Please answer a few questions when you have time.
Sorry for the many questions; I'm just trying to understand how hardware acceleration affects comfort in Linux.
When i use hardware acceleration, for reading text ,for a few minutes i feel much more tension in my stomach , and a slight pain in my right temple. Not so without.
I think it's harder to focus on the dot of the i in the hardware accelerated case, but either case it's not easy. i wear glasses and it's been a long time since replacing them, so maybe i need to get new ones.
as for movies, i'll try next.
WhisperingWind I tested when watching an action 60fps youtube video.
video on full screen. Overlaid on a small part of the screen, the task manager.
Similar percentage of processor use, either with hardware acceleration, or without.
Same goes for chromium.
Something is weird.
Thanks for the reply!
Is there a feeling that on a white background around the letters, there is some kind of movement, like some small dynamic "noise" in the image?
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For me on "bad screens", what I see around letters is a blue glow.
The first time I was able to notice this was after I used a good screen for a few hours with a pure red screen filter, i.e. blue and green was entirely disabled (NegativeScreen app).
After doing that, I looked at a bad screen again, and both these bluish glows around text and other contrasting items + weird extra "subtle shadows" around UI elements was suuuuuuper obvious to me
Another really interesting difference between bad screens and my "one good screen" is on that good screen, using a pure red screen filter looks entirely red, I do not see any other colors at all even while scrolling.
On essentially all other screens, even though I can confirm that only red subpixels are activated with a macro camera, I still see "green and blue trails" while motion happens on the screen (and sometimes, even when there's no motion, I can see green+blue+yellow colors vibrating at edges of contrasting objects that increases when I move my head around). Macs are especially bad with this. In addition, setting most screens to only use blue pixels will show red motion trails.
I don't think it's the other pixels "secretly" activating, they look like they are disabled, but more about how the way the LCD RGB color filters were physically manufactured somehow creates more than just the color they're supposed to. It also might be connected to LCD response time "overdrive" methods as those are frequently associated with colored motion trails.
The strangest part about this though is how my "one good screen" mysteriously is a total outlier here, since it doesn't have the above issue at all.
I got curious and installed Lubuntu as well. By default, I'm experiencing screen tearing in the OS. It seems like there's no hardware acceleration in browsers because 4K videos are choppy. However, when I enter about:support in the Firefox search bar, I see "Compositing: WebRender," which indicates the presence of hardware acceleration
You can check hardware acceleration state at about:support page, look at Compositing row. If there's WebRender, you're running on hardware. If there's WebRender (software) you're on non-accelerated backend.
(https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Firefox_Hardware_acceleration).
But it seems like something is not quite right.
WhisperingWind from the link you sent, i think webRenderer=true is related to web page rendering, but there are other flags for media acceleration.
I need to first verify if Intel iGPU has 6-bit dithering enabled by default in the vanilla kernel. If that's the case, then the fix makes sense, and I'll be sure to add the information to the wiki.
When i use hardware acceleration, for reading text ,for a few minutes i feel much more tension in my stomach , and a slight pain in my right temple. Not so without.
Is there an option to connect via DP and switch to 6-bit? I have checked online, and it seems your monitor is true 8-bit, but out of curiosity, you could try switching to 6-bit, as sometimes manufacturers change display suppliers and the displays themselves without notifying the buyer. I switched to 6-bit on my monitor in Lubuntu, and the image is quite pleasing to the eye, and the text is fairly easy to read.
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WhisperingWind does lubuntu feel better than Ubuntu? Are you using it with the arc?
WhisperingWind No option to switch to 6-bit
I’ve tried it out with Arc, but I don't have a definitive opinion yet; I need a bit more time for testing.
I recommend trying Lubuntu. But it should be noted that it lacks vsync and possibly hardware acceleration.
I'll start with the TV since it's the only true 8-bit display I have. 4K/8K videos on YouTube in Firefox play very smoothly on the 4K display (most likely, hardware acceleration for YouTube in the browser is present). While watching videos, my eyes feel relaxed, creating the sensation of looking through a window rather than at a screen. I enabled 8-bit and limited brightness range for this purpose because I'm sensitive to brightness. The text is slightly easier to read than on Ubuntu, but TV is not designed for reading from the screen.
I'll move on to the monitor (which is 6bit+FRC). I can't enable 6-bit because the default kernel dithers at 6 bits, and the monitor's FRC puts additional strain on my eyes. The fix is needed, which I implemented in the Ubuntu kernel (I will publish it along with a build guide). So, I'm still making progress here.
I'll check a bit later to see if it's possible to lower the threshold for HDMI to 6 bits in the kernel. In theory, there shouldn't be any technical obstacles.
WhisperingWind I mean that sounds promising that it seems easier to read on! Is there a way to modify the default lubuntu kernel to disable dithering @ 6bit? Also which version are you using 18.04 or the latest?
Thank you for sharing your experience.
Previously, you requested PNG screenshots of some macOS applications. Do you have a list, or will any applications do? Should the screenshots be taken with Stillcolor enabled or disabled?
The kernel rebuild will be required here. I plan to upload the kernel code with the fix on GitHub within this week, along with a build guide (two weeks at most; everything depends on the workload at my work).
Also which version are you using 18.04 or the latest?
I am using the latest version.