vkd3d-proton VS Vulkan-Docs

Exchange my 750W PSU for a stronger one as 7900 XTX is a hungry beast, then some upscaling/AI work on (Arch BTW) Linux, testing Cyberpunk 2077 with RT once this fix is in Proton-GE. For the CPU I would obviously have to get a new mobo, and new RAM and then I would test how fast the Dwarf Fortress world generator is/slow, Cities Skylines I/II, RimWorld, Paradox Interactive games, and so on.

For DX12 games you must set the env var VKD3D_FILTER_DEVICE_NAME. But currently it might not work for some games.

If anyone is playing on Linux with an AMD GPU and has texture issues (missing FBI text on the characters' jackets is the give away), it can be fixed with applying a patch to mesa-git: https://github.com/HansKristian-Work/vkd3d-proton/issues/175.... It should hopefully be implemented soon. I think it's only limited to RDNA2.

Similar issue but different platform - CP77: Black scenery in Konpeki Plaza and No-Tell Motel · Issue #632 · HansKristian-Work/vkd3d-proton · GitHub

Vkd3d (the dx12->vulkan translation layer) developer has put up a change log for a new version that is about to be (released here) and also a pull request with more information about what he discovered about all the awful things that starfield is doing to GPU drivers (here).

Pipelines (or in general terms PSOs) are the most problematic aspect of Vulkan / DX12 - much more than synchronization! Large parts of the gamedev industry seems to recognize all the performance issues with pipelines and therefore companies are experimenting with newer models like the VK_EXT_shader_object extension ("Vulkan without Pipelines": https://www.khronos.org/blog/you-can-use-vulkan-without-pipe...).

I've written a detailed comment about this before here (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37843946#37845431) but for a much more comprehensive explanation by an engineer from Nintendo read the initial proposal for the VK_EXT_shader_object extension: https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Docs/blob/main/propos...).

There's also Casey Muratori's mail to the Vulkan advisory on 2015 that basically predicts this whole clusterfuck would happen: https://github.com/cmuratori/misc/blob/main/vulkan_dynamic_s...

Apple -> MoltenVK is an emulation layer and doesn't give you as much control as using Metal directly.

Nintendo and Sony prefer their own APIs, NVN and LibGNM, and AIUI Vulkan is a second-class API on those platforms which does not offer as much power, it is widely understood studios use NVN and LibGNM to get access to the real hardware on those platforms.

Windows/AMD/NVidia/Intel -> HW manufacturers tend to prototype and release new features with D3D first and then 'backport' them to Vulkan after a while. DirectX 12 for example had mesh shaders for over 2 years before Vulkan got a vendor neutral extension for them[0]

Android and Linux are the only platform where Vulkan is a first-class citizen.

You could maybe argue Nvidia treats Vulkan as a first-class citizen because they tend to have vendor-specific Vulkan extensions for the latest features available before anyone else. But otherwise, no, Vulkan is not a first-class API anywhere except Linux and Android.

Graphics API wars are alive and well.

[0] https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Docs/issues/1423