Running your DirectX 9/10/11 games in Vulkan

[Omega]

For those who are not aware DXVK is a Vulkan-based translation layer for DirectX 9/10/11. This tool is mainly used by Linux gamers to translate DirectX over to Vulkan.

Here comes the cool part which will be relevant to you people; it also works pretty well on Windows.

So if you have an old game which runs like crap, has bugs or doesn't run at all due to something graphics related you can try using DXVK.

Or use it on your modern games because why not, using Vulkan gives you bragging rights.



I am quite interested how DXVK will change performance in CPU-bound scenarios on Windows, so this is something you people could test.



You can get the latest release of DXVK here;
https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases

How to use it? Simple, copy all .dll files and put them next to the game executable in the game installation directory.

- Although it's unlikely to cause issues, I do not recommend using it on games which use overly agressive anti-tamper software.

[Snow]

Publicado originalmente por Omega:

Be aware that sometimes when you get higher performance it could also be because certain graphical effects may not be working. So do check closely to make sure that anti aliasing, screen space reflections, lighting etc.. are working properly.

But a lot of that stuff, especially AA, mostly puts the load on GPU, and what we're dealing here is CPU bottleneck. Still worth checking tho.

[Omega]

Publicado originalmente por meh:

Publicado originalmente por Omega:

Although it's unlikely to cause issues, I do not recommend using it on games which use overly agressive anti-cheat.

Or any anti-cheat. By the sounds of it it's hijacking the graphics API, which is probably the first thing an anti-cheat will look for.

No it's not.

Most anti cheat has no issues with DXVK. Most anti cheat will not even care. But there are a few rare exceptions of games using very agressive anti cheat, these are the games which will ban you if you put an empty text fine in your game directory.

All it does is replace the DirectX libraries, the game still thinks it's talking to Direct3D but in reality it's talking to Vulkan through a translation layer. If these library files are not present in it's game directory it will instead just load the library from the actual DirectX. This DirectX library will also differ from version to version, so it's not something anti cheat can check nor will it care about it.

I have been doing online gaming with DXVK and even under WINE for a few years now almost daily, never had any issues with anti cheat besides it refusing to let me play online. And these issue were caused by WINE, not DXVK.

[Omega]

Publicado originalmente por meh:

Publicado originalmente por Omega:

Most anti cheat has no issues with DXVK. Most anti cheat will not even care. But there are a few rare exceptions of games using very agressive anti cheat, these are the games which will ban you if you put an empty text fine in your game directory.

This sounds like some anti-cheat are excluding it.

Publicado originalmente por Omega:

All it does is replace the DirectX libraries, the game still thinks it's talking to DirectX but in reality it's talking to Vulkan through a translation layer.

That's how hacks work.

Publicado originalmente por Omega:

I have been doing online gaming with DXVK and even under WINE for a few years now almost daily, never had any issues with anti cheat besides it refusing to let me play online. And these issue were caused by WINE, not DXVK.

How many are using it?

It's not the anti cheat excluding it. Like I said, these issues are caused by WINE not DXVK.

DirectX = hacks
.net - hacks also
These are all dependencies which these programs load when run. You are just giving it another DirectX, the game doesn't care as long as it works.

Almost anyone who games on Linux uses it. This stuff is developed by Valve, and shipped with the Steam for Linux client. Maybe sometime in the future it will be shipped with the Steam for Windows client to improve compatibility with older games on modern hardware.

[Omega]

Publicado originalmente por meh:

There are many legitimate programs out there that function like hacks. The difference is that they're not designed to be malicious. But unless specified there's no guarantee an anti-cheat will not take action now or in the future. I'm uncertain about the specifics of this program, but it does sound like it's taking over the graphics API which, whilst acting as a third party layer, can potentially allow access to specific graphical settings. It's a grey area.

I am not afraid of a game getting mad at DXVK.

I am afraid that if you physically drop this file in the game directy it might get mad. There are a couple games which uses anti cheat/tamper software which is this agressive.

The game itself doesn't know it's talking to Vulkan. If anti cheat was this agressive it could get triggered after an update of DirectX.

You can probably count on a single hand the amount of games which actually have issues with DXVK under Windows due to it's anti tamper software. And it's not because of DXVK specifically, it's because you put a new file in it's directory.

[Red™]

Having issues trying to install this thing. For starter I don’t know where I’m supposed to click. Is lib 64 bit and lib32 is 32bit? Where do I find the d3dll files?

[r.linder]

Publicado originalmente por The Slapper of Ass™:

Having issues trying to install this thing. For starter I don’t know where I’m supposed to click. Is lib 64 bit and lib32 is 32bit? Where do I find the d3dll files?

The dll files go with the game's executable

64 vs 32 is which type of windows you have, or game dependent (32bit vs 64bit)

[Napoleonic S]

Publicado originalmente por Snow:

Publicado originalmente por Savage Southerner:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2053101024

in this exactly same place when using dx11 my fps would drop to 120. now when using vulkan the cpu bottleneck is removed! game changing for this game. lets hope it stays stable.

Right? This thingy is AWESOME! Man we should tell more people about this.
And yeah, it's overall pretty stable, it hasn't crashed on me so far in any game, but keep in mind it might stutter just a bit during initial shader compilation. Once you play the game a bit - it's just better.

What about SimCity 2013, Cities Skylines, anything of that sort? If you have a complex game like that - try there as well.

Drop this thread on cities skylines subforum... I want to try it myself but atm the game is not installed nor I have bought the latest dlc which is pretty interesting

Other list of cpu heavy games from the past that need to be tested

X3 space sim series, heck add X4 too (AFAIK it's still using dx11) .
Older total war series
Digital combat simulator series
Ms flight sim x, prepar3d series, xplane series
Older civilization series
Planetary annihilation
Ha, try it on falcon 4 bms version series.
ArmA series...
Supreme commander forged alliance

What other simulation heavy games out there?

[Autumn_]

Publicado originalmente por Napoleonic S:

Publicado originalmente por Snow:

Right? This thingy is AWESOME! Man we should tell more people about this.
And yeah, it's overall pretty stable, it hasn't crashed on me so far in any game, but keep in mind it might stutter just a bit during initial shader compilation. Once you play the game a bit - it's just better.

What about SimCity 2013, Cities Skylines, anything of that sort? If you have a complex game like that - try there as well.

Drop this thread on cities skylines subforum... I want to try it myself but atm the game is not installed nor I have bought the latest dlc which is pretty interesting

Other list of cpu heavy games from the past that need to be tested

X3 space sim series, heck add X4 too (AFAIK it's still using dx11) .
Older total war series
Digital combat simulator series
Ms flight sim x, prepar3d series, xplane series
Older civilization series
Planetary annihilation
Ha, try it on falcon 4 bms version series.
ArmA series...
Supreme commander forged alliance

What other simulation heavy games out there?

OH, you genius, I never thought about using it for Arma. I would give it a go, but I don't think I have Arma installed.

Edit ; I could ask one of my friends to try it out. (Or on the Arma forums if I can be arsed.)

[Napoleonic S]

Publicado originalmente por Autumn:

Publicado originalmente por Napoleonic S:

Drop this thread on cities skylines subforum... I want to try it myself but atm the game is not installed nor I have bought the latest dlc which is pretty interesting

Other list of cpu heavy games from the past that need to be tested

X3 space sim series, heck add X4 too (AFAIK it's still using dx11) .
Older total war series
Digital combat simulator series
Ms flight sim x, prepar3d series, xplane series
Older civilization series
Planetary annihilation
Ha, try it on falcon 4 bms version series.
ArmA series...
Supreme commander forged alliance

What other simulation heavy games out there?

OH, you genius, I never thought about using it for Arma. I would give it a go, but I don't think I have Arma installed.

Edit ; I could ask one of my friends to try it out. (Or on the Arma forums if I can be arsed.)

Do report to us how it goes...

I forgot entire genre, racing sims!

Rfactor
Project cars
Assetto corsa
Automobilista

Heck, euro truck sims if you want to.

Hitman blood money? The 2016 gen hitman already have great dx12 support but who knows if Vulkan simulating their dx11 mode could do better than native dx12, that would be ROFLMAO.

Deus ex human revolution series?

Mass effect series?

Crysis series lol?

Someone already mentioned stalker series.

Ubisoft open world games?

Grand theft auto 4 and 5?

Silent hunter series, there's a recent submarine combat sim called cold waters...

Mount and blade series? Warband definitely need to be tested, the new bannerlord is it still dx11 only?

Somebody need to post this thread on these forums! They're all still popular games

Anyone else has any idea what games that may get benefit from this experiment?

[Red™]

Publicado originalmente por Napoleonic S:

Publicado originalmente por Snow:

Right? This thingy is AWESOME! Man we should tell more people about this.
And yeah, it's overall pretty stable, it hasn't crashed on me so far in any game, but keep in mind it might stutter just a bit during initial shader compilation. Once you play the game a bit - it's just better.

What about SimCity 2013, Cities Skylines, anything of that sort? If you have a complex game like that - try there as well.

Drop this thread on cities skylines subforum... I want to try it myself but atm the game is not installed nor I have bought the latest dlc which is pretty interesting

Other list of cpu heavy games from the past that need to be tested

X3 space sim series, heck add X4 too (AFAIK it's still using dx11) .
Older total war series
Digital combat simulator series
Ms flight sim x, prepar3d series, xplane series
Older civilization series
Planetary annihilation
Ha, try it on falcon 4 bms version series.
ArmA series...
Supreme commander forged alliance

What other simulation heavy games out there?

When you benchmark using MSi Afterburner, does it show Vulkan? Also, can you tell me exactly how you download it?
Because I think I may be doing it wrong.

[Napoleonic S]

Publicado originalmente por The Slapper of Ass™:

Publicado originalmente por Napoleonic S:

Drop this thread on cities skylines subforum... I want to try it myself but atm the game is not installed nor I have bought the latest dlc which is pretty interesting

Other list of cpu heavy games from the past that need to be tested

X3 space sim series, heck add X4 too (AFAIK it's still using dx11) .
Older total war series
Digital combat simulator series
Ms flight sim x, prepar3d series, xplane series
Older civilization series
Planetary annihilation
Ha, try it on falcon 4 bms version series.
ArmA series...
Supreme commander forged alliance

What other simulation heavy games out there?

When you benchmark using MSi Afterburner, does it show Vulkan? Also, can you tell me exactly how you download it?
Because I think I may be doing it wrong.

lol sorry folks I haven't even tried this stuff yet.

[Lord Flashheart]

Yay. One little step closer to dumping windows forever and just using linux for everything.

[Napoleonic S]

Publicado originalmente por Mamba Bajamba:

Yay. One little step closer to dumping windows forever and just using linux for everything.

lol we have been hearing that in the last 30 years and it never gained any traction, forget it, there's no force holding Linux community to form a stable cohesive platform and ecosystem that can drive the market share.

Imagine if every smartphones out there have their own OSes not just apple or google.

[Lord Flashheart]

Publicado originalmente por Napoleonic S:

Publicado originalmente por Mamba Bajamba:

Yay. One little step closer to dumping windows forever and just using linux for everything.

lol we have been hearing that in the last 30 years and it never gained any traction, forget it, there's no force holding Linux community to form a stable cohesive platform and ecosystem that can drive the market share.

Imagine if every smartphones out there have their own OSes not just apple or google.

Well we will see. I think the biggest reason & incentive to make the change is microsoft itself.
One was the massive privacy issues. If MS does other stupid stuff like forcing you to use an online account for example then more incentive.

[Snow]

Publicado originalmente por meh:

Or any anti-cheat. By the sounds of it it's hijacking the graphics API, which is probably the first thing an anti-cheat will look for.

Steam's built-in controller configuration also hijacks DirectX files. So do MSI Afterburner, NVidia Ansel, Radeon Image Sharpening etc etc. DXVK works outside of the games, it doesn't change game's internal work, so I really doubt it can trigger any kind of anti-cheat, especially not VAC.