DXVK as default wined3d backend on VK capable hardware
Summary
Proposal to replace defualt wined3d backend by DXVK, A Vulkan-based translation layer for Direct3D 9/10/11 which allows running 3D applications on Linux using Wine.
Owner
- Name: Frantisek Zatloukal
- Email: fzatlouk@redhat.com
Current status
- Targeted release: Fedora 33
- Last updated: 2020-07-21
- FESCo issue: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
- Tracker bug: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
- Release notes tracker: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
Detailed Description
DXVK is an alternative to wined3d providing more performant and more compatible way to run Windows applications and games using DirectX 9, 10 and 11.
DXVK relies on Vulkan support on GPU. More detailed description is available on DXVK Github page ( https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk ).
DXVK is available to users as wine-dxvk package since Fedora 31. wine-dxvk package uses alternatives system for following wine dll files: d3d9, d3d10.dll and d3d11.dll .
Should this proposal be accepted, PR ( https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/wine-dxvk/pull-request/4# ) will be merged into wine-dxvk package which ensures it gets set as default backend only on systems with Vulkan support. wine-dxvk will then get added as "Recommends: wine-dxvk" into wine package itself.
Feedback
Benefit to Fedora
Fedora users running recent Windows games will get superior performance and compatibility. Steam already leverages DXVK, but there are other Game Stores and standalone games which would benefit from DXVK and users had to know about this project and install it manually (or use eg. Lutris). Having DXVK included by default will make sure everybody gets the best possible performance and compatibility.
Scope
- Proposal owners:
- Other developers: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
- Release engineering: #Releng issue number (a check of an impact with Release Engineering is needed)
- Policies and guidelines: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
- Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)
Upgrade/compatibility impact
Aim is to convert users with supported Hardware Configuration to DXVK as a part of Fedora 32 > Fedora 33 upgrade. There shouldn't be any breakage since postinst script of wine-dxvk package would verify if GPU supports Vulkan or not and set alternatives to wined3d or DXVK accordingly.
The change would take place only on x86_64 architecture, there is a slight possibility of user experience degradation compared to wined3d on old Intel iGPUs supporting just a subset of Vulkan specifications. I don't have an opportunity to test DXVk on such Hardware, however, if issues are discovered, check for Vulkan from wine-dxvk package PR ( https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/wine-dxvk/pull-request/4#_1__26 ) can be improved to blacklist certain GPU generations.
AMD and/or nVidia GPUs shouldn't be affected, they either don't support Vulkan at all, or support it fully.
How To Test
N/A (not a System Wide Change)
1. Make sure you have Vulkan compatible GPU ('vulkaninfo' runs without errors)
2. Install wine-dxvk package
3. Run your favorite Windows game with wine
User Experience
Dependencies
N/A (not a System Wide Change)
Contingency Plan
- Contingency mechanism: (What to do? Who will do it?) N/A (not a System Wide Change)
- Contingency deadline: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
- Blocks release? N/A (not a System Wide Change), Yes/No
- Blocks product? product
Documentation
N/A (not a System Wide Change)