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So how exactly do we get our games to tear themselves apart on Wayland now?
ridge Aug 17, 2023
Heyo hi! KDE Plasma Wayland user here.

So now that Xwayland (23.2) supports tearing, I'm wondering how we go about enabling that. I've been trying to get my games to run without vsync since KDE added support for it in their compositor, to no avail. "Reduce latency by allowing screen tearing artifacts in fullscreen windows" is enabled.

The games I've been trying are a mix of native and Wine games, such as:
  • Quake 1, 2, and 4. (Native ports, none use xwayland. Quake 4 is running with SDL 1.2 compatibility layer.)

  • Battlefield 4 (Wine)

  • Final Fantasy 14 (Wine)

  • Elite Dangerous (Wine)


I'm using exclusive fullscreen where available, but something makes me think they're not truly running in exclusive fullscreen mode in Wayland. I have three 1080p 60hz screens, not sure if that'd even matter.

I even went as far as to set MESA_VK_WSI_PRESENT to "immediate". I also don't have a VRR capable monitor.
RX 6700 XT, Mesa/RADV, the usual.

So how exactly are we supposed to get our games to exhibit tearing? I'd love to start playing with Vsync off

Last edited by ridge on 17 August 2023 at 5:59 pm UTC
Shmerl Aug 18, 2023
Not sure. From what I've heard, some kernel bits for it are still missing? You'd need to dig more into it.

In KDE itself, the setting for it is in System Settings > Display > Compositor > Reduce latency by allowing screen tearing.

But other than that, most recent gaming displays support adaptive sync. It's a lot better than tearing.

Last edited by Shmerl on 18 August 2023 at 2:58 am UTC
ridge Aug 18, 2023
Quoting: ShmerlFrom what I've heard, some kernel bits for it are still missing?

Thanks, that makes sense! I'll have to look into this.

Quoting: ShmerlBut other than that, most recent gaming displays support adaptive sync. It's a lot better than tearing.

Rather keep my monitor if it works. Maybe in the far, far future I'll get an HDR FreeSync monitor, but as long as my current monitor displays image, I'm good.
ridge Aug 24, 2023
Seems like this is one of the missing components :)

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Mesa-VLK-WSI-Wayland-IMMEDIATE
ridge Sep 6, 2023
Quoting: I_Hate_Windowscant answer proper untill you say what distro

Arch Linux, should say so on my post next to my name.
Cheers.
ridge Sep 6, 2023
Quoting: I_Hate_Windowsinstall steamos

I like my OS.

Quoting: I_Hate_Windowsit has that gamescope package

You can use gamescope on any distro, I've tried it before but it caused more issues than it fixed. Input latency was rather high for some reason, but I might've misconfigured it somehow.
ridge Sep 6, 2023
Quoting: I_Hate_Windowsits a desktop environment same one that steamdeck uses

Ah, sort of! I've tried running it in a separate VT and that did seem to help a bit, but it's such a hassle for lazy-ol-me

This is a good solution though for those who benefit from it though, so if anyone happens upon this thread with a similar issue, give this a shot.
ridge Sep 8, 2023
Quoting: I_Hate_Windowsthis will also teach you how to use any package on the aur on any machine with arch on it!!!!

I have used Arch Linux as my OS for many years. I know how to use the AUR, but thank you.
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