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d9vk, a project based on DXVK for Direct3D 9 over Vulkan

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d9vk, from developer Joshua Ashton who works for both CodeWeavers and the game developer Puny Human, is a new personal project aimed at running Direct3D 9 over Vulkan.

If the name isn't familiar, Ashton was also working on the DXUP project which had an aim of getting D3D9 and D3D10 over to D3D11 to use with DXVK. However, when speaking to Ashton earlier, they told me they decided to go with forking DXVK as they wanted to make use of different parts of DXVK that could be reused, rather than reinventing the whole wheel again.

Obviously it's very early days for the project, so in terms of goals, Ashton told me they're going to be working through getting "clear and present working, then some basic shaders with some geometry and then games".

Interesting to see more and more projects like this appear, it's pretty exciting as the more games we can get working on Linux (and performing well) the better.

You can find it here on GitHub.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Vulkan, Wine
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kokoko3k Mar 1, 2019
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: torbido
Quoting: hardpenguinMeanwhile I am here with a couple of niche games using D3D8 that are currently crashing in Wine :S:

You can use Dgvoodoo2 for DX8 games, and Dgvoodoo2 WIP57 for DX9 games. It translate DirectX calls from any version to DX10 or DX11, then DXVK will translate them to Vulkan.

http://www.dege.freeweb.hu/

As far as I know it is not open source, so it doesn't sound like an interesting approach to me!
But you're still interested in playing closed source software (games), right?
Sounds weird to me.
kokoko3k Mar 1, 2019
Quoting: torbidoI use Dgvoodoo2 WIP57 >>> http://www.dege.freeweb.hu/ which translate older DirectX versions to DX10 or DX11. That could help running older games that don't run well on Wine.
What about the performance? Do you know how much overhead is to be expected?
fenevadkan Mar 1, 2019
And somebody also asked DX versions are not backward compatibles?
But beyond that even if they are not , why is there so many separate dxvk project? Why is not there a single project for all DX versions?
YoRHa-2B Mar 1, 2019
Quoting: kokoko3kWhat about the performance? Do you know how much overhead is to be expected?
Slower than wined3d, and *much* slower than Nine. Shouldn't really come as a surprise, although dgvoodoo's overheads might be a bit higher than necessary.

QuoteAnd somebody also asked DX versions are not backward compatibles?
No, they aren't, although D3D8 and 9 are quite similar to each other, just as 10 and 11 are quite similar.


Last edited by YoRHa-2B on 1 March 2019 at 9:37 pm UTC
Purple Library Guy Mar 1, 2019
Quoting: kokoko3k
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: torbido
Quoting: hardpenguinMeanwhile I am here with a couple of niche games using D3D8 that are currently crashing in Wine :S:

You can use Dgvoodoo2 for DX8 games, and Dgvoodoo2 WIP57 for DX9 games. It translate DirectX calls from any version to DX10 or DX11, then DXVK will translate them to Vulkan.

http://www.dege.freeweb.hu/

As far as I know it is not open source, so it doesn't sound like an interesting approach to me!
But you're still interested in playing closed source software (games), right?
Sounds weird to me.
It would be nice if there were a model workable at large scale for production of open source games, as there is for various other forms of software. Due to various things about the nature of computer games, there isn't. And there isn't likely to be unless we somehow end up with some sort of tax-funded pseudo-crowdfunding model for the production of various creative "goods", or something like that. So in shorthand, widespread open source games, not gonna happen. They're too ephemeral, too limited in breadth of use, require too much and too many kinds of non-coding assets.

However, open source is viable for technology platforms on which games run, whether it's OSes, graphics drivers, DXVK-type-things, or even game engines (or portals, like Itch). These things last longer and are used by many games (and often other things that aren't even games) and don't require art assets and music and voice actors and stuff.

So realistically, any Free Software fan, in the context of games, needs to push open source gaming infrastructure first, and the anticapitalist revolution that would allow actual open source games to dominate maybe second.
mylka Mar 2, 2019
i dont get it. whats wrong with opengl in this case?
for dx9->vulkan you need a VULKAN graphics card... obviously
vulkan cards are much newer than the latest dx9 game with the best graphics (outlast, dark souls 2)
so these cards can easily translate dx9 to opengl with 100+ fps

https://en.everybodywiki.com/List_of_games_with_DirectX_9_support
some of them have linux support and i dont see any dx9 only game, which needs vulkan to perform better

for me it doesnt make any sense. why doesnt he spend his time with sth more useful?
like: dx12->vulkan
jens Mar 2, 2019
  • Supporter
Very cool and promising effort. I'm glad Josh decided to go the DXVK way!
mylka Mar 2, 2019
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: mylkai dont get it. whats wrong with opengl in this case?
for dx9->vulkan you need a VULKAN graphics card... obviously
vulkan cards are much newer than the latest dx9 game with the best graphics (outlast, dark souls 2)
so these cards can easily translate dx9 to opengl with 100+ fps

https://en.everybodywiki.com/List_of_games_with_DirectX_9_support
some of them have linux support and i dont see any dx9 only game, which needs vulkan to perform better

for me it doesnt make any sense. why doesnt he spend his time with sth more useful?
like: dx12->vulkan

There are plenty of DX9 games out there, using a Vulkan based driver would offer many advantages in the future like reduced maintenance for driver development, at one point maybe only Vulkan is required and nothing else. This could be very important especially for new graphic cards without a mature Vulkan driver. OpenGL divers are a complex beast, just look at how long AMD needed develop and improve them to reach the actual level. Our look at Wine, their D3D9 performance is still not the best after so many years. Vulkan attracted a lot of talented developers and I'm really grateful for their work (RADV, DXVK, Zink, DXUP, MoltenVK, ...)! DX12 is a niche, not sure if there are DX12 only games. If there would be, then you can check the status of Wine's VKD3D, so even that would be covered. So yes, D9VK is really useful! Even if it wouldn't at the moment for some, it doesn't mean lot of other people think differently already now

and again............ VULKAN graphics cards are powerful enough to translate every dx9 only game to OPENGL with 100+ FPS. so whats your point on performance? how many FPS do you need to play dark souls 2?

DX12 is NOT a niche. last 2 tomb raider, hitman, DXMD, rust, warhammer, battlefield, metro, etc
DX12 ONLY is a niche...

anyways... DX12 ist the future.... raytracing
no one uses DX9 nowadays
playing old games is a niche. there are a few evergreens, but there are also so many new games you want to play

imho it is more useful, to invest in the future, than having 120FPS on dark souls 2
This can help a lot with games like Alan Wake.
legluondunet Mar 2, 2019
Quoting: torbidoI use Dgvoodoo2 WIP57 >>> http://www.dege.freeweb.hu/ which translate older DirectX versions to DX10 or DX11. That could help running older games that don't run well on Wine.

DgVoodoo 2 works recently well when you use Wine with DXVK, I use it to play Starship Titanic in fullscreen with Wine.
But it's not open source and it has less options than DxWnd.
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