Left 4 Dead 2 Updated With Vulkan Rendering Via DXVK, Many Other Improvements

[Soul_keeper]

https://openbenchmarking.org/result/2106207-IB-L4D2VULKA83

OpenGL is about 3x faster than Vulkan for me.

If you look at the release announcement, there are a bunch of fixes including things like crash fixes on Linux. Or you know, don't look a gift horse in the mouth. The fact that they are updating it at all after more than a decade, let alone on a niche platform for gaming that wasn't even a choice when the game launched, is quite frankly phenomenal.

Yeah, they practically give it away at very low prices, like CDPR does for some of it's older games.

[Azpegath]

No comparison benchmarks?

[pracedru]

Hm, but why is DXVK involved here? I mean, on Linux it's currently running OpenGL, not DirectX. So the translation should be OpenGL -> Vulkan not DirectX -> Vulkan, what do I miss here?

The old version of the game on linux runs a DirectX -> OpenGL translation layer that Valve developed in house.
Now they are using a DirectX -> Vulkan translation layer that is developed not only by Valve.

So this means less code for Valve to maintain.

[willmore]

Same question here

Yes, similar changes are in the Windows version. Or at least that's what the changelog said when I looked it as the app updated yesterday.

[chocolate]

Hm, but why is DXVK involved here? I mean, on Linux it's currently running OpenGL, not DirectX. So the translation should be OpenGL -> Vulkan not DirectX -> Vulkan, what do I miss here?

DXVK is bundled with the game so that its original Direct3D renderer is left untouched and translated to Vulkan. The game was initially ported using another layer called ToGL, to achieve the same with OpenGL. https://github.com/ValveSoftware/ToGL

[Flaburgan]

Hm, but why is DXVK involved here? I mean, on Linux it's currently running OpenGL, not DirectX. So the translation should be OpenGL -> Vulkan not DirectX -> Vulkan, what do I miss here?

[gfunk]

Thats a good point, I know Linux users accidentally got VAC bans after they changed some OpenGL thread configuration

[humbug]

Why wouldnt they add Vulkan to CSGO first given how much money it generates

It seems like they want all their games running on Vulkan by the time the SteamPal launches. Newer games on the Source2 engine are not a problem (Dota2, Half Life Alyx, Underlords) as they have native Vulkan support.

For older games like Portal2, Left 4 Dead, CS:GO the strategy is to use a translation layer. I reckon they wanted to do a couple of other games first and hone their skills before tackling CS:GO. Cause that is a very sensitive and competitive community; they will freak out if something goes wrong or if performance drops on certain rare configurations.

[gfunk]

So this was done by Valve, not the community who did the last stand update?

Why wouldnt they add Vulkan to CSGO first given how much money it generates

Grateful regardless, I had fun with the last stand update