Compatibility of games with nonblurry scaling via nVidia driver in Linux
Below are the results of testing some games at Full HD (1920×1080) virtual resolution on the Dell P2415Q monitor with 4K (3840×2160) physical resolution under Ubuntu 17.10 and 18.04.
By compatibility with nonblurry scaling via nVidia GeForce graphics driver for Linux, games can be conditionally divided to three categories:
- correctly scaled with no blur;
- image is cropped and visible partially: for example, at the
ViewPortInresolution of 1920×1080 and theViewPortOutresolution of 3840×2160, the bottom-left or top-left quarter is visible; - signal is output in true (exclusive) full-screen mode — directly to monitor, ignoring/bypassing GPU-powered scaling at all, and scaled by monitor with blur.
| Game | F | W | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airline Tycoon Deluxe | + | Based on a 2D engine and has a fixed low resolution with aspect ratio of 4:3 or 5:4, but scales properly with maintaining aspect ratio, with no blur by GPU, but with blur by the game engine. The game does not have a setting to change resolution. | |
| Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs | − | + | Signal is output directly to monitor, bypassing GPU-powered scaling. The maximum available resolution in the game settings is physical monitor resolution regardless of the Nearest mode. Playing in windowed mode is possible. |
| Amnesia: The Dark Descent | |||
|
Broken Sword 5 — the Serpent’s Curse |
− | + | In the default full-screen mode (“Fullscreen 1”), signal is output directly to monitor, bypassing GPU-powered scaling. In the alternate full-screen mode “Fullscreen 2”, bottom-left part of the image is visible, and mouse cursor is in a narrow line to the top, and it is impossible to move the cursor down, keyboard is the only control method (up-down arrows and Enter). In the full-screen mode “Fullscreen 3”, mouse does not work. Sometimes in modes “Fullscreen 2” and “Fullscreen 3”, the game reacts to neither mouse nor keyboard. Sometimes after switching to the Nearest mode while the game is running in the “Fullscreen 1” mode, the game functions at the pseudo-full-screen mode with no blur. Playing in windowed mode is possible. |
| Borderlands 2 | − | Only bottom-left part of the image is visible. In regular full-screen mode, the game hangs at menu, so it’s unknown if windowed mode is supported. | |
| Brütal Legend | ~ | By default, runs at physical monitor resolution, though visible entirely. To prevent wasting performance, first switch resolution in the game, then enable Nearest scaling via graphics driver. At the starting splash screen (before playing video), bottom-left part of the image is only visible even if correct resolution was chosen in game settings before. | |
| Cities: Skylines | ~ | + | By default, physical or system resolution is selected (it is also maximum available one), and only bottom-left part of the image is visible. After switching the game to resolution corresponding to ViewPortIn, image gets visible entirely, but this works only if Transform Filter is enabled while the game is already running. Playing in windowed mode is possible. |
| Day of Infamy | + | Default selected resolution in the game settings is ViewPortIn, it is also the maximum available resolution. There are modes available in the game: “Full Screen”, “Borderless” and “Windowed”; they works similarly with Transform Filter enabled. Loading any level takes 5-6 minutes (regardless of Transform Filter), most of this time the process looks like hanging at progress of about 20%. |
|
| DiRT: Showdown | − | + | Top-left part of the image is visible. Playing in windowed mode is possible. |
| Don’t Starve Together | − | + | Signal is output directly to monitor, bypassing GPU-powered scaling. Playing in windowed mode is possible. By default, the game starts in windowed mode at resolution of 640×480. |
| Dota 2 | ~ | By default, user interface does not react to mouse cursor. First switch resolution in the game, then enable Nearest scaling via graphics driver. | |
| Dungeons 2 | + | ||
| Euro Truck Simulator 2 | − | + | Signal is output directly to monitor, bypassing GPU-powered scaling. Playing in windowed mode is possible. |
| F1 2015 | − | ~ | In full-screen mode, only bottom-left image part is visible. In windowed mode, the window is centered in area corresponding to physical monitor resolution, and mouse cursor is hidden when the game window is active. To move the window to visible area, do this: make another application’s window active by pressing Alt+Tab, then position it so that the game window’s title bar is at least partially visible, start dragging the game’s window without switching to the game’s window before; but performance in such mode is considerably lower than in regular full-screen mode. |
| F1 2017 | ~ | In full-screen mode with Nearest scaling enabled, there is a significant performance drop compared with regular full-screen mode. In windowed mode, performance is noticeably higher, but lower than in regular full-screen mode. | |
| GRID Autosport | − | ~ | In full-screen mode, only bottom-left image part is visible. In windowed mode, the window is centered in area corresponding to physical monitor resolution, and mouse cursor is hidden when the game window is active. To move the window to visible area, do this: make another application’s window active by pressing Alt+Tab, then position it so that the game window’s title bar is at least partially visible, start dragging the game’s window without switching to the game’s window before; but performance in such mode is considerably lower than in regular full-screen mode. On systems with regional settings where integer and fractional number parts are separated with a comma instead of a dot, the game hangs at the starting splash screen with the game logo regardless of using the Nearest scaling mode; the hang can be prevented by switching the regional number format to american (Region & Language → Formats → United States). |
| Guns of Icarus Online | + | ||
| Half-Life 2 | ~ | By default, menu items do not react to mouse cursor. First switch resolution in the game, then enable Nearest scaling via graphics driver. | |
| Hexcells | + | Default selected resolution in the game settings is ViewPortIn, it is also the maximum available resolution. Windowed mode is also supported, but it functions like the full-screen mode. |
|
| Hexcells Infinite | |||
| Hexcells Plus | |||
| Killing Floor | − | ~ | The default resolution is 800×600; after switching to the ViewPortIn resolution in game settings, only a part of the game window is visible, and that part occupies just a part of the ViewPortIn area. Supports windowed mode, but the bottom hidden window part contains important controls (buttons) required for playing. |
| Left 4 Dead 2 | − | ~ | Only bottom-left part of the image is visible. Both windowed modes — “Windowed (No Border)” and “Run in a window” — work identically — with window titlebar displayed. Playing in windowed mode is possible, but sometimes menu does not react to mouse. |
| Limbo | − | Only bottom-left part of the image is visible (screenshot). The game supports neither changing resolution nor windowed mode. | |
| Micron | + | By default, runs in windowed mode at the 640×480 resolution. The maximum available resolution in game settings is ViewPortIn. If in normal mode (with no Nearest), select physical monitor resolution in game settings, and then run the game with the Nearest scaling mode enabled, then only bottom-left part of the image is visible. |
|
| Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor | − | ~ | With Transform Filter enabled, the game window is invisible in both full-screen and windowed modes. To play in windowed mode, Transform Filter should be enabled while the game is already running, then windowed mode works like full-screen mode. If to switch the game to full-screen mode after that, only bottom-left part of the image gets visible. |
| Oddworld: New’n’Tasty | + | ||
| Outlast | ~ | By default, runs at physical monitor resolution, though visible entirely. To prevent wasting performance, first switch resolution in the game, then enable Nearest scaling via graphics driver. | |
|
Painkiller: Hell & Damnation
(Demo) |
− | Only bottom-left part of the image is visible. The game does not have a setting to change resolution. | |
| Payday 2 | ~ | When using nVidia Transform Filter, only bottom-left part of the image is visible. But the game itself in Linux (but not in Windows) uses scaling with no blur at any resolution selected in the game, so using Transform Filter is unneeded. | |
| Portal | ~ | Menu is inaccessible for mouse. | |
| Rogue Stormers | − | + | Signal is output directly to monitor, bypassing GPU-powered scaling. Playing in windowed mode is possible. |
| Rush | + | The game does not have a way to change resolution, but works correctly by default with scaling with no blur. | |
| Sanctum 2 | − | + | Only bottom-left part of the image is visible. Playing in windowed mode is possible. |
| Satellite Reign | + | Default selected resolution in the game settings is ViewPortIn, it is also the maximum available resolution. |
|
| Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (Demo) |
+ | Default selected resolution in the game settings is ViewPortIn, it is also the maximum available resolution. |
|
| Shadow Warrior | ~ | By default, runs at physical monitor resolution, though visible entirely. Performance in this case is much lower than in ViewPortIn resolution. To prevent wasting performance, first switch resolution in the game, then enable Nearest scaling via graphics driver. After switching to another application and back, only bottom-left part of the image gets visible. |
|
| Spec Ops: The Line | − | ~ | Only bottom-left part of the image is visible. Ability to play in windowed mode is limited because the hidden bottom window part contains critical controls including those needed for starting a campaign after choosing a difficulty level. |
| Syder Arcade | ~ | By default, only bottom-left part of the image is visible (screenshot). First switch resolution in the game, then enable Nearest scaling via graphics driver. | |
| The Cave | ~ | By default, runs at physical monitor resolution, though visible entirely. To prevent wasting performance, first switch resolution in the game, then enable Nearest scaling via graphics driver. | |
| This War of Mine | + | ||
| Torment: Tides of Numenera | + | With Transform Filter enabled, the game works noticeably smoother than in normal mode at the same in-game resolution. Windowed mode looks the same as full-screen mode. | |
| Trine Enchanted Edition | − | Only bottom-left part of the image is visible (screenshot). The game does not support windowed mode. | |
| Trine 2 | + | ||
| Toki Tori | + | Based on a 2D engine and has a fixed resolution, but scales properly, with no blur by GPU, but with blur by the game engine. The game does not have a setting to change resolution. | |
| Toki Tori 2 | ~ | Based on a 2D engine and has a fixed resolution, but has a resolution setting, and the default selected resolution is physical (Native) monitor resolution. Scales properly, with no blur by GPU, but with blur by the game engine. To prevent wasting performance, first switch resolution in the game, then enable Nearest scaling via graphics driver. | |
| Tyranny | + | The maximum available resolution in game settings is ViewPortIn. |
|
| X Rebirth (Demo) | ~ | + | In the “Display Mode: Borderless Window” selected in the game settings by default, the game works correctly, only the first splash logo screen is displayed partially though with no blur. In the “Fullscreen” mode, only bottom-left part of the image with blur is visible. In the “Borderless Window” mode, resolution can’t be changed, it is always equal to current OS resolution (or ViewPortIn when Transform Filter is enabled). User interface reacts to mouse cursor only in the “Windowed” mode. In windowed mode, resolution displayed in the game after choosing it, has height smaller than selected one with the difference equal to title-bar height (e. g. 1920×1050 instead of 1920×1080), i. e. in theory, nothing is hidden at the bottom due to title bar at the top. |
| XCOM 2 | − | + | In full-screen mode, only bottom-left image part is visible. In windowed mode, image fills entire screen, there is no titlebar, looks like full-screen mode; in the game settings, resolutions up to physical resolution are available. If a resolution higher than ViewPortIn is selected in the game, top-left image part is visible. In terms of performance, windowed mode with Transform-Filter scaling enabled is similar to regular full-screen mode. Performance under Windows is noticeably higher. |
In the table, the following conventions are used:
- F — playable with no blur in full-screen mode;
- W — playable with no blur in windowed mode;
- + — the game works fine;
- − — the game is unplayable;
- ~ — the game is playable, but with limitations (in most cases, this means that the game is playable only in windowed mode).