[Far Cry 5] Weird rhythmic pattern of stutters

[ghost]

Specs:

• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
• RAM: 32 GB DDR5 6000 MHz
• OS: Arch Linux (latest mesa and vulkan-radeon drivers, 6.12.8-zen kernel, Proton 9.0.4, DXVK 2.5.1, gamemode on)

This is an updated post with more detailed observations. I removed the previous one due to a lack of clarity.

For some reason, this game experiences strange rhythmic stutters at seemingly random or scripted intervals on Linux systems, including the Steam Deck. These aren't typical performance-related stutters. I have a high-end AMD setup, and the game runs smoothly when these hiccups are absent, and these anomalous hiccups break immersion tremendously.

On Linux, the game performs better overall compared to Windows, but the rhythmic stutters are a significant issue. On Windows, while these specific stutters are absent, the game is nearly unplayable on AMD RX 7000-series GPUs due to the terrible DX11 implementation (DXNAVI), which causes constant microstutters throughout gameplay. So I chose Linux for my rig.

What I've tried:

• Disabling SMT
• Disabling overlays
• Disabling internet while playing, tested if it was the anticheat checking issue.
• Tweaking the gamerprofile.xml file
• Different graphics settings
• Various fps limits
• Disabling HD-texture pack
• Testing older Proton versions (but the game crashes after the splash screen due to Ubisoft Connect failing license verification on older Proton versions). It only runs on the newest Proton versions for some reason.

Everything I tried seem to be completely unrelated to these stuttering-pattern.

Observations:

• Occurs most of the time when the story mission is completed
• Occurs every time outpost was captured
• Occurs every time I fasttravel to outposts
• Occurs oftenly while travelling by helicopter across the map

My guess is that the stutters may be tied to autosaving mechanism that may conflict with Wine. Once they occur, they often follow autosave events, though not always.

Initially I thought it was a shader caching issue, but I think it would not have occured in a rhythmic way in the exact same spots every time you go to these spots. So I doubt that it's shader caching.

In this video (https://youtu.be/3CLWtr3j5-k?t=1096), the author experiences the stutter at 18:16 while entering a vent. I encountered the exact same stutter pattern in the same vent during the same mission. This guy has an NVIDIA card, different distro and he was also running more older Proton and DXVK.

Video Evidence:

• My Gameplay with DXVK_HUD_FULL and MangoHud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlnD0mZuSyc
• NVIDIA guy: https://youtu.be/IZ-H63omRjA?feature=shared&t=44 (from 0:45 to 1:50) and https://youtu.be/3CLWtr3j5-k?t=1096
• Steam Deck Example: At 2:26 and 4:25 in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz8B-INmpMw), the same rhythmic stutters are visible.

These patterns are consistent across different hardware, including the Steam Deck, suggesting this is not a hardware-specific issue.

This issue seems to have appeared recently. I’ve watched older benchmark videos on Steam Deck from before 2024 and didn’t notice these rhythmic stutters, which suggests this problem may have been introduced in a recent updates or something.

If anyone has experienced this issue or knows what might be causing it, please share your insights.

[Blisto91]

Hi there.
I have taken a look at this and i can indeed confirm that this is seemingly a regression in Proton as the stable Proton 8 versions does not have this behavior. I found that it does not seem related to dxvk and handed it over to Proton QA for a bit further digging.

Duplicate of #4585

[ghost]

Hi there. I have taken a look at this and i can indeed confirm that this is seemingly a regression in Proton as the stable Proton 8 versions does not have this behavior. I found that it does not seem related to dxvk and handed it over to Proton QA for a bit further digging.

Duplicate of #4585

Hi!
Oh, thank you! As I mentioned, I tried running the game using Proton 8.0.5, but it crashed at the splash screen with an error saying it couldn’t verify the game’s license or something similar. However, when I switched to Proton 9.0.4, it launched immediately. Maybe there is a workaround that I can use to play this game at stable Proton 8?

UPD: Yes, this game indeed runs without these stutters on Proton 8.0.5. I managed to launch it today, but now when I try to launch it via Proton 8.0.5 Ubisoft Connect gives the same error again.