Marek Olšák At Valve Lands RADV Code That Can "Double Performance" With Some VRS Cases

Marek Olšák, who recently joined Valve and shifted focus to the RADV Vulkan driver, has landed a major variable rate shading (VRS) overhaul in Mesa 26.2. The 22-patch rewrite fixes bugs, simplifies code, and can double performance in certain VRS scenarios — particularly benefiting VKD3D (Direct3D 12 over Vulkan) and Steam Play (Proton). Key improvements include enabling the VRS flat shading optimization regardless of whether VRS is dynamic or static state, and preventing RB+ from being disabled in edge cases where VRS is forcefully turned off. The changes are merged and targeting the Mesa 26.2 release in August.