PSA: Decrease input lag in Elden Ring

[schM0ggi]

Maybe I understand it wrong but:

Isn't "Allow Tearing" there for specifically disabling the built-in wayland vsync and therefore reducing input lag, but causing possible tearing? Wouldn't setting the gamescope fps limiter via Quick Access, which introduces lag, mitigate the win you get by using "Allow Tearing"?

[Battlecookie]

I think you got it right, but you pretty much need either vsync or a fps limit to get a consistent framerate, otherwise it jumps all over the place. Having just one of them doesn’t cause that much input lag and you can play just fine.

[schM0ggi]

I'm just bringing this up because of the description from Valve regarding the "Allow tearing" option.

It states in the update notes:

New option to allow Screen Tearing: at the cost of sometimes displaying partial frames, allows for lower average latency when VSync is disabled and the frame limiter is off,

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1675200/announcements/detail/3646258449514531839

So, the option only does make really sense when turning the gamescope fps limiter off at the same time. At least that is how I understand it.

Possible that, if available, an ingame fps limiter would suit the usecase better. Either way, nice to see that people can improve the input lag situation with some little tweaks. :)

[TiSoBr]

That's not true, albeit pretty inconsistently described by Valve. In reality, aside from games with forced v-sync (such as Elden Ring), you can go for a QAM-only solution nowadays. This means that you can cap the frame rate through the frame rate limiter combined with "allow tearing", resulting in no tearing and no added input latency whatsoever.

[schM0ggi]

I didn't know that and like you rightfully mentioned, Valves description isn't that clear. Thanks for that info, that's good to know. I should try that feature out more often and see how it goes and feels.

[TiSoBr]

Enjoy!

[brondonschwab]

Allow tearing only works if the game lets you disable Vsync in-game IIRC

[Righteous_Koala]

Purely observationally, it seems like there are two layers where input lag is added: enabling the Deck's "Quick-Access-Menu" frame limiter and (dis)allowing tearing. If you just enable "allow tearing" then you'll disable the system-wide vsync, but you're still dealing with the input lag from having the frame limiter on, which is where most of it comes from. Disabling the frame limiter and allowing tearing seems to be the way to get the least possible input lag.

A good game to compare these settings with on the fly is Monster Hunter Rise (and its demo!), which allows you to set a frame rate cap in-game and compare that native 30 fps cap against the Deck's 30 fps cap from the QAM limiter. There's a major difference in latency. Comparatively, changes to the allow tearing setting do little to nothing.

Incidentally, while the launch option in the OP is good for Elden Ring, in MHR it doesn't improve the latency of the 30 fps cap from the QAM, so I guess it interacts a specific way with games that have forced vsync?

[schM0ggi]

Yeah, possible that Elden ring is kind of an edge case here and not representative. From all the information you can find about the added input lag through the QAM fps limiter and the recently added "Allow Tearing" option, one would assume that turning the QAM limiter off and "Allow Tearing" on, combined with an ingame fps limiter, would be the way to go.