FUTEX2 Spun Up A Fifth Time For This Linux Interface To Help Windows Games

[phoronix]

Phoronix: FUTEX2 Spun Up A Fifth Time For This Linux Interface To Help Windows Games

FUTEX2 continues to be worked on by Collabora as part of their work with Valve on enhancing Linux gaming support. With FUTEX2 the work is driven about enhancing the support for Windows games running on Linux with the likes of Steam Play...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=FUTEX2-v5

[theriddick]

Maybe it can help things like Star Citizen, which has a issue of loading on objects, even textures on a pure NVMe high end system. Has been a big issue for a while for SC under proton or wine.

[uid313]

Is futex2 better than futex?
While this was made specially for Wine, is this only for Wine, or should all of Linux use futex2 instead of futex?

[avem]

Is futex2 better than futex?
While this was made specially for Wine, is this only for Wine, or should all of Linux use futex2 instead of futex?

It's not just for Wine. Nothing in the Linux kernel is just for something, its userspace API are available for all applications.

As to whether it's better or not I've no idea. Since so many people are working on it, it looks like Windows has some APIs which are ill-represented in Linux, so a closer implementation could bring huge benefits in terms of performance/usability.

[ermo]

Maybe it can help things like Star Citizen, which has a issue of loading on objects, even textures on a pure NVMe high end system. Has been a big issue for a while for SC under proton or wine.

<OT>
You're assuming that Star Citizen can be helped.

As a backer since 2012, I remain somewhat ... unconvinced let's say.
</OT>

[binarybanana]

I gave up on wine/proton since no matter how much it improves there will always be enough issues for it to be frustrating at times. Some games, especially older games run better than on Windows, but other than that it's hit and miss in both compatibility and performance. Look at this, they even have to mess with the kernel to make it work better. To be fair, even native programs could benefit from it, but still.

Nowadays I just use a Windows VM with GPU passthrough. Literally every game I tried works exactly the same as on base metal Windows and performance is same, or slightly better actually. DPC latency is also much better at 30-60us avg, curiously. No more worrying about compatibility. No more workarounds. No more crap performance. No more visual glitches or other bugs and wondering if that's normal. You also can use stuff like HeSuVi for excellent virtual surround sound on headphones, or use SpecialK to decrease input latency in games to a minimum. Only thing that's problematic it that some online games consider a VM a cheat and might ban you. There aren't that many, but some do. Not sure how those mpare with wine, since I don't play those, but anti-cheat is even more of a headache on wine kernel mode anti cheat especially), so if a VM is a cheat, it's likely that wine is, too.

So given that I wonder why people still bother with wine/proton. I guess it's fine if someone doesn't care if a few games are unplayable or for people who only play a handful of games that happen to work. A VM with a bare-bones Windows takes seconds to boot and the game console OS is ready. Probably starts faster than Steam does.

[Hibiki Kanzaki]

I've been waiting many years for Linux to get support for the equivalent of WaitForMultipleObjects. It's one area where the NT kernel made life much easier than Linux.

[F.Ultra]

I've been waiting many years for Linux to get support for the equivalent of WaitForMultipleObjects. It's one area where the NT kernel made life much easier than Linux.

Then you have to wait some more because this isn't it, this is just a building block that WINE will use in order to provide the WaitForMultipleObjects API for Windows applications. This is a WaitForMultipleFutex API.

[coder]

I've been waiting many years for Linux to get support for the equivalent of WaitForMultipleObjects.

I started with multithreaded programming on Windows, so I was aware of when I wanted WaitForMultipleObjects() and didn't have it. And that has actually been a very small number of times.

I wonder if it's any easier to shoot yourself in the foot, with WFMO. When acquiring multiple mutexes, the main pitfall is if any code path which acquires them does so in a different order than any of the others, you can hit a deadlock.

[jrch2k8]

I gave up on wine/proton since no matter how much it improves there will always be enough issues for it to be frustrating at times. Some games, especially older games run better than on Windows, but other than that it's hit and miss in both compatibility and performance. Look at this, they even have to mess with the kernel to make it work better. To be fair, even native programs could benefit from it, but still.

Nowadays I just use a Windows VM with GPU passthrough. Literally every game I tried works exactly the same as on base metal Windows and performance is same, or slightly better actually. DPC latency is also much better at 30-60us avg, curiously. No more worrying about compatibility. No more workarounds. No more crap performance. No more visual glitches or other bugs and wondering if that's normal. You also can use stuff like HeSuVi for excellent virtual surround sound on headphones, or use SpecialK to decrease input latency in games to a minimum. Only thing that's problematic it that some online games consider a VM a cheat and might ban you. There aren't that many, but some do. Not sure how those mpare with wine, since I don't play those, but anti-cheat is even more of a headache on wine kernel mode anti cheat especially), so if a VM is a cheat, it's likely that wine is, too.

So given that I wonder why people still bother with wine/proton. I guess it's fine if someone doesn't care if a few games are unplayable or for people who only play a handful of games that happen to work. A VM with a bare-bones Windows takes seconds to boot and the game console OS is ready. Probably starts faster than Steam does.

Very simple, in my case:

1.) a 2nd GPU to do pass through make no economic sense just to play some games.
2.) I only use DRM free or cracked games(because those usually remove any DRM)(i do own them but usually the crack works better).
3.) is not that hard for me and lutris kinda make it easier.
4.) I don't play anything that include loot boxes(if i wanna burn money on RNG i'll go to a damn casino)
5.) i don't buy games at release, they are usually half done, full of bugs and very expensive(even less pre order, you burn me once not twice)
6.) i just don't like Windows and i don't want it even on a virtual machine, hence i have no problem waiting few weeks until someone finds a way around whatever issue i have and since i don't make money playing games, is no biggie.
7.) My ultra modded skyrim SE works better on Wine+RADV than on Windows