Gamescope, HDR and frame rate
Games run inside gamescope by default. It gives a game the resolution and refresh rate you pick, scales the picture to your screen and draws MangoHud over it. Without gamescope installed, a game opens on the desktop.
Which settings reach a game
Section titled “Which settings reach a game”Universe Big Screen, full screen or as the Universe session, runs every game in its own gamescope. That one takes the defaults alone: Settings › Game defaults › Display, and HDR from Settings › Emulators & Proton › Proton. A change to them applies the next time Universe starts, and a game’s own display settings don’t reach it.
A game started from Universe Desktop, a terminal or Big Screen in a window gets a gamescope of its own, built from the game’s own settings.
Display
Section titled “Display”The Display card of Game defaults or of a game’s settings has:
- Resolution, what the game renders at before it’s scaled to your screen;
- Refresh rate, the rate the game sees;
- Adaptive sync, for FreeSync and G-Sync, on by itself when the screen supports it.
Y adds the scaling rows. Filter picks how the picture is scaled: fsr and nis sharpen it, and nearest and pixel keep pixel art crisp. Discrete GPU, on by default, runs games on a laptop’s stronger GPU.
HDR, off by default, sends HDR to an HDR screen in the games that support it. Turn it on in Settings › Emulators & Proton › Proton, or for one game in the Proton card of its settings. In Big Screen, only the default turns HDR on.
MangoHud
Section titled “MangoHud”Show MangoHud, in the Overlay card and off by default, draws the frame rate and the GPU and CPU load over the game. Your own MangoHud.conf still sets its layout. During a game, the dock’s Performance card shows or hides it (Playing).
Frame rate limit
Section titled “Frame rate limit”Frame rate limit, in the Overlay card, holds the game to that many frames per second. auto, the default, is the refresh rate the game sees, and leaves emulators alone. none turns it off.
The limit needs MangoHud. Without it, System check’s Frame rate limit (MangoHud) fails: install MangoHud, or set the limit to none on Game defaults.