Deathloop with ray tracing is now working in Linux via Steam Play (thanks to VKD3D-Proton)
Linux gamers who want to play the title Windows Big-Name with Tracing Ray can start vibrant, because the steps have been made by getting some games and running through the VKD3D-Proton project, which is one aspect of Steam Play (and the proton compatibility layer to run Windows offers ).
VKD3D-proton translates Microsoft Direct3D 12 to Vulkan, and with the latest release, namely version 2.5, there is opt-in support (early and experimental) for tracking DXR 1.1 Ray.
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As Phoronix, DXR 1.1 is still not done here in any way, and this is the initial work items, with “significant bugs” still floating around. However, support DXR 1.1 inline raytracing “fully implemented”, and some games seem to go well with ray tracing on Linux. (Note that with this version, DXR 1.0 support is considered more or less done and cleaned).
Testing has been done with DXR 1.1 activated on NVIDIA GPU, and DeathLoop now seems to function properly with ray tracing, as well as resident evil: village (although the difference by activating striking effects seems quite smooth). World of Warcraft works according to the report, but this has not been confirmed.
And a Biggie, Cyberpunk 2077, works in mode: can be turned on successfully, but suffers from the time of the GPU out (crashing back to the desktop).
As Devs noted: “From here, the support of DXR is mostly the case suggests a problem one by one.”
Analysis: Steaming front with tracing ray support
Obviously happy to see progress made with steam playback for those who want to turn on track tracking while playing Windows games on Linux. With luck, it won’t be too long before Cyberpunk 2077 – one of the world’s heavy hitters tracing – functioning properly with ray tracing while walking through Steam Play.
A little excitement came with the news that Nvidia had contributed to facilitating VKD3D-protons that allow DLSS support in the Direct3D 12 game, helping increase the frame level when under the demands of ray tracing, to boot.
We have heard before that maybe the steam deck will eventually benefit from the kindness of ray tracing, because technically AMD RDNA 2 graphics can run it – it’s just that it will be a slide show. However, in the future, reality can change because the demands of ray tracing games become less severe, and because it might be more within the reach of the ability of the deck hardware. (Or indeed the sequel to the steam deck in the future will clearly offer beefier hardware).