DXVK 2.2 released supporting D3D11On12, plus improvements for game launchers

DXVK translates Direct3D 9 / 10 and 11 into Vulkan for Proton and Wine, used on Linux desktop and Steam Deck for gaming. The new DXVK 2.2 release sounds like quite a big one, and just shows how awesome open source is. Once it's ready and in a new Proton release, we should see another nice little bump in game compatibility.

The first big one is support for D3D11On12, Microsoft's own layer "which maps graphics commands from D3D11 to D3D12". DXVK does this with the help of VKD3D-Proton (the Direct3D 12 to Vulkan translation layer) and is required for D3D12 support in recent Unity Engine titles such as Lego Builder's Journey according to the DXVK team. To test that right now you need a recent build of VKD3D-Proton.

Another nice addition is support for D3D9 Partial Presentation, which should improve compatibility with various game launchers, "particularly those based on Microsoft's WPF toolkit, and some visual novels". The downside is that it has a noticeable "performance hit".

There's also some specific game fixes for:

• Jade Empire.
• Sid Meier's Pirates.
• Total War: Shogun 2.
• Battle Fantasia Revised Edition.
• Cold Fear.
• Dawn of Magic 2.
• DC Universe Online.
• Far Cry 2.
• Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
• Warhammer 40k: Space Marine.

Plus these other fixes:

• Recent RE Engine games performance fixes.
• Fixed an issue wherein threads were not properly destroyed.
• Fixed Vulkan validation errors caused by incorrect layout tracking when enabling feedback loops for a texture.
• Fixed Vulkan validation errors caused by 0x0 sized clears in D3D9.
• Improved usage of some VK_EXT_extended_dynamic_state3 features to avoid hitting slow paths on some drivers.
• Significantly reduced memory usage in situations where games create unused D3D11 devices.

Changelog can be seen here.

No doubt an upcoming Proton Experimental release will include it, as always I'll let you know when that happens.