While HDR support is still not really there yet on Linux, there's a lot of movement on it now (and plenty of it thanks to Valve and work on Gamescope) but it seems KDE KWin may gain early initial support for it.
Developer Xaver Hugl put in a Merge Request titled "Add support for playing HDR games" that notes "This uses a protocol that's cut down from the upstream proposal, so that we can merge it quickly and use it for more extensive testing, and for playing games, until the upstream protocol is merged".
Seems like a good idea to get an initial implementation in, so people can actually do some proper testing and gradually build up the support for it on Wayland. Since it's an open Merge Request, it's not yet officially part of KWin and likely needs more eyes on it to check it over but it does include instructions on how to test it for those of you who really want to get in early copied below:
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.To test this, install https://github.com/Zamundaaa/VK_hdr_layer/tree/work/frog-protocol and a git master build of gamescope. Then enable HDR on your monitor if you haven't already, for example like this
kscreen-doctor output.1.wcg.enable output.1.hdr.enable output.1.sdr-brightness.500and then run gamescope with
ENABLE_HDR_WSI=1 gamescope --hdr-enabled --hdr-debug-force-output --steam -- env ENABLE_GAMESCOPE_WSI=1 DXVK_HDR=1 DISABLE_HDR_WSI=1 steam -bigpictureNote that a bunch of games, like Doom Eternal, require an EDID to parse for HDR to work. That's not implemented yet outside of gamescope's embedded mode, so HDR will not work in these games yet until that's done. Cyberpunk 2077 for example does not need that though, so it can be played without issues:
Xaver Hugl
Gamescope still doesn't work properly with flatpak'ed steam though, does it?
. . . What's HDR?
Quoting: Purple Library GuyGreat!!!
. . . What's HDR?
The random graphical gimmick du jour. I believe it's meant to make things contrastier, which admittedly is a nice change from the brown-and-grey palette of yesteryear.
Last edited by Shmerl on 1 November 2023 at 5:30 pm UTC
Quoting: Purple Library GuyGreat!!!
. . . What's HDR?
Depending on display and the software used (since there are multiple standards) it raised the maximum luminance level from 100 nits up to 10,000 nits (with most HDR displays currently in the 1000 nits category). It also raised the bit depth of the colour values from 8-bits per channel to 10-bits per channel (some up to 16-bits per channel).
Quoting: ShmerlI'm confused, this needs gamescope to be used? What about non geamescope use cases?
I think the patch is in such early stage that it needs Gamescope right now for early adapters since the display server part of KWin isn't patched yet. So it is a way to do early tests of the protocol.
Last edited by F.Ultra on 1 November 2023 at 6:08 pm UTC
Quoting: Purple Library GuyGreat!!!In somewhat simplified terms and glossing over a lot of details:
. . . What's HDR?
SDR (Standard Dynamic Range), you can display a pixel on a screen but not how bright that pixel should be. You could increase the RGB values to make it brighter, but you would be modifying the color. You could increase the monitor's brightness, but now you're making every pixel brighter.
HDR (High Dynamic Range), you can display a pixel on a screen and decide how bright it should be independent of the color. There's metadata the monitor can communicate with software to tell it how bright individual pixels can be.
Quoting: usrtrvI think I understood that one!Quoting: Purple Library GuyGreat!!!In somewhat simplified terms and glossing over a lot of details:
. . . What's HDR?
SDR (Standard Dynamic Range), you can display a pixel on a screen but not how bright that pixel should be. You could increase the RGB values to make it brighter, but you would be modifying the color. You could increase the monitor's brightness, but now you're making every pixel brighter.
HDR (High Dynamic Range), you can display a pixel on a screen and decide how bright it should be independent of the color. There's metadata the monitor can communicate with software to tell it how bright individual pixels can be.
Thanks for simplifying and glossing over the details!
In short it's not about making things brighter selectively, it means larger color space.
Last edited by Shmerl on 1 November 2023 at 8:57 pm UTC
Quoting: ShmerlAbout HDR, see also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDnbWaIMJJAThat presentation looks like it's going to gloss over far too few details!
In short it's not about making things brighter selectively, it means larger color space.
Quoting: ShmerlAbout HDR, see also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDnbWaIMJJA
In short it's not about making things brighter selectively, it means larger color space.
Larger color space is just one of the extra, allowing a larger dynamic range between the darkest and brightest items on the screen is the major one.
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