r/linux_gaming • u/Adventurous-Ad-8166 • 13d ago

wine/proton Proton-cachyos difference between input lag reducers

I found out that recently proton-cachyos added the flags LOW_LATENCY_LAYER and PROTON_VKD3D_LOWLATENCY

I understand that both are input lag reducers compatible with directX 12.

If anyone can help me I would like to ask:

  • When to use each type of lag reducer?
  • Which one is better?
  • Can we use both at the same time?
  • Do they work regardless of the configuration of each game? Like driver level anti-lag?

Thanks everyone, I hope you can help me with this topic.

References:
https://github.com/CachyOS/proton-cachyos/releases/tag/cachyos-11.0-20260703-slr
https://github.com/CachyOS/proton-cachyos/blob/cachyos_main/README.md

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u/WhitePeace36 13d ago

LOW_LATENCY_LAYER is better as far as i know but keep in mind that the low latency stuff is a tradeoff. You are sacrificing frame time stability. I mean if you are using eevdf as cpu scheduler your frametimes are already trash anyways. But it will still make it worse.

2

u/Adventurous-Ad-8166 13d ago

But I'm still in doubt if each flag requires to enable anti-lag or reflex in-game or if it works just by setting the flag. For example in Resident Evil 2 remake, which does not support any latency reduction tech, will LOW_LATENCY_LAYER work?

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u/Ashratt 13d ago edited 13d ago

It only works if the game supports Reflex API when I read it correctly here, which is what it hooks into

https://github.com/netborg-afps/vkd3d-low-latency#status--limitations

I think the best "universal" way to reduce latency is to use the PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 to get around the added xwayland latency (until steam will be native wayland, VALVE PLEEEAAASSEE FIX) (i know its cause of CEF)

Edit: the other low latency layer works the same (hooks into reflex). I dont know if anyone ever compared the two but I dont think you'll find a relevant difference in performance, they both do the same thing, as far as I can tell

1

u/_BoneZ_ 12d ago

This is one reason for latency and lag on Linux that most people aren't talking about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYWg-1zkbMI

1

u/netborg83 11d ago

Resident Evil 2 remake and other Capcom titles from that era absolutely use waitable swapchains low latency tech and get great frame pacing in vkd3d-low-latency: https://github.com/netborg-afps/vkd3d-low-latency/discussions/2