mojical

Have you monitored your GPU core and memory clocks with and without upscaling using a tool like RTSS? I would blame some power saving feature rather than the GPU utilization in itself, because it is indeed paradoxical that using a higher resolution would improve performance.

I would try Nobara, specifically the KDE Nvidia version. If you are using Nvidia, desktops like Gnome or Cinnamon won't be the best option because you can't fully disable the compositor on them, so KDE is preferable. If your poor performance persists, you can use the builtin tool GOverlay to enable a HUD that will tell you about CPU/GPU usage and frequency, as does RTSS on Windows. Be aware that GPU usage will be significantly higher under Linux with DXVK so maybe your 1080 is hitting its limit, odd as it sounds for APB.

Are you on Wayland or X11? Have you tried running X11 with the compositor turned off? You could also try updating to the latest GE-Proton release (23 as of this post), there is no need to run 8-5 specifically but it was the first version that could launch the game without manual tweaking. Since downgrading your drivers helped I suspect the newer drivers may not be playing nice with the somewhat older DXVK in Proton 8-5. Regarding the stutters, putting the command line option DXVK_HUD="compiler" %command% in Steam's launch options will make the game notify you when a shader compilation occurs. If your stutters are due to shader compilation they will go away as you play the game and build up a disk cache of shaders. Overall though unfortunately the experience with Nvidia is not going to be as smooth as with Radeon cards, and I lack any modern Nvidia cards to be able to test.

I've updated the instructions to include Visual C++ runtimes. This is a bit complicated to achieve with the current build but it's a step closer to getting full support, as automatic Steam login is now working. EDIT: Proton-GE now automatically installs the needed VC++ runtimes thanks to my pull request, so I've updated the guide to make use of this development.

Really liking this patch so far, especially the fact that the ACT doesn't lose accuracy from strafing anymore. While I'd rather have the high FPS sliding bug solved completely at least this makes it have no effect on ACT marksmanship accuracy. I also like that the RFP Talon is finally decent without being overshadowed by the Fang or just bad all around. Hopefully for the next patch some of the less used primaries will get buffs too. I think the Curse and Tommygun (M-1922) deserve a look. The Curse is overshadowed by the also underused ACES rifle in both range and TTK so I believe they should be at least equal on range, and the Tommygun could get a fire rate increase to get its TTK in line with the VAS-C2/Trouble Maker. The Trouble Maker is much easier to handle than the Tommygun so it makes no sense for it to have more killing power, yet I don't feel like a nerf to the Trouble Maker is justified with the PMG in its current state.

Proton Experimental just got updated with the fix, so I also updated the guide to make use of it. Crashes and mail breakages should be gone with this new method. Also expect Proton-GE to have this sorted out in the next build.

I am, but unfortunately I must have been wrong about GE's patches because 8.0 GE still does not work.

Seems like you did not set the launch options in the game's properties correctly. Alternatively you can run this terminal command which will fix the login screen and allow you to launch the game without any options: echo -e '[LoginSettings]\nbUseSteamLogin=False' >> "$HOME/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/APB Reloaded/APBGame/Config/APBMachineOptions.ini" You only have to run it once and it will work until you reinstall the game.

Which proton version and GPU brand are you using? Did you encounter any crashes?

Long story short only GE's versions can be used, since the game needs GE's recent EAC patches to work. Install Proton GE 7-55, and while you'll have a broken mailbox and occasional crashes, it's the only way the game will start and actually stay in a district. I'll upgrade the guide as soon as I'm done experimenting with this.

Good point, I decided against writing anything about recommending proprietary drivers for Nvidia users since I assumed it was an obvious step to take. However, for people who are trying Linux out for the first time now that this game is playable this is valuable information. The only caveat is that GPU driver installation varies from distro to distro, so it would not make sense to be too specific about instructions. The new Proton Experimental update available from within Steam is now based on 8.0 and has even fixed the launcher, unlike official 8.0. Unfortunately, it's too early to update the guide and get rid of the launch commands, as the official launcher will run the game with Steam integration and that still crashes to desktop on the login screen. In any case, it's a step in the right direction.

The way I see it, the main reason why the .45 is so centralizing in today's meta is how lackluster all high caliber pistols (and the RFP) are in comparison to it. It makes no sense that the "optimal" secondary pick is the exact same for an OCA primary as it is for an OBIR. I don't think a 5m range reduction will be quite enough if certain competing weapons are not buffed simultaneously, and the optics of further nerfs will be bad for a supposedly high skill ceiling weapon. One such buff would be to the RFP for example, increasing damage so it can barely 3 burst kill with 3 perfect bursts, which is still far weaker than the RFP's original form. Then its effective range could be increased and the Fang's IR3 downgraded to IR1, so the Fang keeps its current range while the Talon and F2P variants get a bit more, but still slightly less than the Fang.

I have updated the guide to use official Proton 8.0 which was released yesterday. This fixes the mail glitch without needing to download an external tool.

Looks good! I'm a bit surprised the CPU isn't clocking higher. On the other hand, there's no real reason to target over 60 fps with the Deck. Have you gotten any crashes, issues with the launch command or corrupted mail messages with 7-53?

Unfortunately GC is still a major cause of stutters even after the 64 bit upgrade. Increasing the GC purge interval (TimeBetweenPurgingPendingKillObjects in Engine/BaseEngine.ini) to 90 seconds or even 75 causes horrible stutters of >100ms no matter how powerful the PC, so the stock 60 second interval is pretty much the sweet spot. The only somewhat viable alternative is to set a ridiculously large interval to bypass GC altogether, which will lead to performance degradation and eventually the game eating up all the RAM. This applies to both Linux and Windows. In my experience and with a high performance SSD (Plextor M10P) the effect of disabling disk cache is barely noticeable after the framerate has settled when all custom characters and cars are loaded. Nevertheless, I have been playing for 3+ weeks with disk cache enabled on Nobara (a Fedora 37 derivative) and didn't notice any negative impact from turning off disk cache. I also use a config with texture streaming disabled and I haven't noticed any crashes since I switched to Wine 8 (currently Wine 8.4 from Wine-tkg). Wine 7 and its derivatives like Proton-GE caused random crashes for me, which were more frequent in fullscreen mode as opposed to borderless. Here is a short video of how Asylum runs on my PC with my custom config, including disk cache disabled, texture streaming disabled and GC fully disabled: Note that I am using UI scaling because even though it's 1080p borderless, my monitor is rather small. I would also not recommend disabling GC completely, it can lead to the game freezing when exiting or changing districts.