Running Valhalla on Windows 7/8.1

[Knightmare]

So Valhalla is supposedly a Windows 10 exclusive on PC due to its use of DX12 for rendering, and only DX12.

But it appears that somebody has found a workaround to run it on Win 7 using a DX12->Vulkan wrapper (they used to call these mini-drivers back in the day):

http://neonfloppy.sytes.net/blog/2021-03-01/

This was back in March, and it would be interesting to know if it still works, as Ubisoft has been frequently patching the game.

I'm running Win 8.1, and will probably buy Valhalla in the near future because of this (when before I had just written it off).  But I haven't finished AC3 Remastered or Origins yet, much less even started Odyssey!

[PZ]

I think you'll like the direction the company has gone with the AC games (at least I do). Valhalla is definitely my favorite, but Origins was before this game. I did not particularly care for Odyssey, but many rave about it. I guess I just like the Egypt setting more than the Greek one.

Valhalla offers many different locations, and I like them all, some more than others however.

After having completed Valhalla for the most part, I was actually motivated to go back into Odyssey, but am not sure yet. I guess I'm waiting for Games + to come to Valhalla and I'll start all over again, with even more excitement than the first time.

[Knightmare]

I'm absolutely loving Origins so far- the most immersive game I've ever played.  It almost makes me think I'm really there in Egypt.

The only thing that undermines that immersion is the scale of the game map- the Giza pyramids can be seen from Alexandria, and then I remember that this in-game Egypt is a fraction of the size of real one.  Not quite as bad as the Florida Keys appearing as a large sandbar in Black Flag, but it breaks it nonetheless.  There are also lots of real-world sites not represented in the game, such as Djedefre's pyramid (before the Romans leveled it), and most of Dashur with its Middle Kingdom pyramids.

The little I've seen of Odyssey so far makes it look more like a fun romp through Ancient Greece, and a lot less like an Assassin's Creed story.

As far as Valhalla goes, I'm glad that UBI*bleep*'s programmers did a clean job and didn't rely on any Win 10 exclusive features other than DX12.  Some recent games have been unable to run on Win 7/8.1 despite not even using any Win 10 features *cough cough* Mass Effect Legendary *cough cough*.

[PZ]

So glad you're enjoying Origins! I did not think I'd find one I liked better, but Valhalla proved me wrong ( I like it even better. However, I still LOVE to play Origins because of the Egyptian setting, the feeling of entering a musty tomp when going into the pyramids, and mostly how poisoning works. Poison when working in stealth (assassination style) with poison is so much fun, especially not that I have completed the game at a high level, and can start the game afresh in Games + mode 

[Knightmare]

I went ahead got the game on Black Friday.  I managed to get it to w0#k in Win8.1 with the exact library versions mentioned in the blog post (vkd3d-proton 2.2 and dxvk 1.8.1).  I tried newer versions first, but the game hung on the startup splash logo.  These libraries are designed for Wine/Lutris use under Linux, so they aren't regularly tested on Windows by the developers.

I did get 2 driver crashes in the menus when switching monitors and then the first time I started the benchmark after binding keys.  This forced me to kill the game in Task Manager.  After everything was configured, I was able to load the benchmark and Discovery Tour without crashing again.

Performance is so-so (~40 fps on high settings) on my 1070Ti (driver 472.12), so there might be a penalty for the Vulkan translation, given that Origins and Odyssey run at ~60 fps on ultra high.  I'll post more when I get into the game after finishing Odyssey.

[PZ]

Nice 

I am looking forward to  your impressions, especially since you are on PC 

[Dweller_Benthos]

That's a pretty roundabout path that I'd never think would w0#k, using a driver meant for a VM in Linux to get it to w0#k on an older version of windows? Wow. That's some maze-like thinking lol.

[Knightmare]

Actually, it's pretty simple when you understand what the vkd3d-proton library does.  It bridges an unavailable API (DirectX 12) to an available one (Vulkan).

I've also had to roll back my nVidia driver to 461.40 because 472.12 was crashing immediately when you go underwater in AC Origins (and possibly Odyssey too).  441.20 also previously worked for me.  Apparently this is due to broken code in Origins/Odyssey that violates DX11 specs (and had a workaround in nVidia drivers that apparently no longer works).  For some systems it's just flickering, for me it crashes, sometimes with a driver reset notification.

Anyway, Valhalla still works on Win8.1 using vkd3d-proton with this previous driver.

More on this Origins bug:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/582160/discussions/1/3069747783683568529/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/582160/discussions/1/4755222397140564566/
The last 2 posts here from TheFish122 have detailed info:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/game-ready-drivers/13/464657/ac-origins-waterunderwater-flicker/?topicPage=1