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Mario Kleiner 68f01c0f02 modesetting: Add option for non-vsynced flips for "secondary" outputs.
Whenever an unredirected fullscreen window uses pageflipping for a
DRI3/Present PresentPixmap() operation and the X-Screen has more than
one active output, multiple crtc's need to execute pageflips. Only
after the last flip has completed can the PresentPixmap operation
as a whole complete.

If a sync_flip is requested for the present, then the current
implementation will synchronize each pageflip to the vblank of
its associated crtc. This provides tear-free image presentation
across all outputs, but introduces a different artifact, if not
all outputs run at the same refresh rate with perfect synchrony:
The slowest output throttles the presentation rate, and present
completion is delayed to flip completion of the "latest" output
to complete. This means degraded performance, e.g., a dual-display
setup with a 144 Hz monitor and a 60 Hz monitor will always be
throttled to at most 60 fps. It also means non-constant present
rate if refresh cycles drift against each other, creating complex
"beat patterns", tremors, stutters and periodic slowdowns - quite
irritating!

Such a scenario will be especially annoying if one uses multiple
outputs in "mirror mode" aka "clone mode". One output will usually
be the "production output" with the highest quality and fastest
display attached, whereas a secondary mirror output just has a
cheaper display for monitoring attached. Users care about perfect
and perfectly timed tear-free presentation on the "production output",
but cares less about quality on the secondary "mirror output". They
are willing to trade quality on secondary outputs away in exchange
for better presentation timing on the "production output".

One example use case for such production + monitoring displays are
neuroscience / medical science applications where one high quality
display device is used to present visual animations to test subjects
or patients in a fMRI scanner room (production display), whereas
an operator monitors the same visual animations from a control room
on a lower quality display. Presentation timing needs to be perfect,
and animations high-speed and tear-free for the production display,
whereas quality and timing don't matter for the monitoring display.

This commit gives users the option to choose such a trade-off as
opt-in:

It adds a new boolean option "AsyncFlipSecondaries" to the device section
of xorg.conf. If this option is specified as true, then DRI3 pageflip
behaviour changes as follows:

1. The "reference crtc" for a windows PresentPixmap operation does a
   vblank synced flip, or a DRM_MODE_PAGE_FLIP_ASYNC non-synchronized
   flip, as requested by the caller, just as in the past. Typically
   flips will be requested to be vblank synchronized for tear-free
   presentation. The "reference crtc" is the one chosen by the caller
   to drive presentation timing (as specified by PresentPixmap()'s
   "target_msc", "divisor", "remainder" parameters and implemented by
   vblank events) and to deliver Present completion timestamps (msc
   and ust) extracted from its pageflip completion event.

2. All other crtc's, which also page-flip in a multi-display configuration,
   will try to flip with DRM_MODE_PAGE_FLIP_ASYNC, ie. immediately and
   not synchronized to vblank. This allows the PresentPixmap operation
   to complete with little delay compared to a single-display present,
   especially if the different crtc's run at different video refresh
   rates or their refresh cycles are not perfectly synchronized, but
   drift against each other. The downside is potential tearing artifacts
   on all outputs apart from the one of the "reference crtc".

Successfully tested on a AMD gpu with single-display, dual-display and
triple-display setups, and with single-X-Screen as well as dual-X-Screen
"ZaphodHeads" configurations.

Please consider merging this commit for the upcoming server 1.21 branch.

Signed-off-by: Mario Kleiner <mario.kleiner.de@gmail.com>
2021-09-09 09:53:21 +00:00
.gitlab-ci ci: Install libxcvt from git 2021-08-06 11:29:29 +00:00
Xext selinux: Stop using security_context_t 2021-08-17 16:02:39 -04:00
Xi xinput: Silence a warning from gcc 11 2021-08-17 16:02:44 -04:00
composite meson: hide C API if Xorg is disabled (like autotools) 2021-03-11 00:22:36 +00:00
config config: Fix platform busid parsing when there is no ID_PATH prop 2021-06-25 13:24:51 +03:00
damageext More missing version checks in SProcs 2021-08-08 12:43:01 +00:00
dbe meson: hide C API if Xorg is disabled (like autotools) 2021-03-11 00:22:36 +00:00
dix touchevents: set the screen pointer after checking the device is enabled 2021-09-07 16:58:10 +02:00
doc meson: Implement developer documentation build 2021-08-20 10:26:07 +00:00
dri3 meson: hide C API if Xorg is disabled (like autotools) 2021-03-11 00:22:36 +00:00
exa exa: rename some badly named variables 2020-07-10 06:17:40 +10:00
fb meson: hide C API if Xorg is disabled (like autotools) 2021-03-11 00:22:36 +00:00
glamor Revert "glamor: Enable modifier support for xfree86 too" 2021-09-01 18:51:02 +00:00
glx glx: Fix use after free in MakeCurrent 2021-06-21 08:39:38 +02:00
hw modesetting: Add option for non-vsynced flips for "secondary" outputs. 2021-09-09 09:53:21 +00:00
include xwayland: add -noTouchPointerEmulation 2021-09-06 21:19:46 +00:00
m4 Add ax_pthread.m4 to m4/ 2016-05-29 19:20:51 -07:00
man Drop DMX DDX 2021-09-07 09:34:31 +00:00
mi Implement gesture processing logic 2021-05-30 13:26:42 +03:00
miext miext: Remove if check which is always true 2021-03-26 09:02:14 +00:00
os Don't hardcode fps for fake screen 2021-07-29 08:09:00 +00:00
present Don't hardcode fps for fake screen 2021-07-29 08:09:00 +00:00
pseudoramiX Unvalidated lengths 2017-10-10 23:33:34 +02:00
randr present: fallback get_crtc to return crtc belonging to screen with present extension 2021-07-20 08:10:46 +02:00
record Fix XRecordRegisterClients() Integer underflow 2020-08-25 17:01:29 +02:00
render xserver: fix RGB mask handling 2021-04-16 14:40:49 +00:00
test xfree86: Use libxcvt 2021-08-06 11:29:29 +00:00
xfixes XFixes: add version check for byteswapped clients 2021-08-06 11:12:40 -04:00
xkb xkb: Silence a warning from gcc 11 2021-08-17 16:04:40 -04:00
.appveyor.yml Drop DMX DDX 2021-09-07 09:34:31 +00:00
.dir-locals.el .dir-locals.el: Add missing final newline 2019-10-01 17:05:28 +00:00
.gitignore .gitignore: Add new autotools file 'test-driver' 2014-04-21 13:41:42 -07:00
.gitlab-ci.yml ci: Install libxcvt from git 2021-08-06 11:29:29 +00:00
.travis.yml travis: Add OSX meson build to matrix 2019-05-02 15:42:58 +00:00
COPYING modesetting: Merge modesetting's COPYING into the xserver's. 2014-09-15 12:46:02 -07:00
Makefile.am Drop DMX DDX 2021-09-07 09:34:31 +00:00
README.md Fix spelling/wording issues 2020-07-05 13:07:33 -07:00
autogen.sh autogen: Set a default subject prefix for patches 2016-02-08 17:41:38 -05:00
configure.ac Drop DMX DDX 2021-09-07 09:34:31 +00:00
devbook.am doc: Create a script to filter xmlto output 2015-01-05 14:24:06 -08:00
docbook.am docbook.am: embed css styles inside the HTML HEAD element 2011-09-21 14:07:49 -07:00
manpages.am man: Fix automake seddery 2018-05-08 12:15:30 -04:00
meson.build meson: Implement developer documentation build 2021-08-20 10:26:07 +00:00
meson_options.txt Drop DMX DDX 2021-09-07 09:34:31 +00:00
xorg-server.m4 xorg-server.m4: just all cflags instead of just sdkdir 2018-09-20 20:12:24 +01:00
xorg-server.pc.in xfree86: link modules against Xorg symbols on Cygwin 2012-04-05 21:57:07 -05:00
xserver.ent.in doc: relocate xserver.ent in the package root directory 2011-05-14 11:22:26 -07:00

X Server

The X server accepts requests from client applications to create windows, which are (normally rectangular) "virtual screens" that the client program can draw into.

Windows are then composed on the actual screen by the X server (or by a separate composite manager) as directed by the window manager, which usually communicates with the user via graphical controls such as buttons and draggable titlebars and borders.

For a comprehensive overview of X Server and X Window System, consult the following article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_server

All questions regarding this software should be directed at the Xorg mailing list:

https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg

The primary development code repository can be found at:

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver

For patch submission instructions, see:

https://www.x.org/wiki/Development/Documentation/SubmittingPatches

As with other projects hosted on freedesktop.org, X.Org follows its Code of Conduct, based on the Contributor Covenant. Please conduct yourself in a respectful and civilized manner when using the above mailing lists, bug trackers, etc:

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/CodeOfConduct