ds-runtime

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Experimental Linux-native DirectStorage-style runtime (CPU today, GPU tomorrow) with an early GPU/Vulkan backend, towards Wine/Proton integration.

🔎 Overview

ds-runtime is an experimental C++ runtime that explores how a DirectStorage-style I/O and decompression pipeline can be implemented natively on Linux.

The project focuses on:

• Clean, idiomatic systems-level C++

• Explicit and auditable concurrency

• POSIX-first file I/O

• A backend-based architecture that cleanly separates:

• request orchestration (queues, lifetime, synchronization)

• execution backends (CPU now, Vulkan/GPU planned)

The long-term motivation is to provide a solid architectural foundation for a native Linux implementation of DirectStorage-like workloads, suitable for eventual integration with Wine / Proton.

This repository intentionally prioritizes structure, clarity, and correctness over premature optimization.

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🚧 Project status

• Status: Experimental
• Backend: CPU (implemented)
• GPU/Vulkan backend: Experimental (file ↔ GPU buffer transfers)

The current codebase implements a complete, working CPU backend and a clean public API designed to support GPU-accelerated backends in the future.

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ℹ️ What this is (and isn’t)

This is:

• A reference-quality runtime skeleton

• A clean async I/O queue with pluggable backends

• A realistic starting point for Linux-native asset streaming

• A codebase meant to be read, reviewed, and extended

This is not:

• A drop-in replacement for Microsoft DirectStorage

• A performance benchmark

• A full GPU decompression implementation (yet)

• Production-ready middleware

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🎯 Why this matters

Modern games increasingly rely on DirectStorage-style I/O to stream large assets (textures, meshes, shaders) efficiently from disk to memory and GPU. On Windows, DirectStorage provides a standardized API that reduces CPU overhead, minimizes copying, and enables better asset streaming at scale.

On Linux, no equivalent native API exists today.

As a result, Proton/Wine-based games that depend on DirectStorage semantics must either:

• Fall back to legacy, CPU-heavy I/O paths, or
• Emulate Windows behavior in user space with limited visibility into Linux-native async I/O, memory management, and GPU synchronization.

This creates a structural gap.

The problem space

Without a native Linux-side abstraction:

• Asset streaming is fragmented across engines and ad-hoc thread pools
• CPU cores are wasted on I/O and decompression work that could be pipelined or offloaded
• GPU upload paths are often bolted on after the fact rather than designed into the I/O model
• Proton/Wine must translate Windows semantics without a clear Linux analogue

DirectStorage is not just “faster file I/O” — it is an architectural contract between the game, the OS, and the GPU.

What a native Linux approach enables

A Linux-native DirectStorage-style runtime enables:

• A clear, explicit async I/O model built on Linux primitives (e.g. thread pools today, io_uring tomorrow)
• Batching and queue-based submission that matches how modern engines structure asset streaming
• A first-class path from disk → CPU → GPU, rather than implicit or engine-specific glue
• Cleaner integration points for Wine/Proton, avoiding opaque shims or duplicated logic
• An evolution path toward GPU-assisted decompression and copies via Vulkan

This is not about copying Windows APIs verbatim. It is about providing a native Linux abstraction that maps cleanly onto modern storage, memory, and GPU systems.

Why ds-runtime exists

ds-runtime explores what such a runtime could look like on Linux:

• A small, explicit request/queue model inspired by DirectStorage semantics
• Pluggable backends (CPU today, Vulkan/GPU tomorrow)
• A stable C ABI suitable for integration into Wine/Proton or engines
• Clear ownership, lifetime, and synchronization rules
• Documentation that treats integration as a first-class concern

Even partial adoption of these ideas can reduce duplication, clarify I/O paths, and make asset streaming behavior more predictable on Linux.

The long-term goal is not to replace engines or drivers, but to provide a shared, understandable foundation for high-performance game I/O on Linux.

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🧱 High-level architecture

┌─────────────┐
│   Client    │
│ (game/app)  │
└──────┬──────┘
       │ enqueue Request
       ▼
┌─────────────┐
│  ds::Queue  │   ← orchestration, lifetime, waiting
└──────┬──────┘
       │ submit
       ▼
┌────────────────────┐
│   ds::Backend      │   ← execution (CPU / Vulkan / future)
└────────────────────┘

See docs/design.md for details on backend evolution.

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💡 Core concepts

ds::Request

Describes what to load:

• POSIX file descriptor

• Byte offset

• Size

• Destination pointer

• Optional GPU buffer/offset for Vulkan-backed transfers

• Operation (read/write)

• Memory location (host or GPU buffer)

• Compression mode

• Optional GPU buffer handle + offset when using the Vulkan backend

• Completion status / error

This maps cleanly to:

• Linux I/O semantics

• DirectStorage request descriptors

• Future GPU-resident workflows

ds::Queue

Responsible for:

• Collecting requests

• Submitting them to a backend

• Tracking in-flight work

• Optional blocking via wait_all()

• Retrieving completed requests via take_completed()

The queue does not perform I/O itself.

ds::Backend

Abstract execution interface.

Error reporting:

• ds::set_error_callback installs a process-wide hook for rich diagnostics
• ds::report_error emits subsystem/operation/file/line context and timestamps
• ds::report_request_error adds request-specific fields (fd/offset/size/memory)

Current implementation:

• CPU backend

• pread()/pwrite()-based I/O

• Vulkan backend (experimental)

• pread()/pwrite() plus Vulkan staging buffer copies to GPU buffers

• io_uring backend (experimental)

• io_uring host I/O path (host memory only)

• Small internal thread pool

• Demo “decompression” stage (uppercase transform); GDeflate is stubbed

Planned backends:

• Vulkan compute backend (GPU copy / decompression)

• Vendor-specific GPU paths

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🎨 Why this design?

This mirrors how real DirectStorage systems are structured:

• A front-end queue API

• A backend that owns execution and synchronization

• Clear separation between:

• disk I/O

• decompression

• GPU involvement

Keeping these layers explicit makes the code:

• Easier to reason about

• Easier to test

• Easier to extend without rewrites

• Code hygiene goals

The project follows conventions expected by experienced Linux developers:

• Header / implementation split

• No global state

• RAII throughout

• Direct use of POSIX APIs (open, pread, close)

• No exceptions crossing public API boundaries

• Minimal but explicit threading

• No macro or template magic

• If something happens, it should be obvious where and why.

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Wine 🍷 / Proton 🧪

Modern Windows titles increasingly rely on DirectStorage-style APIs for asset streaming and decompression. On Linux, these calls are currently handled via compatibility-layer shims or fall back to traditional I/O paths.

This project explores what a native Linux runtime for DirectStorage-like workloads could look like, with an emphasis on:

• Correct API semantics
• Clean separation between queue orchestration and execution
• Explicit backend design (CPU today, GPU later)
• Compatibility with Wine / Proton architecture

The current implementation focuses on a CPU backend that provides:

• Asynchronous I/O semantics
• Explicit completion tracking
• A decompression stage hook (currently a demo transform)

This is intended as a foundational layer that could back a future dstorage.dll implementation in Wine/Proton, with GPU acceleration added incrementally once semantics and integration points are validated.

For integration guidance (including a no-shim option), see docs/wine_proton.md. For Arch Linux–specific Vulkan notes, see docs/archlinux_vulkan_integration.md.

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🎬 Demo

The included demo program:

• Writes a small test asset to disk

• Enqueues two asynchronous requests:

• One raw read

• One “compressed” read (fake uppercase transform)

• Submits them concurrently

• Waits for completion

• Prints the results

Example output:

[demo] starting DirectStorage-style CPU demo
[demo] wrote 41 bytes to demo_asset.bin
[demo] submitting 2 requests
[demo] waiting for completion (in-flight=2)
[demo] all requests completed (in-flight=0)
raw   : "Hello DirectStorage-style queue on Linux!"
upper : "HELLO DIRECTSTORAGE-STYLE QUEUE ON LINUX!"

Additional demo:

• ds_asset_streaming writes a packed asset file and issues concurrent reads, exercising request offsets and the error reporting callback.

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🛠️ Building

Requirements

Linux

C++20 compiler (Clang or GCC)

pthreads

CMake ≥ 3.16

Vulkan SDK (optional, required for the Vulkan backend)

liburing (optional, required for the io_uring backend)

Build steps

git clone https://github.com/infinityabundance/ds-runtime.git
cd ds-runtime


mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
cmake --build .

Run the demo:

# from inside build/examples/
./ds_demo

Tests

Enable tests with:

cmake -B build -S . -DDS_BUILD_TESTS=ON
cmake --build build
ctest --test-dir build

Run the asset streaming demo:

# from inside build/examples/
./ds_asset_streaming

Shared library + C API

The build produces a shared object libds_runtime.so that exposes both the C++ API (include/ds_runtime.hpp) and a C-compatible ABI (include/ds_runtime_c.h). This makes it easier to integrate the runtime with non-C++ code or FFI layers like Wine or Proton shims.

To link against the shared object from another project:

cc -I/path/to/ds-runtime/include \
   -L/path/to/ds-runtime/build \
   -lds_runtime \
   your_app.c

Vulkan backend (experimental)

When built with Vulkan, you can construct a Vulkan backend and submit requests with RequestMemory::Gpu to move data between files and GPU buffers. Requests use gpu_buffer + gpu_offset to identify the destination/source GPU buffer.

🔭 Repository layout

├── CMakeLists.txt            # Top-level CMake build configuration
│
├── include/                  # Public C++ API headers
│   └── ds_runtime.hpp        # Core DirectStorage-style runtime interface
│   └── ds_runtime_vulkan.hpp # Vulkan backend interface (experimental)
│   └── ds_runtime_uring.hpp  # io_uring backend interface (experimental)
│
├── src/                      # Runtime implementation
│   └── ds_runtime.cpp        # Queue, backend, and CPU execution logic
│   └── ds_runtime_vulkan.cpp # Vulkan backend implementation
│   └── ds_runtime_uring.cpp  # io_uring backend implementation
│
├── examples/                 # Standalone example programs
│   ├── ds_demo_main.cpp      # CPU-only demo exercising ds::Queue and requests
│   ├── asset_streaming_main.cpp # Asset streaming demo with concurrent reads
│   │
│   └── vk-copy-test/         # Experimental Vulkan groundwork
│       ├── copy.comp         # Vulkan compute shader (GLSL)
│       ├── copy.comp.spv     # Precompiled SPIR-V shader
│       ├── demo_asset.bin    # Small test asset for GPU copy
│       ├── vk_copy_test.cpp  # Vulkan copy demo (CPU → GPU → CPU)
├── docs/                     # Design and architecture documentation
│   └── design.md             # Backend evolution and architectural notes
│
├── assets/                   # Non-code assets used by documentation
│   └── logo.png              # Project logo displayed in README
│
├── README.md                 # Project overview, build instructions, roadmap
└── LICENSE                   # Apache-2.0 license

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🧩 Relationship to DirectStorage, Wine, and Proton

This project is not affiliated with Microsoft, Valve, or the Wine project.

However, it is intentionally structured so that:

• ds::Request can map to DSTORAGE_REQUEST_DESC

• ds::Queue can map to a DirectStorage queue object

• A Vulkan backend can integrate with Proton’s D3D12 → Vulkan interop

The goal is to explore what a native Linux DirectStorage-style runtime could look like, with real code and real execution paths.

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🛣️ Roadmap (rough)

✅ Vulkan backend (file ↔ GPU buffer transfers; compute copy/decompression planned)

◻️ Real compression format (CPU GDeflate first)

✅ io_uring backend (host memory)

◻️ Wine / Proton integration experiments

◻️ Real-world game testing

This project intentionally starts small and correct.

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🌱 Contributing

Discussion, feedback, and code review are welcome.

If you are a:

• Linux systems developer

• Graphics / Vulkan developer

• Wine or Proton contributor

…your perspective is especially appreciated.

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🪪 License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. See the LICENSE file for details.

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📝 Final note

Linux deserves first-class asset streaming paths — not just compatibility shims.

Even if this repository never becomes the solution, it aims to push that discussion forward with real, auditable code rather than speculation.

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