Host/Linux: Implement GameMode by kamfretoz · Pull Request #14246 · PCSX2/pcsx2

kamfretoz · 2026-04-03T14:14:22Z

Description of Changes

This PR implements support for Feral Interactive's GameMode. (Only for Linux)

GameMode is a daemon/lib combo for Linux that allows games to request a set of optimisations be temporarily applied to the host OS and/or a game process.

GameMode was designed primarily as a stop-gap solution to problems with the Intel and AMD CPU powersave or ondemand governors, but is now host to a range of optimisation features and configurations.

For more information, check out the Arch Linux Wiki.

You can find the settings on Settings -> Emulation -> Enable Feral GameMode

Note: You will need to have the actual gamemode's daemon itself installed on your system, otherwise PCSX2 will not do anything on its own.

PCSX2 will also detects if you have the daemon available and will automatically hide the setting if its not available on the running system.

NOTE 2: You have to enable advanced settings as well for the setting to show up. If this is too restrictive, further discussion are welcome.

2026-04-03.20-18-37.mp4

Rationale behind Changes

Hopefully better performance for those who needs it.

Closes #13237

Suggested Testing Steps

-1. Use Linux
0. Make sure GameMode is installed on your system

Open PCSX2 and open the log window, this is to check for gamemode related logs
Run any game (or the bios)
Check the logs and see if gamemode are properly kickstarted (search for "GameMode" string)

Also make sure nothing is broken on Windows and macOS side.

Did you use AI to help find, test, or implement this issue or feature?

Nop

chaoticgd

Found some problems, haven't benchmarked it.

chaoticgd · 2026-04-04T04:30:56Z

pcsx2-qt/Settings/EmulationSettingsWidget.ui

+        <item row="4" column="0">
+         <widget class="QCheckBox" name="feralGameMode">
          <property name="text">
-           <string>Enable Thread Pinning</string>


There's an odd gap when the fast CDVD option is disabled but the game mode option is enabled. You should add some logic to the .cpp file to correct this. Ideally we'd have a layout that just deals with it, but I think for now we should just do it manually.

chaoticgd · 2026-04-04T04:35:26Z

pcsx2/VMManager.cpp

 #include "common/Darwin/DarwinMisc.h"
 #endif

+#ifdef __linux__


There seems to be two separate layers of ifdefs checking the OS. I would remove the ones here and keep the ones in GameMode.h.

chaoticgd · 2026-04-04T04:36:23Z

pcsx2/Host/Linux/GameMode.cpp

+#include "common/Console.h"
+
+namespace GameMode {
+static std::atomic<bool> s_gamemode_active{false};


Why is this atomic? It looks like it's only accessed from a single thread.

Actually, thinking about this some more, it appears to be possible for another process to enable game mode for PCSX2 on its behalf, so we should probably be using gamemode_query_status rather than storing this in a variable.

chaoticgd · 2026-04-04T04:38:59Z

pcsx2/Host/Linux/GameMode.cpp

+#include <atomic>
+#include "common/Console.h"
+
+namespace GameMode {


You can remove this namespace line and prefix function names with "GameMode::" instead. That way you can run clang-format and everything won't be indented.

chaoticgd · 2026-04-04T04:46:07Z

3rdparty/gamemode/LICENSE.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+Copyright (c) 2017-2025, Feral Interactive and the GameMode contributors


You should also add this to the third party licenses file.

chaoticgd · 2026-04-04T04:47:33Z

3rdparty/gamemode/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -0,0 +1,234 @@
+## 1.8.2


We don't need the changelog.

chaoticgd · 2026-04-04T04:50:32Z

pcsx2/CMakeLists.txt

 	${LIBC_LIBRARIES}
 )

+if(LINUX)


This breaks when -DUSE_GAMEMODE=OFF is passed to CMake since the library hasn't been added.

chaoticgd · 2026-04-04T04:54:46Z

pcsx2/CMakeLists.txt

 set(pcsx2LinuxSources
 	CDVD/Linux/DriveUtility.cpp
 	CDVD/Linux/IOCtlSrc.cpp
+	Host/Linux/GameMode.cpp


If the ifdefs are going to go in GameMode.cpp/GameMode.h, these shouldn't be platform-specific sources.

chaoticgd · 2026-04-04T05:09:21Z

pcsx2/Host/Linux/GameMode.cpp

+
+	if (enabled)
+	{
+		if (gamemode_request_start() == 0)


I wonder if this logic is actually required, or if you could just call gamemode_request_start/gamemode_request_stop repeatedly without issue.

chaoticgd · 2026-04-04T05:12:00Z

pcsx2-qt/Settings/EmulationSettingsWidget.cpp

 	SettingWidgetBinder::BindWidgetToBoolSetting(sif, m_ui.precacheCDVD, "EmuCore", "CdvdPrecache", false);
+	SettingWidgetBinder::BindWidgetToBoolSetting(sif, m_ui.feralGameMode, "EmuCore", "EnableGameMode", false);
+
+	m_ui.feralGameMode->setVisible(GameMode::IsAvailable() && QtHost::ShouldShowAdvancedSettings());


I don't see a good reason to gate this behind the advanced settings.

Deps: Add Feral GameMode

ea8ed0a

github-actions bot added Build | Project System Documentation Dependencies Pull requests that update a dependency file GUI/Qt labels Apr 3, 2026

Host/Linux: Implement GameMode

8fcd454

kamfretoz force-pushed the gamemode-test branch from aabe34f to 8fcd454 Compare April 3, 2026 14:46

F0bes added the Needs benchmarking label Apr 3, 2026

chaoticgd requested changes Apr 4, 2026

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Host/Linux: Implement GameMode#14246

Host/Linux: Implement GameMode#14246
kamfretoz wants to merge 2 commits intoPCSX2:masterfrom
kamfretoz:gamemode-test

kamfretoz commented Apr 3, 2026 •

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		@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
		Copyright (c) 2017-2025, Feral Interactive and the GameMode contributors

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kamfretoz commented Apr 3, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Description of Changes

Rationale behind Changes

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kamfretoz commented Apr 3, 2026 •

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