3 ms·

Can you please explain like 5 year old what it means to players?

by p10a 10mo ago

zamalek 10mo ago
Games 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.
- seba_dos1 10mo ago
  You likely won't see any improvement aside of resolving some bugs in some very specific edge cases that you may have never stumbled on personally.
- shmerl 10mo ago
  Cyberpunk 2077 used to stall on shutdown with esync. No such problem with ntsync.
pseudosavant 10mo ago
From 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 ago
  It'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 ago
    I 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 ago
      It's not a performance improvement, it's fixing a performance regression (compared to the Windows baseline).
YY4879347 10mo ago
Just 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 ago
  Sounds like it would be useful for that new Linux/Win32 user space distribution.
  - kcb 10mo ago
    The Linux Subsystem for Windows
    - imcritic 10mo ago
      I think he meant the recent distro called Loss32.
- johnbellone 10mo ago
  That absolutely makes sense. Thanks for a quick TLDR!
shmerl 10mo ago
Better 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 ago
Yeah, 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 ago
Faster games

Can you please explain like 5 year old what it means to players?

by p10a 10mo ago

Can you please explain like 5 year old what it means to players?

Games 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.

seba_dos1 10mo ago
You likely won't see any improvement aside of resolving some bugs in some very specific edge cases that you may have never stumbled on personally.
shmerl 10mo ago
Cyberpunk 2077 used to stall on shutdown with esync. No such problem with ntsync.

pseudosavant 10mo ago

From 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 ago
It'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 ago
  I 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 ago
    It's not a performance improvement, it's fixing a performance regression (compared to the Windows baseline).

YY4879347 10mo ago

Just 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 ago
Sounds like it would be useful for that new Linux/Win32 user space distribution.
- kcb 10mo ago
  The Linux Subsystem for Windows
  - imcritic 10mo ago
    I think he meant the recent distro called Loss32.
johnbellone 10mo ago
That absolutely makes sense. Thanks for a quick TLDR!

shmerl 10mo ago

Better 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 ago

Yeah, 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 ago

Faster games