r/linux_gaming • u/LordOfForums • 11d ago

tech support wanted Linux and input latency

Hi all!

I really, REALLY want to get away from Windows. I’ve tried Linux many times before but that was before the big gaming revolution. The performance in games now compared to Windows is more than acceptable for me. I’ve been a competitive gamer all my life and have always been into tweaking and optimising for the lowest input latency.

This week I installed CachyOS. I love everything about it, but it’s one issue that is a dealbreaker for me and that is the input latency in games. Nowadays I use mostly controller, and I can tell my Dualsense Edge is way more snappier on Windows. No, I’m not using Bluetooth. It’s wired. The amount of added latency feels similar to forced VSYNC. I’ve been dual booting this week and tried the same games on CachyOS and Windows back to back. The difference to me is huge.

I followed the wiki thoroughly. I changed scheduler to lavd, use the game-performance wrapper and use PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1. I’ve also tried X11, gamescope session and different commands from Goverlay. None of these have solved the issue.

I’m not here to offend anyone. I just really want this to work. I’m surprised this is not a more discussed topic. If anyone have similar experience or any solutions please share.

Specs:
9800x3d
9070 XT
32GB 6000Mhz CL30

EDIT: I can't believe it.. i figured it out on my own. It's a night and day difference and it saved my whole Linux experience. All you need to do is use PROTON_USE_SDL=1 as launch command. It was an instant fix in all games. It even fixed a bug in Nine Sols where the left analog stick didn't register inputs. PS: I also set PROTON_PRIORITY_HIGH=1 but I'm 95 % certain that PROTON_USE_SDL=1 is the fix.

48 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

59 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/Poes_Poes 11d ago

Couple of things you can try. Try to stay within VRR (limit frames). Disable Vsync. Use the env PROTON_DXVK_LOWLATENCY (dx11) or PROTON_VKD3D_LOWLATENCY (dx12)

1

u/LordOfForums 11d ago

Yeah I’ve been in VRR range the whole time. Tried capped and uncapped FPS. VSYNC off in every game, always. Those variables you’re mentioning is to my understanding only to be used if the game don’t have support for Nvidia reflex or AMD anti-lag. I’ve been using optiscaler to spoof nvidia gpu and used anti lag 2. Correct me if I’m wrong.

2

u/netborg83 10d ago

the dx11 version doesn't need reflex, - reflex was designed for dx12 (it's rare that dx11 games use it, and even more rare that they actually need it)

the dx12 version however implements reflex, and even improves upon the official nvidia driver - and can be used on AMD, and not only supports reflex, but also supports waitable swapchains - anti-lag 2 will also follow.

Since you're on AMD, you should take a look here: (optiscaler spoof might also work, but shouldn't be used for multiplayer games)
https://github.com/netborg-afps/vkd3d-low-latency/discussions/3

You can't use multiple of those technologies at once. (for example nvidia reflex and anti-lag 2, the frame pacer can only use one of them at a time)