Hey everyone! I’m trying to improve HDR visuals on KDE Plasma 6 with Wayland while playing games like Cyberpunk 2077 and The Last of Us Part I. I’ve already enabled HDR in my display settings and set some environment variables like DXVK_HDR=1, ENABLE_HDR_WSI=1, and SDL_VIDEODRIVER=wayland. However, I’m facing issues: in Cyberpunk, the colors are overly vibrant regardless of the HDR settings I try, while TLOU ends up looking totally washed out. Is there anything I might have missed or need to adjust? Thanks for any suggestions!
5 Answers
Are you using AMD or Nvidia? For AMD, make sure your Mesa version is 25.1 or higher, and you might need the KDE HDR layers. Gamescope can also help run games in HDR. Just remember, enabling HDR system-wise is key in the display settings! I’ve had HDR working fine on Arch with an AMD GPU in KDE Plasma.
Honestly, getting HDR on Linux still feels pretty beta. It might improve soon, or it could take a while longer to get it right.
That’s a bummer. Works great for me and looks way better than what I got on Windows.
Sorry it’s a struggle for you; I found some useful tweaks that made it work well for my setup!
I haven’t had much luck with HDR on KDE, but I hear the latest Plasma and Mesa updates have improved HDR features. If you haven’t updated, you should give it a shot! I had HDR running on Cyberpunk using gamescope, but it was a hassle with cursor issues, so just be aware of that.
I don’t have HDR working on Linux at all. Either my colors are washed out or super saturated. The best luck I had was with a Steam gamescope session, but that meant losing access to my desktop while in-game, which is a pain.
To get HDR looking great on your setup, make sure to tweak some display settings in KDE Plasma. Here’s what you can do:
1. Set the SDR Color Intensity to zero for true RGB coverage; anything higher can oversaturate colors.
2. Adjust the SDR Max brightness to match your monitor’s peak brightness for a 100% window – this is often referred to as Paperwhite.
3. Finally, set your brightness to 100%. For example, if your SDR Max brightness reads 250 nits, max it out at that.
For AMD GPUs, ensure you’re on Mesa 25.1 or higher and try launching with `PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 PROTON_ENABLE_HDR=1 %command%`. If you’re using Nvidia, you’ll need to install the VK-HDR-LAYER and use the command `PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 PROTON_ENABLE_HDR=1 ENABLE_HDR_WSI=1 %command%`. In-game, experiment with Peak and Paperwhite settings, and adjust contrast for the best visual results. Happy gaming!
This is solid advice! Just remember when adjusting SDR brightness, lower levels might actually enhance highlights on ABL panels.
I’m using an AMD card with KDE 6.3.2 and Mesa 25.1.1, so I’m hopeful it should work fine. I’ll also check out Gamescope, thanks!