Optimizing Scheduler for Linux Gaming

This talk dives into how the scheduler impacts your gameplay on Linux and
unveils our journey to smoother gameplay. How does task scheduling impact Linux
gaming? Suboptimal task scheduling can cause stuttering while playing games on
the Steam Deck game console. First, we nail down the enemy. What exactly is
"stuttering," and how can we measure its impact on your gameplay? Next, we
extensively analyzed the characteristics of game tasks from the scheduler’s
point of view. Characterizing task behavior in Linux gaming helps to understand
why some schedulers create much stuttering and others create less and to unveil
the secrets behind smooth vs. choppy performance. Lastly, we will share our
progress on the optimized scheduler for reducing the stuttering problems in
Linux gaming, especially Steam Deck. We implemented the scheduling policy based
on sched_ext, a BPF-based extensible scheduling framework.

Slides available at: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/...


(c) Open Source Summit North America 2024
April 16-18, 2024
Seatle, Washington (US)
https://events.linuxfoundation.org/op...
https://ossna2024.sched.com/event/1aB...