Venus is the VirtIO-GPU driver that allows for Vulkan support within guest virtual machines permitting sufficient host driver support and other requirements in place with hypervisors like CrosVM and QEMU. The Venus driver now supports Vulkan's [1]mesh shader capabilities and in turn advances the DXVK-Proton support for Linux gaming within VMs.

[2]Merged this week is the Venus driver now able to advertiseVK_EXT_mesh_shader support, permitting sufficient host Vulkan driver support. Venus follows the Intel ANV and Radeon RADV drivers as well as the software-based Lavapipe driver in handling Vulkan mesh shaders on this open-source driver stack.

As noted in [3]the merge request , this is the last piece needed for getting Venus to VKD3D-Proton Feature Level 12_2 for the Direct3D 12 feature level atop Vulkan. FL 12_2 should help in getting more Steam Play (Proton) games with VKD3D-Proton now playable within virtual machines using the Venus VirtIO-GPU driver.



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/search/mesh+shader

[2] https://cgit.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/commit/?id=bb19e30e0d4f310d3add1e8f83a07795fb27c018

[3] https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/merge_requests/38739