Vulkan To Better Handle Variable Rate Displays / Adaptive-Sync In The Future

While longtime X11 developer Keith Packard is now working for SiFive on RISC-V processors by day, he's still involved in the Linux graphics world through his contract work for Valve. At the XDC2019 conference earlier this month he presented on display timing, the current Linux plumbing for it, and also bringing up Vulkan will better support variable rate displays in the future.

Keith for a while now has done contract work for Valve with Linux graphics infrastructure improvements around better supporting VR HMD hardware on the Linux desktop and more recently on display / refresh rate timing and ensure it works punctually.

While Linux has worked on improvements around vblank events, the DRI3 Present extension, and supporting OpenGL/Vulkan extensions like GLX_EXT_swap_control and GOOGLE_display_timing, Vulkan will ultimately provide a better standardized mean in the future.

Among the ideas being discussed in the Vulkan working group for improving display timing is properly supporting variable rate displays (i.e. Adaptive-Sync / FreeSync) and better handling display semantics. Those wanting to learn more can see Keith's slide deck from XDC2019 Montreal.