It looks like this is the exact same issue as what happens with the original "Alien Swarm" game (issue #276). This time though, I was able to see that it said "Node graph out of date, reloading".

It looks like the game actually works when I hit "Single Player" so I don't know if maybe I just got lucky or if something happens when you play the game twice successively. Either way, when it did work, it ran flawlessly.

Aug 29 '18 23:08 josephcocoa

Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop (563560) the text for the ingame tips are blurry and DS4 controller doesn't work

Issue transferred from https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/1049. @daasuharo posted on 2018-08-31T03:20:04:

Distro: Ubuntu 18.04.1 GPU: Intel Iris Pro 580 Resolution: 1280x720 RAM: 32GB Controller: DS4 Proton 3.7-5 Beta

https://gist.github.com/daasuharo/cb605b8cd50227982a9bfa4dfcb1f635

Aug 31 '18 11:08 kisak-valve

Same as the other issue: training works on 4.2. Only hangs for about 5 seconds.

Apr 08 '19 20:04 parkerlreed

Problems with chat/console

Issue transferred from https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/3758. @yiitbrak posted on 2020-04-13T08:57:35:

Compatibility Report

Name of the game with compatibility issues: Alien Swarm:Reactive Drop
Steam AppID of the game: 563560

System Information

GPU: Nvidia GT 710
Driver/LLVM version: nvidia 435.21
Kernel version: 5.3.0-46-generic
Link to full system information report as Gist: https://gist.github.com/yiitbrak/b874b5b77c8372ee984cae5e4d588f43
Proton version: 5.0-5

I confirm:

[ ] that I have checked whether there are updates for my system available.

Symptoms

-All kinds of text comes to chat box disappears from history between 5-10 seconds -The font that console uses is so hard to read, mostly un visible and some letters are inside anothers

Reproduction

-For chat bug just write something to chat -For console bug open console

Apr 13 '20 13:04 kisak-valve

I solved unredable console font bug with a mod called "Better console" from Steam workshop, chat text bug still stays

May 09 '20 17:05 nididak

I didn't find any issues during a quick test against Proton 7.0-1. (Previously played against at least Proton 6.3)

Feb 16 '22 11:02 Wedge009

Symptoms

-All kinds of text comes to chat box disappears from history between 5-10 seconds

This is the result of rd_chatwipe 1, not Proton-specific. Set rd_chatwipe 0 to prevent this.

Feb 21 '22 07:02 BenLubar

have an ubuntu based linux installation, "alien swarm: reactive drop" still does steam cloud sync even when it is explicitly disabled in all three places and steam was restarted: (or even reinstalled afterwards, tried that as well)

ingame in asw:rd
for asw:rd in steam library
globally in steam settings

tried turning off because cloud keeps on overwriting local settings, result is:

game settings are overwritten every time a map is entered or you drop into lobby
gear loadout is resetted as well (ofc), so you end up with wrong guns in the lobby
i cant seem to change the gear/settings defaults that are saved in the steam cloud storage either
even when writeproofing config files and i.e. forcing a cloud upload via steam console cloud_sync_up 563560 (" Manually triggers after-game cloud sync for the given app.")

several complete steam reinstalls+game didnt seem to help me this time, that did work once in the past somehow with enabling/disabling cloud right away years ago

how can i get this solved short of getting a new steam account? completely purging the game from my account changes nothing as well.

tested proton versions were 5,6,7,experimental, game worked otherwise with proper cloudsync and autoexec.cfg being read properly. rd_revert_convars 0 or 1 doesnt change anything either.

May 07 '22 12:05 sjas

@sjas does a symlink help? saw this ProtonDB entry that looks related: https://www.protondb.com/app/563560#-TH7Tafjj

May 07 '22 17:05 BenLubar

@BenLubar symlink wasnt needed for me.

so far, i still cannot turn cloud sync of, at all, even when disabling it everywhere, but i seem to have forced the cloud to accept a new file.

the resets came from rd_revert_convars 1 in the userdata folder config that came from the cloud time and time again. (was neither in the regular config.cfg nor my autoexec.cfg)

fixed the proper cloud config seemingly by these steps, which i tried with proton v5/6/7 because these were all the versions ive used in the past: (each time i set asw:rd to a fixed proton version, on the first start it asked wether the config should be cloudsynced, i chose yes everytime)

enabled general steam cloudsync in steam settings
enabled asw:rd cloudsync in steam library
set fixed proton version for asw:rd in steam library
started asw:rd
enable ingame cloudsync when prompted
while game is running, copying the desired config.cfg over to my userdata folder: ./steam/userdata/USER_ID/563560/remote/reactivedrop/cfg/config.cfg , and writeprotecting it
afterwards exit game
start and exit game again
repeat for all proton versions
afterwards removed the write protection again and it kept working

what i seemingly found out:

autoexec gets executed only once upon game start? (not 1000% sure about that but thats how it looked like)
on game start none the ondisk config.cfg's (reactivedrop/cfg one not and also not the userdata one) seem to change from the cloud even if it has different contents
when ending the game, reactivedrop/cfg/config.cfg seems to be copied over to the userdata folder
this contents also end up in the cloud then

you can make an educated guess on what config is in the cloud from the file sizes:

./steam/steamapps/common/reactivedrop/cfg/config.cfg filesize
./steam/userdata/USER_ID/563560/remote/reactivedrop/cfg/config.cfg filesize
./steam/userdata/46754621/563560/remotecache.vdf mentions the filesize of the cloud file, its a plaintext file

problem solved even though im not 100% sure why, but im definitely not complaining...

May 08 '22 01:05 sjas

I have a report that today's update (which bumped the Steam API version from 1.38a to 1.53a) requires a newer version of Proton to run successfully. (4.2 -> 6.3)

May 24 '22 17:05 BenLubar

Can Proton for Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop be made "official"? Is this something I can do in the Steamworks admin panel or something Valve has to do?

The game runs great on the Steam Deck (according to the compatibility reviews; I don't have mine yet) and has a platinum rating on ProtonDB.

italic text in Source Engine closed captions is cut off

Issue transferred from https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/6544. @BenLubar posted on 2023-02-17T03:10:48:

Proton 7.0-6

Tested in Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop, but it also works in any other Source 1 game that has italicized closed captions.

Repro steps:

(On the beta branch of appid 563560)
Enable full closed captions in audio settings.
Start the first level (Jacob's Rest: Landing Bay)
Walk through the level until you reach a locked door. (No enemies spawn before this point on Normal difficulty.) Punch the door by pressing right mouse button or B on a controller.
The caption [Door hit] has every letter missing pieces on Proton, which is not the case on Windows.

Alternative repro steps:

In any Source 1 game, trigger a caption that has <I> in it.

Jun 18 '22 03:06 BenLubar

Hello @BenLubar, it's possible that the kerning issue you've described is related to https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/3057 as well.

Feb 17 '23 13:02 kisak-valve

Windows:

Proton:

It looks like all of the characters are pushed slightly to the right, causing them to both be cut off and spaced out more than they should be.

May 06 '24 20:05 BenLubar

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/wine/commit/cd0172ffb83cb7e92d8884117725ae4ef1bedfd8

Proton Experimental hugely improves text legibility (it looks like it does on Windows now for non-italicized text, and there's not a lot of italicized text).

I've sent a request to get the game re-Steam-Deck-verified so the default Proton version can be changed.

May 17 '24 05:05 BenLubar

Hmm, did it ever work for you? I just gave it a quick test against Proton 9.0-4, no apparent issue, but my system is rather different to yours - Ubuntu-based, AMD GPU, etc.

It might be useful to provide a Proton log to help others to help you here.

Dec 24 '24 04:12 Wedge009

Hello @colleirose, please copy the contents of Steam Runtime Diagnostics from Steam (Steam -> Help -> Steam Runtime Diagnostics) and put it in a gist, then include a link to the gist in this issue report.

DXVK failing to initialize usually hints that a Vulkan render path isn't usable.

Dec 24 '24 13:12 kisak-valve

Thanks, https://gist.github.com/colleirose/9a970bf59b9e2c08ac02b00c60a929d0#file-gistfile1-txt-L268-L281 is the section to focus on. Vulkan is broken in general on your system, but it's not immediately clear how it broke.

Jan 01 '25 14:01 kisak-valve

This issue with italicized text is affecting most source mods as well. And it doesn't seem like proton experimental has changed that at least the current version. I've tried several versions of proton with no success. Not sure if valve knows about this but I would assume they do as they entirely disabled italicized text in the 20th anniversary update of Half-Life 2.

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Source-1-Games/issues/6580

It's great that it's not an issue in Half-Life 2 atm, but it's really more of a Band-Aid fix as all mods and source games still have this problem.

To clarify, I'm running into this issue on my og steam deck

Feb 14 '25 17:02 Zelly9191