G-Sync for Linux?

Hello,

I am assuming that in your quest for feature parity between Linux and Windows, you will be adding G-Sync support to the Linux driver. I want to know if there is an estimate as to when this may happen?

Thank you. :-)

I’m also quite interested in this and just started a new topic before I knew this one existed.

Actually, there are quite a few people I know wondering when Nvidia will tell us what is going on. Unfortunately, your post wasn’t answered for 4 months. :(

Anyone have any updates for us psychophysics buffs out here?

NVIDIA doesn’t comment on future products.

/thread

Besides, how many triple A games are there in Linux? 3? You want NVIDIA to invest their money into the technology three people will use?

Who says that G-Sync only works with AAA games? There are about 1.3 Million Linux users on Steam according to the HW Survey. 52% of all Steam Users have NVIDIA Hardware. Percentage may be even higher for Linux users since NVIDIA is the only company with proper drivers. Valve and NVIDIA are best buddies and Valve is pushing Linux very hard together with NVIDIAs help. Former NVIDIA engineers even work own Valves on Linux based gaming OS. That’s not enough reason to support it on Linux for you?

You don’t need G-Sync for old games (most Linux games) - all current NVIDIA GPUs have enough juice to run them at 60fps. Again, only 3 games tops need G-Sync - and it’s not enough to warrant NVIDIA’s expenditure.

I know it’s not popular to think nowadays, but you should try once in a while.

/thread

I’m not sure why you think that being able to run a game at 60fps eliminates the need for G-Sync.

It’s almost like you don’t even understand what it is.

It’s almost like you haven’t even begun to grok what G-Sync is meant to eliminate - it’s meant to eliminate stuttering and tearing when FPS goes above and below monitor’s refresh rate. If you can run you games at steady 60fps with VSync turned on you don’t need GSync.

Only 5% of people will even notice improved response times that G-Sync provides.

Well, SteamOS is coming. This idea that AAA games don’t run on Linux will thankfully come to an end soon.

That said, there are lots of things one can do in 3D that isn’t a game. GSync might be nice to have, right? NVIDIA has already invested in creating GSync, so I think we can appreciate why someone might want to be able to use it on Linux. Is anyone going to claim that NVIDIA shouldn’t support SLI on Linux? How is GSync any different?

First, some of the GSync monitors at least will be 120hz so even moderately heavy games are going to struggle on a lot of hardware out there.

Second, I suspect running games with Wine is a fairly common use case at this point. Many games won’t maintain stable 60fps, again depending on hardware. Bottlenecks within Wine are being reduced with time, but all that means is that the heavy games that would run on Windows at less than 60fps will only run a bit slower here. Even brief drops below 60fps will benefit from GSync in any case.

Third, platform support just makes sense to me if nvidia are serious about Linux support in a broader sense. Perhaps it will be difficult to implement, but you can’t blame people for wanting it. I could see there being technical issues in doing so with Xorg at the moment, though.

LOL the same could have been said about Windows in the past. For the people to young to remember, Windows wasn’t always the No. 1 gaming OS. Only after Gabe Newell (still working for MS at the time) contacted iD Software and offered them to port Doom over to Windows it really took of as an OS. Yeah but that’s a part of history the current generation of CoD Kiddies often ignore.

Lol what? Could you please remind me what OS was a gaming OS before Windows? MS-DOS? Are you freaking serious? MS-DOS didn’t even have OpenGL/Direct3D back then (Direct3D first appeared in Windows 95), the only real 3D shooter for MS-DOS, which is Quake 1, ran in software mode at 320x240 resolution with absolutely abysmal textures and unparallelled geometry rivaled only by Minecraft (which is more a joke than an actual game).

Perhaps I’m a little older than you believe. Perhaps I’m even older than you.

And I play neither CoD, nor BF. Last but not least you look utterly pathetic trying to belittle the people who play these games.

Vsync seems to introduce input lag though. It’s not the best solution.

At most 0,017ms (1 frame, 1/60 of a second) lag whereas a normal human has a reaction of 0,15ms, i.e. this lag is 10 times less than what our brain is capable of. Yeah, CS/COD/BF4/Arma players find this disgusting.

Oh, wait, only CS runs in Linux.

facepalm

You’re obviously way to young.

You’re talking about ZX Spectrum, Nintendo NES or what?

Enlighten me. Maybe I’m missing something.

Like super advanced Tetris or specially crafted Super Mario Bros.

There is a lot of misinformation on this thread. I’ve never heard of a 1.5ms reaction time in a human. Even with using eye movements as responses, the fastest saccadic reaction times towards visual stimuli are around 90ms (and that is really pushing it).

Furthermore, the argument about whether someone might need gsync for games on linux is also a side-track.

You see, I’m doing psychophysics, and we need the GSYNC to precisely time our stimuli. There are lots of other reasons for having GSYNC working in Linux, games aren’t the only thing around that might need something like this technology. Nevertheless, games would certainly benefit whether they are on Linux or Windows or Mac.

All I’m asking for is some comment on the technology and its support in linux. This isn’t “future tech,” because it is already here, and I already have my monitor modded and set up.

I just want to know if it will be supported in linux (which is one of the only OS’s which has timing precise enough for Psychophysics research anyhow).

Would support answer such a question? How can I get an answer? Anyone have any helpful nvidia support emails that might work?

No. You cannot. None. However Aaron Plattner is a leading NVIDIA Unix developer/engineer/programmer and it’s very easy to find his e-mail and G+ page. Try asking him directly.

Like I said NVIDIA doesn’t comment on new features or their availability in the future.

Conspiracy obsessed people may even say that Microsoft paid NVIDIA to never release this technology for Linux. Who knows.

I had to make a dev account just to respond to this (although I am a dev). MS-DOS was quite huge with Warcraft 1, Doom, Caesar, Civilization and countless more but even before then there were great games on Amiga, MSX, and others.

Please keep in mind that Windows market share continues to shrink each and every year against Linux, Mac, and non-desktops (ios, Android, etc…). We need to start looking at the future and I guarantee you Windows will not be that future. The chance Windows will be the primary desktop gaming platform 15 years from now is almost nil.

I have been gaming on Linux exclusively for the last year and have quite a nice library and have not missed Windows at all. These are just a small subset of the games I own on Steam and play: Legend of Grimrock, Braid, Crusader Kings 2, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal, Hotline Miami, Euro Truck Simulator, Dota 2, Papers Please, Amnesia. Before you say “over half of those are indie games and aren’t AAA”, I’d like to point out that some of those “indie games” are the best games I’ve played in the last decade. If Metro Last Light or Mass Effect 3 is AAA, then to me Hotline Miami is AAAAA.

You don’t need a 20 million dollar budget to make a great game and IMO the large studios have been making nothing but interactive movies over the last few years.

Back to Linux… 2014 and 2015 will see Star Citizen, Wasteland 2, Torment, an XCom port, Civilization Beyond Earth, Soma, Dreamfall, Pillars of Eternity, Clockwork Empires, Hotline Miami 2, Binding of Isaac Rebirth, and possibly Witcher2/3 &Cyberpunk. It’s going to be a good time and we haven’t even had any major SteamOS launch announcements yet.

Vsync input lag is very noticable. My TV that I game on has one frame of input lag. At 1080p@120Hz this is ~9ms and yes I notice it. It isn’t un-noticable for me until I run at 720p@240Hz as it decreases input lag to 4.5ms and its still outputting at 120Hz but the input lag is halved. 15ms of input lag is very noticable.

[quote=“radiantsilvergun”]

These interactive movies drive technology forward and make people actually pay.

Besides if you don’t enjoy these like-movies games, that doesn’t mean millions of other players don’t - in fact COD/BF/GTA show that people love to play “movies”.

When you go to a movie theater you are a passive observer. With these games you can be part of the action.

HDMI processor/decoder on your TV(s) adds its own lag, so I’m not so sure >100Hz monitors have any noticeable lag whatsoever.