Left 4 Dead 2 Crashes on Launch

[mehmetcb02]

After launching the game with "-vulkan" option game crashes after 5 seconds of black screen not even reaching the main menu. removing the option fixes it.

System Specifications

Operating System: EndeavourOS KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.5 KDE Frameworks Version: 6.18.0 Qt Version: 6.10.0 Kernel Version: 6.17.1-arch1-1 (64-bit) Graphics Platform: Wayland Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 4600H with Radeon Graphics Memory: 32 GiB of RAM (30,7 GiB usable) Graphics Processor 1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Graphics Processor 2: AMD Radeon Graphics Manufacturer: HP Product Name: HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop 15-ec1xxx

l4d2_crash.zip

hl2_linux_d3d9.log

steam.log

[kisak-valve]

For reference, crash_20251011162540_2.dmp is a SIGSEGV in libnvidia-glcore.so.580.95.05, hinting towards a video driver issue.

[mehmetcb02]

Using DXVK 2.7.1 solved the issue for me so I would request that you update the DXVK shipped within the game.

[wolfdaemon]

Using DXVK 2.7.1 solved the issue for me so I would request that you update the DXVK shipped within the game.

I'm a bit confused here. Are you using Proton? I'm using a Linux native install and am wondering if it's possible to change the DXVK version on that. If not, I guess I am reporting that I am also experiencing crashing, but it happens when trying to go in-game in any scenario. I am on AMD hardware.

[munoida]

Experiencing the same issue with -vulkan, with Fedora 42 KDE & RTX 4060 with the 580 driver. Other Source 1 games with Vulkan seem to be unaffected, though I only tested Team Fortress 2.

Using OpenGL works fine.

[mehmetcb02]

onfused here. Are you using Proton? I'm using a Linux native install and am wondering if it's possible to change the DXVK version on that. If not, I guess I am reporting that I am also experiencing crashing, but it happens when trying to go in-game in any scenario. I am on AMD hardware.

I'm using the native version but I doubt it's the same issue we're having as I can't even reach to the main menu.

Here are the steps to change the DXVK version: https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/issues/5264#issuecomment-3393477078

[munoida]

Here are the steps to change the DXVK version: doitsujin/dxvk#5264 (comment)

This worked for me as well.

EDIT: It only works with Steam Linux Runtime 1.0 (scout), without the compatibility tool it will not work on my end.

[munoida]

Another issue I spotted, is that if you put Left 4 Dead 2's version of marlett.ttf in the position where the game loads, Left 4 Dead 2/hl2/resource instead of Left 4 Dead 2/platform/vgui/fonts; this will crash when Vulkan is in use. In OpenGL Marlett does not render at all, leaving empty spaces instead of the letters that are usually there without the fix.

I'm not entirely confident that this is the case, but it seems related. Using the Marlett file from Team Fortress 2 works, and will render properly on both OpenGL and Vulkan.

[wolfdaemon]

Confused here. Are you using Proton? I'm using a Linux native install and am wondering if it's possible to change the DXVK version on that. If not, I guess I am reporting that I am also experiencing crashing, but it happens when trying to go in-game in any scenario. I am on AMD hardware.

I'm using the native version but I doubt it's the same issue we're having as I can't even reach to the main menu.

Here are the steps to change the DXVK version: doitsujin/dxvk#5264 (comment)

If you download dxvk-native-2.7.1-steamrt-sniper.tar.gz from the 2.7.1 release then you can extract libdxvk_d3d9.so, libdxvk_d3d9.so.0 and libdxvk_d3d9.so.0.20701 from the lib32 folder in to Left 4 Dead 2/bin/. In the launch options for the game you would then have to set DXVK_WSI_DRIVER=SDL2 %command% -vulkan.

Edit: Alternatively instead of 3 files you can rename libdxvk_d3d9.so.0.20701 to libdxvk_d3d9.so and just replace the single file the game ships.

Edit 2: A dxvk hud env for launch options had snuck in. Removed

Epic. Copying the files and setting the launch options worked for me here. Thank you, friend.