KDE’s KWin Embraces Explicit Sync for Smoother Wayland Experience
KDE’s KWin compositor, the graphical environment powering the Plasma desktop, hastaken a significant step towards a more seamless and performant Wayland experience by merging support for explicit synchronization. This follows a wave of similar developments in the Linux ecosystem, including therecent integration of explicit sync support in XWayland, Mesa Vulkan drivers, and GNOME’s Mutter compositor.
The merge request, submitted by KDE developerXaver Hugl four months ago, implements the linux-drm-syncobj-v1 protocol within KWin. This protocol enables more precise control over the synchronization between the GPU and the display, leading to smoother visuals and reduced tearing.
Once the matching Xwayland and NVidia driver updates are out, most problems with NVidia on Wayland will be gone, Hugl stated in the merge request. This highlights the crucial role explicit sync plays in improving the Wayland experience, particularly for users of NVIDIA graphics cards.
The benefits of explicit sync extend beyond NVIDIA, however. By allowing for more precise timing of GPU operations, it can lead to improved performance and reduced latency across various graphics drivers and hardware. This makes it a valuable addition to the Wayland ecosystem as a whole.
Theimplementation of explicit sync in KWin is expected to be available in Plasma 6.1, scheduled for release in mid-June. This marks a significant milestone in KDE’s ongoing efforts to enhance the Wayland experience for its users.
This development underscores the growing momentum behind Wayland as the future ofLinux desktop environments. With major players like KDE, GNOME, and Mesa embracing explicit sync, the stage is set for a more refined and performant Wayland experience for all Linux users.
References:
- KDE’s KWin Merges Wayland Explicit Sync Support
- Explicit GPU Sync XWayland Go
- Explicit Sync Support for Mesa Vulkan Drivers
- GNOME’s Mutter Enabling Explicit Sync
- KWin Merge Request
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