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PayPalBringing more classic gaming goodies with the Vulkan-based translation layer for Direct3D 7, D7VK 1.0 is out now for Linux.
From the GitHub page: "A Vulkan-based translation layer for Direct3D 7, which allows running 3D applications on Linux using Wine. It uses DXVK's D3D9 backend as well as Wine's DDraw implementation (or the windows native DDraw) and acts as a proxy between the two, providing a minimal D3D7-on-D3D9 implementation."
In the release announcement the developer mentioned how they consider it "production ready" but not everything on it is quite finished, but it's good enough to run a whole bunch of games properly.
Pictured - Clive Barker's Undying
Some notes from the release announcement:
Why bother with D7VK at all?
The good (vs WineD3D):
- Anti-aliasing /
D3DRENDERSTATE_ANTIALIASsupport (you can also optionally force enable it)- targeted performance fixes for bad behaving games (looking at you, 1NSANE)
- built-in frame caps for games known to break at high frame rates, or simply over 60 FPS (which is, sadly, quite common in D3D7)
The bad:
- A few missing D3D7 features, that I'll most likely add at some point in the future
- General WSI wonkiness on Wayland
The ugly:
- Quite a few remaining bugs
- A cursed design that by some miracle happens to work well enough in most cases
You'll still need to use WineD3D for:
- Earlier D3D and DDraw
- Games that make use of cursed legacy DDraw <-> D3D7 interop (thankfully, it didn't turn out to be entirely all that common)
- Its excellent general compatibility and feature coverage
- GPUs that don't support Vulkan 1.3
Amazing to see what the open source community comes up with.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
About the author - Liam Dawe
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly.
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hardpenguin 2 days ago
Love this, super helpful for game preservation on modern systems.
11 Likes
hell yea! Today I installed V-Rally 2 Expert Edition (directx 7 game) from disc. It installed fine after unchecking the extra install options. The disc check works, the joystick works, and it even renders fine at 1080p with standard Proton 9. Getting D7VK working with it was a breeze.
Last edited by Stella on 12 Dec 2025 at 2:41 pm UTC
Last edited by Stella on 12 Dec 2025 at 2:41 pm UTC
8 Likes
Beta Version a day ago
DX7->Vulkan translation layer requires Vulkan 1.3, while you can play DX12 games on Vulkan 1.1 hardware. It's just so stupid.
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Quoting: Beta VersionDX7->Vulkan translation layer requires Vulkan 1.3, while you can play DX12 games on Vulkan 1.1 hardware. It's just so stupid.DX12 and Vulkan are contemporary standards with the same fundamental approach (both basically built on top of the design of AMD's Mantle), while DX7 was designed for old, fixed function hardware. In fact, DirectX 8 was the first major transition towards programmable pipelines. Makes sense that some extensions might be required to facilitate a reasonable mapping of that old tech on top of a modern graphics API.
I'm not saying it doesn't suck if you're still on older hardware like RDNA1/Polaris or the GTX 1000 series, but at least the requirement does make sense in this case. I'm sure it would be possible to implement less efficient "shims" in the translation layer for the required functionality, but I doubt it's high on their agenda.
3 Likes
Beta Version a day ago
Quoting: tuubiDX12 and Vulkan are contemporary standards with the same fundamental approach (both basically built on top of the design of AMD's Mantle), while DX7 was designed for old, fixed function hardware.It has nothing to do with this case. DX7 could be implemented even on Vulkan 1.0. It's just that the dev of D7VK based his work on the latest DXVK, not the one that required Vulkan 1.1. This leads to a stupid situation where retro DX7 games require fairly new hardware. Even newer than required for DX9/DX11/DX12 games when you use Proton-Sarek.
Last edited by Beta Version on 13 Dec 2025 at 7:01 pm UTC
1 Likes
Quoting: Beta VersionThanks for the correction. But that doesn't really mean "retro DX7 games require fairly new hardware", unless they don't work at all with plain old WineD3D.Quoting: tuubiDX12 and Vulkan are contemporary standards with the same fundamental approach (both basically built on top of the design of AMD's Mantle), while DX7 was designed for old, fixed function hardware.It has nothing to do with this case. DX7 could be implemented even on Vulkan 1.0. It's just that the dev of D7VK based his work on the latest DXVK, not the one that required Vulkan 1.1. This leads to a stupid situation where retro DX7 games require fairly new hardware. Even newer than required for DX9/DX11/DX12 games when you use Proton-Sarek.
2 Likes
Quoting: Beta VersionDX7->Vulkan translation layer requires Vulkan 1.3, while you can play DX12 games on Vulkan 1.1 hardware. It's just so stupid.If developers find it easier to stick to latest Vulkan - it's their choice, no one forces you to use that. I wouldn't call it stupid, quite the opposite actually - trying to lower Vulkan requirements for the sake of old hardware which leads to avoiding some Vulkan features is a bad idea.
Besides, how old is that old anyway? Even GCN 1.0 cards support Vulkan 1.3 (that's from 2012 which is quite old by now) which is basically as old as it gets for Vulkan on AMD at least.
Last edited by Shmerl on 14 Dec 2025 at 7:11 am UTC
1 Likes
Quoting: ShmerlEven GCN 1.0 cards support Vulkan 1.3 (that's from 2012 which is quite old by now) which is basically as old as it gets for Vulkan on AMD at least.You're right, even the GPUs I mentioned in my earlier post support Vulkan 1.3 according to [vulkan.gpuinfo.org](https://vulkan.gpuinfo.org/). My info was outdated. So this is a non-issue for desktop (and laptop) gaming.
3 Likes
Geforce below 20xx series and amd below 480 are stuck on 1.1.
I happen to have both Geforce 980 and AMD RX 480.
Don't count us out just yet^^
It is not like wine OpenGL would deliver a bad performance for such old games though.
This is more academic, theoretical, proof of concept.
Not having it breaks nothing.
I happen to have both Geforce 980 and AMD RX 480.
Don't count us out just yet^^
It is not like wine OpenGL would deliver a bad performance for such old games though.
This is more academic, theoretical, proof of concept.
Not having it breaks nothing.
0 Likes
Quoting: tpauamd below 480 are stuck on 1.1.That's incorrect: https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/amd-gfx/2025-November/133852.html
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Quoting: tpauGeforce below 20xx series... are stuck on 1.1.That's also incorrect. Kepler supports 1.2. Maxwell and up supports 1.4.
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Caldathras 49 minutes ago
Quoting: tpauGeforce below 20xx series and amd below 480 are stuck on 1.1.
I happen to have both Geforce 980 and AMD RX 480.
It may not be as bad as you think. According to my research, the GeForce GTX 980 supports Vulkan 1.3 in Linux and Vulkan 1.4 in Windows. Conversely, the Radeon RX 480 supports Vulkan 1.4 in Linux (latest Mesa) and Vulkan 1.3 in Windows.
The GeForce 10 Series supports Vulkan 1.3 (1.4 in Windows). I know, as I have a member of that series. Strange about the GeForce 20 Series.* Even my older GeForce GT 730M supports Vulkan 1.2 in Linux and Vulkan 1.3 in Windows.
😀
* Apparently, it was initially limited to Vulkan 1.1 but it now supports up to Vulkan 1.4 in both Linux and Windows.
Last edited by Caldathras on 14 Dec 2025 at 11:01 pm UTC
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