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DXVK, the project that (since D9VK was merged) has turned into a massive translating unit of Direct 3D 9/10/11 to Vulkan has the first 2020 release available.

What is it again? Let's do a quick refresher! DXVK when fused together with Wine translates calls from D3D9/10/11 into Vulkan, usually giving you much better performance than standard Wine for playing Windows-only games on Linux.

Version 1.5.1 went up today and it includes a bunch of performance improvements for D3D9, an improved depth bias implementation in D3D9 fixing rendering issues (like missing shadows) in lots of titles, plus multiple other D3D9 bug fixes.

The number of threads used for pipeline compilation was tweaked this time too, hopefully reducing the performance impact on those with 6/8 core CPUs while also allowing CPUs with more than 12 cores to scale it up a bit. You can customize it with the dxvk.numCompilerThreads option.

This release should also make the gameplay experience smoother for GTA V, Halo CE, Need For Speed: Carbon, Risen 2, Sims 4, Trackmania Forever and Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines. Oh and the dxvk.hud option was restored since the accidental removal in a previous version.

See the full release notes here.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Vulkan, Wine
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16 comments

mrdeathjr Jan 9, 2020
In my case works well in banished and dxvk.numCompilerThreads works too



​​​​​​​^_^
Avehicle7887 Jan 9, 2020
Risen 2, not the best game in the series but it's nice to be able to play it higher than 35 fps.
Whitewolfe80 Jan 9, 2020
Quoting: Avehicle7887Risen 2, not the best game in the series but it's nice to be able to play it higher than 35 fps.

Only thing i remember about the risen games was Angry Joe and Jim sterling saying they were the worst games on pc are they actually worth playing ?
TheRiddick Jan 10, 2020
I hope once wine5.0 comes out there will be a proton update.

Yeah its good that risen2 was fixed, I had been testing it on and off.

Also there was a major issue getting gothic3 forsaken working but I haven't tested that recently.

I do hope that in the future Steamplay will have a option (tickbox) to enable 32bit steamplay for these quite old games that work best in a 32bit container vs 64bit.


Last edited by TheRiddick on 10 January 2020 at 12:17 am UTC
Comandante Ñoñardo Jan 10, 2020
Is it safe to replace the actual DXVK files included in Proton 4.11-11 with these?
D34VA_ Jan 10, 2020
Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoIs it safe to replace the actual DXVK files included in Proton 4.11-11 with these?
Yes. Working fine, over here.
t3g Jan 10, 2020
QuoteThe number of threads used for pipeline compilation was tweaked this time too, hopefully reducing the performance impact on those with 6/8 core CPUs while also allowing CPUs with more than 12 cores to scale it up a bit. You can customize it with the dxvk.numCompilerThreads option.

Is this also available as a launch option?
TheSHEEEP Jan 10, 2020
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Quoting: Whitewolfe80
Quoting: Avehicle7887Risen 2, not the best game in the series but it's nice to be able to play it higher than 35 fps.

Only thing i remember about the risen games was Angry Joe and Jim sterling saying they were the worst games on pc are they actually worth playing ?
If either of these say a game is bad, it might as well be GOTY material...
Sure, they also rip truly bad games a new one, but they just mindlessly rip everything else, too. And give crappy games a thumb up, so... I'd not trust in AJ or Jim for anything except entertainment value and news.

That said, Risen 2 is the worst of the series, yes, both 1 and 3 are better.
jens Jan 10, 2020
  • Supporter
Quoting: t3g
QuoteThe number of threads used for pipeline compilation was tweaked this time too, hopefully reducing the performance impact on those with 6/8 core CPUs while also allowing CPUs with more than 12 cores to scale it up a bit. You can customize it with the dxvk.numCompilerThreads option.

Is this also available as a launch option?

It needs to go into the configuration file, though you can refer to a configuration file from the Steam launch options.

That said, DXVK has very sane defaults. In almost all situations you are better off without any configuration settings. Please also keep in mind that `numCompilerThreads` is not the magic performance switch people might expect from the name.
BielFPs Jan 10, 2020
Quoteit includes a bunch of performance improvements for D3D9

@mrdeathjr



Quoting: mrdeathjr​​​​​^_^
kokoko3k Jan 10, 2020
Quoting: jens
Quoting: t3g
QuoteThe number of threads used for pipeline compilation was tweaked this time too, hopefully reducing the performance impact on those with 6/8 core CPUs while also allowing CPUs with more than 12 cores to scale it up a bit. You can customize it with the dxvk.numCompilerThreads option.

Is this also available as a launch option?

It needs to go into the configuration file, though you can refer to a configuration file from the Steam launch options.

That said, DXVK has very sane defaults. In almost all situations you are better off without any configuration settings. Please also keep in mind that `numCompilerThreads` is not the magic performance switch people might expect from the name.
Still, they tweaked for high core number.
Mine is just 4; so i guessi i'll have additional overhead if i don't tweak manually.
I wonder if dxvk has no way to query how much cores the system have.
jens Jan 10, 2020
  • Supporter
Quoting: kokoko3k
Quoting: jens
Quoting: t3g
QuoteThe number of threads used for pipeline compilation was tweaked this time too, hopefully reducing the performance impact on those with 6/8 core CPUs while also allowing CPUs with more than 12 cores to scale it up a bit. You can customize it with the dxvk.numCompilerThreads option.

Is this also available as a launch option?

It needs to go into the configuration file, though you can refer to a configuration file from the Steam launch options.

That said, DXVK has very sane defaults. In almost all situations you are better off without any configuration settings. Please also keep in mind that `numCompilerThreads` is not the magic performance switch people might expect from the name.
Still, they tweaked for high core number.
Mine is just 4; so i guessi i'll have additional overhead if i don't tweak manually.
I wonder if dxvk has no way to query how much cores the system have.

Where do you get that impression from? Please see the commit message https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/commit/cd00719122da89a8e654970b4aedd699d4fda8c6
DXVK detects the number of available cores and calculates the number of threads it wants to use (if not overwritten by above setting). The calculation has been tweaked a bit to use more cores when available and also give some air to CPU's with less cores.
Please bear in mind that this affect pipeline compilation from entries in the state cache only. This won't magically make your games much faster. Sticking with the default is really the best choice.


Last edited by jens on 10 January 2020 at 12:59 pm UTC
YoRHa-2B Jan 10, 2020
Quoting: kokoko3kMine is just 4; so i guessi i'll have additional overhead if i don't tweak manually.
I wonder if dxvk has no way to query how much cores the system have.
Please don't jump to conclusions. DXVK does check how many cores you have, and literally nothing changes for quad-core CPUs (without SMT anyway).
lejimster Jan 10, 2020
The major issues with Starcraft 2 appear to be fixed now. (Certain glitches, shadows missing etc) Still experience some crashes with custom maps, but haven't had any issues with the campaign mode and official maps.
Great work by Joshua & Philip as always, much appreciated! :D
kokoko3k Jan 10, 2020
Quoting: YoRHa-2B
Quoting: kokoko3kMine is just 4; so i guessi i'll have additional overhead if i don't tweak manually.
I wonder if dxvk has no way to query how much cores the system have.
Please don't jump to conclusions. DXVK does check how many cores you have, and literally nothing changes for quad-core CPUs (without SMT anyway).
Sorry, thanks jens too for explaination.
mrdeathjr Jan 10, 2020
Quoting: BielFPs
Quoteit includes a bunch of performance improvements for D3D9

@mrdeathjr


Quoting: mrdeathjr​​​​​^_^

what are you done

XXXXXDDDDDDDD

but back to theme in my regular titles tested (most with problems) dont show improvements case:

lotr war in north - dynasty warriors 7 - dynasty warriors 8 - bombshell - the game of life - luxor amung rising hd - dungeon siege III - dead or alive 5 - arcana heart 3 love max - blazblue calamity trigger / continnuum shift - virtua tennis 4 - sonic generations and many others

^_^
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