Valve has put up a Beta for Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two as they prepare more of their own games ready for the Steam Deck.
We don't know yet all the exact details, as this update hasn't even been announced by Valve yet but the Betas are up and you can try them out right now. However, we do know for sure they now have DXVK Native which is the port of DXVK to Linux which allows it to be used natively without Wine. This changes the game to use Vulkan, instead of OpenGL, if you launch it with "-vulkan" in the launch options.
Half-Life 2: Episode One with 110 FOV
Other improvements noticed include some big bug fixes to a few scenes, UI improvements with resolution scaling with the HUD now having its own scaling option - which has resulted in the UI being a much better fit, ultrawide support, FOV now goes up to 110 instead of 90 and likely more we've missed.
To try it out all you need to do is opt into the Beta branch for the games on Steam. Right click -> Properties -> Betas (on the left) and then select it from the dropdown box. When they do put up full patch notes we'll let you know.
Hopefully at some point they will upgrade Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive too.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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18 comments
So, wait, they're changing the game to use DirectX over Vulkan instead of native OpenGL? Is it really faster to do it that way? I mean hey if it works it works, just odd!
Edit: Had to install EP2 because I got curious, but wow is the current beta stuttery on my machine! I can't even play the game like this. After the first boot of the beta, it doesn't even render the game, just completely black with sound. Steam overlay works tho :P
Last edited by ridge on 19 October 2021 at 10:55 am UTC
Edit: Had to install EP2 because I got curious, but wow is the current beta stuttery on my machine! I can't even play the game like this. After the first boot of the beta, it doesn't even render the game, just completely black with sound. Steam overlay works tho :P
Last edited by ridge on 19 October 2021 at 10:55 am UTC
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So, wait, they're changing the game to use DirectX over Vulkan instead of native OpenGL? Is it really faster to do it that way? I mean hey if it works it works, just odd!OpenGL in Source-based games wasn't native too - these games use ToGL layer, which translates Direct3D calls to OpenGL calls. DXVK Native isn't any different in that way - it translates D3D to Vulkan at compile time similarly to ToGL.
Then that makes heck of a lot more sense to me, thanks for clearing that up!
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There were also changes for Half-life 2: Lost Coast and Half-life: Source
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Apparently, the DXVK port is also being prepared for Firewatch
https://steamdb.info/app/383870/history/
https://steamdb.info/app/383870/history/
4 Likes, Who?
After adding DXVK (L4D2, P2), the developers did not switch the render in the game itself? Only in the startup parameters? It's so stupid..
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Apparently, the DXVK port is also being prepared for Firewatch
https://steamdb.info/app/383870/history/
Firewatch is native. And Unity. How is that supposed to work?
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If true, it's likely much easier to use DXVK Native than it is to upgrade Unity for improved Vulkan support in-engine.Apparently, the DXVK port is also being prepared for Firewatch
https://steamdb.info/app/383870/history/
Firewatch is native. And Unity. How is that supposed to work?
2 Likes, Who?
If true, it's likely much easier to use DXVK Native than it is to upgrade Unity for improved Vulkan support in-engine.Apparently, the DXVK port is also being prepared for Firewatch
https://steamdb.info/app/383870/history/
Firewatch is native. And Unity. How is that supposed to work?
I'm no Unity expert, but I don't think it's any easier to modify unity to run with dxvk native. Sounds more like a very dirty hack job. In that case Proton would be far easier to manage.
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I'm no Unity expert, but I don't think it's any easier to modify unity to run with dxvk native. Sounds more like a very dirty hack job. In that case Proton would be far easier to manage.Considering even on Windows some users have been using DXVK to improve performance in their games, it's probably not all that difficult to slot it in.
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Funny they prioritized Half Life 2 series before Team Fortress 2, which has way more active players.
After adding DXVK (L4D2, P2), the developers did not switch the render in the game itself? Only in the startup parameters? It's so stupid..I guess it's because they are probably in some kind of "beta" test using DXVK in compilation time, but I agree that this option should be inside the game menu (or in the game launcher). Hopefully they'll include it later.
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Considering even on Windows some users have been using DXVK to improve performance in their games, it's probably not all that difficult to slot it in.
But that's just using the DLL files, so similar to proton and not dxvk native.
Funny they prioritized Half Life 2 series before Team Fortress 2, which has way more active players.
Maybe that's the reason. Learn with the games that won't have the biggest impact before tackling the big ones.
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Maybe that's the reason. Learn with the games that won't have the biggest impact before tackling the big ones.Portal 2 / Left 4 Dead 2 also have more active players than hl2, and both of them received this update before. So I don't think that's the main reason...
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Maybe that's the reason. Learn with the games that won't have the biggest impact before tackling the big ones.Portal 2 / Left 4 Dead 2 also have more active players than hl2, and both of them received this update before. So I don't think that's the main reason...
True. Could also be that the presence of VAC creates an additional headache.
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OpenGL in Source-based games wasn't native too - these games use ToGL layer, which translates Direct3D calls to OpenGL calls. DXVK Native isn't any different in that way - it translates D3D to Vulkan at compile time similarly to ToGL....like almost every native port on Linux. (I am not really reacting to your post, it's just noteworthy since the DXVK debate has been the starting point of many flamewars)
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I remember you can glitch this part by making the game not load Alyx and get you stuck
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yea i just tried the beta and man it runs bad.besides the regular game runs fine anyway i get why there doing that.maybe its my nvidia card,i seriously need to switch to an amd card.
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I just hope they don't get rid of the OpenGL backend....ever. Mostly because unmodified DXVK will crash out on my system (this is a quirk of my setup).
I heavily believe it is shipped as an embedded library and has nothing to do with any "classic" DXVK version you would already have. Github page
Do we know how much manual tweaking is required ?
Black Mesa is having all kinds of graphics bugs through proton for me, maybe this could be helpful.
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