Direct scanout causes black screen in some games running via native wayland

[Raghav314]

Hyprland version

Hyprland 0.55.2 built from branch v0.55.2 at commit 39d7e20 clean (version: bump to 0.55.2).

Date: Sat May 16 12:59:19 2026

Tag: v0.55.2, commits: 7319

Libraries:

Hyprgraphics: built against 0.5.1, system has 0.5.1

Hyprutils: built against 0.13.1, system has 0.13.1

Hyprcursor: built against 0.1.13, system has 0.1.13

Hyprlang: built against 0.6.8, system has 0.6.8

Aquamarine: built against 0.11.0, system has 0.11.0

Version ABI string: 39d7e209c79d451efab1b21151d5938289da838d_aq_0.11_hu_0.13_hg_0.5_hc_0.1_hlg_0.6

No flags were set.

Regression

Yes, this started happening after Hyprland 0.55. The games worked fine before.

Describe the bug

Some Steam games like cyberpunk 2077 and helldivers 2, running through proton in native wayland mode go completely black when direct scanout is active (fullscreen) . The game is still running in the background, it does not freeze, audio continues playing, input still work, but the monitor is black.

If a mouse cursor is being rendered on screen, like in an inventory or pause menu, the screen comes back.But as soon as the cursor goes away again, the screen goes black. Setting the game window to floating fixes the issue because it disables direct scannout.

This only happens when a game is running under native wayland. games going through xwayland works just fine with direct scannout. OBS does not properly show the issue because it will disable direct scanout, so I recorded the monitor externally using my phone instead.

Also, Some games like subnautica 2 are not affected by this issue and work just fine with wayland and direct_scanout

This also might just be a nvidia only bug with direct_scanout and native wayland but thats just speculation.

Reproduction steps

Using Hyprland 0.55.x, With direct_scanout=1 or direct_scanout=2, start an affected game in native wayland mode, Once the game is fullscreen with no cursor, the screen becomes black. Opening a menu where a cursor renders restores the image temporarily.

System info and config

vid.1.mp4

hypr-systeminfo.txt

• GPU: RTX 4090
• Nvidia Driver Version: 595.71.05
• Kernel: Linux 7.0.10-1-cachyos
• Proton version: proton-cachyos-11.0-20260520-slr-x86_64_v3
• VRR: [3] - Enabled only when content is game
• HDR - disabled

[fxzzi]

Confirmed on my amdgpu laptop when playing Celeste with native Wayland, specifically when using Vulkan. OpenGL continues to work.

Not gonna bother bisecting because I'm currently in China and have no intention to. Someone else should bisect

[Skidamek]

Try with quirks:skip_non_kms_dmabuf_formats = 1

[Raghav314]

quirks:skip_non_kms_dmabuf_formats = 1 fixes the black screen issue but it forces vsync to every single gaming running under native wayland

[EvilBoi123]

thanks, this workaround works for now.

[VeilSilence]

diff --git a/src/helpers/Monitor.cpp b/src/helpers/Monitor.cpp
index 7d31575..7f19d6e 100644
--- a/src/helpers/Monitor.cpp
+++ b/src/helpers/Monitor.cpp
@@ -2028,8 +2028,7 @@ bool CMonitor::attemptDirectScanout() {
     if (m_lastScanout.expired())
         m_prevDrmFormat = m_drmFormat;
 
-    const auto PREV_FORMAT = m_drmFormat;
-    const bool NEEDS_TEST  = !m_lastScanout || m_drmFormat != params.format; // do not retest while it's active
+    const bool NEEDS_TEST = !m_lastScanout || m_drmFormat != params.format; // do not retest while it's active
     if (m_drmFormat != params.format) {
         m_output->state->setFormat(params.format);
         m_drmFormat = params.format;
@@ -2042,10 +2041,6 @@ bool CMonitor::attemptDirectScanout() {
 
     if (NEEDS_TEST && !m_state.test()) {
         Log::logger->log(Log::TRACE, "attemptDirectScanout: failed basic test");
-        if (m_drmFormat != PREV_FORMAT) {
-            m_output->state->setFormat(PREV_FORMAT);
-            m_drmFormat = PREV_FORMAT;
-        }
         return false;
     }
 
@@ -2071,10 +2066,6 @@ bool CMonitor::attemptDirectScanout() {
 
     if (!ok) {
         Log::logger->log(Log::TRACE, "attemptDirectScanout: failed to scanout surface");
-        if (m_drmFormat != PREV_FORMAT) {
-            m_output->state->setFormat(PREV_FORMAT);
-            m_drmFormat = PREV_FORMAT;
-        }
         m_lastScanout.reset();
         return false;
     }

Try with this patch, or set non_shader_cm to 1.

[Reason7322]

Hello, i have nothing else to add, other than that im experiencing a similar issue - #14828

[SuaByDEV]

Can confirm this happens on my 5060 Ti 16gb. It was perfectly fine prior to upgrading Hyprland.

[witchlliee]

Can confirm it's also happening here on my RDNA2 GPU.

[witchlliee]

Latest git seems to have fixed it for me.

[SuaByDEV]

Still happens on my 5060 Ti on 0.55.3

[SuaByDEV]

Still happens on my 5060 Ti on 0.55.4

[fxzzi]

Is my revert PR even in 0.55.4

[FoxXtreme]

Is my revert PR even in 0.55.4

@fxzzi I've compiled hyprland with your commit and it worked, but after the release of aquamarine 0.12.0 the issue came back again, I reported the regression but no one gave it a look

[witchlliee]

How they even broke it again wtf

[witchlliee]

It was working fine a few days ago for me on -git

[umbrageodotus]

try that aq pr for consistent frame scheduling
I think that fixes it

[EvilBoi123]

i hope this issue fixes soon...

[Raghav314]

Just to add,
this issue is still present as of hyprland 55.4

however, there is a workaround i found,
setting non_shader_cm=0 fixes the issue in most games

[njdom24]

I have games that, with other compositors (Sway, Jay), get direct scanout on my 9070 XT, but don't on my 5700 XT. Hyprland will attempt direct scanout on both GPUs, and will black screen on the 5700 XT. Seems skip_non_kms_dmabuf_formats = 1 might not be working?

[CoolAtlantis]

Happens on me too. Only on one game, EZFN (Fortnite project) through Proton GE 11 on native Wayland with direct scanout.

Arch Linux with vanilla kernel 7.1.3
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 under 610.43.03 nvidia-open driver.
Using Proton GE11-1
Hyprland 0.55.4 built from branch v0.55.4 at commit a0136d8

Does not happen on KDE plasma.
Using quirks:skip_non_kms_dmabuf_formats = 1 fixes it but no idea what it does.

[fxzzi]

Does not happen on KDE plasma.

then your DS probably isn't even being activated on KDE, as far as I'm aware winewayland ds doesn't work on KDE with nvidia (correct me if wrong)

Using quirks:skip_non_kms_dmabuf_formats = 1 fixes it but no idea what it does.

so it works for you, congrats

[Maitreya93]

I'm experiencing this bug too in Overwatch under Hyprland 0.56.1.
With render:direct_scanout set to 1 (and 2), launching Overwatch through Proton with PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 results in a black screen at startup. Audio plays normally and the game is fully responsive to input — only the display output is black.
Switching the game to windowed mode via its in-game video settings makes the image appear. Switching back to fullscreen afterwards keeps the image; the black screen does not return for the remainder of that session. It reappears on the next cold start of the game.

Setting render:direct_scanout = 0 avoids the problem entirely.

The same game under XWayland (without PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1) is unaffected at any direct_scanout value.

Not reproducible on other compositors:
The identical game, Proton version, and environment variables work correctly on:

• niri 26.04
• GNOME 50.3

Steps to reproduce:

1. Set render = {
   direct_scanout = 0,
   },
   in hyprland.lua

2. Launch Overwatch from steam with PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 %command%

3. Game starts in fullscreen -> Screen is black, audio audible, input probably registered

4. Use keybind to tile window puts game into windowed mode => problem solved. Even after using the game menu to put the game back to fullscreen.

[Raghav314]

try using the mentioned workaround, setting non_shader_cm=0 with direct_scanout=1 or 2
it worked for me.

[ordnoong]

non_shader_cm=0 disables direct_scanout entirely, you can check by going xwayland(where scanout works) and watch hyprctl monitors changes

[witchlliee]

Is this going to be ignored? Sincerely it's been weeks I've had this problem. Latest commit still doesn't fix it.

Here is a log:

hyprland.log

Let me know if the log is wrong, and I also can debug further if needed.

[fxzzi]

quirks.skip_non_kms_dmabuf_formats = 1 doesn't fix it for you?

[witchlliee]

It does actually but that is a workaround. Also for some reason DS only work really in a few games (which are the ones affected by this issue) I tested with HDR on, I'm surprised it even works at all, since I don't think hyprland makes use of the color pipelines yet, or it does?

[fxzzi]

It's a workaround for Nvidia, if you played the same games on KDE pretty sure they wouldn't even be able to activate DS.

We do not make use of colour pipelines yet

[witchlliee]

I use AMD, and actually direct-scanout works just fine on KDE Plasma even with HDR on if you have KWIN_DRM_USE_COLOR_PIPELINE=1 set.

[fxzzi]

Meh then idk, if it werks it werks

[Rabcor]

This issue also causes issues when trying to run mpv in fullscreen on an nvidia dgpu.

So if people are reporting an issue with flickering or black screens in mpv redirect them to this.