Steam On Linux Changes The Default Scaling Factor For 4K Displays

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Steam On Linux Changes The Default Scaling Factor For 4K Displays

With tonight's Steam client beta update they have reduced the default scaling factor for those running it on Linux with a 4K display...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Steam-Linux-4K-Scaling-Change

[tildearrow]

As a user of a HiDPI display, I appreciate this!
Although in my case I got a default scaling factor of 100%...

[felipecrs]

I don't understand why simply the GNOME default scale I set in Settings isn't used.

[Sethox]

I don't understand why simply the GNOME default scale I set in Settings isn't used.

Could be hardcoded and a revamp of the platform has to be made (again), this could be why the user does not have a setting to change the scaling factor unless if there are some hidden config file that I don't know of. And as we all know, Valve doesn't do fast development cycles (they do it thoroughly).

[slagiewka]

Could be hardcoded and a revamp of the platform has to be made (again), this could be why the user does not have a setting to change the scaling factor unless if there are some hidden config file that I don't know of. And as we all know, Valve doesn't do fast development cycles (they do it thoroughly).

There's STEAM_FORCE_DESKTOPUI_SCALING=2 for 200% etc. Works for Flatpak Steam , which doesn't seem to have support for automatic detection of scale factor in my case.

[Lycanthropist]

Why isn't it just using the system scaling factor? That's what the X resource Xft.dpi is for. Or whatever the equivalent is on Wayland.

[ahrs]

Why isn't it just using the system scaling factor? That's what the X resource Xft.dpi is for. Or whatever the equivalent is on Wayland.

Xft.dpi is for text and it doesn't really play nicely with multiple monitors. If they'd port the Steam Client to Wayland already then this wouldn't be an issue.

[Mark Rose]

It would be nice if they used 100%. I bought a 4k screen to see more at once, not to see things bigger.

[Calinou]

It would be nice if they used 100%. I bought a 4k screen to see more at once, not to see things bigger.

Defaulting to 100% would make the UI unusably small on those 4K laptops, or even on 4K 24"/27" displays. 150% is a better baseline as it might look too large on really large monitors (like 42"), but it's better than having the UI be unusably small on an arguably larger portion of displays.

Ideally, the OS scale factor would be used by default, but querying this value can be difficult on X11 as mentioned above. (Relying on reported hardware DPI is even less reliable on any OS, as broken monitor EDIDs are very common.)

[schmidtbag]

I've actually been satisfied with the default scaling factor since I sit far enough back from my display.
What I'd much rather see are Windows windows (running through Proton) to be scaled up.