Low latency audio for Linux

[Carl Sagan]

Right now I use pipewire and with the tool "pw-top" I can see that the audio sample rate and buffer is fixed at 44100Hz and the buffer at 441 samples, giving a theoretical of 10 ms of buffer (if I understand this correctly).

I did some testing and with McOsu I get ~45ms when I hit my key and the hitsound plays. In my osu! wine setup I get around ~8ms in the same test with 64 samples at 48000Hz.

It would be nice if a similiar setting like "WASAPI ultra low latency audio" could be implemented in the linux build to control the buffer size and being able to change the sample rate.

[McKay]

Your osu! wine setup has special commands in it that change the audio buffer and device settings in order to reduce latency. Apply the same settings to McOsu and it will behave the same. No, 44100 vs 48000 does not increase latency from 8 ms to 45 ms.

These are operating system level driver settings, the game can't change them itself.

Start reading here: https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/topics/1248084

[Carl Sagan]

I agree that 44.1 KHz vs 48 KHz doesn't increase latency, I just mention it because I used it to calculate the buffer size of McOsu, 441 samples at 44.1 KHz (the default of McOsu) gives a theoretical 10 ms buffer.

You're correct that I use environment variables on my osu! wine, it's a patched version of wine made by gonX that lets you change the audio buffer size of osu!.

The thing here is that McOsu doesn't let you change (as long as I know) the audio buffer size. Am I correct or I'm missing something?

I tried PIPEWIRE_LATENCY=64/48000 pw-jack %command% and I select Jack server on McOsu. I does in fact change the buffer size and the sample rate reported in pw-top but when I do the test with the sound of my keyboard and a hitsound, the result are the same 45ms.