Bug 510216 - HDR washed-out / grey-ish in Proton games
Summary: HDR washed-out / grey-ish in Proton games
Status: RESOLVED UPSTREAM
Alias: None
Product: kwin
Classification: Plasma
Component: colour-management (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: 6.5.80
Platform: Compiled Sources Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: KWin default assignee
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2025-10-04 02:07 UTC by Kyle Devir
Modified: 2025-10-15 12:13 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
Silksong HDR off (2.07 MB, image/png)
2025-10-04 02:16 UTC, Kyle Devir
Details
Silksong HDR on (2.30 MB, image/png)
2025-10-04 02:17 UTC, Kyle Devir
Details
Silksong HDR off (3.40 MB, image/png)
2025-10-04 02:17 UTC, Kyle Devir
Details
Silksong HDR on (3.53 MB, image/png)
2025-10-04 02:18 UTC, Kyle Devir
Details
Monster Hunter Wilds HDR off (2.97 MB, image/jpeg)
2025-10-04 14:11 UTC, Kyle Devir
Details
Monster Hunter Wilds HDR on (2.92 MB, image/jpeg)
2025-10-04 14:12 UTC, Kyle Devir
Details
6.4.5 Silksong HDR off (1.28 MB, image/png)
2025-10-10 09:01 UTC, Kyle Devir
Details
6.4.5 Silksong HDR on (1.23 MB, image/png)
2025-10-10 09:01 UTC, Kyle Devir
Details
colortest pallette sdr (54.29 KB, image/png)
2025-10-13 22:45 UTC, Kyle Devir
Details
colortest pallette BT2020+gamma 2.2 (54.28 KB, image/png)
2025-10-13 22:46 UTC, Kyle Devir
Details
colortest image 203 nits (549.95 KB, image/png)
2025-10-13 22:46 UTC, Kyle Devir
Details
colortest image 500 nits (534.69 KB, image/png)
2025-10-13 22:47 UTC, Kyle Devir
Details

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Description Kyle Devir 2025-10-04 02:07:53 UTC
SUMMARY
Recently, I've noticed that when enabling HDR in games where it used to work, the colour pallette turns more grey-ish, compared increasing the range of colours and brightness. (I think some HDR videos might also be broken, testing with Youtube via Firefox Wayland and MPV's HDR settings, but I'm not sure what it to look for, so I won't really use those as a benchmark here...)

I am using Proton-EM, which has a bunch of patches enabling use of Wayland and HDR.

My benchmark has been Hollow Knight: Silksong using RenoDX via Reshade to make HDR happen, which I recall used to work.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Have HDR monitor
2. Upgrade to latest KWin Git master via kde-build / kde-builder 
3. Test games with HDR via Proton-EM 2E / 2F (2E I know used to work not too long ago, but 2F is more recent)

OBSERVED RESULT
Colours become more washed-out / greyish when HDR is enabled

EXPECTED RESULT
Colours in HDR-enabled games should be more vibrant, instead of washed out

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: CachyOS Linux 
KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.80
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.19.0
Qt Version: 6.9.2
Kernel Version: 6.17.0-2-cachyos-bore (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 8-Core Processor
Memory: 32 GiB of RAM (30.2 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor 1: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
Graphics Processor 2: AMD Radeon Graphics
Manufacturer: ASRock
Product Name: X670E Pro RS

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
kscreen-doctor -o output:

Output: 1 DP-1 a0cedf15-7979-4469-8256-208a92eea4c8
	enabled
	connected
	priority 1
	DisplayPort
	replication source:0
	Modes:  1:2560x1440@170.00!  2:2560x1440@59.95  3:2560x1440@180.00  4:2560x1440@165.00  5:2560x1440@143.91  6:2560x1440@120.00*  7:1920x1200@170.00  8:1920x1080@120.00  9:1920x1080@119.88  10:1920x1080@60.00  11:1920x1080@60.00  12:1920x1080@59.94  13:1920x1080@50.00  14:1600x1200@170.00  15:1280x1440@59.91  16:1680x1050@170.00  17:1280x1024@75.03  18:1280x1024@60.02  19:1440x900@170.00  20:1280x800@170.00  21:1280x720@60.00  22:1280x720@59.94  23:1280x720@50.00  24:1264x720@119.99  25:1024x768@119.93  26:1024x768@99.99  27:1024x768@75.03  28:1024x768@70.07  29:1024x768@60.00  30:832x624@74.55  31:800x600@119.93  32:800x600@99.86  33:800x600@75.00  34:800x600@72.19  35:800x600@60.32  36:800x600@56.25  37:720x576@50.00  38:720x576@50.00  39:720x480@60.00  40:720x480@60.00  41:720x480@59.94  42:720x480@59.94  43:640x480@119.80  44:640x480@99.82  45:640x480@75.00  46:640x480@72.81  47:640x480@66.67  48:640x480@60.00  49:640x480@59.94  50:640x480@59.94  51:720x400@70.08  52:1600x1200@59.87  53:1600x1200@179.86  54:1280x1024@179.91  55:1024x768@179.84  56:1920x1200@59.88  57:1920x1200@179.89  58:1280x800@59.81  59:1280x800@179.74  60:1920x1080@179.98  61:1600x900@59.95  62:1600x900@179.77  63:1368x768@59.88  64:1368x768@179.92  65:1280x720@179.72
	Geometry: 0,0 2560x1440
	Scale: 1
	Rotation: 1
	Overscan: 0
	Vrr: Never
	RgbRange: Full
	HDR: enabled
		SDR brightness: 520 nits
		SDR gamut wideness: 100%
		Peak brightness: 1156 nits, overridden with: 1156 nits
		Max average brightness: 1156 nits
		Min brightness: 0.0514 nits
	Wide Color Gamut: enabled
	ICC profile: /run/media/valmar/IronWolfRAID1/Random/drivers/ae6d7f97-1302-4f2e-9430-6d6db4e7cbae/Q27G3XMN.icm
	Color profile source: EDID
	Color power preference: prefer efficiency and performance
	Brightness control: supported, set to 100% and dimming to 100%
	DDC/CI: allowed
	Color resolution: 10 bits per color, range: [8; 16] bits per color
	Allow EDR: unsupported
	Sharpness control: unsupported
Comment 1 Kyle Devir 2025-10-04 02:16:45 UTC
Created attachment 185496 [details]
Silksong HDR off
Comment 2 Kyle Devir 2025-10-04 02:17:12 UTC
Created attachment 185497 [details]
Silksong HDR on
Comment 3 Kyle Devir 2025-10-04 02:17:47 UTC
Created attachment 185498 [details]
Silksong HDR off
Comment 4 Kyle Devir 2025-10-04 02:18:21 UTC
Created attachment 185499 [details]
Silksong HDR on
Comment 5 Kyle Devir 2025-10-04 02:23:07 UTC
A problem is that the screenshots captured by Spectacle don't really show what I'm seeing from in-game ~ HDR makes colours a lot more muted, which Spectable isn't picking up on. Or maybe that's a Gwenview issue... dunno.

But looking at different areas, colours aren't popping and searing my eyes like they used to. Not sure what changed...
Comment 6 Kyle Devir 2025-10-04 05:08:36 UTC
Can't bisect back further than https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/commit/08a945439d4f631449400935ca046d6263940811 which won't build due to needed changes, but still broken on that commit too.
Comment 7 Kyle Devir 2025-10-04 11:27:37 UTC
Can reproduce in Monster Hunter Wilds too ~ using native HDR this time.
Comment 8 Kyle Devir 2025-10-04 14:11:51 UTC
Created attachment 185506 [details]
Monster Hunter Wilds HDR off
Comment 9 Kyle Devir 2025-10-04 14:12:26 UTC
Created attachment 185507 [details]
Monster Hunter Wilds HDR on
Comment 10 Kyle Devir 2025-10-05 05:18:09 UTC
KWin info: https://invent.kde.org/-/snippets/3560
Comment 11 Kyle Devir 2025-10-10 08:56:32 UTC
Can reproduce the same results in 6.4.5 ~ can't get a screenshot, though, as Spectacle is broken there for some reason:

Operating System: CachyOS Linux 
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.18.0
Qt Version: 6.10.0
Kernel Version: 6.17.1-1-cachyos-bore (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 8-Core Processor
Memory: 32 GiB of RAM (30.2 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor 1: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
Graphics Processor 2: AMD Radeon Graphics
Manufacturer: ASRock
Product Name: X670E Pro RS
Comment 12 Kyle Devir 2025-10-10 09:01:01 UTC
Created attachment 185638 [details]
6.4.5 Silksong HDR off
Comment 13 Kyle Devir 2025-10-10 09:01:33 UTC
Created attachment 185639 [details]
6.4.5 Silksong HDR on
Comment 14 Zamundaaa 2025-10-13 16:39:54 UTC
I can't confirm that, HDR games still look fine here.

If you compile and run https://invent.kde.org/zamundaaa/colortest, does BT2020+gamma 2.2 look more or less saturated than just sRGB?
Comment 15 Kyle Devir 2025-10-13 22:28:01 UTC
(In reply to Zamundaaa from comment #14)
> I can't confirm that, HDR games still look fine here.
> 
> If you compile and run https://invent.kde.org/zamundaaa/colortest, does
> BT2020+gamma 2.2 look more or less saturated than just sRGB?

Yes ~ the colours look slightly more intense by comparison.

Because stable KWin doesn't seem to change anything, can I ask what kernel version you're testing with? Also what Mesa version and hardware? Maybe even firmware version? Wondering if there's some weird bug there somewhere screwing things up.
Comment 16 Kyle Devir 2025-10-13 22:43:05 UTC
The colour pallettes change, but the image's colour do not.

But if I change the nits slider, the higher it goes, the darker the image gets shadow and highlights-wise. That doesn't seem like it should be happening...
Comment 17 Kyle Devir 2025-10-13 22:45:37 UTC
Created attachment 185753 [details]
colortest pallette sdr
Comment 18 Kyle Devir 2025-10-13 22:46:15 UTC
Created attachment 185754 [details]
colortest pallette BT2020+gamma 2.2
Comment 19 Kyle Devir 2025-10-13 22:46:55 UTC
Created attachment 185755 [details]
colortest image 203 nits
Comment 20 Kyle Devir 2025-10-13 22:47:21 UTC
Created attachment 185756 [details]
colortest image 500 nits
Comment 21 Kyle Devir 2025-10-13 22:47:52 UTC
I am an idiot... if the colours are borked on my system, why would they show up in screenshots? Sigh.
Comment 22 Kyle Devir 2025-10-15 01:28:44 UTC
(In reply to Zamundaaa from comment #14)
> I can't confirm that, HDR games still look fine here.
> 
> If you compile and run https://invent.kde.org/zamundaaa/colortest, does
> BT2020+gamma 2.2 look more or less saturated than just sRGB?

Another thing I've just considered... my libdisplay version is 0.3.0, per a recent update. Not sure whether that could be having an effect.
Comment 23 Kyle Devir 2025-10-15 12:13:51 UTC
Unfortunately, the same issue appears to plague Gamescope tty session, so this isn't a KWin bug, happily.

Sorry for the useless bug report ~ chasing ghosts is an annoying game...