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Wine Testing: Does The D3D Patch Boost Performance?

By - | Views: 36,596
Hey there folks! Today I present to you a small test I did with the recent Wine 1.7.1. The video showcases the differences of games running in a normal Wine 1.7.1 versus a patched Wine 1.7.1.

A couple of weeks ago, Stefan Dösinger of CodeWeavers released a series of patches that were meant to boost the performance of Direct3D in Wine. While I was browsing various Linux forums, many people claimed to experience a nice boost in performance whilst others claimed they met regressions/bugs, or nothing different at all.

I decided to test these patches myself, and with the help of Sobkas on guiding me with the compilation process, I present to you the following video!

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Please note, before getting angry or worried, that this test is only a small sample!
It is not representative of what the Linux community may experience in it's entirety when trying out these patches.

I did make use of PlayOnLinux to ease the testing process, but the Wine used is the one I compiled myself. The tests in this video were all done on my AMD CPU system, so it is highly likely that Intel users will see very different results. I attempted to test as many games I had with the limited amount of time I had. Each game was tested about 3 times, and only on the third attempt was recorded.

While I tried my best to do things right, I am not infallible so please forgive any mistakes I may have made.
If you are uninterested in watching the entire video, you may skip to the 27:00 mark to see my results displayed in a table.

Here's the link to the Wine patches if you wish to try them yourself (rename the attachment-1.bin to cs.tar.bz2):
http://www.winehq.org/pipermail/wine-devel/2013-September/101106.html

Here's the link to sobkas's awesome and easy guidelines to compiling the patches yourself:
http://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/wine-172-has-been-released-into-the-wild.2418/#8936

A big thank you to sobkas for the help! Any guidance on mistakes I may have made, or advice for future improvement is welcome :) Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Video, Wine
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About the author -
Distro:    Ubuntu
Channel: Youtube Ubuntu Gaming
Country: Malaysia
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17 comments
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Xpander Sep 18, 2013
i wonder how i didnt have the input issue.
did you use the option from winecfg to capture mouse on fullscreen?

i had huge performance improvement in almost every game i tested and some games that had glitches before didnt after those patches.
didnt see a single game that had worse experience after those patches

so far i have tested: Crysis2, Remember Me, Airbuccaneers, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Mass Effect 3, Skyrim, Borderlands2, Tomb Raider(2013), Guild Wars 2, Neverwinter Online, Mirrirs Edge, Metro2033, Metro LL, GTA IV, DaYZ and Fallen Earth

Crysis 2, Tomb Raider, Deus Ex HR and DayZ had graphical glitches before without strictdrawordering and with strictdrawordering the fps took a huge hit, but with those patches there is no strictdrawordering needed and performance has improved a lot.

i used my own created PKGBUILD to build the wine with the patches:
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/wine-d3dstream
scaine Sep 18, 2013
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Great video, sadly puts me off ever being bothered to try wine. Some of those games were from 2006/2007 and they're still unplayable/unrunnable in wine. It's just a bit depressing.

Reckon I'll stick to not buying Windows games and snapping up everything under the sun that has a native linux client!
Sabun Sep 18, 2013
In WineCFG, are you talking about the "Allow DirectX apps to stop the mouse leaving their window" ? If so, then I did not have it ticked since I ran everything in windowed-mode. It could also be because I have two mice connected to my computer. When my RSI acts up in my right hand, I switch to my left mouse.

I would very much like to get Crysis 2 and Borderlands 2 working with the patched version. How did you set up your Wine to get them working? I tried installing all the necessary components as written on WineHQ for Borderlands 2, but I am unable to get it to run. For Crysis 2, just installing DirectX9 for the normal 1.7.1 was enough to get it running. But with the patch, the game would get stuck at the loading screen. Tomb Raider was smooth with the patch, it was just the input issue that frustrated me.

Did you install DirectX9 with anything else? Or no tweaks were done?

QuoteSome of those games were from 2006/2007 and they're still unplayable/unrunnable in wine. It's just a bit depressing.
I know this frustration all too well. It is one of the main reasons I still can't get many of my friends to stick with Linux... Still, I hope for future improvements :)
Xpander Sep 18, 2013
Quoting: SabunIn WineCFG, are you talking about the "Allow DirectX apps to stop the mouse leaving their window" ? If so, then I did not have it ticked since I ran everything in windowed-mode. It could also be because I have two mice connected to my computer. When my RSI acts up in my right hand, I switch to my left mouse.

I would very much like to get Crysis 2 and Borderlands 2 working with the patched version. How did you set up your Wine to get them working? I tried installing all the necessary components as written on WineHQ for Borderlands 2, but I am unable to get it to run. For Crysis 2, just installing DirectX9 for the normal 1.7.1 was enough to get it running. But with the patch, the game would get stuck at the loading screen. Tomb Raider was smooth with the patch, it was just the input issue that frustrated me.

Did you install DirectX9 with anything else? Or no tweaks were done?


thats a good question... is there a easy way to list all the extras i have installed?
because i have my .wine folder since 2008 or similar... and i have installed a lots of stuff into it over that time :)
i dont use clean prefixes for steam games because i hate to launch steam for every game.

i think i have all kinds of dx stuff, xact, vcrun2005 to 2010 at least.. and also dxdiag, dmusic... and probably a lot more weird ones
Sabun Sep 18, 2013
Quoteis there a easy way to list all the extras i have installed?
I'm not sure. The only way to see some of the stuff installed is via Libraries and Applications in Winecfg, but that's not very easy to look at.

Quotei have my .wine folder since 2008
Dude, that is impressive! I always feel the need to remove older wine versions and start clean, but maybe I should try your way.

:D I guess I should fiddle with my Wine and install more things.
Xpander Sep 18, 2013
also about "Allow DirectX apps to stop the mouse leaving their window".
if you enable "Emulate a virtual desktop" and run fullscreen game inside of that, the mouse capture option applies.
so that way you can still run the game "windowed" but its fullscreen to wine.
sobkas Sep 18, 2013
Don't forget that updated version of the patch should be released shortly.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.wine.devel/95468/focus=95526
Also running some benchmarks on both might be also useful.
http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/3dmark06/
Lord Avallon Sep 19, 2013
Congratulations Sabun, impecable work, excellent article in my opinion!
Xpander Sep 19, 2013
i did run some benchmarks
namely Valley in wine:

patched wine: http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28788188/wine-valley-CSMT_enabled.png
normal wine: http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28788188/wine-valley-CSMT_disabled.png

the difference is huge.
that was with my 560Ti. got 660Ti now.
Sabun Sep 19, 2013
Quotei did run some benchmarks
That is a pretty big difference, do you get the same results with the 660Ti? Or even better?

QuoteCongratulations Sabun, impecable work, excellent article in my opinion!
Thank you Lord Avallon, for the kind words :)


QuoteDon't forget that updated version of the patch should be released shortly.
I noticed that the person in the wine-devel list also had a 680, and was experiencing issues. I hope the future patch will help me see the performance boosts as well.
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