Graphical artifacts of Dark Souls through Steam

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1

I have these graphic artifacts that look like localized slow down artifacts when I play Dark Souls Remastered through Steam. They look similar to screen tearing but more diffuse (just in some parts of the screen) and everytime there is an abrupt change in the screen.

My knowledge of how to run games on Steam is pretty basic. Either I run it without any tweak or use the gamemoderun %command%.

These artifacts appeared recently. At first I thought it was because of a more recent version of Proton was available but know I think it might be related with some recent Gnome version.

Any thoughts? I’ll use this oportunity to they to learn more about tinkering with gaming in Linux. Here are my details

Summary 
System:
  Kernel: 5.15.164-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 14.1.1
    clocksource: tsc avail: acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-5.15-x86_64
    root=UUID=617e0bee-05a7-45a4-8c17-c41229f708d8 rw rootflags=subvol=@ quiet
    resume=UUID=124375ad-7ee3-4fb3-b516-7440ab1f6a5b udev.log_priority=3
    sysrq_always_enabled=1
  Desktop: GNOME v: 46.3.1 tk: GTK v: 3.24.43 wm: gnome-shell
    tools: gsd-screensaver-proxy dm: GDM v: 46.2 Distro: Manjaro base: Arch Linux
CPU:
  Info: quad core Intel Core i7-8550U [MT MCP] arch: Coffee Lake speed (MHz):
    avg: 1146 min/max: 400/4000
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 620 vendor: Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel
    arch: Gen-9.5 process: Intel 14nm built: 2016-20 ports: active: eDP-1
    empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1,HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:5917
    class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: AMD Lexa PRO [Radeon 540/540X/550/550X / RX 540X/550/550X]
    vendor: Lenovo Thinkpad E480/E580 driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: GCN-4
    code: Arctic Islands process: GF 14nm built: 2016-20 pcie: gen: 1
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 4 link-max: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 8
    bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:699f class-ID: 0380 temp: 48.0 C
  Device-3: IMC Networks Integrated Camera driver: uvcvideo type: USB
    rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 1-6:3 chip-ID: 13d3:56a6
    class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.13 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.1
    compositor: gnome-shell driver: X: loaded: amdgpu,intel unloaded: modesetting
    alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: i965,radeonsi gpu: i915 resolution: 1920x1080
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa v: 24.1.5-manjaro1.1
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2)
    device-ID: 8086:5917 memory: 3.68 GiB unified: yes display-ID: :0.0
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.14 TiB used: 158.94 GiB (13.6%)
Info:
  Memory: total: 8 GiB note: est. available: 7.53 GiB used: 5.59 GiB (74.2%)
  Processes: 393 Power: uptime: 8h 50m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep
    avail: s2idle wakeups: 1 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown, reboot,
    suspend, test_resume image: 3 GiB services: gsd-power,upowerd Init: systemd
    v: 256 default: graphical tool: systemctl
  Packages: 2239 pm: pacman pkgs: 2233 libs: 495 tools: gnome-software,
    octopi, pamac, yay pm: flatpak pkgs: 6 Compilers: gcc: 14.1.1 Shell: Zsh
    v: 5.9 running-in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.3.35
2

Could you play this game in the past without graphic artifacts?

Normally, you can compensate when you switch between Directx version’s or on/off at the details from various GFX settings.

3

Yes there was no artifact in the past. I tried changing from GNOME to Plasma but the artifact is still there.

I didn’t understand your second sentence. Could you elaborate?

4

Sometimes there are Graphic effects that could lead to artifacts, maybe the developer updated their game with improved details that lead to this problems right now?

steamdb showed some changes 6 days ago… not sure whats going on there.

https://steamdb.info/app/570940/charts/

But probably it has nothing to do with this updates and you just need to change the Proton versions… switch between Proton 9 and Experimental version its worth a try.

5

If you think it’s GNOME related then try running the game with Gamescope - ArchWiki . Full instructions are on that page but basically for a 1080p monitor you change the Launch Options for the game in Steam to

gamescope -W 1920 -H 1080 -- %command%

If that doesn’t help then it’s not GNOME. The only other suggestion I have is to try different Proton versions. Many reports at https://www.protondb.com/app/570940 say it runs perfectly on older Proton 8.0.5, could also try Proton Experimental.