Fedora 37. KDE and Wayland

[wove]

I got the bits I ordered to get the T580 working well. I installed Fedora 37 KDE spin. It is working well. One item that surprised me is I tried to change the resolution. Even though the T580 has a 15.9" screen I find 1920X1080 to hard to read. A resolution of 1600X900 is much easier on my eyes. When I went to display settings there was no option to change the resolution. There was a blue "i" button, which popped a box saying "Sceen resolution is not supported in Wayland. Use "scaling" or switch to X11. A scaling factor of 1.25 worked and it is fine.

I was not aware that Wayland did not support screen resolutions. I was under the impression that choosing a supported screen resolution was less resource intensive than using scaling. Using supported resolution was just a function of the hardware, while scaling involved calculating/composting a different display size. Perhaps I have been mistaken in that. Wayland does a fine job so I probably will use scaling rather than going to X11 and changing the screen resolution. But I am curious as to why Wayland does not support screen resolutions.

[crosscourt]

Ive had nothing but issues with Wayland but typically screen resolutions are a function of hardware/ drivers with a way to interact with them, Wayland/X11.
I dont run 1920x1080 either as I prefer 1600x900 which I also use in my games.

[wove]

Wayland and screen resolutions appears to be a Fedora thing. Other distress using Wayland do not seem to have any problems with exposing screen resolution switching. 1600X900 on 15" to 17" displays work well for me. A scaling factor of 1.25 also works well. Windows 10/11 prefers using scaling to resolution switching as well. I do not understand the fundamentals of screens and graphics well enough to know why and under what conditions scaling or resolution switching would provide the "ideal" solution. The dpi concentration of newer panels do handle both methods rather well. Neither lowering the resolution nor upping the scaling factor creates a visibly pixelated display in my world of blurry vision.

[crosscourt]

Win10/11 change video resolutions by default and scaling is not used by default. You have the option to scale if needed but it does not scale as a matter of screen resolution. I run in multiple screen resolutions for my games as my monitor/jhardware/drivers supports those actions. I rarely if ever use scaling as its simply not needed. Use scaling as an added feature after changing resolution can be used to adjust the display more to the users needs. Now that said its also going to depend on your display,hardware and drivers as to what will be available with features and graphics settings.
Video resolutions and scaling are two completely different aspects and scaling in Windows allows users to create an easier to see screen regardless of the video resolution used.

[tlmiller]

Win10/11 actually want to scale by default. If I install it on almost every one of my laptops, the default resolution is standard, but it wants to scale the image to be large enough to be read from the ISS with the unaided eye with ease. Whoever designed the algorithm for deciding what the scale factor should be on Win10/11 REALLY like large text, like 1-2 letters visible on screen at a time.

[crosscourt]

Win10/11 use a preset scaling that will suit most users but it doesnt auto scale by default. You can set it any way you like though. Vista.7.8 also had a preset scaling, its not unusual at all. Depending on your drivers and display you may get a generic resoultion but typically Windows sees your hardware and defaults to the native resolution. Adjusting scaling is still done manually versus reolutions that are determined by the drivers,display or app.

[tlmiller]

No, it does scale by default. That's what I'm saying. It will scale almost every laptop display by default (I don't remember seeing scaling on desktops by default, it just goes to native resolution). You said they change resolutions by default, but that's not correct. It scales by default. It will set native resolution w/ scaling, NOT 1.0 scale w/ resolution set to whatever they decided is best for the detected display. The user can set scaling to 1 and change resolution, but by DEFAULT, Windows uses scaling, NOT resolution.

[crosscourt]

None of my desktops scale let alone auto scale by default. Laptops vary wildly and some of them scale and some dont. Many times you have to set scaling yourself so to say Windows is scaling by default to me is an incorrect statement. Windows always goes for native resolution regardless of scaling or not.

[tlmiller]

MOST laptops that don't have low resolution monitors scale automatically. I haven't owned a laptop since Win10's release that doesn't have scaling set by default upon installation of Windows. So no, it's not incorrect, you just mostly own desktops, which it doesn't scale on most desktops that I've seen, but it does on ALMOST every laptop I've ever seen. Depending on the size of the screen and the resolution, it'll set it default to either 1.25 or 1.5. 15" or 16" FHD it'll set 1.25. Above 16" I have no idea as I haven't used a 17" laptop since Windows XP was a new OS. Under 15" FHD it'll set 1.5 out of the box. I don't remember what it set for my little 13.3" 2K screen, but I think it was 1.5 still. Might have been 1.75, been a few years since I sold that machine off. And every time the drivers updated (if they're one that uninstalls/reinstalls drivers such as Nvidia/AMD instead of Intel, switchable graphics not included since they actually display through the Intel) it'll reset itself to the default scaling.

[crosscourt]

That may be why my experience is so different as most laptops I work with or on are low resolution and havent seen scaling in quite awhile.