The team behind vkd3d has announced the release of version 1.18. Developed and maintained by the Wine project, it’s an open-source library that translates Microsoft’s Direct3D graphics calls to Vulkan, thus allowing Windows applications and games that use Direct3D 12 to run on systems where only Vulkan is available.

One highlight is the addition of CreateCommandList1() from the ID3D12Device4 interface, extending coverage of newer D3D12 features used by modern Windows titles.

The shader compiler sees the biggest set of changes. vkd3d 1.18 improves HLSL handling by performing more constant folding, simplifying math expressions, and flattening if/else branches when older shader models require it. Plus, it also expands support for older Shader Model 1–3 code, adds StructuredBuffer loads, and implements several widely used HLSL intrinsics.