Running Dota 2 on Ubuntu Linux with the Vulkan API

First off, to use Vulkan on Linux you need an Intel or NVIDIA GPU. I’m not sure about AMD — it probably works too.

On NVIDIA, you need the latest 370-series driver before Vulkan support can be enabled.

If you don’t have the latest driver installed, use the official PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-370

Then add this parameter to the game’s Launch Options:

-vulkan

And just launch it.

As for the actual difference? I honestly couldn’t feel one, but I didn’t run into any problems either.