4 ms·

Not defending wayland, but X11 has serious downsides for me with multiple monitors. Are you using fractional scaling (or different scaling values per monitor)?

Not defending wayland, but X11 has serious downsides for me with multiple monitors. Are you using fractional scaling (or different scaling values per monitor)? Does vsync work? How about the scrolling stutter at high refresh rates? And if you want to use variable refresh, you have to disable/unplug all the other monitors and reboot.

adrian_b 4y ago
All my monitors are fixed 60 Hz, so I have never used variable refresh and there is no scrolling stutter. Vsync works, but I must choose with which of the monitors. For about a decade, I have used only 4k monitors, even starting with the early models that were seen by the computer as multiple monitors, because HDMI and DisplayLink could not carry 4k @ 60 Hz on a single link at that time. Nevertheless, I still cannot understand why would anyone want to use any kind of "scaling" in relationship with a monitor. Any kind of "scaling" is guaranteed to generate sub-optimal images. The correct way to deal with monitor resolutions is to set for each monitor the appropriate dots-per-inch value, depending on the monitor size and resolution. With the right DPI value, all typefaces and vector drawings will be rendered beautifully. Scaling is never needed per monitor, but only per window, either for the windows containing bitmap images, i.e. pictures or movies, or for the windows that contain GUIs implemented by incompetent programmers in Java with typefaces sized in pixels, instead of using scalable typefaces sized in points, like any decent (non-Java) GUI. I did not need to set different DPI values for each monitor belonging to a multi-monitor layout, so I do not know if that is possible in X11.
- deagle50 4y ago
  There is one DPI setting per X server I think, and I use 192 because I have two 4k screens. Which forces me to xrandr the 1440p display at 2160p then output a blurry 1080p to match the 4k screens at 2x scale. As for why use scaling, I can't read anything at 4k native and the UI elements don't scale correctly with the font dpi. Windows has fully functional 150% and 175% options (one of the few things Windows does well now) and in MacOS has really nice global super-sampling options between 1080p-1440p hidpi.
  - adrian_b 4y ago
    I am also using 192 dpi with a pair of 4k monitors, a 27-inch and a 24-inch, both at the native resolution of 2160p, so everything is crisp. With the default font size set at 12 points, everything is very easy to read. Even 10-point or 9-point fonts are still comfortable, despite the fact that otherwise I need glasses for reading small printed books. Under XFCE, almost everything is scaled fine on 4k and 192 dpi. The only exception is that some of the scrollbars remain rather narrow, but they are still usable.

adrian_b 4y ago

All my monitors are fixed 60 Hz, so I have never used variable refresh and there is no scrolling stutter. Vsync works, but I must choose with which of the monitors. For about a decade, I have used only 4k monitors, even starting with the early models that were seen by the computer as multiple monitors, because HDMI and DisplayLink could not carry 4k @ 60 Hz on a single link at that time. Nevertheless, I still cannot understand why would anyone want to use any kind of "scaling" in relationship with a monitor. Any kind of "scaling" is guaranteed to generate sub-optimal images. The correct way to deal with monitor resolutions is to set for each monitor the appropriate dots-per-inch value, depending on the monitor size and resolution. With the right DPI value, all typefaces and vector drawings will be rendered beautifully. Scaling is never needed per monitor, but only per window, either for the windows containing bitmap images, i.e. pictures or movies, or for the windows that contain GUIs implemented by incompetent programmers in Java with typefaces sized in pixels, instead of using scalable typefaces sized in points, like any decent (non-Java) GUI. I did not need to set different DPI values for each monitor belonging to a multi-monitor layout, so I do not know if that is possible in X11.

deagle50 4y ago
There is one DPI setting per X server I think, and I use 192 because I have two 4k screens. Which forces me to xrandr the 1440p display at 2160p then output a blurry 1080p to match the 4k screens at 2x scale. As for why use scaling, I can't read anything at 4k native and the UI elements don't scale correctly with the font dpi. Windows has fully functional 150% and 175% options (one of the few things Windows does well now) and in MacOS has really nice global super-sampling options between 1080p-1440p hidpi.
- adrian_b 4y ago
  I am also using 192 dpi with a pair of 4k monitors, a 27-inch and a 24-inch, both at the native resolution of 2160p, so everything is crisp. With the default font size set at 12 points, everything is very easy to read. Even 10-point or 9-point fonts are still comfortable, despite the fact that otherwise I need glasses for reading small printed books. Under XFCE, almost everything is scaled fine on 4k and 192 dpi. The only exception is that some of the scrollbars remain rather narrow, but they are still usable.