VKD3D-Proton is a fork of VKD3D, which aims to implement the full Direct3D 12 API on top of Vulkan.
Valve announced the release of the new version of VKD3D-Proton 2.7 and this new version presents the result of the accumulation of a large amount of work since the release of the Steam Deck at the end of February, mainly with features and fixes.
For those who are still unaware of VKD3D-Proton, you should know that this Supports Proton-specific changes, optimizations, and enhancements for better performance of Direct3D 12-based Windows games, which are not yet accepted in the main part of vkd3d. Among the differences, there is also a focus on using modern Vulkan extensions and the capabilities of recent versions of graphics drivers to achieve full Direct3D 12 compatibility.
As such Valve uses the fork specified in the Wine-based package to run Windows Proton games. The DirectX 9/10/11 support in Proton is based on the DXVK package and the DirectX 12 implementation has so far been based on the vkd3d library (after the death of the author of vkd3d, CodeWeavers continued the development of this component and the wine community).
Main novelties of VKD3D-Proton 2.7
One of the main novelties presented in this new version is the improvement in the improved pipeline cache, which was introduced in the previous version 2.6 and that enables support for pipeline libraries, but only for games that made proper use of the D3D12 API.
vkd3d-proton now implements an internal disk cache to enable SPIR-V caching for all games. It is possible to disable the cache and let applications manage the ID3D12PipelineLibrary if desired.
To further reduce cache disk space, VK_EXT_shader_module_identifier is also used
to reduce the vkd3d proton cache by >95%, as there is no need to store actual SPIR-V data on disk.
Another novelty that is presented in this new version is thes optimizations of which stand out the improvement of GPU performance for deep render passes, as well as GPU performance for certain floating point images where UAV usage is enabled, GPU performance for certain WriteBufferImmediate() use cases, GPU performance for certain descriptor access patterns, GPU performance for consecutive copies of buffer images and GPU performance when allocating.
In addition, there is mention of increased requirements for drivers that now require compatibility with the Vulkan extensions VK_KHR_dynamic_rendering, VK_EXT_extended_dynamic_state, VK_EXT_extended_dynamic_state2, and VK_KHR_maintenance4 implemented in Mesa 22.0 and proprietary NVIDIA 510 drivers.
Of the other changes that stand out from this new version:
- Added support for D3D12 features such as mesh shaders (requires VK_EXT_mesh_shader support to work), shares (share), and barriers (fence).
- And it is also highlighted that the latest version is presented, the new D3D12 pipeline library adapts to any game, including those that incorrectly use the D3D12 API, thanks to the implementation of an internal disk cache for the SPIR-V rendering generated at from DXBC/DXIL.
- Continued support for DXR 1.1.
- Initial HDR support added.
- Numerous fixes related to DXIL compatibility have been made.
- Improved support for the Intel ANV driver.
- Improved debugging options.
- Improved stability when minimizing and switching fullscreen games via Alt+Tab.
- Preparations have been made to translate the code from LGPL 2.1 to the MIT license.
- Fixed issues in Hitman 3, Redout 2, F1 2020, F1 2021, F1 2022, Guardians of the Galaxy, Halo Infinite, Spiderman Remastered, and Lost Judgment.
Finally If you are interested in learning more about this new release, you can check the details In the following link.
And if you want try Proton on Steam now, you already know that you can install the Steam client from the official website, although you will also find it in the repos of most distros.