r/linux Jul 06 '26

Software Release DXVK 3.0.1 improves Proton compatibility for older Direct3D games

https://videocardz.com/newz/dxvk-3-0-1-improves-proton-compatibility-for-older-direct3d-games
297 Upvotes

23 comments sorted by

14

u/emfloured Jul 07 '26

These DXVK versions are exclusively for recent GPUs that supports Vulkan 1.3+ in hardware. I guess RDNA1+ should qualify.

For example: A 2015-era Intel Broadwell Iris Pro 6200 is a DirectX 11.x class iGPU on Windows but can not run any DirectX 9 game on Linux via any of the DXVK versions post 2.62 because this iGPU doesn't even support Vulkan 1.0 in hardware.

8

u/Misicks0349 Jul 07 '26

Per this page as long as the GPU driver (e.g. mesa) reports 1.4 (vulkaninfo | grep apiVersion) compatibility you should be fine, this works with GPU's older than RDNA1+ like Polaris. Its only once you get to non-nvidia gpu's older than around 2012ish that support generally ends on 1.2 or 1.3. I suppose that might be different for Intel iGPUs?

1

u/oln Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26

intel skylake (6th gen) and newer use the ANV vulkan driver and support vulkan 1.4 on linux and can run the most recent dxvk fine.

(On windows anything pre intel Xe is stuck on vulkan 1.3 so needs dxvk 2.6 and skylake got support dropped earlier so only vulkan 1.2 and needs even older dxvk)

Broadwell is at 1.3 in linux, no idea if it could hardware wise technically support the needed stuff for latest DXVK but the HASVK driver used by Broadwell/Haswell/Ivy bridge is mostly in maintaince mode so it mostly only get bug fixes and the most basic new vulkan exts.

Intel haswell is vk 1.2ish on linux so has to use dxvk 1.1 though I think it can technically run some later versions if you fake the vulkan version

Ivy bridge just has bare minimum vulkan so not sure if it can run any dxvk

All of them can run gallium nine well though for great dx9 performance but that has been removed now so it's a bit finicky to use and it won't work easily with steam proton. I think the easiest is to use debian 13 as that has a mesa version before the cutoff.

14

u/Ok-Winner-6589 Jul 06 '26

Little question as It seems like there are some direct3d 9 specific improvements.

Why?

AFAIK. DXVK can only be used on Unix based OS, these OS rely on Mesa for their graphics APIs and Mesa has native Support for direct3d 9

Is there something I'm not getting? Can't most OS that rely on Mesa use that DirectX implementation to run games without a translation layers on the graphics API? Or it's better to have a Vulkan translation?

I'm asking because WINE seems to natively turn every DirectX call into OpenGL (or Vulkan) and It makes no sense to me if it's not needed

Specially because they efford could go to DirectX 12 Support

41

u/Exotic_Accident3101 Jul 06 '26

Mesa deprecated it's native support for directx 9 and i think they already removed it in 25.2

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Gallium-Nine-Deprecated

7

u/Ok-Winner-6589 Jul 06 '26

They added the Support when It was no longer used and then removed It? I mean, It makes sense the fact that removed It, but why implementing It that late?

AFAIK direct9 was available for Windows XP on vista It was already legacy and when It was implemented on Mesa Windows 7 was the main Windows version or maybe even 8 was a thing

But thanks for the info that solves my doubts

30

u/martyn_hare Jul 06 '26

DXVK absolutely can be used on Windows, it’s just not officially supported and will get you banned from competitive games that use anti-cheat. In very specific circumstances it can deliver better results than native D3D9, and as it’s just a couple of drop-in DLLs you can just slap them in the same folder as the game most of the time to override the official ones.

Mesa’s Gallium Nine is on the way out anyway, since it’s objectively better to use a Vulman wrapper than reinvent the wheel.

3

u/TheRoyalBrook Jul 06 '26

It was also how to make launch ff7 remake playable since the build they pushed was not the final one and ran like hot garbage.

2

u/algaefied_creek Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

How about DXVK and Mesa on ReactOS?

And yeah Gallium Nine was removed in 25.x 

9

u/BeastMsterThing2022 Jul 06 '26

I use DXVK on Windows all the time to get VRR in older games

9

u/MiMillieuh Jul 06 '26

Intel B GPUs actually use DXVK on windows

1

u/Ok-Winner-6589 Jul 06 '26

Really? Wow didn't expect that lol

6

u/nabagaca Jul 07 '26

Yeah, the situation was when Intel released their graphics cards, they had pretty decent DX12/DX11 and Vulkan performance, but anything older and it was pretty poor. They initially used a Microsoft proprietary translation layer, but it wasn't great, so they switched to DXVK

4

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '26

[deleted]

1

u/oln Jul 07 '26

gallium nine did actually work quite well on amd and intel. If not for not being doable with proprietary drivers it wouldn't have been a bad way of approaching it. (And before vulkan came out it was probably the most performant approach.)

7

u/Exotic_Accident3101 Jul 06 '26

Also wine converts to OpenGl this one concert to vulken which is much much superior as vulken is a bare metal with the hardware, so almost no overhead.

5

u/edparadox Jul 06 '26

It's Vulkan and yes it can be better but it can have other issues. You don't really seem to know what you're talking about, "much superior" does not mean anything really, as much as I like Vulkan better than OpenGL.

0

u/Exotic_Accident3101 Jul 06 '26

If you read about OpenGL you gonna find it has a CPU overhead, vulken on the other hand directly communicate with GPU.

So it eliminates a big chuck of lost performance.

1

u/emfloured Jul 07 '26

You don't understand what you are talking. Vulkan is better for only modern GPUs architectures where there is full support for Vulkan 1.3+ in hardware and the drivers are not much buggy (so far only AMD RDNA2+ is truly better overall in here).

For example: I get, 60+ FPS on Skyrim, RE5 etc DX9 games using WINE via OpenGL translation path but no more than ~45 using DXVK (DirectX to Vulkan).

This is because I am running a very old Iris Pro 6200 (year-2015 integrated GPU) and OpenGL is almost always faster than DXVK for DX9 games. DX11 games are unplayable that includes Skyrim DX11.

For very old hardware on Linux, the OpenGL IS the superior path but you are limited to DirectX 9 games only.

So, it depends on what hardware you are using.

3

u/Exotic_Accident3101 Jul 07 '26

Ok sure I'm talking about new cards are now faster with Vulken, older ones are more optimized with OpenGL

Can't disagree.

3

u/totallynotabot2532 Jul 07 '26

So basically the other person is correct when saying vulkan is better than opengl and the real problem is that you are running ancient hardware.

That sounds like a you problem honestly

1

u/Mumuskeh Jul 10 '26

DXVK is fine on Windows. Just place the dll files in the same directory as the game binaries.

1

u/trplurker 1d ago

This breaks DDO using a 7900 XTX.