NVAPI, Vulkan | Games fail to start

[N1qro]

Some games still fail to launch after GPU/OpenGL fix in 0.1.2

Hello again! Thanks for the previous GPU test utility and for fixing OpenGL rendering in AppSandbox 0.1.2.

I am continuing my previous issue: #34

I created a new VM with AppSandbox 0.1.2 and tested more games. OpenGL seems fixed now, but some games still refuse to launch. Some games work fine, so GPU-PV is not completely broken, but I would like to understand if the games below are supposed to work in AppSandbox or if these are expected GPU-PV limitations.

My host GPU is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060.

Main failures

CS2 / Dota 2 / Deadlock

All three fail with the same NVIDIA error. I translated the Russian message word by word:

Failed to start game

NVIDIA driver failed to initialize!
NVIDIA driver profile error: NVAPI_ACCESS_DENIED
Visit the NVIDIA website to download the latest version of video card drivers, and restore the standard profile of your NVIDIA driver application, and also its standard global profile.

Baldur's Gate 3

• DX11 works.
• Vulkan crashes with: failed to enumerate physical devices.

Since DX11 works but Vulkan cannot enumerate a physical device, maybe the Vulkan ICD/registry setup inside the VM is incomplete or inaccessible.

Until Then

• Vulkan crashes.
• DX12 works.

This looks similar to the Baldur's Gate 3 Vulkan issue.

No Man's Sky

• On startup it suggests updating graphics drivers. (screenshots in previous related issue)
• On launch it crashes.

No Man's Sky uses Vulkan now, so this might be another Vulkan/driver enumeration problem.

Icarus

• DX11: process appears in Task Manager, but no UI appears, then it exits.
• DX12: same behavior.

Altushka for Skuf / Everlasting Summer

• Launcher/menu appears.
• The actual game process is visible in Task Manager, but no game UI renders.

Euro Truck Simulator 2

• Game launches.
• Mouse sensitivity is extremely high and I cannot even open options.

This one might be an input/cursor capture issue rather than a GPU issue.

Games that work

These launched successfully in the same VM:

A Dance of Fire and Ice
Terraria
Bloons TD 6
Among Us
Clone Drone in the Danger Zone
Content Warning
Darkest Dungeon
Hollow Knight
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Outpost
Overcome Your Fears - Caretaker
Oxygen Not Included
Left 4 Dead 2
Mindustry
Portal 2
Stardew Valley
Stoneshard
Ultrakill
Undertale
WorldBox
Lethal Company
Love, Money, Rock'n'roll
The Coffin of Andy and Leyley
The Escapists 2
Human: Fall Flat

Anti-cheat blocks

These games refuse to launch because anti-cheat blocks the VM:

ELDEN RING
Halo Infinite
Sea of Thieves
PUBG
Dead by Daylight

I assume these are expected and probably separate from the GPU issue.

Possible things to check

Maybe the most suspicious parts are:

• NVAPI / NVIDIA driver profile access inside the guest, because CS2, Dota 2, and Deadlock fail with NVAPI_ACCESS_DENIED.
• Vulkan device enumeration inside the guest, because Baldur's Gate 3 Vulkan fails with failed to enumerate physical devices.

But I am not sure. Is it possible to make these games work in AppSandbox, or are these current GPU-PV limitations? If they should work, what logs or tests would be most useful for me to provide?

If required, I can give you a family access to all those games via family sharing in Steam. It is not a problem

Any ideas how to debug this further? Thanks!

[jamesstringer90]

For now, if you copy the folder C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation from your host to your VM (in the same location), CS2 should start working

[N1qro]

@jamesstringer90 Okay. I copied the folder. Initially, on VM, the folder NVIDIA Corporation was present, but it was empty. After copying the folder, it's size became ~1.5GB.

CS2, Dota 2, and Deadlock launched successfully. Thank you. Speed of launch/game performance for me seemed kind of slow. The performance should be tested, I will try to run some GPU/CPU testers in near future and report my findings.

Other games that I tested:

1. In Everlasting summer / Altushka for Skuf the issue persists, foreground process becomes background and no UI is rendered
2. No Man's Sky stopped reporting outdated driver but still crashes on launch
3. In Until Then the same behavior persists

Is there anything that can be done to fix the Vulkan-related issues?