Direct3D to Vulkan translation layer DXVK v2.5.2 brings fixes for Alpha Protocol, The Sims 2, Borderlands 2 and more

Another bug fixes release is out for DXVK (v2.5.2), the project that translates Direct3D 8, 9, 10 and 11 to Vulkan. It's a big part of what makes Proton able to run Windows games on Steam Deck / Linux so nicely.

However, it's not just for Linux, quite a few people slot it into their games on Windows as well, as it can make a bunch of older games run smoother.

On the Windows side there's this note in the changelog:

On Windows, if VK_EXT_fullscreen_exclusive is supported, DXVK will now always try to disable exclusive fullscreen in an attempt to work around common alt-tab issues, as well as issues with numerous games that mix D3D9 with GDI user interfaces. Whether this is honored is up to the graphics driver. (#4465, PR #4485)

Previously, this was only done for D3D9 applications that explicitly enabled support for GDI dialog boxes in fullscreen mode. The d3d9.enableDialogMode configuration option to control that behaviour was removed accordingly.

Note: This change may affect input latency and/or performance, depending on the exact implementation of Vulkan swap chains in the graphics driver. It does not affect Linux systems in any way since the concept of exclusive fullscreen, and thus any problems associated with it, do not exist there.

And everything else:

• Added an implementation of D3D9 shader validation interfaces. This is needed for The Void and used in several other D3D9 games. (PR #4398)
• Fixed behaviour when D3D9 applications use incorrect texture types as seen in Alpha Protocol. (PR #4513)
• If VK_KHR_maintenance5 is supported, DXVK will now use VK_FORMAT_A8_UNORM to implement the corresponding D3D11 format. This fixes warnings in various games, as well as rendering issues in TopSpin 2K25 (#4514).
• Optimized behaviour of disabled clip planes for D3D9 games. (PR #4508)
• Fixed an issue where the DXVK_CONFIG environment variable was not applied correctly under specific circumstances.
• Fixed various issues causing Wine test failures for D3D8 and D3D9. (PR #4479)
• Borderlands 2: Fixed missing lava in certain places. (PR #4482)
• Codename Panzers: Phase One / Two: Work around an issue with the main menu not rendering on regular Wine builds. (PR #4495)
• The Sims 2: Extended existing app profiles to various mod tools. (#4518, PR #4520)

Pictured - Alpha Protocol

If you're curious on how to upgrade, you don't actually need to do anything. Valve's official Proton and GE-Proton use DXVK directly, and so they both pull in updates in their new releases. However, for those who like to live on the wild side, you can upgrade the DXVK version in Proton yourself. Do it at your own risk.

To do so you can just overwrite the existing DXVK files with the release download of the latest DXVK. You can find your Proton install somewhere like this (depending on your Steam Library drives):

For Proton 9 and Proton Experimental:

path-to-your/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/Proton x.x/files

Proton 8 and below:

path-to-your/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/Proton x.x/dist

Where x.x is whatever Proton version installed you wish to give a new DXVK.

Inside there you will see "lib" and "lib64", for 32bit and 64bit. Inside each of those, there's a "wine" folder and inside there is a "dxvk" folder and that's where you replace the files with new versions. If you mess anything up, one way to ensure it gets reinstalled cleanly is just to remove the "/dist" folder.