Gamers who use fsync are not going to see such a leap in performance in most games.
I don’t think that’s overlooked at all. 99.9% of people using WINE/Proton aren’t going to have any idea what fsync is, and almost nobody not using proton-cachyos is going to use it. fsync, itself a workaround, is niche within what’s already a niche.
Futex2, often referred to interchangeably with fsync, did make it to Linux kernel 5.16 as futex_waitv, but the original implementation of fsync isn’t that. Fsync used futex_wait_multiple, and Futex2 used futex_waitv. Applications such as Lutris still refer to it as Fsync, though. It’s still kind of fsync, but it’s not the original fsync.
So since Jan 2022, it’s been in the stable Linux kernel. For Debian and its derivatives, it would be included beginning with Bookworm.
i use ntsync whenever i can, but i’ve only had linux (cachyos) on my gaming rig since like august. that said, i believe one of their recent updates made ntsync the default for proton-cachyos
Fsync maybe not but AFAIK esync is widely used. On some protondb pages there’s a hint to disable esync, not the other way round. And while esync is not as performant as fsync, it is still much better than vanilla
It’s worth noting that the new sync implementation shouldn’t cause any of the compatibility problems esync and fsync ran into, so it’s a worthwhile upgrade from a stability viewpoint even if a user won’t see huge performance gains.
I don’t think that’s overlooked at all. 99.9% of people using WINE/Proton aren’t going to have any idea what fsync is, and almost nobody not using
proton-cachyosis going to use it. fsync, itself a workaround, is niche within what’s already a niche.From what I found online, Steam enables esync by default, and fsync if your kernel supports it.
Lutris has both options nowadays in the runner settings. Idk if they’re both enabled by default, but in my case they’re enabled. ymmv there.
source
What are the kernel requirements? Is it something any random Debian user is likely to have, or do you need to be compiling it yourself?
From the article:
So since Jan 2022, it’s been in the stable Linux kernel. For Debian and its derivatives, it would be included beginning with Bookworm.
So basically, both esync and fsync are enabled by default for almost everybody.
Assuming that most non-technical users (who wouldn’t research and enable it) are probably using Wine/Proton through Steam: yeah.
Speaking, although I’ve heard the term thrown around a lot. Can I get a layman’s overview?
I think it’s pretty well described in the article of the post
You’re right, it is.
You can try all you want, but you will never get me to read the articles before commenting.
i use ntsync whenever i can, but i’ve only had linux (cachyos) on my gaming rig since like august. that said, i believe one of their recent updates made ntsync the default for proton-cachyos
Fsync maybe not but AFAIK esync is widely used. On some protondb pages there’s a hint to disable esync, not the other way round. And while esync is not as performant as fsync, it is still much better than vanilla
It’s worth noting that the new sync implementation shouldn’t cause any of the compatibility problems esync and fsync ran into, so it’s a worthwhile upgrade from a stability viewpoint even if a user won’t see huge performance gains.