HDR "Crushed Blacks" on NVIDIA 590 - Missing vk-hdr-layer?
hardware-compat
Hi everyone! I’m looking for some help regarding HDR in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II on Bazzite (NVIDIA 590.xx drivers, KDE Plasma 6, Wayland).
The Problem: When running the game with HDR enabled without using Gamescope, the image suffers from severe "crushed blacks." The highlights look okay, but all shadows and dark areas are pitch black, making the game unplayable. Adjusting "SDR Intensity" in KDE settings has no effect on the in-game black levels.
What I've tested:
* With Gamescope: HDR works perfectly (colors/brightness are correct), but I lose about 20 FPS due to the NVIDIA/Gamescope overhead.
* Without Gamescope: Using launch options like PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 PROTON_ENABLE_HDR=1 ENABLE_HDR_WSI=1 enables HDR, but the black levels are completely broken (too dark).
* Environment Check: I checked /usr/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/ and noticed that vk-hdr-layer (or kwin_hdr_layer) is missing from the directory. Only the FROG_gamescope_wsi layers are present.
The Question: Has anyone else encountered this on NVIDIA/KDE? It seems like KWin isn't receiving/interpreting the HDR metadata correctly without a specific Vulkan layer when running outside of Gamescope.
Is there a recommended way to get the HDR metadata bridge working "natively" on Bazzite without layering vk-hdr-layer via rpm-ostree, or is Gamescope the only viable path for NVIDIA HDR users right now?
Specs:
GPU: NVIDIA (Driver 590.44.01)
DE: KDE Plasma 6 (Wayland)
Distro: Bazzite
Monitor: 3440x1440p Ultrawide
Attached are screenshots with and without HDR activated in Kingdome come deliverance II.
The Problem: When running the game with HDR enabled without using Gamescope, the image suffers from severe "crushed blacks." The highlights look okay, but all shadows and dark areas are pitch black, making the game unplayable. Adjusting "SDR Intensity" in KDE settings has no effect on the in-game black levels.
What I've tested:
* With Gamescope: HDR works perfectly (colors/brightness are correct), but I lose about 20 FPS due to the NVIDIA/Gamescope overhead.
* Without Gamescope: Using launch options like PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 PROTON_ENABLE_HDR=1 ENABLE_HDR_WSI=1 enables HDR, but the black levels are completely broken (too dark).
* Environment Check: I checked /usr/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/ and noticed that vk-hdr-layer (or kwin_hdr_layer) is missing from the directory. Only the FROG_gamescope_wsi layers are present.
The Question: Has anyone else encountered this on NVIDIA/KDE? It seems like KWin isn't receiving/interpreting the HDR metadata correctly without a specific Vulkan layer when running outside of Gamescope.
Is there a recommended way to get the HDR metadata bridge working "natively" on Bazzite without layering vk-hdr-layer via rpm-ostree, or is Gamescope the only viable path for NVIDIA HDR users right now?
Specs:
GPU: NVIDIA (Driver 590.44.01)
DE: KDE Plasma 6 (Wayland)
Distro: Bazzite
Monitor: 3440x1440p Ultrawide
Attached are screenshots with and without HDR activated in Kingdome come deliverance II.
