Experimental Vulkan and X11 Lakka 2.2 builds for x86_64

Posted on 2019-01-16 by mlnlbrt

So far nvidia PC GPUs were supported by Lakka through nouveau open-source drivers.

Unfortunately, these drivers are nowhere as complete as Intel or AMD ones, so while having some advantages (DRM/KMS support, no X Server) this approach has major drawbacks, for example:

Because of the above, PCs with nvidia GPUs were not a good target for Lakka. To overcome the limitations and unleash full potential of these GPUs, the following new experimental builds of Lakka for x86_64 are now available from here:

Generic_VK_nvidia

Vulkan-only build which uses VK_KHR_display extension, implemented in the vendor proprietary driver. This is similar to DRM/KMS, a direct-to-display approach, where input lag should be minimal. As for now, this is the only Lakka variant with Vulkan backends for Beetle-PSX, Dolphin, Parallel-N64 or PPSSPP cores enabled, so you can enjoy features like recently added SSAA option in Beetle-PSX and low-level N64 emulation.

Beetle-PSX SSAA feature on Vulkan

Beetle-PSX SSAA feature on Vulkan

Beetle-PSX SSAA feature on Vulkan

Due to lack of OpenGL this build does not include GL-only cores. It should work with all Vulkan-capable nvidia GPUs supported by 390.42 driver.

Generic_X11_nvidia

Basically, this is a Generic x86_64 Lakka build with proprietary X11 drivers and X Server, so it offers better GPU support at cost of possibly higher input lag. No Vulkan yet.

This build should work with all GPU supported by 390.42 driver and legacy 340.106 driver.

Contributing and testing

Please keep in mind these are experimental builds kept outside main repository in a fork. Enjoy and feel free to submit issues here.