DOOM: The Dark Ages needs workarounds on Linux with AMD GPUs, a fix has been merged into Mesa

By Liam Dawe - 13 May 2025 at 11:01 am UTC

Last updated: 14 May 2025 at 7:24 pm UTC

With DOOM: The Dark Ages about to release for everyone on May 15th, and with Advanced Access available, it seems it needs some workarounds to run on Linux with AMD GPUs. This is likely what Valve already solved in SteamOS for Steam Deck.

On the Mesa driver GitLab, a request titled "radv,driconf: Add workarounds for DOOM: The Dark Ages" was merged around 2 hours ago. It notes that the game "crashes and/or misrenders" without the workarounds it provides.

Looking at the code it adds in a new "force_64k_sparse_alignment" configuration setting for AMD RADV (the open source AMD Vulkan driver) and then enables radv_force_64k_sparse_alignment, radv_zero_vram, radv_disable_dedicated_sparse_queue and radv_disable_dcc_stores settings by default in the driver. Which then allows it to run.

Hopefully we'll see this fix arrive in a Mesa release soon.

Going by the current Mesa release calendar the next bug-fix update is 25.0.6 that's due May 14th (tomorrow) and 25.0.7 due out May 28th. For the recently released Mesa 25.1 series the first bug fix update there with 25.1.1 should be due May 21st.

DOOM: The Dark Ages | Release Date: 15th May 2025

Official links:

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.

Tags: Proton, AMD, Drivers, FPS, Mesa, Misc, Open Source, Upcoming | Apps: DOOM: The Dark Ages

7 Likes

About the author - Liam Dawe

I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. You can also follow my personal adventures on Bluesky.
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10 comments

Stella 13 May 2025

Supporter Plus

is there a console command to make it still run without the new mesa?

0 Likes

Liam Dawe 13 May 2025

Admin

Nope, it specifically needs the part that adds in force_64k_sparse_alignment. You'll need new Mesa.

0 Likes

soulsource 13 May 2025

I don't know Direct3D well enough (by heart) to make any definite statements, but this sounds like a game bug being worked around (namely that a certain memory layout is assumed instead of queried - not sure if this is only an OpenGL thing or also needed in Direct3D). If that's the case, the game might break on Windows too, with future GPU driver updates...

0 Likes

rustynail 13 May 2025

it may be time to remember/find how to run steam flatpak using mesa-git for early access to patches, was pretty easy to use when Returnal needed a workaround iirc

0 Likes

Spyker 13 May 2025

@soulsource AFAIK the game is using a native Vulkan renderer so this is not related to Direct3D nor OpenGL.

1 Likes

soulsource 13 May 2025

@Spyker Oh? I wasn't aware. Then my idea cannot be the case as afaik Vulkan does not need (or even support) runtime resource location queries.

0 Likes

TheRiddick 13 May 2025

Apparently on NVIDIA frame gen may crash some users and also the frame rate could be locked at your display refresh rate even when turning off vsync etc.

Also Denuvo is banning some linux users, because, yeah why not I guess......

Last edited by TheRiddick on 13 May 2025 at 8:29 pm UTC

0 Likes

lqe5433 14 May 2025

I'd welcome more and more Vulkan games.
I dont like this Doom but I think I will buy it because of Vulkan

0 Likes

rustigsmed 14 May 2025

Apparently on NVIDIA frame gen may crash some users and also the frame rate could be locked at your display refresh rate even when turning off vsync etc.

Any idea if there is a work around to the locked fps at the screen refresh rate? or is it a vulkan quirk via proton?

0 Likes

jarhead_h 17 May 2025

Considering that it appears this installment of DOOM doubles down on all the things I didn't really like from Eternal while slowing you down and forcing a defensive playstyle, I'm really feeling better and better about making this one into a Steam Summer Sale kinda purchase. In like, five years.

Still running a 5900X/RX6800XT combo on a 4K screen. AMD claims they don't plan to do a XX80 or XX90 series GPU with RDNA4 but I frankly don't believe it. At the very least we'll get a tweaked version of the XX70 series sometime next year.

Until then I'm still slogging through Eternal's DLC and honestly it's more of a chore than it is enjoyable.

Last edited by jarhead_h on 17 May 2025 at 3:22 am UTC

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