Wine's Direct3D 11 Implementation Is Getting Furthered Along

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Wine's Direct3D 11 Implementation Is Getting Furthered Along

With next week's bi-weekly Wine development update will see more Direct3D 11 functions implemented...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Wine-D3D11-Slowly-But-Surely

[Xaero_Vincent]

It's great to see DirectX 11 finally start getting implemented and advance Windows gaming on Linux.

I'd like to point out though that most new AAA / high-budget games don't support DirectX 9 as of the last few years. In fact some don't even support DirectX 10 now. The new games that still offer Direct3D 9 renderers tend to be budget indie games that have 2D graphics, which are many on Steam. A good chunk of these indie games are also getting ported to Linux as well.

That said, at least the new VMware Player / Workstation has helped advance Linux gaming to DirectX 10-era games (at least until Wine is ready with DirectX 10/11), such as Grand Theft Auto V, which now works but does have some stuttering issues ATM but good framerate with high-end hardware...

[peppercats]

It's great to see DirectX 11 finally start getting implemented and advance Windows gaming on Linux.

I'd like to point out though that most new AAA / high-budget games don't support DirectX 9 as of the last few years. In fact some don't even support DirectX 10 now. The new games that still offer Direct3D 9 renderers tend to be budget indie games that have 2D graphics, which are many on Steam. A good chunk of these indie games are also getting ported to Linux as well.

That said, at least the new VMware Player / Workstation has helped advance Linux gaming to DirectX 10-era games (at least until Wine is ready with DirectX 10/11), such as Grand Theft Auto V, which now works but does have some stuttering issues ATM but good framerate with high-end hardware...

Is this using GPU passthrough?

[Xaero_Vincent]

Is this using GPU passthrough?

No. Just the standard VMware SVGA 3D graphics adapter.

GPU passthrough would be better and allow for full DirectX 11 support using the native graphics driver but sadly my hardware doesn't support it due to the lack of an IOMMU unit and the lack of CPU VT-d support.

[artivision]

Probably a VMware D3D11 state tracker. I wander if can be used in a VMware-Linux-Wine setup.

[boltronics]

I'd like to point out though that most new AAA / high-budget games don't support DirectX 9 as of the last few years. In fact some don't even support DirectX 10 now. The new games that still offer Direct3D 9 renderers tend to be budget indie games that have 2D graphics, which are many on Steam. A good chunk of these indie games are also getting ported to Linux as well.

I have to second that statement. Games like Grey Goo and Killing Floor 2 have no DirectX 9 support, and still no GNU/Linux builds. Those games aren't even that big. Games like recent CoD releases have no chance of DirectX 9 support. We've been feeling the pain for about two years now. Very frustrating since DirectX 9 games generally worked so well. I remember buying Dead Island Riptide on day 1, because I had such high confidence in Wine's DirectX 9 support - and it didn't let me down.

Fortunately these days there are many native GNU/Linux games available, but still I occasionally find myself desiring a game that Steam only has Windows builds of, such as the two aforementioned titles. It will be amazing when Wine's DirectX 11 support is finally reliable, but it's frustrating this wasn't a priority for so long.

When CodeWeavers announced they would be working on DirectX 11, I immediately purchased a copy of CrossOver. I'll probably never use it (and just stick with my wine build scripts), but wanted to show some support for the work they promised.

[Oleg]

No. Just the standard VMware SVGA 3D graphics adapter.

GPU passthrough would be better and allow for full DirectX 11 support using the native graphics driver but sadly my hardware doesn't support it due to the lack of an IOMMU unit and the lack of CPU VT-d support.

Can you tell me which gpu you use? Mine is 4-5 years old now and I guess something like that wouldn't be possible. I am also using AMD and...

vga passthrough sounds great at the first glimpse, but the need of two gpus neglects this a bit (at least in my book)

[newwen]

No. Just the standard VMware SVGA 3D graphics adapter.

GPU passthrough would be better and allow for full DirectX 11 support using the native graphics driver but sadly my hardware doesn't support it due to the lack of an IOMMU unit and the lack of CPU VT-d support.

I thought almost all Intel processors, from i3 to i7 and Xeon supported CPU VT-d

[tuke81]

I thought almost all Intel processors, from i3 to i7 and Xeon supported CPU VT-d

Yeah almost; very popular i5 2500k, i7 2600k, i5 3570k and i7 3770k processors does not support VT-d, while their i5/i7 non-k, i3 and xeon brothers does support it.

[Xaero_Vincent]

The biggest problem is motherboard support. You can have all the elements needed (supported CPU, GPU, kernel version, etc.) but if the motherboard doesn't support VT-d / IOMMU or the EFI BIOS has a buggy implementation of it then it's a no go for PCI passthrough via Xen or KVM. The current state is such that you almost have to hand select motherboards with this feature in mind prior to building your PC, otherwise there is a good chance it won't work. Linux let alone passthrough wasn't in mind when I built my current system years ago.

Anyway, as mentioned, passthrough is not needed anylonger for exposing the DirectX 10 feature level. This is probably due to the closed-room implementation of the DX10 state tracker that VMware has been working on for some time now.