Intel's New Driver Is Now Working With Gallium's Direct3D 9 State Tracker

Following the Gallum Nine "TTN" support landing to allow a TGSI-to-NIR code path to be used rather than requiring Gallium3D drivers support the conventional TGSI intermediate representation, Intel's new "Iris" driver now is working with Gallium D3D9 after the final bit of code was merged.

The Iris driver has added the TGSI to NIR integration and with this "the Gallium Nine state tracker now works on Iris."

This Gallium Nine support allows for faster Direct3D 9 support for Wine-based Windows games rather than having to rely on the WineD3D code that is translating to OpenGL and then fed to the drivers. This Gallium-based D3D9 state tracker has proven for years it's capable of outperforming WineD3D in most scenarios with the likes of the RadeonSI driver. Intel hasn't worked with Gallium Nine since their current "i965" driver isn't based on the Gallium architecture while their in-development Iris driver hasn't to this point since it exclusively supports NIR and not TGSI.

Now with Mesa 19.1, those opting to use the Iris driver can enjoy Gallium Nine for faster D3D9 gaming under Wine. With Mesa 19.1, the Iris driver isn't the default but can be run-time selected via the MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=iris environment variable assuming you are using Broadwell "Gen 8" graphics or newer and also have Iris built as part of your Mesa configuration. Mesa 19.1 is expected to debut as stable in May.