Wayland was pulled as a dependency by some program, but I am not actually using it. Current x-org server I have installed is version 21.1.22-1. The issue persists across both WM I use, awesomewm and qtile.

Deleting ~/.steam/, uninstalling and reinstalling steam has done nothing to solve the issue. All native linux games still run with no issues.

Can you run vulkaninfo > vulkaninfo.log and upload it here?
You could try running the game with this launch option PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%.

Can you run vulkaninfo > vulkaninfo.log and upload it here? You could try running the game with this launch option PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%.

vulkaninfo
ERROR: [Loader Message] Code 0 : loader_get_json: Failed to open JSON file /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json
ERROR: [Loader Message] Code 0 : vkCreateInstance: Found no drivers!
Cannot create Vulkan instance.
This problem is often caused by a faulty installation of the Vulkan driver or attempting to use a GPU that does not support Vulkan.
ERROR at /usr/src/debug/vulkan-tools/Vulkan-Tools/vulkaninfo/./vulkaninfo.h:611:vkCreateInstance failed with ERROR_INCOMPATIBLE_DRIVER

I have tried using that proton command and it didn't fix anything.

Have you tried reinstalling your gpu drivers and vulkan?

Have you tried reinstalling your gpu drivers and vulkan?

which packages specifically should i do?

Try reinstalling vulkan first
sudo pacman -R vulkan-radeon lib32-vulkan-radeon
sudo pacman -Sc
sudo pacman -S vulkan-radeon lib32-vulkan-radeon
vulkaninfo
Could you also check if /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/ exists and if theres anything in the directory?

Try reinstalling vulkan first sudo pacman -R vulkan-radeon lib32-vulkan-radeon sudo pacman -Sc sudo pacman -S vulkan-radeon lib32-vulkan-radeon vulkaninfo Could you also check if /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/ exists and if theres anything in the directory?

needed to -Rdd for this. first output of vulkaninfo before restart:

ERROR: [Loader Message] Code 0 : loader_get_json: Failed to open JSON file /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json
ERROR: [Loader Message] Code 0 : vkCreateInstance: Found no drivers!
Cannot create Vulkan instance.
This problem is often caused by a faulty installation of the Vulkan driver or attempting to use a GPU that does not support Vulkan.
ERROR at /usr/src/debug/vulkan-tools/Vulkan-Tools/vulkaninfo/./vulkaninfo.h:611:vkCreateInstance failed with ERROR_INCOMPATIBLE_DRIVER

Will update with rest.

Try reinstalling vulkan first sudo pacman -R vulkan-radeon lib32-vulkan-radeon sudo pacman -Sc sudo pacman -S vulkan-radeon lib32-vulkan-radeon vulkaninfo Could you also check if /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/ exists and if theres anything in the directory?

vulkaninfo after reboot:

ERROR: [Loader Message] Code 0 : loader_get_json: Failed to open JSON file /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json
ERROR: [Loader Message] Code 0 : vkCreateInstance: Found no drivers!
Cannot create Vulkan instance.
This problem is often caused by a faulty installation of the Vulkan driver or attempting to use a GPU that does not support Vulkan.
ERROR at /usr/src/debug/vulkan-tools/Vulkan-Tools/vulkaninfo/./vulkaninfo.h:611:vkCreateInstance failed with ERROR_INCOMPATIBLE_DRIVER

I have attached the .json files.

radeon_icd.i68.json
radeon_icd.json

Ok, where do I need to go/what do I need to do for that.

@kisak-valve Is it possible to temporarily rename radeon_icd.json to radeon_icd.x86_64.json or copy the contents of radeon_icd.json to a new file named radeon_icd.x86_64.json and see if that solves the issue?

You can see what eventually gets set by using env in a terminal, but there's several different config files you could have modified in the past which would apply those environment variables to your gui session.

shell env output

ALACRITTY_WINDOW_ID=23068675
XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP=awesome
WINDOWID=23068675
COLORTERM=truecolor
GDMSESSION=awesome
LOGNAME=user
SHLVL=1
VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.i68.json:/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json
XDG_SEAT_PATH=/org/freedesktop/DisplayManager/Seat0
SHELL=/usr/bin/bash
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
ALACRITTY_LOG=/tmp/Alacritty-16706.log
MOTD_SHOWN=pam
XDG_SESSION_PATH=/org/freedesktop/DisplayManager/Session0
XDG_SESSION_CLASS=user
XDG_GREETER_DATA_DIR=/var/lib/lightdm-data/user
XDG_SEAT=seat0
XAUTHORITY=/home/user/.Xauthority
XDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11
XDG_SESSION_ID=2
PWD=/home/user
USER=user
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
DEBUGINFOD_URLS=https://debuginfod.archlinux.org
TERM=alacritty
XDG_VTNR=7
DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus
ALACRITTY_SOCKET=/run/user/1000/Alacritty-:0-16706.sock
DISPLAY=:0
PATH=/home/user/.bin:/home/user/.local/bin:/home/user/.config/emacs/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/bin/site_perl:/usr/bin/vendor_perl:/usr/bin/core_perl
DESKTOP_SESSION=awesome
HOME=/home/user
MAIL=/var/spool/mail/user

Not sure if this is the right track, but looking at this: https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Loader/blob/main/docs/LoaderInterfaceArchitecture.md#table-of-debug-environment-variables

Here are the contents of ~/.local/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d

steamfossilize_i386.json
steamfossilize_x86_64.json
steamoverlay_i386.json
steamoverlay_x86_64.json

VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.i68.json:/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json is the environment variable. It is pointing to only one valid path which is why vulkan-loader fails to find the driver. You can try renaming the file and see if that solves the issue.
sudo mv /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.json /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json
Then you can try vulkaninfo again.

VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.i68.json:/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json is the environment variable. It is pointing to only one valid path which is why vulkan-loader fails to find the driver. You can try renaming the file and see if that solves the issue. sudo mv /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.json /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json Then you can try vulkaninfo again.

vulkaninfo.txt

After making this change, I was able to get a game to run. What I'm curious about is how this env var got set, and by what.

Its strange but it could have been set by anything. You could have set it when following troubleshooting steps or it could have been an installation bash script. Enjoy expedition 33!

If there is no interest in further investigating this issue by end of business hours on the 18th, I will close the issue.

Thank you to all the people who helped resolve this issue.