[BUG] SmartZOI disables itself after entering gameplay on Linux (Proton) – VRAM shared memory not available

Bug Reports
1

Game Version: Latest Early Access (March 2026)
Platform: Steam Linux (Proton Experimental + Proton-CachyOS 10.0-20260320)
Mods: Never used

Hardware & OS

OS: CachyOS (Arch-based, Linux kernel 6.19.10-1-cachyos)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7600X
GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3080 10 GB VRAM (Driver 595.58.03)
RAM: 32 GB
Storage: Steam Library on /mnt/RAID (ext4)
Resizable BAR: Enabled
BAR1 Memory: 16384 MiB (confirmed via nvidia-smi)
nvidia-smi “Unified Memory”: N/A (not available under Proton)

Steps to reproduce

1. Launch inZOI with Proton-CachyOS (or Proton Experimental) using launch options:
PROTON_ENABLE_NVAPI=1 DXVK_ENABLE_NVAPI=1 %command%

  1. Go to Options → Gameplay
  2. Enable SmartZOI → click Apply (fans spin up noticeably)
  3. Enter the game world / load a save
  4. Return to main menu → check Options → Gameplay again → SmartZOI is back to Disabled

Details

When enabling SmartZOI, GPU/CPU load increases significantly (fans become much more active). The option sometimes stays enabled while remaining only in the main menu. However, after entering gameplay and returning to the menu, SmartZOI automatically turns itself off. No SmartZOI icon appears in-game and no error message is shown.

VRAM usage (nvidia-smi)

inZOI alone: ~5004 MiB VRAM used
Total available: 10240 MiB
BAR1 used: ~5598 MiB / 16384 MiB

Root cause analysis

On the same hardware under Windows, SmartZOI works fine thanks to VRAM overflow into system RAM (shared/unified memory). Under Proton/Wine this mechanism is not available, resulting in a hard VRAM limit being hit when SmartZOI attempts to initialize during gameplay.

Tested workarounds — all unsuccessful

• nvidia.NVreg_EnableGpuFirmware=0 kernel parameter
• NVAPI flags: PROTON_ENABLE_NVAPI=1 DXVK_ENABLE_NVAPI=1
• HwSchMode=2 registry key via Wine regedit
• Proton-GE (latest) — same result
• Proton-CachyOS 10.0-20260320 — same result

Request to developers

Please implement a proper RAM fallback when VRAM is insufficient (as on Windows), or add a configurable VRAM budget / “Low VRAM” mode with a lighter AI model. This would make SmartZOI usable for Linux users with 10–12 GB GPUs.

I can provide full Proton logs or additional screenshots if needed.

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