Zeb Figura of CodeWeavers has proposed a Windows NT synchronization primitive driver to help performance of running games and applications designed for Windows on Linux with Wine / Proton.
As per the RFC (request for comments) posted onto the Linux kernel mailing list Figura notes: "This patch series introduces a new char misc driver, /dev/ntsync, which is used to implement Windows NT synchronization primitives."
Then giving some background on it: "The Wine project emulates the Windows API in user space. One particular part of
that API, namely the NT synchronization primitives, have historically been implemented via RPC to a dedicated "kernel" process. However, more recent applications use these APIs more strenuously, and the overhead of RPC has become a bottleneck.
The NT synchronization APIs are too complex to implement on top of existing primitives without sacrificing correctness. Certain operations, such as NtPulseEvent() or the "wait-for-all" mode of NtWaitForMultipleObjects(), require direct control over the underlying wait queue, and implementing a wait queue sufficiently robust for Wine in user space is not possible. This proposed driver, therefore, implements the problematic interfaces directly in the Linux kernel."
Figura did a presentation on it at the Linux Plumbers Conference in 2023 that you can see below:
Direct Link
What kind of performance difference might we see with something like this? The difference depends on your hardware and what you're trying to run but some FPS examples were given from multiple users including:
| Game | Upstream | ntsync | improvement |
| Anger Foot | 69 | 99 | 43% |
| Call of Juarez | 99.8 | 224.1 | 125% |
| Dirt 3 | 110.6 | 860.7 | 678% |
| Forza Horizon 5 | 108 | 160 | 48% |
| Lara Croft: Temple of Osiris | 141 | 326 | 131% |
| Metro 2033 | 164.4 | 199.2 | 21% |
| Resident Evil 2 | 26 | 77 | 196% |
| The Crew | 26 | 51 | 96% |
| Tiny Tina's Wonderlands | 130 | 360 | 177% |
| Total War Saga: Troy | 109 | 146 | 34% |
What hardware and software each was tested on was not noted.
Some impressive numbers but again it's hardware dependent, but even so any performance uplift would be welcome, so hopefully the patch series gets some good comments and approval after any tweaks are done that may be needed. Looks like we could end up seeing a nice future performance improvement for Linux and Steam Deck gaming with Wine and Proton.
Source: Phoronix
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
TheRiddick Jan 24
Last edited by apprentix on 24 January 2024 at 11:58 am UTC
Quoting: F.UltraNote that the improvements in the table is vs using the wineserver only so this is not compared with fsync or esync. Looks like the performance is similar to fsync/esync according to the presentation, just that some edge cases like Pulse Events and WaitOnAll now works while they are broken on fsync/esync.
Yeah, for Linux gamers the main benefit of this will be simply that things will finally be upstreamed. Those edge cases will barely matter for anyone.
Quoting: DrNickSounds like my Steam Deck is gonna have an easier time running some games.I can't wait to see these changes get added to the Linux kernel and SteamOS because if these numbers are any indication, it sounds like we're in for some awesome gaming experiences on the Steam Deck
Quoting: ToddLI can't wait to see these changes get added to the Linux kernel and SteamOS because if these numbers are any indication, it sounds like we're in for some awesome gaming experiences on the Steam Deck
Steam Deck is already using fsync with corresponding kernel API, so it already benefits from better than wineserver approach. I.e. this ntsync isn't going to improve performance over esync or fsync if I understood correctly. It will just make it more formally correct for edge cases.
Last edited by Shmerl on 24 January 2024 at 4:34 pm UTC
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