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The compatibility layer Wine version 8.17 is officially out now that brings with it some exciting new features, along with some bug fixes so here's what's new.

What's new:

  • Bundled vkd3d upgraded to version 1.9.
  • Initial window management in the Wayland driver.
  • SoundFont support in DirectMusic.
  • Various bug fixes.

The bug fixes include problems solved for The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Cemu, RageMP, Dwarf Fortress (Steam) and other miscellaneous fixes. Nice to see the Wayland work continuing to progress so eventually Wine will be able to run fully native on Wayland directly.

vkd3d version 1.9 was only released on September 21st with these highlights:

  • Yet more improvements to the HLSL compiler.
  • A new utility to inspect the contents of DXBC blobs.
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes.

Not to be confused with VKD3D-Proton, which comes from Valve devs. This is the Wine project's own Direct3D to Vulkan translation library, that will focus on everything whereas Valve has a focus on gaming.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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6 comments

mrdeathjr Sep 30, 2023
This wine version add sound fonts support but dxdiag sound test dont work and other dxmusic test also dont work in my case (rise of nations still dont have music, directmusic are required)



but steam and virtual desktop still working

however wine staging version (deb packages from winehq) virtual desktop still running but fuck steam in my case



and neptunia sisters vs sisters runs funny



but curiously with wined3d implementation (mangohud dont work, galliumhud to the rescue)



update: with lastest mesa driver and downgrade to 8.16 staging graphics issue in neptunia are gone






Last edited by mrdeathjr on 1 October 2023 at 12:53 pm UTC
drjoms Sep 30, 2023
cant wait to see this passed over to proton
williamjcm Oct 1, 2023
I hope the Wine contributors will fix keyboard layout support too.

As an AZERTY user, having to change the desktop-wide keyboard layout before launching games just for Wine/Proton to be able to use a QWERTY layout in games with no or poor rebinding (UE4 games being an example of the latter) is a pain.


Last edited by williamjcm on 1 October 2023 at 1:02 am UTC
Purple Library Guy Oct 1, 2023
Anyone else get the feeling that lately, various projects that were sort of not bothering with Wayland, having a sort of "leave it till later" attitude, are finding that "later" is now?
Adutchman Oct 1, 2023
Quoting: Purple Library GuyAnyone else get the feeling that lately, various projects that were sort of not bothering with Wayland, having a sort of "leave it till later" attitude, are finding that "later" is now?

Absolutely. It is probably because Wayland is reaching its critical mass. Gnome has fully embraced it and KDE has fully embraced it. Most if not all of its major flaws have also been corrected so there is really no reason to wait anymore. I am really exited for it because a Linux ecosystem where XDG Portals (Flatpak/Snap), Wayland and Pipewire are a stable base for all distros means that the Linux desktop is finally free from the problems that have been plagueing it the most. This being (imo): no proprietary app support, no single distribution platform, flaky audio, no good screen sharing support, gesture support etc. It also means that development isn't hampered by the fact that no-one is willing to touch X11/Pulseaudio anymore.
Grogan Oct 2, 2023
Well... I did a build of this today (a normal one, not WoW64), and still, my Star Wars Battlefront II game in the EA App won't run. (The last one it works in is Wine 8.6.1). It freezes and crashes on the first load screen (can't even get to menu). I don't know why, I have other games that use the same Frostbite engine and they are fine.

I like that game, so there's not much point in upgrading Wine when there's no benefit (I have zero problems or performance issues with my Wine 8.6.1). Only that one detriment. I do generally hate being held up on upgrading things when I want to though, which is why I keep testing.

For a Proton or Wine runner, it's OK to have the odd game not work for whatever reason (use another), but for system wine I insist on 100% for the things I use it for.

P.S. Also discovered Dead Space 3 doesn't work properly with this Wine build. This is new. It loads, but it's all corruption and I fall off the world as soon as the game loads. Also, no mouse in menus once the game starts (but is fine on main menu) So that clinches it, 2 games. That won't be all.

Both problems solved, going back to my Wine 8.6.1


Last edited by Grogan on 2 October 2023 at 11:43 pm UTC
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