A new Steam Beta is up with Vulkan pipeline dumping and collection along with Steam Play improvements

That "zero-byte update" (if referring to updates taking years) problem has been driving me crazy for weeks. Strangely enough, it wasn't affecting only my Proton games, but my Linux native games as well. DoTA would not update unless I continuously changed download regions and even then, I still would achieve download speeds in KB/s (125 Kb/s max). Hope this resolves that issue.

Also hoping the nVidia 418 driver gets added to the PPA soon so I can test whether or not Monster Hunter is really fixed on it. An Arch user has had luck with it and recommended I check it out. We'll see.

Quoting: KylinuxThat "zero-byte update" (if referring to updates taking years)

Nope, it is when an update is queued up for Steam Play titles that were of size 0 bytes.

I know there are knowledgeable people here. What the heck is "Vulkan pipeline dumping"? It sounds like either a good thing or something oil companies do when something has gone very wrong.

OMG, you don't know what Vulkan pipeline dumping is??!?!?? You must be so embarrassed.


Last edited by shawnsterp on 7 March 2019 at 3:18 am UTC

Quoting: Purple Library GuyI know there are knowledgeable people here. What the heck is "Vulkan pipeline dumping"? It sounds like either a good thing or something oil companies do when something has gone very wrong.

Vulkan pipeline dumping is like the DXVK state cache, but it works for any Vulkan application. So native and DXVK through Proton. Like the OpenGL cache in Steam it's also shared*, which means over time we won't have any stutter in any Vulkan (especially Proton+DXVK) game, due to shader compiling, anymore.

* When participating in the Steam Shader Pre-Caching, you will download existing shader caches from the SteamSwarm shader server. After you exit the game, it will upload new generated shaders to the server.

Quoting: Egonaut

Quoting: Purple Library GuyI know there are knowledgeable people here. What the heck is "Vulkan pipeline dumping"? It sounds like either a good thing or something oil companies do when something has gone very wrong.

Vulkan pipeline dumping is like the DXVK state cache, but it works for any Vulkan application. So native and DXVK through Proton. Like the OpenGL cache in Steam it's also shared*, which means over time we won't have any stutter in any Vulkan (especially Proton+DXVK) game, due to shader compiling, anymore.

So for Proton games, does it work on top of the DXVK state cache ? Does that mean we now have three levels of caching (pipeline, state, shader) ?

Quoting: GrabbySo for Proton games, does it work on top of the DXVK state cache ? Does that mean we now have three levels of caching (pipeline, state, shader) ?

I've checked that with one game (Sniper Ghost Warrior 2), renamed the DXVK_state_cache folder and started the game with Proton. The folder was not recreated, so it seems that DXVK state cache is disabled when Vulkan Pipeline Cache is in use. Which makes totally sense, as it is obsolete in Steam Beta now.

I wonder how hard it can possibly be to fix this 0 byte update bug.

I imagine something along the lines...

int updateSize = steamServer.calcUpdateSize();
if (updateSize <= 0) return false;

(Obviously, if it would be that easy, Valve would have solved it in the first attempt.)

Quoting: Guest

Quoting: shawnsterpOMG, you don't know what Vulkan pipeline dumping is??!?!?? You must be so embarrassed.

Bit harsh don't you think?
Should all Linux gamers know what dumping is?
Aren't the casual "pick up and play" gamers allowed to use Linux and Vulkan without having to learn all this stuff? That's what's so attractive about Windows isn't it? Ease of use an all that, nothing to learn, install and go, right?
I sure as hell didn't buy a PS4 to learn the anatomy of it. Why can't it be the same for Linux?
Patronizing is what turns people away.

Joke...?

I'm just crossing all my fingers and toes that Sekiro is playable through Steam Play at- or shortly after release