VKD3D-Proton 2.8 has been released, bringing Steam Deck users more robust performance in more games.

Steam Deck has a Linux-based operating system by default and runs many games with the Proton support layer. However, Direct3D 12 is supported on Vulkan in Proton, reports Phoronix, so Valve’s Steam Play can be used to launch Windows games on Linux. It enables the VK_EXT_descriptor_buffer code, which takes a hefty chunk off the load from the processor. Along with the Radeon Vulkan (RADV) updated Mesa driver and Steam Deck update, performance should be better, and Nvidia and Intel drivers will be similarly updated in Vulkan.

Some bugs have been taken into account: in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the GPU hangs, weapon damage in Borderlands 3 on RADV causes rendering errors, and even the use of resizable BAR (a technology used in Nvidia GPUs) needs work, as GPUs with up to 4 GB of VRAM do not attempt to use it so that they may run out of memory. Age of Empires IV still has GPU glitches. The mesh shaders implementation is slightly buggy, Resident Evil: Village won’t boot on Arc, and The Witcher 3’s current-gen update is buggy. On RADV, all features except ray tracing are good, but Hairworks on Nvidia GPUs hangs, some ray tracing options work, and others don’t (GI does, AO doesn’t).

ID3D12Device1::SetEventOnMultipleFenceCompletion() has been implemented, and SetEventOn(Multiple)FenceCompletion has not yet been implemented for shared D3D12 fences. Gears 5 crashes on startup, but VKD3D-Proton 2.8 improves the performance of Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, The Witcher 3, Age of Empires IV, Borderlands 2, Resident Evil: Village, and Guardians of Galaxy. You can see the code on GitHub.

Essentially, the focus is that Linux operating systems are slowly getting to the point where games made for Windows can run properly with a bit of extra work.

Source: WCCFTech