Blurry scaling for native wayland apps

[maya-doshi]

• Sway Version:

  • sway version 1.9

• Debug Log:

  • https://gist.github.com/maya-doshi/6434af3b62f4ac3e4d5236c7f1b328ff

• Configuration File:
  My config is very close to stock
  https://gist.github.com/maya-doshi/b5cbaf8fc6421275f21a3b0d7b936048\
  https://gist.github.com/maya-doshi/975e6a4551bb85d82734e513d3f47c0a

• Description:

  • this only the case for my laptops internal 2880*1800 OLED screen and not an external 4k monitor at 1.5 scale.
  • This was not an issue on sway 1.8.1 and doesn't happen when using integer scaling
  • Also not an issue on the latest master commit built from source but is an issue on 1.9 built from source
  • Waybar, firefox, thunderbird, gnome disks(gtk3), sioyek, zathura, qownnotes(qt5), fuzzel and even the sway exit dialog are blurry.
  • gtk4 apps, mpv and foot are not

[akelmanson]

You can enable fractional scaling in firefox by visiting the about:config page and setting the widget.wayland.fractional-scale.enabled preference.

[sefidel]

I can reproduce this issue, although foot is also affected on my end.
Works fine on 1.8.1, bisected to v1.9-rc1 and the scaling is worse on v1.10.
Possibly caused by fractional scaling changes made on wlroots 0.17?

1.8.1

1.9-rc1

1.10-dev

[maya-doshi]

I've been on NixOS 24.05 and I thought the issue was gone. But it comes back at 1.0 scale on an external 4k monitor when there is an overlap between it and my 1.5 scaled laptop. Maybe it has to do with overlapping displays with different scaling?

[sefidel]

Hmm, I'm experiencing this issue on my internal display (at 1.25 scale factor) without any external displays connected.

[maya-doshi]

@sefidel it happened for me even when the external display was just in the outputs of the config and not actually plugged in. maybe i just found another way to trigger it 🤷‍♀️

[GoldsteinE]

Reproduces for me on 1.5 scale, no external displays. Kinda visible in foot, but much worse in Firefox.

[wildwestrom]

I'm experiencing this issue on all applications when the scale is less than 1 for an external display. I also straight up crash when trying to run fractional scaling with Firefox, not sure if it's a sway/wlroots issue or a Firefox issue.

Crash Annotation GraphicsCriticalError: |[0][GFX1-]: (sway) Wayland protocol error: wl_surface#64: error 0: Specified scale value (0) is not positive
 (t=2.36913) [GFX1-]: (sway) Wayland protocol error: wl_surface#64: error 0: Specified scale value (0) is not positive


Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Crash Annotation GraphicsCriticalError: |[C0][GFX1-]: CompositorBridgeChild receives IPC close with reason=AbnormalShutdown (t=8fish: Job 1, 'librewolf' terminated by signal SIGSEGV (Address boundary error)

$ sway --version
sway version 1.10

[fspv]

Not sure if the same issue or not, but in sway 1.9 when I move window from the laptop monitor with scale 2.0 to an external monitor with scale 1.0, I also experience issue with blurry text.

It is easily fixed if I just drag the tab into a separate window.

Update: just tried sway 1.11, the problem does not appear there, so will just continue using it.

[tekstryder]

Lured by the possibility of a "more pixel perfect sway", I'm currently testing:

• wlroots git master @7cb3393e + !5071 + !5159
• sway git master @d9e615c5 + container, transaction: align to fractional grid #8715

I've got one app that's sensitive to scaling. At certain fractional scales ptyxis terminal is blurry. I use that as my barometer for whether a scaling factor is "good" or not.

• Display (PHL 328E1): 3840x2160 in 32", 60 Hz [External]
• Display (DELL U2711): 1440x2560 in 27", 60 Hz [External]

When trying to match the scaling factors from my hyprland setting, I end up with a blurry terminal on both displays.

Focusing only on the primary display (because scaling on the secondary has far fewer valid non-blurry options), here's some notes regarding each set of scaling factors:

# Original setting, tad small for my old eyes, not blurry, PPI match just okay
# output DP-1 scale 1.25 pos 0 0
# output DVI-D-1 transform 90 pos 3072 -455

# Slightly small, not blurry, PPI match decent
# output DP-1 scale 1.3 pos 0 0
# output DVI-D-1 transform 90 pos 2954 -485

# BUSTED (1.31 & 1.32 incorrect alignment (primary screen smaller than display))
# output DP-1 scale 1.32 pos 0 0
# output DVI-D-1 scale 1.0 transform 90 pos 2909 -455

# Match Hyprland scaling settings, BLURRY Ptyxis tho
# output DP-1 scale 1.333333 pos 0 0
# output DVI-D-1 scale 1.066667 transform 90 pos 2880 -425

# Blurry Ptyxis
# output DP-1 scale 1.34 pos 0 0
# output DVI-D-1 transform 90 pos 2966 -485

# Not blurry, PPI match very good
output DP-1 scale 1.35 pos 0 0
output DVI-D-1 scale 1.05 transform 90 pos 2844 -455

# Big, not blurry, PPI match almost perfect
# output DP-1 scale 1.4 pos 0 0
# output DVI-D-1 scale 1.1 transform 90 pos 2743 -425

# Supersize Me, not blurry, PPI match decent
# output DP-1 scale 1.5 pos 0 0
# output DVI-D-1 scale 1.2 transform 90 pos 2560 -375

TL;DR: On the 4K primary display, scaling factors of 1.31 and 1.32 are broken, 1.33 (desired) is blurry. 1.34 is blurry.

I happened to stumble upon a non-intuitive 1.35 & 1.05 factors which yield near-ideal (better than hyprland) non-blurry on both monitors and good match of PPI.

Noting this here, as those pending MRs all claim to fix such inaccuracies.

I don't see any different behavior from sway/wlroots respective current git master versions. I tested for a couple hours an noted two instances of screen corruption (flashing texture and a black box where a context menu had been).

As such I've gone back to git master for now.

I build wlroots thusly:

drm-backend       : YES
    x11-backend       : NO
    libinput-backend  : YES
    xwayland          : NO
    gles2-renderer    : NO
    vulkan-renderer   : YES
    gbm-allocator     : YES
    udmabuf-allocator : YES
    session           : YES
    color-management  : YES
    xcb-errors        : NO
    egl               : NO
    libliftoff        : YES

  User defined options
    auto_features     : enabled
    b_pie             : true
    backends          : drm,libinput
    buildtype         : plain
    examples          : false
    libexecdir        : lib
    prefix            : /usr
    python.bytecompile: 1
    renderers         : vulkan
    sbindir           : bin
    wrap_mode         : nodownload
    xcb-errors        : disabled
    xwayland          : disabled

[agorgl]

As noted in the relevant pr thread of #8715, the above seems to be issue specific to ptyxis or gtk4