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NVIDIA driver 470 for Linux to include support for async reprojection

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Seems like NVIDIA are going all-out for the upcoming 470 driver series for Linux. As they've stated that finally async reprojection will be supported on Linux. Not only then will we be getting hardware accelerated GL and Vulkan rendering with Xwayland, plus DLSS was recently announced for Proton - we're now going to hopefully see a better VR experience.

This has been a long time coming! Async reprojection works for AMD GPUs on Linux but NVIDIA just left us out. This is the reason why Valve themselves had been recommending an AMD GPU for Half-Life: Alyx on Linux, as it's a big feature to be missing out on.

What does it actually do? Well, performance for games in VR is seriously important, more so than traditional gaming. FPS and frame timings issues are seriously noticeable and could cause sickness / headaches and more, as well as just not being a good experience obviously. Async reprojection helps a lot with that so if the game or application falls below the target level FPS needed, your head tracking movement and input will still seem to match up and be smooth enough.

It's sounding pretty exciting. Can't wait to get our hands on the 470 driver now.

Hat tip to DASPRiD.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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CatKiller Jun 10, 2021
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I find myself wondering how much these changes represent the other Liam and team being given some autonomy internally, and how much represents a culture change at Nvidia as a whole. It's getting results for us either way but, as we saw with Croteam, the former is fragile with respect to personnel changes.
Raaben Jun 10, 2021
I tend to rag on Nvidia and esp their Linux drivers but honestly this sounds great and I hope it's the start of better things to come.
kokoko3k Jun 10, 2021
I think that as soon as nvidia folks start to loose some linux gaming market versus amd, then they give us something.
If i'm right, then staying away from them is good :)
...but i've been with them for too long to even think to buy nvidia again in the future anyway, though
i'm happy for their progresses, as it is a benefit for the whole linux gaming ecosystem.


Last edited by kokoko3k on 10 June 2021 at 12:47 pm UTC
3zekiel Jun 10, 2021
Quoting: CatKillerI find myself wondering how much these changes represent the other Liam and team being given some autonomy internally, and how much represents a culture change at Nvidia as a whole. It's getting results for us either way but, as we saw with Croteam, the former is fragile with respect to personnel changes.

Well, considering they also opened up virtio functions etc, I would tend to think there is some bigger opening at play.
Probably a kind of landslide strategy in the professional world, by capturing the heart of powerusers on every front, they can hope to also maximize their positive image in companies. And then, when you ask your ML person what GPU they want, they will answer Nvidia hopefully (and that is their "real" business).
slaapliedje Jun 10, 2021
Quoting: CybolicFinally! This was honestly the main reason I was looking to replace my RTX 2080 Ti with an AMD card; both Alyx and Elite: Dangerous are nausea-inducing without async reprojection, which really shouldn't have been the case on a rig like mine.
I recently upgraded to a 3080, and one of the reasons was for Elite: Dangerous to maybe be able to play it in Linux! Sadly, until someone decides to port over the Thrustmaster Scripting stuff for the Warthog, I won't be able to play it under Linux. Kind of have to have support my insanely expensive HOTAS :P
jens Jun 10, 2021
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Wow, async reprojection on Nvidia is really cool. Let’s hope that this will give the SteamVR team some arguments to get SteamVR itself back in shape again on Linux!
leillo1975 Jun 10, 2021
I hope that this version, besides all the obvious improvements, will fix the problem with rFactor 2 in versions 460 and 465. It has been reported more than a month and a half ago but they still haven't included the fix in these versions.


Last edited by leillo1975 on 10 June 2021 at 7:40 pm UTC
trawzified Jun 10, 2021
That's huge! Definitely gonna revisit VR on Linux when that comes out, also super excited for Wayland support. Might just hop around on some distro's again this summer, see how KDE & GNOME Wayland compare :)
CatKiller Jun 11, 2021
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Warning! Rampant speculation ahead!

Nvidia are out of the running for a Steam handheld: they don't have an x86 licence, ARM wouldn't be suitable for what Valve needs, and while Optimus-on-Linux isn't "go stick your head in a pig" like it was for a decade it's still pretty poor.

But they could be getting their ducks in a row for being the cloud side of a Steam Cloud service. Their dGPU performance on Linux is perfectly fine, they already have experience of filling datacentres with gaming machines from Geforce Now and their machine learning rigs, and nvenc is pretty darn good (and already supported by Steam streaming).

Valve-run Nvidia machines streaming games over the Internet could definitely be a thing, provided Nvidia had got their Linux gaming house in order.
slaapliedje Jun 13, 2021
Quoting: CatKillerWarning! Rampant speculation ahead!

Nvidia are out of the running for a Steam handheld: they don't have an x86 licence, ARM wouldn't be suitable for what Valve needs, and while Optimus-on-Linux isn't "go stick your head in a pig" like it was for a decade it's still pretty poor.

But they could be getting their ducks in a row for being the cloud side of a Steam Cloud service. Their dGPU performance on Linux is perfectly fine, they already have experience of filling datacentres with gaming machines from Geforce Now and their machine learning rigs, and nvenc is pretty darn good (and already supported by Steam streaming).

Valve-run Nvidia machines streaming games over the Internet could definitely be a thing, provided Nvidia had got their Linux gaming house in order.

I mean they could use Intel or AMD cpus and nvidia GPU. It isn't like they would have to make an x86 cpu for it. Look at the original xbox, nvidia gpu with x86 cpu.

The problem is, outside of the tegra chips, nividia's stuff is too power hungry! This thing will need little to no fan noise and be light weight.
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