DXVK is the popular Vulkan-based open source translation layer for Direct3D 9, 10 and 11, allowing users to run 3D applications and games designed for Windows on GNU/Linux systems via Wine.
DXVK 2.1 for Linux / Wine is now available, offering new features and improvements for all gamers.
The biggest new feature in DXVK version 2.1 is HDR support. HDR can be enabled for games on systems that support HDR10 color space by setting the DXVK_HDR=1 environment variable or by setting the dxgi.enableHDR = True option in the DXVK configuration file.
However, since no major Linux desktop environments currently support HDR, users will need to enable the –hdr-enabled option for Gamescope sessions. In addition, HDR support is only supported by the open source AMDGPU graphics driver and some kernel patches from the Josh Ashton branch.
“D3D11 support has been implemented, but is not expected to run in most games, as they typically require AMDAGS or NVAPI to set up HDR output, rather than using the corresponding DXGI API. in addition, only the Nvidia driver is expected to run on Windows,” the developers noted in the release notes.
HDR support on Linux is getting richer as Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais recently shared the progress made so far by developer Josh Ashton, and Griffais demonstrated HDR support on his AMD desktop with Halo: Infinite, Deep Rock Galaxy and Death Stranding DC. video games.
In addition to HDR support, DXVK 2.1 also brings shader compilation improvements, a GLFW backend for DXVK native Linux builds as an alternative to the SDL2 backend, and two new options for enabling sample rate shading (d3d9.forceSampleRateShading and d3d11. forceSampleRateShading) for all shaders on older games that support MSAA.
Of course, there are also the usual improvements for various games, including Drakengard 2 and more.
To get the source code to compile DXVK 2.1, users can now download it from the project’s GitHub page. Users can also install it from the GNU / Linux distribution’s stable software repository for a better gaming experience.
