Lots of people noticed recently than a whole lot of working was going into the Gamescope project for HDR support, and now a Valve developer has teased trying it out. This has been a long time coming, with work needed to support it across multiple parts of the Linux stack but it's starting to get there now.
For those not aware, Gamescope is a micro-compositor that's used on the Steam Deck to display your games and it can also be used on desktop too. It gives you a whole lot of control over what games are doing, with lots of work from developer Joshua Ashton going in for HDR support.
Writing on Twitter, Valve developer Pierre-Loup Griffais mentioned:
New Linux gaming milestone: with the latest work from Josh Ashton, HDR can now be enabled for real games! Tested it tonight on my AMD desktop with Halo Infinite, Deep Rock Galactic, DEATH STRANDING DC. Very early and will still need some time to bake to be useful to most.
Griffais showed these shots:
An increasingly exciting time to be a Linux gaming fan and it looks like 2023 will be the year of HDR. As Griffais said though, there's a lot still to do and this is just the start of it actually working.
On their Fediverse account developer Joshua Ashton also showed off more of Death Stranding with a HDR Heatmap.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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From what I gather, so far it's very gamescope specific, so it's not yet the year of HDR for the Linux desktop.
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gamescope is under Valve's direct control and is the piece of tech behind the Steam Deck's "Gaming Mode" (the one where Steam and every game you play run fullscreen)
It's not surprising that this was where they put the initial effort, but I expect GNOME's mutter and KDE's whatever-it's-called will move to support it soon too
A lot of work is in parts of Linux that are used by all DEs in all distros, so things should be much easier to close the gap once it's all upstreamed
ps: using HDR in monitors without good backlight intensity variation per screen region or pseudo-HDR where not even software-controlled backlighting exists is IMHO a trap... you end up with faded colors, almost totally blackened and whitened areas, or with ugly wide stripes of bright and dark across the monitor/tv...
Last edited by Marlock on 4 January 2023 at 9:38 am UTC
It's not surprising that this was where they put the initial effort, but I expect GNOME's mutter and KDE's whatever-it's-called will move to support it soon too
A lot of work is in parts of Linux that are used by all DEs in all distros, so things should be much easier to close the gap once it's all upstreamed
ps: using HDR in monitors without good backlight intensity variation per screen region or pseudo-HDR where not even software-controlled backlighting exists is IMHO a trap... you end up with faded colors, almost totally blackened and whitened areas, or with ugly wide stripes of bright and dark across the monitor/tv...
Last edited by Marlock on 4 January 2023 at 9:38 am UTC
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I hope it gets merged soon, this is the only thing I am really missing in linux atm.
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slaapliedje Jan 4, 2023
Quoting: EikeIt's like me finally emerging from my house after the holiday weekend of getting a foot of snow... it was definitely blinding. I should have stayed in my dungeon.Quoting: slaapliedjeQuoting: EikeYeah, seems a few games here and there since then had similar things going on. I just remember the CryTek engine being one of the first ones to attempt to do a lot of crazy lighting things like that. Granted it'd also choke on the lava areas!Quoting: slaapliedjeQuoting: pete910To be honest having used HDR on windows in the Past and films ect on my LG oled I cant say it's that impressive. For the most part it resembles some turning the Saturation and colours up to full.What I find amusing is that the first Far Cry basically had a software version of HDR in it. So when you'd go into a cave, it'd be really dark, then it was like your eyes would adjust, then when you left a cave, it'd be really bright...
Dare say it's a personnel preference thing at the end of the day.
I think Fallout III did something like this when leaving thebunkervault for the first time (in your life).
I can't remember it from other games, but I found it so suiting the situation: All your life in a vault, and then you see the sun for the first time...
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slaapliedje Jan 4, 2023
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Red-Hat-2023-HDR-Hackfest
This sounds like it's proper support rather than just a game compositor/overlay.
I am curious about HDR and movie playback as that seems to be getting more and more popular.
This sounds like it's proper support rather than just a game compositor/overlay.
I am curious about HDR and movie playback as that seems to be getting more and more popular.
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That sounds lik
Nice, that finally sounds like a concentrated effort. I hope it wouldn't be too Gnome centric and general Wayland compositors needs will be addressed.
Quoting: slaapliedjehttps://www.phoronix.com/news/Red-Hat-2023-HDR-Hackfest
This sounds like it's proper support rather than just a game compositor/overlay.
I am curious about HDR and movie playback as that seems to be getting more and more popular.
Nice, that finally sounds like a concentrated effort. I hope it wouldn't be too Gnome centric and general Wayland compositors needs will be addressed.
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Quoting: pete910To be honest having used HDR on windows in the Past and films ect on my LG oled I cant say it's that impressive. For the most part it resembles some turning the Saturation and colours up to full.
Dare say it's a personnel preference thing at the end of the day.
HDR implementation quality wildly varies across games, with some games having known busted implementations like RDR2 or Horizon Zero Dawn. Some games with known good HDR support are Cyberpunk 2077 (to an extent), Ori and the Will of the Wisps, maybe Spider-Man Remastered or Death Stranding too. You may also have to fiddle with tonemapping settings (HGiG vs DTM, there is no true winner but some people will prefer one or the other).
One common issue with HDR in games is that it's not well-tested by developers or not used as a daily driver, so there is little incentive to make it truly worthwhile. Most engine developers (or even environment artists) aren't using OLED/miniLED displays for development just yet.
Last edited by Calinou on 4 January 2023 at 11:29 pm UTC
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HDR in general is not some kind of "stronger saturation" idea, it means wider color range. How games actually use it and how it looks in result is totally up to games.
Here was a good talk about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDnbWaIMJJA
Last edited by Shmerl on 4 January 2023 at 11:33 pm UTC
Here was a good talk about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDnbWaIMJJA
Last edited by Shmerl on 4 January 2023 at 11:33 pm UTC
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Quoting: CatKillerHaving Steam not die when you're using anything other than 8—bit colour would probably be a good start.Its probably a limitation of your DE/Chromium on Linux, which is used as basis for Steam Client.
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Quoting: drjomsIts probably a limitation of your DE/Chromium on Linux, which is used as basis for Steam Client.Most everything else is fine with it, including Chromium. Just conky - which is kinda understandable because it's old and a bit on the janky side - and Steam. I guess for the same reason; although they've the resources to fix it if they bothered to.
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