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Latest SteamOS Beta Now Includes Ntsync Kernel Driver
- p10a 10mo agoCan you please explain like 5 year old what it means to players?
- zamalek 10mo agoGames that have problems with the previous approach might have hitches or stalls, though it could manifest in many ways. Edit: I am running a kernel with it on, as well as Proton-CachyOS which has it opt-in. I have yet to see it make an improvement of any kind. Maybe it might help on lower-spec hardware such as the Deck.
- pseudosavant 10mo agoFrom my reading, it will be replacing a user-space sync emulation handler with a kernel-space sync module. Generally, kernel space will be faster or more efficient than user space. Whether this matters in any appreciable way (more than 1% improvement) in reality will have to be seen.
- entropicdrifter 10mo agoIt's more that FSync was close to but subtly different from the Windows synchronization primitives when used in certain specific ways and NTSync is a 100% accurate implementation of those same exact Windows synchronization primitives. It should resolve hitching and other minor issues in older games, especially. Basically it will have no performance improvement, in some cases minor degradation, but it resolves some compatibility issues with older multi-threaded programs.
- rowanG077 10mo agoI don't understand. You say it's no perf improvement yet it resolves hitching. Hitching to me is a pretty clear perf problem.
- fluoridation 10mo agoIt's not a performance improvement, it's fixing a performance regression (compared to the Windows baseline).
- YY4879347 10mo agoJust reading about it now, it implements some system calls from Windows NT normally emulated via Proton in user-space to the kernel which should reduce overhead. Very cool.
- actionfromafar 10mo agoSounds like it would be useful for that new Linux/Win32 user space distribution.
- johnbellone 10mo agoThat absolutely makes sense. Thanks for a quick TLDR!
- shmerl 10mo agoBetter performance and less bugs. For more info, see here, including a link to Youtube video with more details: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20241213193511.457338-1-zfigura@codeweavers.com/ https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20241213193511.457338-1-zfigura...
- WalterGR 10mo agoYeah, the page could use some inline context. It does link to this page, which has a bit more info and links to further info. Not at all 5-year-old level, but should help: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.14-NTSYNC-Driver-Ready https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.14-NTSYNC-Driver-Ready
- semiquaver 10mo agoFaster games
- saidinesh5 10mo agoIf anyone from Valve is reading this, my biggest wishlist from Steam OS is a proper general purpose browsing tab. Please make it happen .. I currently use that web browser from Decky loader, but that keeps breaking so often. Plus it would be nice to have something that i can login my YouTube, Netflix etc.. accounts ..
- naoru 10mo agoWhat's wrong with Desktop mode?
- wolrah 10mo agoHaving to switch to desktop mode and back. It's not exactly rocket science to add a "browser app" to the Steam system to use certain web sites in an appliance-ish mode, but it's not great for general purpose browsing. A slightly more advanced browser frontend that offered an experience comparable to Edge on Xbox would be very nice.
- whs 10mo agoDecky warns that the Steam's built in browser is outdated and may have security vulnerability. I suppose properly maintaining a browser is a burden.
- johnbellone 10mo agoDid you try loading the browser as a non-game application? To be honest, I primarily do my browsing offline, and I installed https://localsend.org https://localsend.org using Flatpak to move files to/from the Steam Deck. It works amazingly well.
- LeoPanthera 10mo agoYou can install Microsoft Edge from Flathub. (And I think maybe Chrome too?) Edge has the advantage that XBox Cloud Gaming works on it.
- 10mo ago
- shmerl 10mo agoNice. I've been using ntsync with Wine for a while since Wine merged the support. It works better than esync, especially for Cyberpunk 2077.
- CodesInChaos 10mo agoExplanation of what this kernel API does and why it's beneficial: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/f4cc1a38-1441-62f8-47e4-0c67f5ad1d43@codeweavers.com/T/#u https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/f4cc1a38-1441-62f8-47e4-0c67f5a...
- SomeHacker44 10mo agoI could not pass the making sure you are not a bot on an airline flight mid Atlantic. So stupid.
- no-reply 10mo agohttps://archive.is/c0k7v https://archive.is/c0k7v
- hhh 10mo agoweird, i’ve passed plenty of these on flights.
- pabs3 9mo agoJust change your User-Agent to one that doesn't include Mozilla and you will bypass it. There is a WebExtension that can do that automatically for Anubis sites, or you can just do it more generally.
- andrekandre 10mo agothat was an awesome read; so professional/ organized (and super interesting)... kind of makes me want to work at codeweavers ^_^
- cdaringe 9mo agoYa masterfully crafted
- cyberax 10mo agoBTW, this driver is genuinely useful even for Linux code. WaitForMultipleObjects is super-helpful if you want to do sane thread cancellation without jumping through POSIX hoops.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 10mo agoStill no 64 bit steam client?
- hyperion2010 10mo agoNope, the client is now 64bit as of Dec 19th 2025 https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/528740542771627405 https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail.... Unless you mean linux client, but that is presumably coming at some point now that the windows client is 64bit.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 10mo agoTIL thanks!
- hit8run 10mo agoCookie Banner too annoying, won’t read.