--- title: NVIDIA VA-API Driver 0.0.18 Ships More Fixes,... description: The third-party open-source NVIDIA VA-API Driver reached version 0.0.18, fixing HEVC decoding artifacts and enabling Chrome/Chromium hardware video decoding on... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/nvidia-va-api-driver-0-0-18-ships-more-fixes-chrome-chromium-decode-on-direct-backend-ejpz4kpdu twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: NVIDIA VA-API Driver 0.0.18 Ships More Fixes, Chrome/Chromium Decode On Direct Backend | daily.dev og:description: The third-party open-source NVIDIA VA-API Driver reached version 0.0.18, fixing HEVC decoding artifacts and enabling Chrome/Chromium hardware video decoding on... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/nvidia-va-api-driver-0-0-18-ships-more-fixes-chrome-chromium-decode-on-direct-backend-ejpz4kpdu og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/EJPz4KpDU.png og:image:alt: NVIDIA VA-API Driver 0.0.18 Ships More Fixes, Chrome/Chromium Decode On Direct Backend og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # NVIDIA VA-API Driver 0.0.18 Ships More Fixes, Chrome/Chromium Decode On Direct Backend **[Phoronix](https://daily.dev/sources/phoronix)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary The third-party open-source NVIDIA VA-API Driver reached version 0.0.18, fixing HEVC decoding artifacts and enabling Chrome/Chromium hardware video decoding on the direct backend, important for Wayland and ANGLE-on-Vulkan setups. The driver layers VA-API over NVIDIA's NVDEC interface, letting VA-API-only apps get GPU video acceleration on NVIDIA hardware on Linux, since NVIDIA's official driver stack doesn't support VA-API natively. Part of the work was assisted by AI tools (Claude and Opus) for bug hunting and implementation. A separate draft pull request adding NVENC encoding support via VA-API remains unmerged, still pending as a future addition. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What's new in the NVIDIA VA-API driver version 0.0.18 release? Version 0.0.18 of the third-party open-source nvidia-vaapi-driver fixes HEVC decoding artifacts and adds working Chrome/Chromium hardware video decoding on the direct backend, which matters for Wayland and ANGLE-on-Vulkan setups. This driver implements VA-API on top of NVIDIA's NVDEC interface, since NVIDIA's official Linux driver doesn't natively support VA-API. _Track NVIDIA Linux video acceleration fixes like this one as they ship on daily.dev._ ### Does Chrome hardware video decoding work with NVIDIA on Linux using VA-API? Yes, as of the nvidia-vaapi-driver v0.0.18 release, Chrome/Chromium hardware video decoding now works on the direct backend, which is especially relevant for Wayland and ANGLE-on-Vulkan configurations. This is achieved through the third-party VA-API-over-NVDEC driver rather than native NVIDIA VA-API support. _Developers debugging NVIDIA video decode on Linux can follow driver fixes like this via daily.dev._ ### Is NVENC encoding support coming to the nvidia-vaapi-driver project? A draft pull request adding NVENC encoding support via VA-API exists but has not been merged as of the v0.0.18 release of the third-party nvidia-vaapi-driver project. It has been in progress for the past few months, so VA-API encode support on NVIDIA hardware remains unavailable through this driver for now. _Anyone waiting on NVIDIA VA-API encode support can follow project updates through daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [NVIDIA VA-API Driver 0.0.15 Released With A Few Fixes](https://daily.dev/posts/nvidia-va-api-driver-0-0-15-released-with-a-few-fixes-zxo7ykg2w) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [NVIDIA-VAAPI-Driver 0.0.17 Fixes Support For GB10 Powered Systems](https://daily.dev/posts/nvidia-vaapi-driver-0-0-17-fixes-support-for-gb10-powered-systems-f1zrwo5de) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Nouveau Patch For Linux 7.3 Allows For NVK Vulkan Video Atop NVIDIA NVDEC](https://daily.dev/posts/nouveau-patch-for-linux-7-3-allows-for-nvk-vulkan-video-atop-nvidia-nvdec-amnwvtpzw) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Firefox Merges Support For Vulkan Video Decoding](https://daily.dev/posts/firefox-merges-support-for-vulkan-video-decoding-pjqbu9rgp) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [DXVK-NVAPI 0.9.2 Further Improves NVIDIA Integration For Steam Play Linux Gaming](https://daily.dev/posts/dxvk-nvapi-0-9-2-further-improves-nvidia-integration-for-steam-play-linux-gaming-3ka4r3ucf) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#nvidia](https://daily.dev/tags/nvidia), [#chromium](https://daily.dev/tags/chromium) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/nvidia-va-api-driver-0-0-18-ships-more-fixes-chrome-chromium-decode-on-direct-backend-ejpz4kpdu) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"NVIDIA VA-API Driver 0.0.18 Ships More Fixes, Chrome/Chromium Decode On Direct Backend","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/nvidia-va-api-driver-0-0-18-ships-more-fixes-chrome-chromium-decode-on-direct-backend-ejpz4kpdu","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/nvidia-va-api-driver-0-0-18-ships-more-fixes-chrome-chromium-decode-on-direct-backend-ejpz4kpdu"},"datePublished":"2026-08-31T09:57:07.870Z","dateModified":"2026-08-31T09:57:37.469Z","description":"The third-party open-source NVIDIA VA-API Driver reached version 0.0.18, fixing HEVC decoding artifacts and enabling Chrome/Chromium hardware video decoding on...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/78a21f526bd2947d9dea744cf70113b6?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/78a21f526bd2947d9dea744cf70113b6?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Phoronix","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Phoronix","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/6a26ba379dd64932830aa0c9803dd7ee","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/phoronix"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/nvidia-va-api-driver-0-0-18-ships-more-fixes-chrome-chromium-decode-on-direct-backend-ejpz4kpdu","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"linux,nvidia,chromium","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Phoronix","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/phoronix"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"NVIDIA VA-API Driver 0.0.18 Ships More Fixes, Chrome/Chromium Decode On Direct Backend"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/nvidia-va-api-driver-0-0-18-ships-more-fixes-chrome-chromium-decode-on-direct-backend-ejpz4kpdu#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What's new in the NVIDIA VA-API driver version 0.0.18 release?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Version 0.0.18 of the third-party open-source nvidia-vaapi-driver fixes HEVC decoding artifacts and adds working Chrome/Chromium hardware video decoding on the direct backend, which matters for Wayland and ANGLE-on-Vulkan setups. 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