The open-source NVIDIA NVK Vulkan driver has merged code enabling Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) support in Mesa 26.2-devel, allowing DLSS-enabled games to run on Linux via Steam Play.
Key Details
- Foundation: The implementation relies on the VK_NVX_binary_import extension, which enables loading and executing NVIDIA CuBIN binaries (pre-baked CUDA binaries) on NVIDIA GPUs.
- Origins: The extension was initially proposed by Autumn Ashton and later updated by Thomas Andersen.
- Current Status: Support is currently hidden behind an environment variable due to known bugs.
- Critical Limitation: Functionality depends on compatible bytecode being available for the specific GPU. The proprietary NVIDIA driver uses a PTX-to-bytecode path not yet implemented in NVK.