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

[Joki the Disco Bandit]

- There's a thread requesting native DPI-scaling that goes back almost 2 years. Check the "Discussions" page, I believe, though there are other threads in "Suggestions" and possibly other places.

- There are workarounds, of a sort, but they only do a half-@#%ed job of it. One is linked in the largest thread I mentioned. Basically it just instructs you in how to create your own custom skin which won't be overwritten every time Steam updates. It's a tedious process in my opinion, but at least somewhat helpful.

- If you go to the Steam Hardware Survey page you'll see that between 1360x768 (or whatever that standard size is/was) and 1080p users they make up the bulk of monitors used, at least by those who *report their hardware*, together accounting for roughly 2/3 of the results. Contrast that with those using 2560x1440p, which I believe is around 1.3%

- A bit less one third of those who report to the hardware survey are using multiple monitors. (Make of that what you will. It seemed an astoundingly high figure to me, but I'm willing to accept that it *may* be indicitave of the overall usage.) Of these the majority (upwards of 90%) report using three 1080p monitors.

- The Hardware Survey can't necessarily be said to be representative of the average user, or even the general population. It's a rough indicator, but since it's voluntary and not everyone uses it the numbers given are only estimates. Still, if Steam is using it as a barometer for what the most common hardware is, which seems likely, it might explain why they've been sooooo painfully slow to implement native DPI-scaling. From their POV, it may simply not appear to be worth it even at this late date. I was surprised to see that less than 2% of those reporting were using 1440p monitors, honestly. I expected it to be a good deal higher.

- My personal feelings are that it's still way overdue. Even at 1080p the UI isn't very pleasant to try to read, and at 1440p and above it's downright horrendous as far as I'm concerned. And given that Steam has issued dozens of updates over the last few years, many of them implementing far less useful and/or widely used features or options, I don't think there's any good excuse for them not having done it by now except laziness or perhaps the fact that it doesn't do anything to immediately increase revenue. Cynical, perhaps, but that's my take on it.

TL/DR: there just don't appear to be "enough" people using hi-res setups at this point in time for Steam to bother themselves implementing native DPI-scaling.

[UltrAramA]

Nguyên văn bởi Hotblack Desiato:

- There's a thread requesting native DPI-scaling that goes back almost 2 years. Check the "Discussions" page, I believe, though there are other threads in "Suggestions" and possibly other places.

- There are workarounds, of a sort, but they only do a half-@#%ed job of it. One is linked in the largest thread I mentioned. Basically it just instructs you in how to create your own custom skin which won't be overwritten every time Steam updates. It's a tedious process in my opinion, but at least somewhat helpful.

- If you go to the Steam Hardware Survey page you'll see that between 1360x768 (or whatever that standard size is/was) and 1080p users they make up the bulk of monitors used, at least by those who *report their hardware*, together accounting for roughly 2/3 of the results. Contrast that with those using 2560x1440p, which I believe is around 1.3%

- A bit less one third of those who report to the hardware survey are using multiple monitors. (Make of that what you will. It seemed an astoundingly high figure to me, but I'm willing to accept that it *may* be indicitave of the overall usage.) Of these the majority (upwards of 90%) report using three 1080p monitors.

- The Hardware Survey can't necessarily be said to be representative of the average user, or even the general population. It's a rough indicator, but since it's voluntary and not everyone uses it the numbers given are only estimates. Still, if Steam is using it as a barometer for what the most common hardware is, which seems likely, it might explain why they've been sooooo painfully slow to implement native DPI-scaling. From their POV, it may simply not appear to be worth it even at this late date. I was surprised to see that less than 2% of those reporting were using 1440p monitors, honestly. I expected it to be a good deal higher.

- My personal feelings are that it's still way overdue. Even at 1080p the UI isn't very pleasant to try to read, and at 1440p and above it's downright horrendous as far as I'm concerned. And given that Steam has issued dozens of updates over the last few years, many of them implementing far less useful and/or widely used features or options, I don't think there's any good excuse for them not having done it by now except laziness or perhaps the fact that it doesn't do anything to immediately increase revenue. Cynical, perhaps, but that's my take on it.

TL/DR: there just don't appear to be "enough" people using hi-res setups at this point in time for Steam to bother themselves implementing native DPI-scaling.

Thank you for the info, I agree totally with you. And thanks for info on skin option.

One other thing is that Steam system information reports my monitor resolution as 2194x1234, it might have to do with that I use scaling at 175%. I wonder if this is the resolution that is reported to steam hardware survey.

If they get the resolution totally wrong in their survey they won't know what the actual resolution people have on their monitors when they use scaling.

[Joki the Disco Bandit]

Nguyên văn bởi UltrAramA:

Thank you for the info, I agree totally with you. And thanks for info on skin option.

One other thing is that Steam system information reports my monitor resolution as 2194x1234, it might have to do with that I use scaling at 175%. I wonder if this is the resolution that is reported to steam hardware survey.

If they get the resolution totally wrong in their survey they won't know what the actual resolution people have on their monitors when they use scaling.

You're welcome. As far as the skin goes I tweaked mine, but it is tedious. Basically I upped all font sizes by 4, for simplicity's sake, and there are several dozen to change. Changed 17 to 21, 14 to 18, etc. It's hideous, to be honest, but better than squinting at the screen.

I use a 2560x1440 monitor but don't participate in the survey. Steam bizarrely sees this as 1707x960, when I click Help/System Information. Go figure. Anyway I've got Windows set to 150% scaling, because for me anything above that doesn't look good at all. Most apps react well enough with it, though I get the occasional weird webpage response.

This particular issue isn't the sole reason, but for this and many others I quit giving Steam money in any form almost 2 years ago and don't regret it. No games, no Steam keys from other sites, no cards or crates or gems or what have you. If nothing else I feel better for having ceased funding them, and who knows maybe if enough people end up doing the same they'll actually respond. It doesn't seem like anything other than a revenue decline is going to get through to them, but that's only my opinion and I don't expect everyone to share it.

Cheers!

[Womka]

In fact, steam hardware survey incorrectly detects my resolution, because its not a DPI-aware application . I've 3840x2160 resolution set with 200% scaling on Dell P2415Q (24 inch) and steam hw survey detects resolution as 1080p. I belive all steam survey stats for display resolutions is incorrect because of this fact. Any UI scale bigger than 100% will lead to lower resolution in steam stats, this is why we do not see many (or any?) 4k resolution users here.

ps: maybe valve devs do not know how to do that? :D here is helpful info - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn469266(v=vs.85).aspx

[hawkeye]

You might be able to use the windows magnifier. I have never used it but I have read that it can magnify the screen or sections of the screen and turn on/off via hotkeys.

(I have written commercial auto-scaling desktop apps in VB6 and it adds significant development cost. One reason is the need to test on a multitude of hardware and o/s variations. Autodesk has a product that handles rescaling for computer games so there is a need for rescaling.)

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Nguyên văn bởi hawkeye:

You might be able to use the windows magnifier. I have never used it but I have read that it can magnify the screen or sections of the screen and turn on/off via hotkeys.

(I have written commercial auto-scaling desktop apps in VB6 and it adds significant development cost. One reason is the need to test on a multitude of hardware and o/s variations. Autodesk has a product that handles rescaling for computer games so there is a need for rescaling.)

That does not help users who experience small Fonts and everything being small and not scaling when it comes to Steam In-Game Overlay.

For users who finding the Steam UI too small at higher resolutions above 1080p; please try launching Steam in BigPictureMode and then launch your Game. The in-Game Overlay via BPM is different then the normal one, and actually scales quite well for say, 2160p

[StalkerDA]

People i think what people mean on this post is that is about time that Steam does something for DPI Scaling it is not a matter of if it looks fine on DPI 100% we know it looks normal in 100% but it is time that we start looking at the future a lot of people not the majority are moving to 4k gaming including myself and if you use DPI 100% you will have difficulty reading the font as it is quite small other programs have set their applications to be DPI aware so that it scales properly take a look at Chrome Browser it scales nicely with DPI i use a DPI of 300% as it is recommended by my Display Adapter. It is time to start working on high DPI solutions and stop saying well take DPI down to 100% no that is not a solution that is a temp remedy solution would be lets prepare the Steam client into the future and implement DPI awareness for future 4k gaming...

[StalkerDA]

And even BIG PICTURE MODE does not run in 4K it has a maximum resolution to 1080p people just want to see the good old Steam windows client working for 4k not Big Picture...

[nintendude794]

Nguyên văn bởi StalkerDA:

And even BIG PICTURE MODE does not run in 4K it has a maximum resolution to 1080p people just want to see the good old Steam windows client working for 4k not Big Picture...

Exactly.

[Buff-My-Helmut]

Still no 4K scaling support. I cant read anything on my monitor in Steam. I have to plant my face on the screen to attempt to read anything. It has been over a year for me so I thought I would search if they did something about it yet.

Looks as if they haven't. This is ridiculously stupid. Steam is huge. Why is this being overlooked by them. Very unprofessional.

[𝔓𝔲𝔯𝔭𝔩𝔢]

if you right click the shortcut for steam then go under compatibility and check the "disable dpi scaling" setting it should be better

[Buff-My-Helmut]

Nguyên văn bởi LukeNev ツ:

if you right click the shortcut for steam then go under compatibility and check the "disable dpi scaling" setting it should be better

This does nothing for me.

[Pablo Escobar]

Nguyên văn bởi Lukenev:

if you right click the shortcut for steam then go under compatibility and check the "disable dpi scaling" setting it should be better

That worked for me, thx a lot.

BTW make sure you restart steam in order for it to work, and also its gonna be smaller because of no scaling.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Nguyên văn bởi Pablo Escobar:

Nguyên văn bởi Lukenev:

if you right click the shortcut for steam then go under compatibility and check the "disable dpi scaling" setting it should be better

That worked for me, thx a lot.

BTW make sure you restart steam in order for it to work, and also its gonna be smaller because of no scaling.

Why does that work for some people and not others?
Windows DPI has zero effect on Steam Client / In-Game Overlay

[sblantipodi]

Shame on Steam. Billions of dollars to a service that isn't able to scale on a 4k display.
Shame on Steam.