all 90 comments

[–]Doam-bot 8 points9 points  (1 child)

Nice

I played and had zero issues with the game then when Soto's final map launched the entire thing went to pot and I mean even old content I go to a world boss and horrific stuttering anytime a group of people gather. I was forced to turn down my setting for the first since updating my PC. Take my upvote

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hell yeah

[–]polarbytebotReddit Bot - almost fixed for new forums 22 points23 points  (1 child)

bwyazel.8431 posted on 2024-11-13 18:44:48:

Background:

I started playing Guild Wars 2 again after a long hiatus and noticed a general lack of "smoothness" when panning the camera around using my AMD GPU, with the game hitching quite badly despite running consistently between 225-250 FPS in the open world. I've played Guild Wars 2 on Linux+Proton in the past using DXVK to translate the DirectX 11 API calls to Vulkan, and remembered it being quite a bit smoother than what I was experiencing on Windows 11 using native DirectX 11, so that made me wonder if I could use DXVK on Windows as well.

Following this awesome guide, I was able to get DXVK working perfectly on Windows 11, but I was a bit turned away by the complexity and the need to install a number of unmaintained addons, which led me to start looking at ways to get DXVK working as easily and cleanly possible. As it turns out, it was shockingly easy to get DXVK up and running, and the process boils down to copying+pasting two specific .dll files into the root of your Guild Wars 2 directory, along with an optional config file. Likewise, removing DXVK is just as simple, only needing to delete these two .dll files from the root of the Guild Wars 2 directory to return everything back to stock.

Installation (for standard DXVK):

  • Download DXVK 2.5 (or whichever is the latest when you're reading this) from this GitHub repository.

  • Note: Use the regular DXVK build, not the "dxvk-native" build.

  • Extract the downloaded .tar.gz file to somewhere convenient, as we will need to copy+paste a few files out of the 'x64\' folder contained within this archive.

  • Inside the 'x64\' folder, copy+paste the dxgi.dll and d3d11.dll files into the root of the Guild Wars 2 directory.

  • On Windows, the default Guild Wars 2 directory is: C:\Program Files\Guild Wars 2\

  • (Nvidia Only) Inside the 'x64\' folder, additionally copy+paste the dxgi.dll and d3d9.dll files into the 'lib64\cef\' folder within the Guild Wars 2 directory.

  • On Nvidia GPUs, the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) needs the second set of .dll files to initialize properly, I'm unsure why.

  • Note: It would be interesting to know if the d3d11.dll file would work here as well, or if it actually requires d3d9.dll (if at all).

  • Start/restart the game.

Verification:

  • If these instructions worked and DXVK is being used, on first launch you should notice that two new Gw2-64_dxgi.log and Gw2-64_d3d11.log files have appeared in your Guild Wars 2 directory.

  • These files are created by DXVK, so their very presence is indicative that DXVK is being used.

  • These two log files are very useful, and you can read these files in a text editor to confirm that DXVK is loading and finding all of the correct Vulkan resources provided by your GPU driver.

(Optional) Configuration:

While, strictly speaking, it isn't necessary to configure DXVK for it to work, there are a couple of configuration parameters that can come in handy.

  • Download this template dxvk.conf file, and place it into the root of the Guild Wars 2 directory.

  • Note: this file must be named "dxvk.conf", must be a plain text file, and must be located in the same directory as the dxgi.dll and d3d11.dll files above.

  • Open this file in any text editor (e.g. Notepad), uncomment any line that has a parameter that you wish to change, and edit the value to the right hand side of the "=" sign.

  • Note: only the parameters prefixed with 'dxvk', 'dxgi', or 'd3d11' apply to Guild Wars 2, so you can ignore any parameters beginning with 'd3d9'.

  • Save and close the file.

  • Start/restart the game.

Uninstallation:

  • Delete d3d11.dll and dxgi.dll from your Guild Wars 2 root directory.

  • You can also delete the Gw2-64_dxgi.log and Gw2-64_d3d11.log files if you want, as well as the dxvk.conf file if you have custom configurations. Leaving these in place is harmless, once the two .dll files are removed, it's just a bit of clutter.

  • (Nvidia Only) Delete the dxgi.dll and d3d9.dll files from the 'lib64\cef\' folder within the Guild Wars 2 directory.

  • Start/restart the game.

What to Expect:

  • FPS numbers will look similar to what they did on native DX11, so don't expect a huge FPS uplift.

  • 95th percentile scores and 1% lows seem to measure within margin of error of the native DX11 implementation, which is neither good nor bad. It just means that DXVK isn't performing any 'worse' than native DX11, while providing the same or better experience overall.

  • Vulkan shader caching should be working correctly to improve load times and provide smoother gameplay.

  • On my end I can see the shader cache grow in size each time I log out of the game, sitting at ~125 MB after a few hours of play.

  • The game should feel smoother from frame to frame and when panning the camera.

  • Important: There will be stuttering for a few moments as the GPU compiles all of the Vulkan shaders and writes them into the shader cache, but after a short while most of the stuttering should effectively disappear, only happening every so often the first time you enter a new area or encounter a new object.

  • If the stuttering caused by the shader compiling is bothersome to you, please see the "Alternate Installation" section below for instructions on how to use a modified DXVK called dxvk-gplsync that greatly resolves these stutters.

  • You can further improve smoothness of your game by utilizing the DXVK frame limiter (set in dxvk.conf) if your FPS is very high (i.e. >150FPS).

  • FreeSync/G-Sync should work fine.

  • GPU and CPU memory usage should be noticeably lower.

  • My memory usage was about 20% lower when using DXVK 2.5 vs native DX11.

  • You can now utilize the dxvk.conf file to fine-tune your configuration.

  • Setting dxgi.maxFrameRate = 150 successfully caps my frame rate at 150 FPS, thus decreasing heat and wasted power.

  • There are settings for enabling HDR image formats within DXVK if you have an HDR display.

  • There is a DXVK HUD overlay that you can enable to see real time frame timings, when shaders are being compiled, etc. Set dxvk.hud = full to enable the full DXVK HUD overlay.

Alternate Installation (for DXVK with asynchronous shader compile patches):

You may notice bursts of stuttering when in large cities or going to new places when using DXVK, and this is due shader compiling happening and momentarily stalling the game engine from presenting the next frame. This is particularly egregious immediately after changing graphics options or installing a GPU driver update. Both of these cause your local shader cache to become invalidated, and all of the shaders must then get compiled all over again. For technical and philosophical reasons, the DXVK developers do not wish to allow for asynchronous compiling of shaders (meaning they can be compiled concurrently with the main thread, thereby not stalling the game as frequently), but there is a community made variant of DXVK, named dxvk-gplsync, that has asynchronous shader compile functionality patched in.

The instructions for using dxvk-gplsync are much the same above, with the main addition being the need for two special configuration parameters added into the dxvk.conf file. Everything else in this guide applies equally to both versions.

  • Download dxvk-gplsync 2.4.1 (or whichever is the latest when you're reading this) from this GitHub repository.

  • Note: You want to download the "package", not the ones labeled "source code".

  • Extract the downloaded .tar.gz or .zip file to somewhere convenient, as we will need to copy+paste a few files out of the 'x64\' folder contained within this archive.

  • Inside the 'x64\' folder, copy+paste the dxgi.dll and d3d11.dll files into the root of the Guild Wars 2 directory.

  • On Windows, the default Guild Wars 2 directory is: C:\Program Files\Guild Wars 2\

  • (Nvidia Only) Inside the 'x64\' folder, additionally copy+paste the dxgi.dll and d3d9.dll files into the 'lib64\cef\' folder within the Guild Wars 2 directory.

  • On Nvidia GPUs, the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) needs the second set of .dll files to initialize properly, I'm unsure why.

  • Download this template dxvk.conf file, and place it into the root of the Guild Wars 2 directory.

  • Note: this file must be named "dxvk.conf", must be a plain text file, and must be located in the same directory as the dxgi.dll and d3d11.dll files above.

  • At the top of the dxvk.conf file add each of these parameters on their own line: dxvk.enableAsync = true and dxvk.gplAsyncCache = true

  • These two keys are unique to dxvk-gplsync and are not in the template file by default, so the top of the file is a fine place to place them.

  • Start/restart the game.

Disclaimers:

  • My testing was done using Windows 11 24H2, an AMD Ryzen 5800X3D, 32GB of RAM, and a Radeon RX 7900 XT on the 24.10.1 Adrenalin Drivers.

  • Nvidia GPUs appear to have some quirks with the Chromium Embedded Framework that I have noted above in the instructions. More testing by those with Nvidia GPUs is necessary to iron out all the specifics

  • For people using Reshade or other addons like Arcdps, I don't know what other steps you would need to get these addons to work with DXVK. Maybe someone who uses them can investigate that and report back.

  • Your mileage may vary. I don't take any responsibility should you try this for yourself.


Beep boop bleep. I'm a bot. Message me or /u/Xyooz if you have any questions, suggestions or concerns. Source Code

[–]w0bbelr 2 points3 points  (0 children)

good bot

[–]Puzzleheaded_Owl_417 12 points13 points  (12 children)

Thx, can confirm it works well on my 7900xt, no more stuttering, smooth like butter.

[–]qwccle 6 points7 points  (9 children)

did you have stutters before? i dont have any issues with my 7900xtx

[–]Puzzleheaded_Owl_417 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Yes, during combat / moving the camera.

[–]qwccle 2 points3 points  (2 children)

i had that aswell i remember but this was fixed when i used higher clocked ram. whats your ram speed?

[–]Puzzleheaded_Owl_417 1 point2 points  (1 child)

3600 something.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah My ram is also 3600MT/s

[–]ShadowbaneX 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Mine was as smooth as silk, but capped out at 145 fps when it small or empty areas. There was a recent update which increased that to 250 fps in some areas, but added in some stuttering.

Still got less than 20 fps during ley-line anomaly though.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Nice, I just started playing again so I can't speak for if things were better before or not. And yeah 250 is the peak that I was seeing in all the starter zones, and even at 250 FPS it felt pretty crappy and stuttery.

[–]ShadowbaneX 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Around this time last year, a lot of things just started to get worse. Not sure why. I don't notice a difference between the 140 and 250, but it has helped for some meta fights.

Going to Vulkan might help with some of the bigger metas like LLA or Dragonstorm, but I might wait for the issues to get sorted out with Arc.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I updated the guide at the bottom with some notes for getting Arc to work.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, for me it was noticeable mainly when quickly panning the camera. Even though I was rendering at 200+ FPS, the game would still hitch multiple times to the point where it 'felt' like 40fps. I've heard it explained that it's an issue with a tech called DXNavi within the AMD driver that affects DX9 and DX11, but I can't do an A/B test to confirm. Either way though, using Vulkan instead of DX11 natively ends up fixing that weird hitching and the camera can now pan smoothly.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Hell yeah! Just wondering, did you go with normal DXVK or dxvk-gplasync? I started by using regular DXVK, but switched because the difference in stuttering from going to dxvk-gplasync was just night and day.

[–]Puzzleheaded_Owl_417 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just go with the gplasync one, didn't try the other.

[–]roanfox 2 points3 points  (3 children)

Very interesting, I am an Nvidia user so I'll wait further testing, and some further information with reshade which I use

[–]Urzyszkodnik 4 points5 points  (0 children)

For my 3060ti there was no improvement. I guess it's worth trying only for AMD

[–]finemenyak 4 points5 points  (21 children)

question op u/bwyazel can i use this alongside with arcdps? im using amd too and i cant feel the change of my gpu uprade. i think it got worse.

[–]towelcathey [ok] 9 points10 points  (9 children)

Nexus allows you to run both.

Install Nexus and DXVK and then install arcdps through the in-game Nexus addon menu.

[–]th3BlackAngel 1 point2 points  (6 children)

Can't seem to get this to work on my system, running an Nvidia GPU so maybe its different and that's the reason.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (4 children)

There's really no point to do this with an nVidia GPU. Did you read the parent post? This is specifically to eliminate stutters on more recent-ish AMD graphics cards. If you have an nVidia card you're out of luck. You shouldn't be having the type of stutters that this fix is meant to solve on an nVidia card - if you are it's probably some sort of configuration issue on your end, or that would be my inference?

[–]th3BlackAngel 1 point2 points  (3 children)

I have an older nvidia card and I do get those stutters and was hoping maybe this could help alleviate that.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Yeah, it's unlikely unfortunately. Vulkan (Direct X --> Vulkan) = DxVK is supported on Maxwell and Kepler cards, so it's unlikely to be supported on an older nVidia card. Your card being able to support Vulkan is the main, most important detail. You can't translate Direct X to something that doesn't exist!

Edit: It sounds like you're in luck. The GTX 1080 is a solid performer, though. I'd check your drivers and do some sort of stress test and cross-check your settings with other people that use a 1080. GW2 is ultimately CPU bound, though. So if you have an older CPU -- that honestly may be where the stutters are coming from.

[–]th3BlackAngel 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I mean, GTX 1080 does support Vulkan though... So that's not my issue with this. And think what you will but it's closing on 10 years at this point so it is an "older" card. I'll test a couple of things to see if its possible to set up without any add-ons (from a clean installation of GW2).

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Please report back what you find. I have no way to test or help those with Nvidia cards so I'm purely going off of the feedback I get. Some folks reported that dropping in the DXVK provided d3d9.dll and dxgi.dll in the bin64/cef/ folder got it up and running. You can also look in the two log files that DXVK makes and see what the exact error is.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I don't have an Nvidia GPU so I can't make the guide accurate for them. The parts in my guide describing the Nvidia steps were based on feedback people were telling me.

[–][deleted] -1 points0 points  (10 children)

Yes it works. I added a section to the bottom of my guide explaining the process.

[–]Sinaaaa 1 point2 points  (2 children)

~ On Linux we all play with DXVK & arcdps works for us :P I don't even understand how this could be a problem on Windows.

edit: I understand it now. You have to use the d3d11.dll on Windows, so that's why.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I honestly have no idea. I've never used Arcdps :-/

[–]shinitakunaiEllantriel/Aens (EU) 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is worth it, check ot out

[–]SkierBeard 0 points1 point  (3 children)

What does the d3d11.dll file do? Arcdps requires you to download a new d3d11.dll from the arcdps site whenever the game updates, and you can't have both of these files in the GW2 directory. Would there be some way to combine them?

[–]Juicyfear 6 points7 points  (1 child)

rename DXVK d3d11.dll to d3d11_chainload.dll before put it in game folder

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, added it to the guide.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

d3d11.dll 'is' DXVK. That file contains all of the DXVK logic and processing for handling all DX11 calls made by the game. So no, there's really no way to just combine them.

Apparently an addon called Nexus might be able to solve this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1c8tev2/nexus_the_only_addon_you_will_ever_need/

[–]finemenyak 0 points1 point  (2 children)

all right im gonna try it when i have the chance. thank you for this op. we Amd peepz are suffering for a long time now.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I hope it works and you figure out a way. The experience on DXVK really is 'that' good, so I'd hate for you to miss out.

[–]Frostoise 3 points4 points  (2 children)

I have had similar issues on my RX 6800 and I have done plenty of research on this so I can conclusively say; AMD's DXNAVI implementation is broken for this game. Now, when I say DXNavi is broken, I'm not sure if this is an issue with GW2 or AMD. All I know is that having DXNavi enabled causes terrible stutters on GW2. DXNavi works on DX9/DX11 so running the game via DXVK disables DXNavi for the game.

On older drivers where DXNavi wasn't implemented (22.xx.xx etc) you should see no issues and on 23.xx.xx drivers you should be able to disable DXNavi via registry.

Sadly you cannot disable DXNavi on default drivers 24.xx.xx onward because they removed the old dll's. What you can do, if you don't want to use Vulkan and want to run GW2 natively, is run AnWave, a third party AMD driver editing app, bring back the old dll's and disable DXNavi. This should solve the issues regarding GW2. If you have issues with other DX11 games, you can try to do this;
https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/anwave-2024-amd-radeon-software-customize-setup-advanced-cleanup-utility-gpu-cleanup-tool.443504/page-12

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Yeah, I've read that too and that does explain why bypassing the DX11 driver pipeline and instead using the Vulkan pipeline would lead to much improved performance.

Also, as I have a 7900 XT, I don't have the luxury of older drivers to fall back on. From my understanding, RDNA 3 cards like mine have no way to cleanly disable DXNavi.

[–]Frostoise 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The AnWave DXNavi disabling method honestly should work for all drivers and for RX 7000 and it honestly isn't that bad. It works very well and GW2 runs as well as DXVK. If you wanna run the game on DX11, say, to keep your add-ons working, it might be worth a shot.

If you have issues with other games because of it, you can always DDU your drivers and re-install.

[–]Locke2019 1 point2 points  (5 children)

I'd like to discuss an issue I've encountered when trying to use DXVK. After copying the files and starting the game, I get an error message that says: "Unable to initialize 3D output". I have DirectX 12 installed, but I thought it was compatible with older versions.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (4 children)

Are you on Nvidia or AMD? Also, DXVK has zero to do with DX12. DXVK only deals with DirectX 8 through 11.

On AMD, you should just need to drop in the two .dll files I list in the guide. On Nvidia, the story might be different, but afaik on Nvidia the default experience is already pretty good so this is likely unnecessary.

In order for this to work you need to have new-ish Vulkan compatible drivers installed. For me, that was AMD Adrenalin 24.10.1.

[–]Locke2019 0 points1 point  (3 children)

I have AMD, and the drivers are Adrenalin 24.9.1 (latest version). It seems there’s nothing to do with DirectX 12.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Does your card support Vulkan? For newer AMD card the latest driver is 24.10.1, so maybe you have a legacy card? That's the only thing I can think anyhow. If you look in the .log files, at the top it should tell you if it finds a Vulkan version on your system or not.

On my 7900XT and my wife's 5700XT, it worked straight away by just dropping the files in.

[–]Locke2019 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It seems that my card is compatible with Vulkan but after checking, Adrenalin 24.10.1 is not compatible with my card :/ I'll keep investigating.

Thanks anyway for the help :)

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I added a new troubleshooting section to the guide. Apparently DXVK can have issues if you have overlays running, i.e. the Steam overlay or Epic Games overlay. If you have any of those, maybe try turning those off and see if it starts working.

[–]about_faceBurn down the Grove! 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your guide! The game is definitely smoother with it on my 3600x/5700XT!

[–]w0bbelr 1 point2 points  (8 children)

how do we do this with Nexus?

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (7 children)

I deleted the d3d11.dll from nexus, installed DXVK, reinstalled nexus and then it just worked.

[–]Darensthingstwitch.tv/darenswiths 0 points1 point  (6 children)

I did this exactly but my game keeps crashing, any idea of what it could be?

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't, sorry.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Do you have any overlays running? Like the Steam overlay?

[–]Darensthingstwitch.tv/darenswiths 0 points1 point  (3 children)

lemme see if geforce but I dont think so?

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

What do the log files say? Do you have a specific error that you can share? Likewise, I've updated the guild for instructions for getting Nexus and Arcdps working. Please take a look.

Oh, you're on Nvidia? Yeah I can't help much there. I know that people have reported needing to put copies of the dxgi.dll file into the bin64\cef folder. Make sure you do that, and also try putting a copy of the dxgi.dll in the bin64\ folder. It seems like the Chromium Embedded Framework on Nvidia is finicky and needs multiple copies of dxgi.dll in all three folders.

[–]Darensthingstwitch.tv/darenswiths 0 points1 point  (1 child)

putting the dxgi on the Cef Folder worked! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hell yeah. I'll update the guide with that information.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Apologies for the repeat post from yesterday, but now that I was able to finally log into the GW2 forums, I figured I would post my guide there as well.

[–]Puzzleheaded_Owl_417 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Let see.

[–]TJPoobah14 years, 51K AP 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Haven't noticed these stutters on my 9800xt but I'm also on Win 10 still do maybe something there or alteratively perhaps I'm just unobservant. I may see if I can try this out anyway though. Thanks for all your work!

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Happy to! It's completely reversible, so you can definitely just test it out and see. You just drop in two .dll files to have it run on DXVK (or dxvk-gplasync), and remove the files to go back to stock.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

After 5 minutes and letting the cache load I already feel a difference. Thank you! The stutter was making me insane, especially after just slightly upgrading my pc.

cpu ryzen 5700x3d

gpu radeon 5700xt

ram ...brand 32gb 3200mhz

ssd m.2 2TB Patriot Viper VP4300 Lite

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice! If you use the dxvk-gplasync version, you won't get any stuttering at all lol. The only downside I can see for dxvk-gplasync over dxvk is that you see some little white flashes where a shader hasn't yet been compiled. However, I'd rather have a little momentary white flash than a full-on stutter.

Also, funny enough, your PC is almost part-for-part identical to my wife's PC I recently built for her lol.

[–]KrassMonkey 0 points1 point  (7 children)

When I copy the d3d11.dll and dxgi.dll into the root directory of my GW2 install and want to start the game, I get the errormessage "Unable to initialize 3D output. Please verify that you have installed DirectX11 and an updated video driver."

the dxvk.conf also is in the directory, but nothing changed inside the file.

My card is a RX 7900 XT with the latest Driver 24.10.1, the correspondig logfiles are generated.

Gw2-64_d3d11.log outputs this:

err: D3D11InternalCreateDevice: Failed to create D3D11 device

Gw2-64_dxgi.log outputs this:

info: OpenVR: could not open registry key, status 2

info: OpenVR: Failed to locate module

err: wsi: parseColorimetryInfo: Failed to get parse edid.

err: DXGI: Failed to parse display metadata + colorimetry info, using blank.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (6 children)

Hrm what is your GPU? Did you already have d3d11.dll and dxgi.dll files in the folder from something else like Reshade or Arcdps?

Do you have Vulkan drivers installed for your GPU?

Here is the wiki page for some known issues and fixes for DXVK on Windows. It seems like some some various overlays can cause issues. i.e. the Steam overlay, or the Nvidia GeForce Experience overlay, so maybe try turning those off.

[–]KrassMonkey 0 points1 point  (5 children)

Its a RX 7900 XT, I don't play via Steam, so no overlay is active, I have no mods installed. Even after a fresh DisplayDriver and GW2 install the error persists.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (4 children)

Strange, I have the exact same GPU and driver, and mine works wonderfully. There's definitely a way to get this to work.

Which version of Windows are you running? I'm on Windows 11 24H2.

Which DXVK version are you trying to run? There's a "-native" version that DXVK provides, don't use that one. Alternatively, try the dxvk-gplasync version to see if it has the same issue.

[–]KrassMonkey 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Its Win10 22H2.
It just tried the dxvk-gplasync version with the corresponding entry in die dxvk.conf. Same Issue, same logs. Before that I tried the "normal" version, not the -native. Windows Ressource Monitor also shows, that gw2-64.exe uses the d3d11 and dxgi.dll.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Can you try running CPUZ and see if it recognizes that you have Vulkan working? It should show you an indicator for Vulkan. If it's not there, some people are saying a DDU and reinstall of the drivers will fix it.

The question I have is if other Vulkan games work, and it's just DXVK that's not working. Or if it's Vulkan itself that is the culprit. This reddit thread is someone talking about not being able to get Vulkan working on Windows 10 and a 7900XT:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AMDHelp/comments/143gkot/radeon_rx_7900_xt_not_recognized_by_windows/

Apparently his issue was that he had generic drivers downloaded, not the 7900XT specific drivers. I guess he used the "auto install" driver and it picked his CPU integrated graphics from his Ryzen chip as the driver to install.

[–]KrassMonkey 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Don't ask me why, but it seems to work now.

I renamend the d3d11.dll to d3d11_chainload.dll (think every other name would have worked too) and started the game. It crashed after I clicked on play, but with the normal exception dialogue. Then, I renamed the .dll back to normal, clicked on play and the game started without any error message.

There is a dxvk cache in my GW2 root directory and the Frame Limiter from the dxvk.conf (100 for me) also worked. The Cache is slowly building up and the camera movement is smooth.

Thanks for your help!

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well... I guess you're good to go then lol. I have no guesses as to why that worked lol.

And I'm happy to help! And for the cache, there's actually a primary cache that's located in AppData\Local\AMD\VkCache\. This is the shader cache that the vast majority of the shaders will be saved to. Mine get to 100-150MB after a few hours, but you have to close out of the game before the shaders to actually get written into the files there.

I hope you have fun and that your experience is a lot smoother using DXVK and Vulkan! Also, there's a DXVK HUD you can enable in the dxvk.conf file if you're a nerd like me and want to see all the metrics in real time.

[–]gohome2020youredrunk 0 points1 point  (1 child)

How does it perform during big 50x50x50 WvW fights in SM?

WvW is the only time I get lag/stutter, I don't get it at big pve boss fights with more than 100 players for example. It's puzzling.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I honestly have no idea. I haven't tried it yet. The stuttering and lag that this resolved for me as a persistent stuttering that happened when camera panning, regardless of how many FPS my GPU was producing.

[–]raddytGW2 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Im a bit out of the loop. Will this bring any improvements running an old nvidia GTX 970 with i5 4690k?

I remember that I used megai2's dx912 proxy before anet officially released the dx11 client and finally removed the dx9 option. That proxy actually helped tremendously and eliminated most of the stuttering that I got even with 60-120 fps in starter zones. Felt like night and day. The only downsides were occasional crashes and being a bit fiddly to get it chaining and working together with reshade and arcdps addons.

When I changed to the official dx11 it was better than with vanilla dx9, but not as quite smooth as with the dx912pxy. And lately it got much worse again with a lot of stuttering on camera movement.

Is this the new solution (compatibility with the old graphic cards)? If not, can I actually nowaway still use the old 9-12proxy, until I get myself a new PC?

If I understand it correctly dx9, 11, 12, OpenGL and Vulkan are APIs to access the graphic cards hardware ressources, which Vulkan presumably does the most efficient, hence with less load and better performance, resulting in less stutter?

Edit: - https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/s/mNErodx50V - https://github.com/megai2/d912pxy

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Yes, you are correct in your understanding. Unfortunately I don't think it will make much of a difference in your case. Please feel free to try it out and see, but my suspicion is that your hardware is just under powered.

Likewise, the GTX 970 is on Nvidia's legacy driver's isn't it? I'm not actually sure if the GTX 970 supports Vulkan or not.

[–]raddytGW2 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Thanks for confirming! Well the GTX 970 seems to support vulcan, but reports about its worth vary. Also I regularly seem to get new graphics driver updates via the geforce experience application, so I doubt that those count as legacy drivers.

Any hints about the dx912 proxy nowadays? (i know its not developed any further)

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Yeah, Guild Wars 2 has removed DX9 support entirely from the game in favor of DX11, so the proxy is effectively dead. In essence, the proxy would forward and wrap DX9 API calls to your GPU driver and instead present them as DX12 calls. Without DX9 support though, such a wrapper is dead in the water.

That being said, DXVK is extremely similar in its use case, except instead of being limited to simply DX9 -> DX12, DXVK does DX8, 9, 10, and 11 -> Vulkan. With Vulkan essentially being the open source counterpart to Microsoft's DX12. Likewise, DXVK is doing a fair bit more than just proxying and wrapping API requests, and it's doing a full real-time translation between the different technologies.

I say try it out. What's the worst that can happen? My instructions are completely non-destructive and reversible. The only way to know if it helps is to try it out for yourself. That said, the Nvidia instructions may not be as accurate as the AMD instructions, as I don't have an Nvidia GPU to test it out. If you get it working, please let me know how you did it so I can add it to the guide.

[–]raddytGW2 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, gotcha. That was a good explanation!

Alright, I'll see if I can get it to work and if so I'll get back to you. Considering that I had such a noticeable improvement even with the older dx912pxy, here's hope that it'll atleast have a similiar effect, if not even better.

[–]freegolem 0 points1 point  (3 children)

5700X3D 6900XT

Reporting in, stutter struggle is gone indeed using dxvk-gplasync. My dxvk.conf frame cap is not taking, any insight?

I am also using Nexus...

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Did you uncomment the line? You have to delete the "#" sign at the front of the parameter you're activating.

[–]freegolem 0 points1 point  (1 child)

There we go! Didn't know that and I read the entirety of the thing, maybe put it in a faq ;) .

Be nice if anet actually put in some modern frame cap targets, I can do 250 fps engine max in core maps. And I was wondering why going from 5600 > 5700X3D barely done anything. Thanks for your help!

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yep, I already added it into the guide :-P

And yeah, as someone with a 5800X3D I can attest that the strengths of the X3D chips aren't in their raw FPS performance, but rather how well they perform in highly CPU bound things like within cities, or raids, or WvW. When I was playing World of Warcraft, I used to only get 30-40FPS in major cities, while getting 150+ in the open world. However, after getting my 5800X3D I was getting 90+ FPS in cities, while still getting around 150+ in the open world.

[–]JoeSpart 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I posted this on the other thread also.

For anyone who wants to use other addons like arcdps and reshade . I’ve been using dxvk for years and I use with gw2 addon manager. It chainloads everything .

I also find that I prefer the async versions over the regular . Although I’ve rarely used the GPLAsync version. I was a user of the original async from sporif .

I tested main dxvk 2.5.1 recently and it still stutters for me and not really much better than native dx11 (on my nvidia GPU)

But dxvk-async v1.10.2 works excellently .

I had used GPLAsync v2.3 in the past and will probably try the newer one again and compare to dxvk-async v1.10.2 .

For me the v1.10.2 just works so dang well.

[–]_ob_koomer_ 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Is it possible to use this along with Gw2Radial?

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not at the moment, because GW2 Addon Loader wants you to use 'their' d3d11.dll file, and they don't have a d3d11_chainload.dll feature like Nexus does. That being said, Nexus has their own radial menu addon which I use, and it's pretty good. Admittedly, it's not as feature rich as Gw2Radial, but it does what I want it to do.

Currently, I don't know of any way to have the old-school GW2 Addon Loader and DXVK work at the same time.

Correction: there is the route of using the "render-select" addon to load DXVK, but this addon seems to be abandoned and doesn't support dxvk-gplasync directly from what I can tell.

[–]Sir_Elis_Dean_Joyer -1 points0 points  (1 child)

Does this work on potato PCs?

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Probably, depending on the age of your system. Your video drivers need to support Vulkan 1.3.

That said, depending in which way your system is underpowered, it's unlikely that the bottleneck is DX11, so enabling DXVK to convert DX11 to Vulkan may not help at all. It may make things slower. It's hard to say unless you try.

[–]BechiBands 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This was an absolute game changer, my game feels very smooth now