Vulkan Perfomance Guide [DXVK DirectX-over-Vulkan]

Guide on how to get (possibly) more perfomance out of your system and get rid of stuttering. DXVK is a translation layer allowing DirectX games to be played with the Vulkan API instead, which is arguably a better API.

DISCLAIMER

DXVK on Windows is not officially supported. Do not expect any ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ support from the developers if you experience issues. I am also unable to assist if your performance gets worse/experience problems, in that scenario delete the files I mentioned in this guide and the game will revert to running DirectX 11. THIS GUIDE IS A POSSIBLE PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT, YOUR RESULTS MAY VARY WILDLY FROM MINE. EACH SYSTEM WILL REACT DIFFERENTLY TO RUNNING VULKAN!

Why use Vulkan instead of DirectX?

Despite [DXVK][github.com] being a project mainly focused on using Windows 3D applications through Wine on GNU/Linux. It can bring various perfomance improvements to SnowRunner, even running on Windows. As many well know this game has perfomance issues, even on high end PCs. With this guide I am aiming to help everyone [possibly] gain more out of their systems.

Using DXVK[Vulkan] in SnowRunner

I recommend setting your in-game display mode to fullscreen before trying Vulkan, on my system trying to change the display mode will simply hang/freeze the game using Vulkan. Updating your GPU drivers to the latest version is also a critical step. Newer GPU drivers include up to date Vulkan drivers.

Using DXVK in SnowRunner is rather easy.
First off we need to get the proper release of DXVK from the github page https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk (click this if you want to learn more about DXVK)
Under the releases tab we can find the latest stable version of DXVK[1.10 as of the writing of this guide 17.03.2022]
https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases
Download "dxvk-1.10.tar.gz", this can be opened with winrar/7-zip

Upon opening the downloaded file navigate your way through the folders starting from dxvk-1.10->x64 (Ignore x32 and setup_dxvk.sh those are used for x32 bit games and GNU/Linux respectively.)



To get DXVK running in SnowRunner we need the dxdgi.dll and d3d11.dll files.
Secondly we need a configuration file for DVXK, which you can grab from here:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/doitsujin/dxvk/master/dxvk.conf
Open the page and right click "Save Page As" and simply save the dxvk.conf file.
Now we are ready to have Vulkan running in SnowRunner.
Navigate to your game folder where the .exe is located.
For me it's Steam\steamapps\common\SnowRunner\Sources\Bin .Inside the Bin folder put dxdgi.dll, d3d11.dll and dxvk.conf files.
DXVK.CONF is NOT NEEDED to run DXVK*** THE INFO BELOW IS OPTIONAL
I highly recommend to edit the dxvk.conf file, especially if you have an Nvidia GPU, find and edit the
dxgi.nvapiHack = True
to
dxgi.nvapiHack = False
To enable an option in dxvk.comf simply remove the # before an option and set it to false/true or whatever the description is for an option
[
On my system, with the nvapihack set to true my game had stutters, disabling the feature removed stutters completely. ( If you are using an AMD GPU you could potentially ignore this step but I have not tested SnowRunner on an AMD GPU ).

Confirming Vulkan is being used instead of DirectX

To test this, try maps that have had bad perfomance for you before trying out this guide. For example on my system I have had ~30FPS on first map of Maine(LowLand). Now on the same map running DXVK I get ~60FPS, about 50% increase in performance FLAT.
Other way to confirm if Vulkan is indeed running is to look in the bin folder of the game I have mentioned in the earlier sections of the guide. If you see "SnowRunner_d3d11.log" and "SnowRunner_dxgi.log" then it means you did everything correctly! (see picture below for reference)

Perfomance report from my system

Again, perfomance/stability on YOUR PC might be different from mine.

My PC specs:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64x SP1
i7-4770
16GB DDR3 1866mhz CL9 RAM
MSI GTX 1070 8GB Gaming X
My PC is quite old by todays standards. This is PRECISELY why I decided to make this guide in hopes people running weaker PCs like mine can enjoy the game. As well helping other users with improving perfomance.
Game is running on a WD RED 1TB NAS HDD(5400rpm) with the following settings:


On the maps I have tested so far, I have had: 0 or very rare stutter, switching to first person camera for the first time might lag the game. Perfomance across all maps ranging from 30-50% increase.
Maps tested: Michigan and Maine (mainly because I have had the worst performance and stutter on those maps.)

Closing

If you have any questions, I could try answering them but I am no developer of any kind. I just have basic understanding of how some things work. Thanks for reading the guide, I hope it was useful for anyone who has read it. (If you think anything about the guide can be improved/updated leave a comment.)

[Windsjorn]

I will say it has caused some interesting things with the graphics. Shadows can act a bit weird depending on camera angles. Mirrors glitch. etc.

[index]

Glad to hear. Windows is finnicky with DXVK so everyone can have different results. Good it worked for you.

[Windsjorn]

So I have the Epic Games version of Snowrunner and I still followed your steps (while adjusting for different folder placements) and this worked wonderfully! The game actually runs smooth as butter now.

[paxmahnhobszopen]

It doesn't work, i5-11400, 3060 laptop windows 10...

[index]

@VladGromov, could be VULKAN was updated recently through dxvk so it's possible newer versions might break it

[VladGromov]

DO NOT USE Vulkan at the moment, when using it there are problems with the physics (the car tears apart when it collides with the obstacle). So far I personally have not found a solution, maybe the problem is only in Vulkan 2.0.

[index]

which dxvk version, any logs you can share?

[Śenator]

Doesn't work for me and my teammate unfortunatelly, both windows

[Seejeejs]

Yes, with Vulkan i get ~30% more fps

[index]

nice to hear! but did you get more fps because of my guide?