We’ve long had DXVK and VKD3D-Proton to support various versions of Direct3D on Linux, but now it seems we’re also getting support for Direct3D 7. This is an exciting development for running older Windows games on Linux systems.
According to the project’s GitHub page, this new effort is a Vulkan-based translation layer for Direct3D 7. It allows 3D applications that use Direct3D 7 to run on Linux through Wine. The technology leverages DXVK’s d3d9 backend along with Wine’s ddraw implementation (or optionally the native Windows ddraw). Essentially, it acts as a proxy between these components, providing a minimal d3d7-on-d3d9 implementation.
The project is still in its early days. While many applications are expected to run, they may not always run correctly or optimally just yet. The first public release appeared on GitHub about two weeks ago. However, a fresh update released on November 5th reportedly brought significant improvements. As the developer shared:
> “After focusing a bit on performance tuning, things are now anywhere between decent to stellar in most of the supported games.”
It sounds like the plan is to keep this as a standalone project rather than merge it into DXVK. This is pretty cool news, especially for game preservation efforts. It means even more retro Windows games could run—and perform well—on Linux systems, at a time when even modern Windows versions might struggle with some of these older titles.
*Pictured: Star Trek: Armada*
However, it’s important to note that not every Direct3D 7 game will work flawlessly. Back then, things were a bit messy with different APIs in use. The developer notes:
> “d3d7 is a land of highly cursed API inter-operability, and applications that for one reason or another mix and match d3d7 with older ddraw (not ddraw7) and/or with GDI are not expected to ever work.”
According to PCGamingWiki, quite a number of games utilized Direct3D 7 as their graphics API, so support here could unlock many titles for Linux users.
You can check out the project and its latest updates on [GitHub](https://github.com).
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/11/d7vk-brings-direct3d-7-to-linux-using-vulkan-based-on-dxvk/
