4K resolution 3840x2160p Steam Dpi scaling issues

[UltrAramA]

Sorry for posting this if anyone has posted before.

I just installed Acer XB280HK 4K 3840x2160 monitor and to my horror Steam isn't supporting this resolution both in it's normal interface and ingame steam overlay, everything is pixelated no mater what skin i download to use and in game the steam overlay is so small it's unreadable.

I've set up Windows 8.1 update 1 to scale 200%

4k resolution has been around for the last 2 years

I have a Gigabyte GTX 980 G1 Gaming graphics card.

I'm a beta subscriber to steam updates yet you have nothing for this.

There is a huge performance benefit with 2160p compared to do down scaling a 2160p image/game to 1080p.
I played L4D2 in 2160p in this resolution and it's amazing, newer games like Far Cry4 is harder to run in 4K resolution, need new hardware but Steam interface doesn't support this resolution which I find strange since you are gonna release this huge range of steam machines.

Kind Regards Nicholas

[hatchet5891]

UltrAramA님이 먼저 게시:

Bad-Motha님이 먼저 게시:

Unless there is a Steam Client Skin that ups the DPI so it looks better at higher resolutions. Windows DPI does not affect Steam Client (another thing people are PO'ed about) so yea it's up to Steam to fix that. Unless a Skin helps to address this, which I've yet to see.

Well you would think that Valve would have added this support in the Steam client. Imagine what it looks like on a 4K TV.

Well as I stated, they must have some support for it because I have the exact monitor as you with now issues using steam. I didn't change anything like scaling or DPI, I just plugged it in and started up steam. I really think it has something to do on your end with changes you made after installing the monitor. Or maybe you need to make some changes in your Nvidia control panel so that the GPU displays everything correctly instead of making changes to Windows settings. I will try taking a screen shot of mine.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=931C06503A4B84AF!6466&authkey=!APfV1mqTLVgXE8Y&v=3&ithint=photo%2cpng

[UltrAramA]

hatchet5891님이 먼저 게시:

UltrAramA님이 먼저 게시:

Well you would think that Valve would have added this support in the Steam client. Imagine what it looks like on a 4K TV.

Well as I stated, they must have some support for it because I have the exact monitor as you with now issues using steam. I didn't change anything like scaling or DPI, I just plugged it in and started up steam. I really think it has something to do on your end with changes you made after installing the monitor. Or maybe you need to make some changes in your Nvidia control panel so that the GPU displays everything correctly instead of making changes to Windows settings. I will try taking a screen shot of mine.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=931C06503A4B84AF!6466&authkey=!APfV1mqTLVgXE8Y&v=3&ithint=photo%2cpng

I'm gonna test the scaling function in Nvidia controlpanel for the desktop and see if it makes it any better.

[UltrAramA]

hatchet5891님이 먼저 게시:

UltrAramA님이 먼저 게시:

Well you would think that Valve would have added this support in the Steam client. Imagine what it looks like on a 4K TV.

Well as I stated, they must have some support for it because I have the exact monitor as you with now issues using steam. I didn't change anything like scaling or DPI, I just plugged it in and started up steam. I really think it has something to do on your end with changes you made after installing the monitor. Or maybe you need to make some changes in your Nvidia control panel so that the GPU displays everything correctly instead of making changes to Windows settings. I will try taking a screen shot of mine.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=931C06503A4B84AF!6466&authkey=!APfV1mqTLVgXE8Y&v=3&ithint=photo%2cpng

Scaling settings in nvidia control panel is set to scale according to the aspect ratio. The size tab is only for if the desktop is over scanned which it's not.
As I see it, the problem is that steam has it's own skin not made as you said for this resolution and it uses it's own scaling function ignoring Windows scaling settings since the font in steam become all blurry and pixelated.
Are you running the scaling options in Windows at 100%? Because as you see in the image I posted earlier where I set scaling to 100% everything is too small,
I read a lot on internet and many people have this problem with not just steam but other programs too not scaling correctly to hppi monitors. This includes skype, Malwarebytes, Uplay, Steam and many other programs.

Here is a screenshot I made at 3840x2160 with 200% scaling in Windows 8.1 comparing Chrome to Steam. As you see Chrome is scaled correctly and Steam is not.
https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=A5FFCC44314A9E2A&id=A5FFCC44314A9E2A%212420&v=3

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Set the Scaling to "Full Screen"
Which won't matter if both your Display and Applied Screen Res are both the same "native" res.

Changing the Scaling only applies to other resolutions. For example, Aspect Ratio would abide by that rule, thus u will have black bars when certain res are applied. If set to Full Screen, it will stretch to fit your entire screen, regardless of res.

BTW If you see a difference between Chrome -vs- Steam Client there, u need help. Cause they are the same. The only slight difference being that Steam Client uses a different default font.

And again, Windows DPI Scaling DOES NOT effect Steam Client and how it looks. Steam Skins/Styles are what applies this!

[UltrAramA]

Bad-Motha님이 먼저 게시:

Set the Scaling to "Full Screen"
Which won't matter if both your Display and Applied Screen Res are both the same "native" res.

Changing the Scaling only applies to other resolutions. For example, Aspect Ratio would abide by that rule, thus u will have black bars when certain res are applied. If set to Full Screen, it will stretch to fit your entire screen, regardless of res.

BTW If you see a difference between Chrome -vs- Steam Client there, u need help. Cause they are the same. The only slight difference being that Steam Client uses a different default font.

And again, Windows DPI Scaling DOES NOT effect Steam Client and how it looks. Steam Skins/Styles are what applies this!

The scaling options in nvidia control panel is used for fullscreen programs like games and does nothing for programs run in a window on the desktop. The "full screen" option in scaling ignorse the aspect ratio of the program or game running in full screen and will distort games or programs running any other aspect ration than your monitor has.

I think you should drop out of this thread because your advise doesn't help in any way neither resolve the problem. Thank you for your time.

[hatchet5891]

This is what mine is set at. I don't know what number it is since it doesn't show numbers like they used to. But my slider bar is set right in the middle. My nvidia control panel is also set for aspect ratio like yours. I am honestly at a loss for words why you would be having trouble. Out of curiousity, have you checked to see if you can update the drivers for the monitor? Maybe Windows downloaded and installed old drivers or something.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=931C06503A4B84AF!6478&authkey=!AHWbICIbs8gBcm8&v=3&ithint=photo%2cpng

[UltrAramA]

hatchet5891님이 먼저 게시:

This is what mine is set at. I don't know what number it is since it doesn't show numbers like they used to. But my slider bar is set right in the middle. My nvidia control panel is also set for aspect ratio like yours. I am honestly at a loss for words why you would be having trouble. Out of curiousity, have you checked to see if you can update the drivers for the monitor? Maybe Windows downloaded and installed old drivers or something.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=931C06503A4B84AF!6478&authkey=!AHWbICIbs8gBcm8&v=3&ithint=photo%2cpng

I changed the scaling to 175% so it's a little better now compared to when I used 200%. And about the monitor driver for my monitor, it says Generic PnP monitor in device manager. Acer's driver for this monitor isn't signed so it can't be installed. Only way to install unsigned drivers in Windows 8.1 is to disable Driver Signature Verification. I don't want to mess with that.

In the monitor resolution settings in Windows the monitor is identified correctly with the correct model name.

Thank you for your response.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

I know what the NVIDIA Scaling does. Basically I was going to say it would be pointless to even change that. However that still effects the Windows Desktop. If you change to say "Full Screen" and you selected to apply 1280x1024 on a Display that has a 16:9 ratio, then that 1024p res will be then stretched to fit the entire screen.

You should never need a "Driver" for a Monitor/Display unless it has specialized features. Or is basically required due to Windows not allowing for the full-range of Refresh Rates, which is sometimes the case with some displays, but rare. Selecting to "Disable Driver Signature Verification" is not anything to worry over. That option would basically be required to run "Beta" "Unsigned" Drivers. Which many of us do have to do, unfortunately. That's just how it is.

[Mansen]

Bad-Motha님이 먼저 게시:

You should never need a "Driver" for a Monitor/Display unless it has specialized features. Or is basically required due to Windows not allowing for the full-range of Refresh Rates, which is sometimes the case with some displays, but rare. Selecting to "Disable Driver Signature Verification" is not anything to worry over. That option would basically be required to run "Beta" "Unsigned" Drivers. Which many of us do have to do, unfortunately. That's just how it is.

It usually provides a more neutral and accurate colour profile than the default one though.

[Player 1]

I have this same problem with my 980ti@4k. I found that if I went to View>settings>interface and then enabled hardware video decoding it scaled to 150%.

[apiwat_ikkyu]

Player 1님이 먼저 게시:

I have this same problem with my 980ti@4k. I found that if I went to View>settings>interface and then enabled hardware video decoding it scaled to 150%.

This method (combined with Windows' DPI scaling setting) actually solve the problem. Thank you.

They should have enable zooming in the first place

[Wild Cat]

Turning the scaling down to 100% ~ 150% should fix it. The idea is that scaling is not only for text but will attempt to re-size any window, Steam included so you are looking at it through a magnifying glass.

[UltrAramA]

Wild Cat님이 먼저 게시:

Turning the scaling down to 100% ~ 150% should fix it. The idea is that scaling is not only for text but will attempt to re-size any window, Steam included so you are looking at it through a magnifying glass.

If you look at other programs like Malwarebytes, Skype, Office 2016, Chrome, Firefox and many more programs that support scaling scale just fine even if you scale up to 500%, that is the text elements. Yes I know that the image elements doesn't scale that way.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Steam Client never scales with the OS; it's locked in via the internal app settings.
You can configure this with a "skin" that is why they exist.

And never scale your OS GUI beyond 150%, it causes all sorts of issues.

If you need that much scaling enlargment; then u need a physically larger screen.

[UltrAramA]

Bad-Motha님이 먼저 게시:

Steam Client never scales with the OS; it's locked in via the internal app settings.
You can configure this with a "skin" that is why they exist.

And never scale your OS GUI beyond 150%, it causes all sorts of issues.

If you need that much scaling enlargment; then u need a physically larger screen.

Do you have a 28 inch 4K monitor? Have you seen how small the text is at 100% scaling? I have glasses since I'm near sighted and the glasses makes everything smaller, thats why I uses scaling feature in Windows.