Hey everyone! I’m trying to improve the HDR experience on my KDE Plasma 6 setup using Wayland, specifically when playing games like Cyberpunk 2077 and The Last of Us Part I through Lutris. So far, I’ve only enabled HDR in my display settings and set some environment variables like DXVK_HDR=1, ENABLE_HDR_WSI=1, and SDL_VIDEODRIVER=wayland. However, in Cyberpunk 2077, the colors are way too vibrant, while TLOU appears totally washed out. Did I overlook anything? Any tips would be appreciated! Thanks!
5 Answers
Are you using AMD or Nvidia? If you’re on AMD and lack Mesa 25.1+, you might need some additional KDE HDR layers for proper function. Gamescope could also help if you enable HDR in the display settings. I’m on Arch with AMDGPU and Mesa, and it works great for me!
I’ve struggled with HDR on Linux. I either get washed-out colors or over-saturation. The only time I achieved a decent HDR look was launching a Steam gamescope session, but it means losing access to the desktop while playing.
I’ve had mixed luck getting HDR to work on KDE. I heard that the latest versions of Plasma and Mesa have more HDR features, so updating those could help. I only got HDR functioning in Cyberpunk once using gamescope, but it was buggy without the cursor support.
Honestly, getting HDR to work on Linux is still a bit of a gamble. It may improve over time, but it’s not in a fully polished state yet. Just keep that in mind!
Absurd! It looks amazing on my system and is way better than Windows’ HDR implementation.
Sorry to hear that. I found some guides that have worked well for me!
To get HDR looking good, you need to tweak a few settings in KDE Plasma. First, set the SDR Color Intensity to 0 to avoid oversaturation; this gives you a full RGB spectrum. For SDR Max brightness, match it to what your monitor can handle—check your monitor’s specs if unsure. Make sure your brightness is set to 100%.
If you’re using an AMD GPU, ensure you have Mesa 25.1 or newer and use the right launch commands with Proton. For Nvidia users, install the VK-HDR-LAYER and use the right commands to activate HDR. Once in-game, adjust settings like Peak and Paperwhite for the best contrast and depth. With some experimentation, you should see improvements!
This is all good info, but remember to pick SDR (paperwhite) brightness based on your viewing environment. Sometimes lower levels can enhance highlights on ABL panels since APL is lower overall!
I’m using an AMD card and have KDE 6.3.2 with Mesa 25.1.1, so that should be fine. I haven’t tried Gamescope yet, though; that might be worth exploring!