VKD3D-Proton 2.4 is out with performance improvements for Direct3D 12 to Vulkan

VKD3D-Proton is the project that Valve funds to act as a translation layer between Direct3D 12 to Vulkan for use with Steam Play Proton and a big new release is out. If you wish to know more about Steam Play and Proton do check out our dedicated section.

Version 2.4 brings multiple performance enhancements including: an improvement to swapchain latency and frame pacing by up to one frame, lookup of format info was optimized, it now avoids potential pipeline compilation stutter in certain scenarios. They also noted some significant GPU-bound performance improvements thanks to a rewrite of how it handles image layouts for colour and depth-stencil targets with Horizon Zero Dawn seeing a noted ~15-20% GPU bound uplift, Death Stranding ~10% and around 5-10% in other titles too.

Together that should make more DirectX 12 titles not only playable, but make many a better experience.

Here's what else is new:

Features

• Enable support for sparse 3D textures (tiled resources tier 3).

Bug fixes and workarounds

• Various bug fixes in DXIL.
• Fix weird bug where sun would pop through walls in RE: Village.
• Workaround game bug in Cyberpunk 2077 where certain locales would render a black screen.
• Fix various bugs (in benchmark and in vkd3d-proton) allowing GravityMark to run.
• Improve robustness against certain app bugs related to NULL descriptors.
• Fix bug with constant FP64 vector handling in DXBC.
• Fix bug where Cyberpunk 2077 inventory screen could spuriously hang GPU on RADV.
• Add workaround for Necromunda: Hired Gun where character models would render random garbage on RADV.
• Fix bug in Necromunda: Hired Gun causing random screen flicker.
• Fix windowed mode tracking when leaving fullscreen. Fix Alt-Tab handling in Horizon Zero Dawn.
• Temporary workaround for SRV ResourceMinLODClamp. Fix black ground rendering in DIRT 5.
  The overbright HDR rendering in DIRT 5 sadly persists however :(
• Implement fallback maximum swapchain latency correctly.

Release notes can be found on GitHub.