The Witcher 3 for Linux

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

TW3 through Wine + dxvk:

For the reference, dxvk is a new project for implementing D3D11 over Vulkan, and can be used as drop in replacement for Wine's D3D11 over OpenGL. But the project is pretty young, so many things aren't implemented yet.

 

[Riven-Twain]

Hmmm. Looks as though it might stand a ghost of chance. Rather spectral.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Hmmm. Looks as though it might stand a ghost of chance. Rather spectral.

Heh, but it's progress at least. I'm kind of still stuck in early Velen quests, because Wine + Mesa still have a freeze in TW3 with default OpenGL backend with the patch that fixes invisible monsters. So far developers didn't find the cause. But this new project has a potential not only to avoid old bugs, but to also improve performance.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Peter Mullholand - former Virtual Programming developer who worked on the Linux version of The Witcher 2, hinted that VP were working with CDPR on the Linux version of the Witcher 3 in 2014-2015, but something went wrong around 2016, when CDPR halted the effort. According to him it is related to the low uptake of Valve's Steam Machines and some bad reaction to the initially badly performing early Linux release of TW2.

Not sure how valid this is, but at least Steam Machines reason sounds about right, since CDPR became too focused on consoles lately. Sadly, CDPR management never publicly admitted that they cancelled the project, despite their earlier marketing of TW3 Linux release.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

dxvk is progressing quite well

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Night rain looks better than with OpenGL (no white outline):

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

I have to say, I'm amazed at how fast dxvk is progressing. That is how it's supposed to be done, and something CDPR should have done themselves.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Back to 40 fps with CPU governor set to performance:

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Even more improvements in dxvk. Meditating at 45 fps

 

[r1esg0]

Hello. I've just created a Change.org petition to ask CDProjekt to let us fund the native Linux port of the game.
I know this deserves it's very own topic, but since I'm new this doesn't let me create new threads until I reach 10 posts.
Petition is this. Please sign if you believe this deservers one last try.
https://www.change.org/p/cd-projekt...to-linux-6e863ea4-52ea-4ac8-8e6d-af99fbaec7e6

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Signed. I proposed this to CDPR in the past. They have never really commented on how they view such idea.

Marcin_Momot : What do you think? Can you please forward it to CDPR higher ups?

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Using the crowdfunded money, quite practical approach for CDPR can be using Wine + dxvk, but in officially supported manner.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

First 100+.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Wine master + a few pending patches and dxvk:

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Now we are getting somewhere. 60+ fps with Sapphire Pulse Vega 56 and dxvk:

That's very good. Now only missing stream output to fix distorted monsters with radv, and I'll be able to continue the game

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Water is now rendering nicely with dxvk:

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Riven-Twain, SigilFey: is it a know issue in TW3, that NPCs lose their beards in the distance? I thought it's a bug in Wine, but apparently Wine developers say it happens on Windows too, and it's some kind of LOD problem that game has. So I just wanted to confirm it.

See here for a small video snippet that demonstrates the problem: https://bugs.winehq.org/attachment.cgi?id=61005 (you'd need some player like mpv or vlc, since it fails in the browser).

 

[Riven-Twain]

Riven-Twain, SigilFey: is it a know issue in TW3, that NPCs lose their beards in the distance? I thought it's a bug in Wine, but apparently Wine developers say it happens on Windows too, and it's some kind of LOD problem that game has. So I just wanted to confirm it.

Yes, unfortunately, the details of hair, helmets, eyes, and beards can disappear at a distance. I believe there is a mod which attempts to correct the point of hair specifically, but I don't believe it covers all cases.

(Also, it seems your video file might be corrupted.)

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Thanks for the confirmation!

(Also, it seems your video file might be corrupted.)

It works in VLC or MPV. Most likely won't work in the browser.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Wow, dxvk improvements produced 80+ fps for me (in the wilderness):



Sapphire Pulse Vega 56 / 1920x1200.