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Wine is about to get just that little bit sweeter, with new code recently merged into the project that should work around a performance issue with Vulkan. Specifically it relates to how Wine was previously implementing wow64, a way of supporting 32-bit applications on 64bit.

As per the Merge Request titled "winevulkan: Use VK_EXT_map_memory_placed for memory mapping on wow64" that was accepted:

With the new extension, we may implement wow64 correctly, without VK_EXT_external_memory_host hacks. This is both more correct and more performant (essentially eliminating Vulkan wow64 performance penalty).

The VK_EXT_map_memory_placed extension was released with Vulkan 1.3.278 spec update on February 16, 2024. The extension "allows a client to request that vkMapMemory2KHR attempt to place the memory map at a particular virtual address" and was worked on by Collabora, AMD, NVIDIA, Valve and CodeWeavers.

So once all graphics drivers are released with support for it, and Wine gets a release with it in (along with any needed Proton updates), it should work that little bit better.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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5 comments

mrdeathjr Mar 4
Liam Dawe this update also phoronix have same error dont have relation directly with performance, have more relation with game stability aka suddenly crashes

VK_EXT_map_memory_placed solve a existing nasty issue in wine related with virtual memory and this nasty issue stay various years without proper fix

this nasty issue provoke a many games crash suddenly, is more notorious when you use higher resolutions*

*still in my case with lower resolution in virtual desktop provoke crashes

in my case is notorious too because i make long gameplays, my priority with wine stay related stability and compatibility
in long test you can observe if game show crashes, laa issues, audio issues, input issues and other things required to run

also in long test you have more chances like a nasty bug as virtual memory can appear in any moment

some titles tested by myself and other users reports are anno 1404 - anno 1701 - dark sector - hard reset - race driver grid - xmen origins wolverine and many others

continuing with testing, i compile lastest wine-git of yesterday march 01 (oibaf amd mesa drivers of today march 02), in this wine as commented before as added VK_EXT_map_memory_placed

and results are very impressive:




anno 1404 fix crash when try loading game without laa




dark sector fix crash in prologue scene if stay alone, maybe comment more later about fix crash when finish 1st chapter (another around 2 hours of gameplay video to trash XXXDDDDD)




007 legends have sound correctly and modded aspect ratio too without laa flag





at simple seek can recommend have lastest amd mesa oibaf drivers aka today drivers march 02 for use VK_EXT_map_memory_placed

resuming if next wine comes with VK_EXT_map_memory_placed like git, progess will be huge because virtual memory issue stay so many years in wine

another huge improvement appear in xmen origins wolverine, in before tests this game show crashes suddenly

but now with lastest mesa drivers and wine-git dont show any crash in 2 hours of gameplay






Last edited by mrdeathjr on 4 March 2024 at 4:41 pm UTC
whizse Mar 4
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Continuing with testing,
I'm glad to see you keeping busy after retiring from Aperture Science!
Liam Dawe Mar 4
Liam Dawe this update also phoronix have same error dont have relation directly with performance, have more relation with game stability aka suddenly crashes
I will refer to what the actual developers of it said, and they said very clearly as quoted in the article that it affected performance.
mrdeathjr Mar 4
I will refer to what the actual developers of it said, and they said very clearly as quoted in the article that it affected performance.

Is common devs dont play games but as user this update affect more stability (especially 32bit dx9 games) and maybe performance (with wined3d is possible)

but most people use dxvk (d9vk as i said) for dx9 games and using dxvk is more notorious stability than performance in most games

mrdeathjr Mar 6
I found another improvement this time in avatar (movie based) the videogame

in before tests this game show suddenly crashes and sometimes freezes in blue lagoon, normally dont be possible explore all blue lagoon at begins because show suddenly crashes in any moment

but now with lastest mesa and wine-git dont show any crash in around 4 hours of gameplay






Last edited by mrdeathjr on 6 March 2024 at 1:43 pm UTC
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