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Any improvements with fractional scaling? Can anyone please link to any material reg the work being done for improving fractional scaling in Linux; it would be

Any improvements with fractional scaling? Can anyone please link to any material reg the work being done for improving fractional scaling in Linux; it would be great if it could match the rendering quality of macOS.

d3Xt3r 2mo ago
What's your setup like? I'm on AMD+Wayland+KDE, no complaints with fractional scaling on my ASUS ProArt PX13 (255 PPI screen).
- vladvasiliu 2mo ago
  IME it works fine on Intel iGPUs, too. I even use multiple ratios with no issue (constant 125% on the laptop, 100% on an external screen and 200% on a different screen at work). Contrary to Windows, this also works well when hotplugging screens. Menus don't end up a blurry mess, and apps seem to work fine. On Windows, even some 1st-party apps are borked (task manager comes to mind).
- Abishek_Muthian 2mo ago
  In my laptop 200% fractional scaling of the built-in QHD+ OLED display on KDE Plasma is great, but when I connect my portable 1080p displays or e-paper monitor (UXGA) the fractional scaling of it is not as good as when compared to when the same monitors are used with macOS (M4) in HiDPI mode under lower resolutions. As the other comment says, I suspect it to do with GPU as the built-in displays are usually driven by intel and external displays are always driven by my Nvidia 4090. But surprisingly, when I drive my e-paper monitor using original Jetson Nano (Ubuntu 20.04 ESM / Nvidia Maxwell); the fractional scaling is quite good perhaps even better than macOS.
  - lvales 2mo ago
    200% isn't fractional scaling, as far as I understand it. Are you using Xorg by any chance? This would explain the issue.
    - Abishek_Muthian 2mo ago
      That explains, yeah 200% would be just integer scaling. I'm on Wayland only.
noisem4ker 2mo ago
Fractional scaling is now supported by major toolkits and compositors. https://wayland.app/protocols/fractional-scale-v1 https://wayland.app/protocols/fractional-scale-v1 Also, I wouldn't hold the rendering quality of macOS as a high standard at all, since all it does is render at a multiple and then downsample, wasting energy and introducing blurriness.
- Abishek_Muthian 2mo ago
  Perhaps it's subjective, I have multiple portable displays including a e-paper monitor and I find that for low resolutions the HiDPI in the macOS produces more legible text in those monitors.
eklavya 2mo ago
KDE has absolutely no issues with it. Gnome >= 47 is fine, you will need to do: `gsettings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features "['scale-monitor-framebuffer', 'xwayland-native-scaling']" ` That stops being necessary as some point around 49/50 I think.

d3Xt3r 2mo ago

What's your setup like? I'm on AMD+Wayland+KDE, no complaints with fractional scaling on my ASUS ProArt PX13 (255 PPI screen).

vladvasiliu 2mo ago
IME it works fine on Intel iGPUs, too. I even use multiple ratios with no issue (constant 125% on the laptop, 100% on an external screen and 200% on a different screen at work). Contrary to Windows, this also works well when hotplugging screens. Menus don't end up a blurry mess, and apps seem to work fine. On Windows, even some 1st-party apps are borked (task manager comes to mind).
Abishek_Muthian 2mo ago
In my laptop 200% fractional scaling of the built-in QHD+ OLED display on KDE Plasma is great, but when I connect my portable 1080p displays or e-paper monitor (UXGA) the fractional scaling of it is not as good as when compared to when the same monitors are used with macOS (M4) in HiDPI mode under lower resolutions. As the other comment says, I suspect it to do with GPU as the built-in displays are usually driven by intel and external displays are always driven by my Nvidia 4090. But surprisingly, when I drive my e-paper monitor using original Jetson Nano (Ubuntu 20.04 ESM / Nvidia Maxwell); the fractional scaling is quite good perhaps even better than macOS.
- lvales 2mo ago
  200% isn't fractional scaling, as far as I understand it. Are you using Xorg by any chance? This would explain the issue.
  - Abishek_Muthian 2mo ago
    That explains, yeah 200% would be just integer scaling. I'm on Wayland only.

noisem4ker 2mo ago

Fractional scaling is now supported by major toolkits and compositors. https://wayland.app/protocols/fractional-scale-v1 https://wayland.app/protocols/fractional-scale-v1 Also, I wouldn't hold the rendering quality of macOS as a high standard at all, since all it does is render at a multiple and then downsample, wasting energy and introducing blurriness.

Abishek_Muthian 2mo ago
Perhaps it's subjective, I have multiple portable displays including a e-paper monitor and I find that for low resolutions the HiDPI in the macOS produces more legible text in those monitors.

eklavya 2mo ago

KDE has absolutely no issues with it. Gnome >= 47 is fine, you will need to do: `gsettings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features "['scale-monitor-framebuffer', 'xwayland-native-scaling']" ` That stops being necessary as some point around 49/50 I think.