Coming shortly after DXVK 3.0, DXVK 3.0.1 has been released as the first maintenance update in the 3.0 series of the Vulkan-based translation layer that converts Direct3D 8, 9, 10, and 11 calls to Vulkan, playing a key role in running Windows games on Linux through Wine and Proton.
One important change is that DXVK disabled secondary command buffer usage on all desktop GPUs. According to the release notes, this may slightly affect performance in a few games with less-than-ideal MSAA resolve patterns.
However, the feature had become a frequent source of difficult rendering issues and GPU hangs. Since its main benefits are mostly seen on tiling GPUs, the trade-off should favor stability for most desktop users.
The update also fixes a rendering regression affecting several D3D9 games on some drivers. The list specifically includes Black Mesa, Gothic 3, and Grand Theft Auto IV, so players who noticed broken visuals or other odd behavior in these titles after recent DXVK updates may want to give this release a try.
Another important fix addresses a crash that could happen when games unload Direct3D libraries while the D3D device is still active. DXVK 3.0.1 also resolves stuttering on 32-bit NVIDIA drivers when descriptor heaps are enabled and improves GPU synchronization around stream output, a change that may affect older Unity Engine games using D3D11.
There are also a couple of driver-specific workarounds. On Windows, DXVK now works around an NVIDIA issue where sampler creation could fail, though the root cause is unknown and may relate to external overlays. The release also includes a workaround for an Intel driver bug on Windows that could cause games to hang shortly after enabling graphics pipeline libraries.
As usual with DXVK point releases, many fixes are game-specific. Empire Earth 2 received a fix for a regression involving certain fixed-function setups. Fallout 3 now has a fix for a shader compiler regression that caused rendering problems with MSAA enabled. Fruit Ninja gets a fix for a long-standing lighting issue. Kane & Lynch: Dead Men and King’s Bounty: The Legend both receive fixes for performance regressions.
Other notable game fixes include Manhunt, where a 60 FPS limit was enabled to work around game issues. Splinter Cell 3 gets a fix for a rendering regression when using the Shader Model 3.0 option. Total War: Medieval II had a water rendering regression resolved.
The release notes also mention an ANV driver issue that may lead to GPU hangs in some D3D9 games on Intel Alchemist GPUs and older. As a workaround, DXVK now enables descriptor buffers by default on those Intel GPUs, though the developers warn that this may negatively affect performance. Affected users are advised to keep their graphics drivers up to date.
For additional details, see the changelog.
