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dxvk on Windows

DXVK is a translation layer that converts DirectX graphics into Vulkan, improving game performance on various systems. This guide explains how to use DXVK on Windows, especially useful for enhancing gameplay in DirectX 11 or lower games like Grand Theft Auto IV.

Pre-requisites:

Windows
A game that utilizes DirectX 11 or lower _{p.s.a: use something like
PCGamingWiki to
find this information. a very valuable resource.}
dxvk-gplasync - DXVK files for Windows

Using PCGamingWiki, in this instance with Grand Theft Auto IV, look under the API section for details about the executable and whether it’s 32-bit or 64-bit, alongside the DirectX version. Download dxvk-gplasync, and extract it. You'll find two folders labeled 'x32' and 'x64'. Select the one that matches your game's architecture, Grand Theft Auto IV is 32-bit.

Inside, you'll find files for different DirectX versions:

DirectX 9: d3d9.dll
DirectX 10:
        d3d10core.dll, d3d11.dll, dxgi.dll
DirectX 11:
        d3d11.dll, dxgi.dll

With this information, proceed as follows:

Go to the game's parent directory and copy the corresponding DirectX version files into it. For Grand Theft Auto IV, this means copying d3d9.dll.
Create a new file in the directory named 'dxvk.conf' and input the following:

dxvk.enableAsync=true
dxvk.gplAsyncCache=true

For further DXVK configuration options, see: dxvk.conf documentation.

After these steps, start the game. DXVK will now translate DirectX calls to Vulkan, potentially improving performance.