssertionException: Assertion failure. Value was False
Expected: True

[...]

  at Colossal.PSI.Common.PlatformManager.Dispose (System.Boolean disposeEvents, System.Threading.CancellationToken token) [0x00292] in <1ad483b7959b43cc8d0e46d615977933>:0 
  at Game.SceneFlow.GameManager.DisposePlatforms () [0x000f3] in <e3879915405149169e3d4e0c4ea5889a>:0 

I got the game to start.

The launcher can export logs. In there I found this:

error [SteamErrorsLogger]: Steam API is not initialized: Steam initialization failed. Steam is running,but steam_appid.txt is missing. Expected to find it in: C:\Program Files\Paradox Interactive\launcher\launcher-v2--openbeta--2023.14-rc\steam_appid.txt

1. I created said file (in the WINE prefix ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/949230/pfx/drive_c/Program Files/Paradox Interactive/launcher/launcher-v2--openbeta--2023.14-rc/steam_appid.txt), containing just 949230. After some trial and error, for good measure, I copied it into each version of the launcher (sibling directories), as well as next to Cities2.exe in ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Cities Skylines II/.
2. Started the launcher same as before with STEAM_COMPAT_DATA_PATH=~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/949230 STEAM_COMPAT_CLIENT_INSTALL_PATH=~/.local/share/Steam PROTON_LOG=1 ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Proton\ -\ Experimental/proton waitforexitandrun ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Cities\ Skylines\ II/Launcher/dowser.exe. The error popup in the launcher no longer showed up.
3. Hitting play, the game launched with two additional args --pdx-launcher-session-token and --paradox-account-userid (with values omitted here). Just like that, I'm in the main menu.

May be worth retrying steps 2-3 a couple of times, I'm honestly a little unsure about the exact series of actions that ultimately fixed it. It's also possible that Steam needs to be running as you start the launcher.

I can launch from the command line and play without issues. I still cannot launch from the Steam client.

System Information: https://gist.github.com/camellirite/99a6010ebecec6ba45818d9e6f0d71d8
Steam Runtime Dianostics: https://gist.github.com/camellirite/d07457fab05a64af468ad0722e6b2385
Proton log: steam-949230.log

The game can run fine for a while until the game drops down to 1-3 fps while playing, in the load game menu, or in the settings menu. I can exit the game to the main menu where I get normal fps until I click on the load game or settings again. I'm sure its related to proton because I can play the game on windows without this issue for hours

that be mesa is outdated ..i using mesa-git 24 , not sure gonna make the difference but i will glad to try it after download the games as well and test it myself , i did tested similar with Alan Wake 2 and running 51 fps svg on 7900xtx setup but thats without RT enable and bypass vkd3d mesh shaders that it seems mesa and vkd3d-proton need more work to be done in making mesh shaders truly working on linux platform ...NVIDIA seems to work without vkd3d-proton mesh shaders function but drivers is up to date for both games . What really frustrated me in linux community? their distros are crap way to use git and stable version...in ubuntu is very easy someone make ppa packages repo for my ubuntu 23.10 that have cleanest mesa-git library vs archlinux, its huge mess over there for its users maintained repo ..one them have one file only and other is from mesa-git have to replace entire distro llvm to get mesa-git extra stuff...I really piss off about itwhen arch types like manjaro is not helpful for not making separated version for bleeding edge from their main branch stable version...Why have arch distros not attempt to make bleeding edge versions of it ?? its not cool man over linux, your all just making everything complicated now

I think I am now at the point where proton isn't the issue, running latest mesa 24 git version I can't get past this screen. No buttons do anything besides the Quit Game button.

Running an Intel Arc a770 16GB

it looks like intel need to update their drivers to get volumetric materials to work, have anyone else before me tested on AMD gpu, also sure want to know any nvidia users can lend some data here to show if anything different on this game?

I tried mesa-git but it didn't change anything for me. @DRIVANnega what data are you looking for? I can help out, I have a 3070.

on Nvidia RTX 3060Ti with the latest driver using wayland/KDE the game launches just fine (also the launcher worked just fine) but biggest issue for me is that it keeps flickering when moving the cursor even on the menu, not just in-game

I will not going into the performance as that seems to be not that great in general for this game : https://youtu.be/l4DX6mUY78s

Also I was using proton-experimental (bleeding-edge)

my PC spec;

Operating System: openSUSE MicroOS 20231030
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.9
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.111.0
Qt Version: 5.15.11
Kernel Version: 6.5.9-1-default (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × AMD Ryzen 7 5700G with Radeon Graphics
Memory: 46.8 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 
GPU Driver Version:  545.29.02

Hello,
I am reopening this issue because the launcher problem has reappeared since the Paradox launcher update today.
I am providing you with my updated system information again.
Thank you.

System Information

OS: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
KERNEL: 6.5.9
CPU: 11th Gen Intel Core i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz
GPU: Intel Mesa Intel Xe (TGL GT2)
GPU DRIVER: 4.6 Mesa 23.2.1-1
RAM: 32 GB

Logs:

Please add PROTON_LOG=1 %command% to the game's launch options and
attach the generated $HOME/steam-$APPID.log to this issue report as a file.
(Proton logs compress well if needed.) :

steam-949230.log

Symptoms:

After an update of the Paradox laugher today, again, the Paradox laugher can't start

More system information:

1. You can retrieve a full system information report by clicking
   Help > System Information in the Steam client on your machine.
2. Please copy it to your clipboard by pressing Ctrl+A and then Ctrl+C.
   Then paste it in a Gist and post the link in
   this issue.

https://gist.github.com/pzim-devdata/adf011d56434cb030add61447ef6aee1

1. Also, please copy the contents of Help > Steam Runtime Information to
   the gist.

https://gist.github.com/pzim-devdata/20821c49363eae7b9fb1589948e8ed24

@pzim-devdata the launcher still works fine for me after the update, at least with proton-experimental (bleeding-edge), its the only part that actually works normally for me, I even tried out the beta/rc (2023.14-rc) version of the launcher (for fun) and it works also just fine

my Steam Runtime Information: https://gist.githubusercontent.com/ahjolinna/9f7df4c157ba8cd56b8b0f8e53462416/raw/cc9333d64857f7f7c491e5da8c0c646703e7f12c/gistfile1.txt

this last update fixed my issue here https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/7197#issuecomment-1784005002

it keeps flickering when moving the cursor even on the menu, not just in-game

This happens for me also under KDE and wayland. Seems it's mouse related, because moving around the map with the keyboard shortcuts while on game it doesn't do that.

Turning vsync off and frame latency to minimum (1) in game settings helped with severe stalls while in main menu for me (AMD Vega). Something in vsync handling might be buggy in the game itself.

I get this on proton experimental/GE in steam

through wine I get this

I am on AMD. I have tried Proton GE and Experimental

After a year without playing (it worked with launcher 2024.15) now with 2025.11 it's broken.
steam-949230.log

I downgraded to 8.0.5 because I read in https://www.protondb.com/app/949230#IDAhvdUDu4 it worked after downgrading, which surprises me. With 9.0.4 it still doesn't work, but with proton-10.0-2d it does.
steam-949230.log

@bjo81 looks like you have amdvlk installed, and it might be causing intermittent issues for you. If you uninstall it, does it behave better?

@simifor What's the issue with amdvlk?

Some games try to load both drivers and break, and also amdvlk is no longer
active https://github.com/GPUOpen-Drivers/AMDVLK/discussions/416

On Wed, Sep 24, 2025, 3:19 AM Bjoern Franke @.***>
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bjo81 left a comment (ValveSoftware/Proton#7197)
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/7197#issuecomment-3326940221

@simifor https://github.com/simifor What's the issue with amdvlk?

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@QPCrummer I am also running CachyOS and attempted to play this game the other day. Did not have any crashes, however a lot of assets had ghosting on movement and the game overall was very choppy. I am on a 4070TI with the latest driver as well.

I downgraded to Nvidia 580 drivers and that fixed my issue

@QPCrummer thank you for the tip. Gotta love NVIDIA. 🙃

Isn't running at all for me on CachyOS despite trying everything I could think of.

When Starting a game with Dota 2, Cities Skyline 2 Freezes completely and become unresponsive, it drags Dota 2 hero selection phase with it causing you to get banned since Dota 2 also becomes unresponsive. But Dota 2 recovers from freezing while Skyline 2 never becomes interactible, Linux also issues a termination dialog indicating its unresponsive.

OS: Ubuntu 26.04
Proton version: Steam Proton Experimental Bleeding Edge
GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4070 S nvidia-595-71-05
Gnome: v50 Wayland
Steam: Flatpak com.valvesoftware.Steam 1.0.0.85