Color Banding in Game Mode HDR
I am using Bazzite on my HTPC (-deck image, Radeon RX 7900XTX). When using HDR in Game Mode, significant color banding is visible, which is not present when using HDR on my Steam Deck, or when using HDR in Gamescope on KDE in desktop mode. The banding seems to go away when the developer setting "Disable Color Management" is enabled, which makes SDR content appear extremely dark, but makes HDR content look correct.
Color banding is most obvious in the sky and clouds in The Witcher 3 and Death Stranding. Unfortunately the issue doesn't show up in steam screenshots or in-game screenshots, so here are smartphone pictures comparing Color Management being enabled vs disabled in The Witcher 3.
Has anyone else experienced this issue? Can anyone point me to any relevant github issues or forum threads that may be relevant? Thank you very much!
Solution:Jump to solution
It’s an issue with the HDR patch used in that kernel, I think it should be fixed in an upcoming or newer build
37 Replies
What kernel
6.9.8-202.fsync.fc40.x86_64
Solution
It’s an issue with the HDR patch used in that kernel, I think it should be fixed in an upcoming or newer build
I ran into the same thing a week or two ago, it’s because of an extra part of the patch from a valve contractor that didn’t end up being upstreamed. it only affects dcn32 (which the 7900xtx uses)
In the developer settings of game mode it should go away if you enable Force Composition for now
Good to know, thank you for the information! I'll update and try that if the fix isn't in stable yet.
Did a system update, but the bug is still present on kernel 6.9.8-204. The force composite setting does fix it and is nicer than disabling color management, so I'll be patient and wait for the fix to hit stable. Thank you for the help!
it doesn't seem like you need more reports of this, but i can confirm the same problem on 7900xtx, latest bazzite and kernel 6.9.8-204.fsync.fc40.x86_64
Whenever 6.9.9 hits it should fix it looks like
any idea when that will be?
no clue. forcing composition does the exact same thing the kernel update will do in the meantime
gotcha, I'm mostly using HDR on kde desktop by gamescope flag ENABLE_GAMESCOPE_WSI=1 flag, i'm assuming the force composition setting is something that would appear in the sidebar on the bazzite-deck image/game mode itself?
ah yeah i see i can just use
--force-composition flag on gamescope
for anyone else who gets here through search and is running HDR per game on desktop via gamescope launch options, my fix was to add the flag --force-composition after gamescope in my launch options ENABLE_GAMESCOPE_WSI=1 DXVK_HDR=1 MANGOHUD_CONFIG=fps_only=1 gamescope -W {your-width-res} -H {your-height-res} -r {your-refresh} --hdr-enabled --force-composition --framerate-limit {your-refresh} --mangoapp %command%
following up: can confirm this is fixed by upgrading to the latest kernel (6.9.9, released today)--adaptive-sync only works on gamescope when it is embedded. Not from launch options in steam. Even states this if you run gamescope --help. If you launch a game with or without it from steam desktop it will seem like it is working but it is using VRR from KDE and not working correctly. If you continue to monitor your fps provided by the monitor you will notice it will spike to your max refresh rate often causing a stutter. If I am in BG3 for example and not moving the camera it seems like it is working well but if I start panning the camera around it will spike to max refresh quite often. The only way to get HDR and VRR working on linux currently is to use for example the Bazzite HTPC edition that boots directly into Steam embedded. Which has both enabled out of the box.or, use a wayland build of wine
that's it atm
Good to know, but my note in this thread was specifically about force-composition fixing this specific issue. I’ll remove adaptive-sync from my launch flags in the meantime
At one point when I was setting my desktop up for running HDR I added the flag, tbh never verified if it was working
But HDR on desktop works fine with gamescope flags 🤷
Hey folks, sorry to revive a semi dead thread. I keep seeing the gamescope commands, how do I add those? Or, how do I know that they have been applied? I believe the color banding issue is happening to me too, same GPU
i can't speak to the color banding thing since it was fixed for me quite a while ago, but the gamescope flags are intended to be used if you're using kde6 w/ hdr support, and they can be added as launch arguments to each game in steam
if you right click a game in your game list, go to properties and then launch flags
Thanks for replying! I started a new thread for my specific issue here to keep this one less polluted. (https://discord.com/channels/1072614816579063828/1275181353427533975). Essentially, I have done that, and was able to confirm the issue is gamescope related. More is explained in that thread with my debugging steps. 🙏
necrothread, but
--adaptive-sync seems to totally work now? validated via my monitor osd, no weird spikes or strange behavior. @Kyle Gospo i just bothered to try this again yesterday and then remembered seeing you mention this a couple weeks ago (https://discord.com/channels/1072614816579063828/1087140957096517672/1278050489245761538) and am curious if it's related
desktop kde w/ gamescope via launch options
original thread purpose is irrelevant here, but i stopped using the gamescope vrr flag based on some of the responses here in early augIt should not work until Proton is using Wayland instead of XWayland from how I understand it.
I just tested in BG3 it works sitting idle and panning the camera but as soon as I spin the camera VRR goes to 240hz when I am at around 60-70 fps. So it is the same as it was. Maybe slightly better.
Idk this is what I see in ghost of tsushima
big number is my osd output from the monitor, small is mangohud
i'll try bg3
I forgot I turned Vsync off and borderless windows in BG3. I'll check Cyberpunk as well.
Holy crap... it is working in Cyberpunk.
was gonna say -- it's not an X11 thing
X11 has no support for HDR, yet we have working HDR in proton
gamescope passes the relevent data along to the correct wayland protocol
working as expected then? I'll add the flag back to my gamescope script if so 🙂
I wish my OSD was even a tenth as fast as this
thing is borderline useless
ad3423dw!
Love this monitor
Whenever I spin the camera in BG3 it locks to 240hz but it does not feel bad so not sure what is up with that.
could be the mouse rendering?
I am using force cursor grab
still renders it
windows behaves that way too, if the mouse is shown it's expected that the monitor is at native refresh rates
since VRR would be to the detrement of input/perceived input smoothness
might be what's happening there
It works in Warframe as well. Only that weirdness in BG3 but like I said does not feel like it is out of sync. Now if only we could get HDMI 2.1 working I would feel like Linux is just as good as Windows at least for my gaming needs.
To be clear. Last time I tried it BG3 definitally felt bad and out of synce. So glad it is fixed.
🎉
Not to sidetrack this too much but… how? I have one and I’ve never been able to find this in the manual 😭
It’s paradoxically stuck under the game > game enhance mode option in osd
One of the options is for an fps overlay which is vhelpful
I just tested VRR on my HTPC. 4K@120hz HDR VRR now works. Even over HDMI 2.0
HDMI Forum: No HDMI 2.1 for open source drivers
Linux: Hold my beer
Obviously working over Display Stream Compression and not 4:4:4 Chroma subsampling but still, not complaining.
i think i might have a regression on this in the latest release. anyone else? lots of weird color banding on some hdr content
would have to be something different showing similar symptoms, that kernel patch hasnt been included for months and wasnt upstreamed afaik