New Media Source Megaissue - Proton Experimental

[ivyl]

Living true to its name Proton Experimental will serve as a vehicle to roll out and test a new implementation of media source. While it improves video playback in many games and enables us to fix even more things in the future, the change is substantial and may cause regressions.

We've done extensive internal testing and made the changes available via the bleeding-edge beta branch already. Now it's time to push this experiment even further - into the default Proton Experimental.

In case of regressions in video playback please report them here.
There's a beta branch named old-media-source (select Proton Experimental in you Steam Library -> cog icon -> Properties -> Betas -> and select the branch from the beta participation drop-down).

If you face any issues please make sure that they are not present with old-media-source before reporting them here.

Games with fixed or improved video playback:

• Gal*Gun 2
• SOULCALIBUR VI
• Call of Cthulhu
• All-Star Fruit Racing
• Greedfall
• Onimusha: Warlords
• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
• Indigo Park: Chapter 1
• Agony Unrated
• TELEFORUM

Known issues:

• Resident Evil 7 videos fail to play.
• Resident Evil Village videos fail to play.
• Quantum Break videos have green flashes and intermittent crashes.
• Shin Megami Tensei III has intermittent video playback failure.

For any affected games please use stable Proton 9.0-3 (the default) or the old-media-source beta branch while we work on fixes.

[waspennator]

This new media source seems to break Raiden V Directors cut. This game used to have problems with seizure inducing flickering during fmvs, but it seems like using 8.0-5, it stays on a white screen, but i can still hear and skip the fmv and eventually get to the main menu if I press a enough.

On 9.0 and onwards, the game just gets outright stuck after the fmv plays whether you let it play through or manually skip it.

Now with this new media update, the game won't even start unless I use the proton log command, even then the fmv still flickers and eventually gets softlocked before the title screen.

steam-570050.log

[DekosAnjo]

Cool! I hope it fixes a lot of the playback failures Proton has had since the beginning. I'll start testing my games right now!

[waspennator]

Moero Chronicles crashes on startup with this, if I try it with the old media source it gets stuck visually on some weird blocky lines. If I drop to 9.0-3 it works but only plays audio.

If i launch it with Experimental and proton log, it doesn't crash but gets stuck with a small bit of static garbage on the bottom left of the screen.

steam-638160.zip

[ranplayer]

Darksiders Warmastered Edition cutscenes finally working (some audio crackling)

[AJuujarvi]

This new media source seems to break Raiden V Directors cut. This game used to have problems with seizure inducing flickering during fmvs, but it seems like using 8.0-5, it stays on a white screen, but i can still hear and skip the fmv and eventually get to the main menu if I press a enough.

On 9.0 and onwards, the game just gets outright stuck after the fmv plays whether you let it play through or manually skip it.

Now with this new media update, the game won't even start unless I use the proton log command, even then the fmv still flickers and eventually gets softlocked before the title screen.

steam-570050.log

@waspennator I am unable to reproduce this one on an OLED Deck or a Desktop. I get the flickering fmvs and then can able to get to the main menu with 8.0-5, 9.0-3, experimental-9.0-20241022, and experimental-9.0-20241022-old-media-source. Were you doing something on the Deck at the same time that may introduce some performance degradation? For example, if you were downloading something at the same time to internal storage or an SD card, it can cause some video playback issues. Or did you have some third party plugin installed? The fact that with experimental-9.0-20241022 the game isn't booting unless you are logging indicates some sort of race condition.

One thing you can try is seeing if the game boots properly after rebooting your deck from a shut down state. I would be interested in if it works then, and if the failure then returns after booting the game multiple times from there.

[waspennator]

Replying to #8186 (comment)

Tried it again today to double check and weirdly enough it fixed itself on its own, dunno why it happened yesterday though. I wasn't downloading anything nor was i using plug-ins while testing to influence anything. Moero Chronicles still seems to crash though without proton log.

Unrelared, but i tested out the new media source on a few other games and I can confirm it makes the boss fmvs for River City Girls play (audio is pretty crackly though) and Radiant silvergun no longer crashes when trying to play fmvs (they need to be reencoded though.) AQUARIUMs fmv on the title screen still fails to play even with this pr though.

[SmithAF]

I was curious to see if this might have an improvement on Battlefleet Gothic's audio during cut scenes, that being heavy distortion, but unfortunately no change between experimental and 9.0-3. Not the most useful of comments but thought I'd mention in case it's something that can be fixed as part of this work
steam-363680.log

[hikarutilmitt]

This fixed the video playback in Hyperdimension Neptunia U. Only hitch is that if you try to skip a video the game locks up.

[Str4ngeB0y]

The pre-rendered cutscenes in NieR Replicant used to work flawlessy with GE-Proton but nowadays you either have to:

input this as a startup command:
PROTON_AUDIO_CONVERT=0 PROTON_AUDIO_CONVERT_BIN=0 PROTON_VIDEO_CONVERT=0 PROTON_DEMUX=0 %command%
or
use GE-Proton 9-13 or older

[AJuujarvi]

The pre-rendered cutscenes in NieR Replicant used to work flawlessy with GE-Proton but nowadays you either have to:

input this as a startup command: PROTON_AUDIO_CONVERT=0 PROTON_AUDIO_CONVERT_BIN=0 PROTON_VIDEO_CONVERT=0 PROTON_DEMUX=0 %command% or use GE-Proton 9-13 or older

What cutscenes are you talking about exactly so I know what to look for? I've looked at the Dev splash screens and the cutscene that plays before gameplay when you start a new game and that is working well for me with proton-9.0-3c, experimental-9.0-20241022, experimental-bleeding-edge-9.0-132337-20241104.

[Str4ngeB0y]

The pre-rendered cutscenes in NieR Replicant used to work flawlessy with GE-Proton but nowadays you either have to:
input this as a startup command: PROTON_AUDIO_CONVERT=0 PROTON_AUDIO_CONVERT_BIN=0 PROTON_VIDEO_CONVERT=0 PROTON_DEMUX=0 %command% or use GE-Proton 9-13 or older

What cutscenes are you talking about exactly so I know what to look for? I've looked at the Dev splash screens and the cutscene that plays before gameplay when you start a new game and that is working well for me with proton-9.0-3c, experimental-9.0-20241022, experimental-bleeding-edge-9.0-132337-20241104.

There aren't many pre-rendered cutscenes in the game but the earliest you can get one is when you idle in the main menu long enough.
It's important that you wait while it says "Press Any Button"! If you already pressed a button and then wait, the cutscene won't appear.

[AJuujarvi]

There aren't many pre-rendered cutscenes in the game but the earliest you can get one is when you idle in the main menu long enough.
It's important that you wait while it says "Press Any Button"! If you already pressed a button and then wait, the cutscene won't appear.

Using that video that plays on the main menu, I am still having playback with proton-9.0-3c, experimental-9.0-20241022, experimental-bleeding-edge-9.0-132337-20241104. Please check to make sure there is a transcoded_video.foz file found in ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/shadercache/1113560.

Please check to see if you are having the same playback issues with the Proton versions I listed above. For experimental-bleeding-edge-9.0-132337-20241104, you can get this (or a newer version depending on when you try) by going to Proton Experimental, clicking the Gear button, clicking Properties, scrolling down to Betas, and selecting the dropdown next to Beta Participation. There, select Bleeding Edge.

[Str4ngeB0y]

Replying to #8186 (comment)

I made a new discovery.
Turning on shader pre-caching made the pre-rendered cutscenes playable (I had shader pre-caching disabled before but turned it on when you mentioned the shadercache folder). When I tried out Proton Experimental (with and without bleeding-edge), I noticed that the video speed was wrong, leading to a desync between video and audio. Stable Proton 9.0-3 seems to work without any issue.

[AJuujarvi]

Replying to #8186 (comment)

I made a new discovery. Turning on shader pre-caching made the pre-rendered cutscenes playable (I had shader pre-caching disabled before but turned it on when you mentioned the shadercache folder). When I tried out Proton Experimental (with and without bleeding-edge), I noticed that the video speed was wrong, leading to a desync between video and audio. Stable Proton 9.0-3 seems to work without any issue.

I am glad it was a shader pre-caching thing for the issue previously reported. Glad we figured that out. :)

In regards to the desync, you are correct. It's pretty significant desync that I am seeing, upwards of several seconds. I checked this with our Proton Experimental build that is shipped vs the same one with the old media source (found as a beta branch in Proton Experimental) and this confirmed for me it is due to the New Media Source work. We are now tracking this, thank you. :)

[AJuujarvi]

This fixed the video playback in Hyperdimension Neptunia U. Only hitch is that if you try to skip a video the game locks up.

@hikarutilmitt I'm trying to figure out what videos are improved and struggling. Can you clarify what videos please? From what we can tell for the intro splash screens, the behavior matches Proton 9.0-3 and experimental-9.0-20241022-old-media-source, where they play properly with an occasional stutter and they will freeze if you skip them. Are there videos further into the game specifically that might be broken with normal playback (not counting the skipping breaking it) with Proton 9.0-3/experimental-9.0-20241022-old-media-source that is now improved?

[hikarutilmitt]

This fixed the video playback in Hyperdimension Neptunia U. Only hitch is that if you try to skip a video the game locks up.

@hikarutilmitt I'm trying to figure out what videos are improved and struggling. Can you clarify what videos please? From what we can tell for the intro splash screens, the behavior matches Proton 9.0-3 and experimental-9.0-20241022-old-media-source, where they play properly with an occasional stutter and they will freeze if you skip them. Are there videos further into the game specifically that might be broken with normal playback (not counting the skipping breaking it) with Proton 9.0-3/experimental-9.0-20241022-old-media-source that is now improved?

I guess you can disregard my message, then. I usually live on Experimental as my default and had been trying new releases on the game to see if they ever got past the videos. I hadn't tried 9.0-3 but had tried 9.0-1 before when it came out and the videos were pretty much impossible to get past, then. The only previous version where the game worked normally was 5.0-10, but the videos wouldn't play, but you could skip past them by hitting the button as though they were playing.

The only other videos I'm aware of that would play would be the video that plays post-intro scenario (after doing the 2 initial scenarios but before you can actually save) and the ending credits video.

I'd be curious to know at some point exactly why the game freezes when skipping the videos, though, haha. Nothing of note seems to show up in the Proton logs when you do it, just... the game crashing.

[AwesamLinux]

Issue:
Massacre At The Mirage (2794610) #8226 - The game hangs/freezes when video should be played, unless using the old-media-source

Improved:
Remothered: Tormented Fathers (633360) #2581 - The videos are now displayed with proper gamma/brightness with the new media source.

[nightsky30]

Would this be an appropriate thread to report game regressions where crashes occur due to missing GStreamer decoders? Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos (787810) previously worked. It has been crashing shortly after reaching the initial loading screen when starting the game. I believe an Advanced Streaming Format (ASF) (video/x-ms-asf) video previously played. Logs are attached in the linked game issue.

[AJuujarvi]

Would this be an appropriate thread to report game regressions where crashes occur due to missing GStreamer decoders? Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos (787810) previously worked. It has been crashing shortly after reaching the initial loading screen when starting the game. I believe an Advanced Streaming Format (ASF) (video/x-ms-asf) video previously played. Logs are attached in the linked game issue.

@nightsky30 If you are referencing the issue back from April, it would be unrelated to this Megaissue thread as this is specifically for our New Media Source implementation we recently put out. I will follow up with you on that issue for further investigation on that ticket. :)

[waspennator]

Moero Chronicles has not been fixed with proton Experimental, the game with the new media source seems to get stuck unless I manually swap from the active movie tab to the moero Chronicles tab for the logo fmv and intro fmv, if I tab between them I can see a single frame of the fmv, if I tab back it goes black again and the audio restarts. If I use the old media source it does the same behavior mentioned in my older posts where the screen is a garbled mess of static lines and blasts me with static noise.

Game should be removed from the proton Experimental changelog until it's actually fixed.

steam-638160.log