Linux Mint version doesnt work, unable to play

[surferix]

I have a high-end PC with recent components, including an NVIDIA RTX 4070 graphics card and 32GB of RAM. However, I'm experiencing severe performance issues: whenever I interact with the options menu, any mouse movement or hovering over menu items causes the game to stutter. When I try to access dropdown menus (like resolution settings), the game becomes completely unresponsive. It seems like the game accumulates mouse input until it eventually freezes completely after about 2 seconds. Due to this issue, the game is completely unplayable.

I've tried a lot of compatibility "Proton" options:
- Proton Experimental
- Proton Hotfix
- Steam Linux runtime 1.0 (scout)
- Proton 9.0-4
- Proton 8.0-5
- Proton 7.0-6

I stopped here, because the problem is always the same.

uname -a 
Linux olivier-mint 5.15.0-131-generic #141-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 10 21:18:28 UTC 2025 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linu

lsb_release -a
LSB Version:   core-11.1.0ubuntu4-noarch:security-11.1.0ubuntu4-noarch
Distributor ID:   Linuxmint
Description:   Linux Mint 21.3
Release:   21.3
Codename:   virginia

cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Linux Mint"
VERSION="21.3 (Virginia)"
ID=linuxmint
ID_LIKE="ubuntu debian"
PRETTY_NAME="Linux Mint 21.3"
VERSION_ID="21.3"
HOME_URL="https://www.linuxmint.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://forums.linuxmint.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://linuxmint-troubleshooting-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.linuxmint.com/"
VERSION_CODENAME=virginia
UBUNTU_CODENAME=jammy

free -h
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:            31Gi        13Gi       3,9Gi       1,3Gi        13Gi        16Gi
Swap:          2,0Gi          0B       2,0Gi

lscpu
Architecture:             x86_64
  CPU op-mode(s):         32-bit, 64-bit
  Address sizes:          39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
  Byte Order:             Little Endian
CPU(s):                   16
  On-line CPU(s) list:    0-15
Vendor ID:                GenuineIntel
  Model name:             13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-13400F
    CPU family:           6
    Model:                191
    Thread(s) per core:   2
    Core(s) per socket:   10
    Socket(s):            1
    Stepping:             2
    CPU max MHz:          4600,0000
    CPU min MHz:          800,0000
    BogoMIPS:             4992.00
    Flags:                fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs b
                          ts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid aperfmperf tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt ts
                          c_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch cpuid_fault ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp ibrs_enhanced tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid ept_ad fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1
                           avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rdseed adx smap clflushopt clwb intel_pt sha_ni xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves split_lock_detect avx_vnni dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_win
                          dow hwp_epp hwp_pkg_req umip pku ospke waitpkg gfni vaes vpclmulqdq rdpid movdiri movdir64b fsrm md_clear serialize arch_lbr flush_l1d arch_capabilities
Virtualization features: 
  Virtualization:         VT-x
Caches (sum of all):     
  L1d:                    416 KiB (10 instances)
  L1i:                    448 KiB (10 instances)
  L2:                     9,5 MiB (7 instances)
  L3:                     20 MiB (1 instance)
NUMA:                     
  NUMA node(s):           1
  NUMA node0 CPU(s):      0-15
Vulnerabilities:         
  Gather data sampling:   Not affected
  Itlb multihit:          Not affected
  L1tf:                   Not affected
  Mds:                    Not affected
  Meltdown:               Not affected
  Mmio stale data:        Not affected
  Reg file data sampling: Mitigation; Clear Register File
  Retbleed:               Not affected
  Spec rstack overflow:   Not affected
  Spec store bypass:      Mitigation; Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
  Spectre v1:             Mitigation; usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Spectre v2:             Mitigation; Enhanced / Automatic IBRS; IBPB conditional; RSB filling; PBRSB-eIBRS SW sequence; BHI BHI_DIS_S
  Srbds:                  Not affected
  Tsx async abort:        Not affected

glxinfo | grep "OpenGL"
OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
OpenGL renderer string: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER/PCIe/SSE2
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 565.77
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 4.60 NVIDIA
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile
OpenGL core profile extensions:
OpenGL version string: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 565.77
OpenGL shading language version string: 4.60 NVIDIA
OpenGL context flags: (none)
OpenGL profile mask: (none)
OpenGL extensions:
OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.2 NVIDIA 565.77
OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.20
OpenGL ES profile extensions:

nvidia-smi
Wed Jan 29 11:10:47 2025       
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 565.77                 Driver Version: 565.77         CUDA Version: 12.7     |
|-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name                 Persistence-M | Bus-Id          Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp   Perf          Pwr:Usage/Cap |           Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                                         |                        |               MIG M. |
|=========================================+========================+======================|
|   0  NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 ...    Off |   00000000:01:00.0  On |                  N/A |
|  0%   50C    P5             14W /  220W |    2720MiB /  12282MiB |      8%      Default |
|                                         |                        |                  N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
                                                                                         
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                              |
|  GPU   GI   CI        PID   Type   Process name                              GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                               Usage      |
|=========================================================================================|
|    0   N/A  N/A      2031      G   /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg                           1391MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A      2626      G   cinnamon                                      100MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A      4019      G   ...seed-version=20250127-050148.939000        616MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A      7642      G   ...erProcess --variations-seed-version        103MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A     14815      G   ./steamwebhelper                               37MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A     14842      G   ....local/share/Steam/logs/cef_log.txt        397MiB |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[knucracker]

Which game is this for?

[surferix]

Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal

[Karsten75]

Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal

Then you might have noticed that Linux is not a supported environment. So your best bet is to ask either on Steam discussion (perhaps somewhere where folks hang out that support Proton)  or on our Discord where one or two sould might have a clue. 

Good luck.

[Builder17]

Then you might have noticed that Linux is not a supported environment. So your best bet is to ask either on Steam discussion (perhaps somewhere where folks hang out that support Proton)  or on our Discord where one or two members might have a clue.

Pardon me. But while you have a good point about
asking help from people that are more knowledge-able about Linux,

I'm quite confused why is Linux listed as a supported OS on CW3's Steam page.

[surferix]

I was about to say the same thing! Moreover, I have two 4K screens, and honestly, the display is completely unsatisfactory.... I don't understand why there are so many likes on a game that is so
problematic... I don't think I'm the only one in the world who has a Linux system or, for that matter, a 4K screen... and under Windows, 4k is not handled properly at all....

[Karsten75]

I was about to say the same thing! Moreover, I have two 4K screens, and honestly, the display is completely unsatisfactory.... I don't understand why there are so many likes on a game that is so
problematic... I don't think I'm the only one in the world who has a Linux system or, for that matter, a 4K screen... and under Windows, 4k is not handled properly at all....

I am so sorry, I somehow misread that as Creeper World 4! Of course Creeper World 3 was supported under linux - but then you don't need to run proton - you should download and run the native Linux version?

There is, however the issue that there are myriads of Linux versions as well as sub-components such as graphics packages. These things have evolved significantly since CW3 was last built for Linux - I'm sure if you can find a version of Linux of comparable vintage, it'd run just fine. But since things have moved on, there may be support complexities with more recent versions of hardware and software. Which again would suggest that you seek help from folks that are knowledgeable in those areas. 

The complexity of Linux on the desktop, and the difficulty of supporting all and sundry configurations and flavors are part of why more recent versions of Knuckle Crasker games do not support Linux.