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WP3 of design/desktop-presentation-rebuild.md. The `vsync` and `allow_vrr` settings have existed since WP1 but nothing consumed them — the swapchain picked MAILBOX-or-FIFO once, from an env var, and froze. This makes them mean something, which is also what unblocks their settings rows (deliberately withheld from WP5 rather than shipped as dead switches). Present-mode selection is now a preference ladder, not a constant: * V-Sync off — IMMEDIATE, then FIFO_RELAXED, then the tear-free modes. Asking to tear and silently getting vsync is a lie, so the mode that actually took is named in the stats line and a refused preference is logged requested-vs-active. * V-Sync on + VRR allowed + fullscreen — FIFO first. On a variable-refresh panel with direct scanout the FIFO present IS the flip, so the panel follows the stream's cadence instead of a fixed grid; MAILBOX would decouple presents from scanout and re-quantize to the compositor's clock. This is only safe because WP2's glass gate bounds the standing queue that historically made FIFO costly. * Otherwise — MAILBOX then FIFO, the shipped default, unchanged. `PUNKTFUNK_PRESENT_MODE` still pins a mode outright and now falls back to the settings (rather than to mailbox) when the name is unknown. VRR detection is MEASURED, never queried. No portable query exists — SDL exposes none, Wayland does not report adaptive-sync state, Windows surfaces nothing through Vulkan — and the platforms that do answer have been caught lying (see the Android per-uid refresh-rate finding). The discriminator is quantization: on a fixed-refresh panel every on-glass instant lands on the vblank grid, so the spacing between presents is ~k×period for whole k even when the stream runs slower than the panel (it just picks a larger k); under real VRR the panel refreshes when we present, so the spacing follows our own cadence and sits off the grid. `CadenceProbe` folds each delta to its distance from the nearest multiple of the learned period and takes the median. Tri-state: it stays Unknown below 24 deltas and after a display change, so `vrr` is reported only when it has been measured — never inferred from what the display claims. Also fixes the read-once refresh rate: `native.refresh_hz` was sampled at startup and never revisited, so dragging the window to another monitor left a 60 Hz-seeded clock pacing a 144 Hz panel. `WindowEvent::DisplayChanged` now relearns the latch grid, resets the cadence verdict, and clears the served-slot latch. Settings rows for both, on all three surfaces (GTK, WinUI, console). The console's V-Sync row is reachable in Gaming Mode, which is the only editor a Deck user has. Gates: punktfunk-rust-ci linux/amd64 — fmt, clippy -D warnings over pf-client-core, pf-presenter, pf-console-ui, the session binary and the GTK client, 160 tests (the two new ones cover every ladder and both cadence regimes, including the case that matters most: a stream slower than a FIXED panel must still read as fixed). WinUI leg on the Windows runner .133: clippy=0 tests=0, against a tree proven by content to contain the edit. ⚠ On-glass validation is still owed and is NOT claimed here: every box with a real display was powered off when this landed, so the VRR ladder and the detector have been exercised only against synthetic stamps in unit tests. Rebase follow-up: `20de58a7` landed the same "panel grid can be wrong in both directions" defect fix on Android and extracted the corrected learner into `punktfunk_core::phase::PanelGrid` for the iOS and desktop presenters to share. This clock had the identical bug — it capped the learned period at the display mode's refresh, and the mode is only a CLAIM, so a display really running slower than it advertises pinned a grid whose instants never arrive, for the session, with no way back. Adopted the shared learner rather than carrying a second, buggier copy; still fed the window's MIN spacing, which preserves the k×period resistance the cap was actually aimed at while the streak requirement lets a genuinely slower panel be discovered. New test: seed 120 Hz, real panel 60 Hz, the clock must climb back out. Took the same commit's third lesson too: the adaptive margin widened on a latch over 1.5×period (a number picked here), and now widens on the latch exceeding one period plus the lead already applied — the slot actually aimed at. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
247 lines
17 KiB
Markdown
247 lines
17 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Client settings
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description: Every setting a Punktfunk client stores — what it does, what it defaults to, and which of them the host can overrule.
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---
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The host has [its own settings reference](/docs/configuration). This page is the other half: the
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settings each **client** keeps, which together decide what a session looks like.
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Most of them are a *request*. The client asks, the host answers, and the answer comes back in the
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handshake — so a setting the host can't honor is usually a quiet downgrade rather than an error.
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## Where the settings live
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The Linux, Windows, Mac, iPhone/iPad and Android apps group settings the same way — **General**,
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**Display**, **Input**, **Audio**, **Controllers** — under *Preferences* on Linux and *Settings*
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elsewhere. The Apple TV app shows one scrolling list instead, and so does any client's settings
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screen reached with a controller. A controller-driven launch (Steam Deck Gaming Mode) opens the
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client's **console home**, whose settings screen is one steppable list; the Decky plugin has a
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smaller section of its own. The console home is part of the client — it is not the host's
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[web console](/docs/web-console).
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Linux stores them in `~/.config/punktfunk/client-gtk-settings.json`, the same file the Decky plugin
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writes, so a change in either shows up in the other. Windows uses
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`%APPDATA%\punktfunk\client-windows-settings.json`; the Apple and Android apps use their own stores.
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Changes apply to the **next** session — a running stream keeps what it started with. (*Match window*
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is the exception in effect, not in reading: it too is read at connect, but once a session is running
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with it on, every window resize renegotiates the mode.)
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Not every client offers every setting, and the wording on screen varies a little between them — the
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names below are the ones the Linux app uses. The differences that matter are noted per setting.
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## Video
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**Resolution** — *default: Native display.* The host builds a virtual display at exactly this size
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and streams it; nothing is scaled. Native resolves at connect to the mode of the display your window
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is on. The Apple app instead stores an explicit size (1920 × 1080 out of the box): on iPhone, iPad
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and Mac a **Use this display's mode** button fills in what you're looking at, and the Apple TV app
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picks a combined **Stream mode** preset instead ("This TV (native)", 720p, 1080p or 4K at 60 Hz). If
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the host has been pinned to stream a *real* monitor rather than make one, your request is declined
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and your client scales what it gets — see
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[Virtual displays](/docs/virtual-displays#stream-a-real-monitor-instead).
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**Match window** — *default: off.* The stream mode follows your window instead, and each resize
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renegotiates the host's display and encoder, so a windowed session stays pixel-exact. Fullscreen
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degenerates to the display's native mode. Offered by the Linux, Windows, Mac, iPhone/iPad and console
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home screens; not by Android or Decky.
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**Refresh rate** — *default: Native*, the refresh of the display your window is on. The Apple app
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stores an explicit rate (60 Hz by default): iPhone and iPad offer the rates the device can display,
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on a Mac you type one in, and on Apple TV the rate rides along with the Stream mode preset above.
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**Bitrate** — *default: Automatic.* For H.264, HEVC and AV1, Automatic means the host's own default,
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**20 Mbps**, and it turns on two things an explicit rate switches off: adaptive bitrate, and a short
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link-capacity probe about two seconds in that measures what your link really carries and lets the
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rate climb past 20 Mbps. An explicit rate is fixed for the session, and clamped by the host to
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**500 kbps – 8 Gbps**. A host card's menu has a **Test network speed…** entry that measures your link
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and suggests a value.
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PyroWave is the exception: it has no useful low-rate regime, so its Automatic rate is a fixed
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per-pixel budget for the negotiated mode (hundreds of Mbps), and both adaptive bitrate and the
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capacity probe stay off for the whole session.
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**Render scale** — *default: Native (1×).* The host renders and encodes at your chosen mode
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multiplied by this, and your device resamples the result to its window. Above 1× supersamples for
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sharpness, at more bandwidth *and* more decode work; below 1× is lighter on both the host and the
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link. The stops run 0.5× to 4×. The result is floored to an even size and capped per axis at
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4096 px for H.264, 8192 px otherwise. Offered everywhere except the console home's list.
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**Video codec** — *default: Automatic.* A soft preference: the host emits your choice when it can
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also produce it, otherwise the best codec you both speak, in the order HEVC → AV1 → H.264.
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**PyroWave** is never auto-picked — pick it explicitly on Linux, Windows, the console home, or an
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Apple device whose decode probe passes; anywhere else it isn't offered, and asking for it lands on
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that same order. See [PyroWave](/docs/pyrowave). The Android and Apple apps hide AV1 unless the
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device has a hardware AV1 decoder; Android never offers PyroWave.
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**10-bit HDR** — *default: on.* Off means "never send me 10-bit", and the host then never upgrades.
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On, the stream goes 10-bit BT.2020 PQ only when the host has HDR content *and* the encoder can do
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10-bit. Android disables the toggle, and never advertises HDR, on a panel that can't present HDR10.
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Full detail: [HDR](/docs/hdr).
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**Full chroma (4:4:4)** — *default: off.* Crisp small text and thin lines, at more bandwidth. It
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needs HEVC or PyroWave, the host's own 4:4:4 policy left on, a capture path that delivers full
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chroma, and a GPU that can encode it; if any gate fails the host says 4:2:0 before your decoder is
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built. The Apple, Linux and Windows apps all advertise it (Apple additionally requires its hardware
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decode probe to pass). Android, Decky and the console home don't offer it.
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**Prioritize** — *default: Lowest latency.* What the client optimizes for when a decoded frame is
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ready. **Lowest latency** shows every frame the moment the display can take it, so a network hiccup
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becomes an occasional repeated or skipped frame. **Smoothness** holds a small buffer that evens
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those hiccups out, at that buffer's worth of added delay. Linux and Windows apps; the Apple and
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Android apps have carried the same setting for a while, and it is stored under the same name, so a
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[profile](/docs/profiles-and-links) means the same thing on every device.
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**Smoothness buffer** — *default: Automatic (two frames).* Only shown under **Smoothness**. How
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many frames are held back before showing. Each frame absorbs roughly one screen refresh of network
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hiccup and costs one refresh of delay — so on a 120 Hz screen, two frames is about 17 ms of extra
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delay bought against 17 ms of jitter. If you never see stutter, you don't need this.
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**V-Sync** — *default: on.* Tear-free presentation. Turning it off asks the GPU to show each frame
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the instant it's ready instead of waiting for the screen's next refresh: the lowest delay a display
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can give you, at the cost of visible tearing on fast motion. It is **best-effort** — not every
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driver or compositor offers a tearing mode, and where none is available the stream stays tear-free.
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The Detailed [stats overlay](/docs/stats) names the mode actually in use, so you can tell "off"
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from "off but unavailable". Linux and Windows apps.
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**Follow variable refresh rate** — *default: on.* On a VRR / FreeSync / G-Sync screen, let the panel
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refresh in step with the stream rather than on a fixed cadence — which removes the wait between a
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frame being ready and the screen being willing to show it. Applies to **fullscreen** sessions (a
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windowed one is at the compositor's mercy) and is harmless on a fixed-refresh screen. The stats
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overlay reports `vrr yes` once it has measured that the panel really is following. Linux and
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Windows apps.
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**Host compositor** — *default: Automatic.* Which backend a **Linux** host uses to drive the virtual
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output. Advisory: a host without that backend quietly auto-detects instead.
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## Audio
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**Audio channels** — *default: Stereo.* You can ask for **5.1** or **7.1**; anything else is read as
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stereo. The count the host will really send comes back in the handshake, and your client builds its
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decoder from *that*, never from the request. What surround means differs by host: a **Linux** host
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claims a sink advertising exactly that many channels, so applications produce real surround, while a
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**Windows** host loopback-captures your current output endpoint and lets Windows convert it — so 5.1
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from a stereo endpoint is an upmix, not new channels. Offered everywhere except the Decky plugin.
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**Microphone** — *default: off on Linux, Windows, Android, the console home and Decky; on in the
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Apple app.* Sends this device's microphone to the host's virtual mic. On Linux and Windows the
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row is spelled *Stream microphone*, and **Ctrl+Alt+Shift+V** mutes it mid-stream without ending
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anything — see [Muting your microphone](/docs/input#muting-your-microphone).
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**Echo cancellation** — *default: on.* Stops the host's audio, playing out of this device's
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speakers, from being picked up by the microphone and sent straight back. It hands the microphone
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to the system's own canceller rather than doing the work itself: on **Linux** that means capturing
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from an echo-cancelled PipeWire source when your desktop provides one, on **Windows** asking WASAPI
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for the Communications stream category so the endpoint's processing engages, and on **Apple** and
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**Android** the platform's voice-processing mode. Turn it off if your microphone already runs its
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own processing, or if the canceller makes your voice sound thin. The row sits under the microphone
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toggle and greys out while the microphone is off. Offered by the Linux, Windows, Apple, Android and
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console-home clients; Decky has no toggle. What it can and can't fix is in
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[Why do I hear myself](/docs/echo).
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**Speaker** and **Microphone** device pickers — *default: System default.* Which endpoint stream
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audio plays out of, and which input feeds the uplink. Only the Linux app (PipeWire nodes) and the
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**Mac** app (which also has a microphone *channel* picker) have these — iPhone, iPad, Apple TV,
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Android, Decky and the console home have none, and the Windows app has none and ignores a stored
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speaker choice. On Linux, a device that has since disappeared keeps a "(not detected)" entry rather
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than silently snapping back to the default; the Mac shows it as "Unavailable device".
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## Input
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Touch modes, mouse modes and the in-stream chords have their own page: [Input](/docs/input). Four
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more settings are worth naming here.
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**Gamepad type** (*Controller type* on Apple, Android and the console home) — *default: Automatic*,
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which matches each physical controller. The pickers offer Xbox 360, Xbox One, DualSense and
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DualShock 4 everywhere, plus Steam Deck on Linux, Android, the console home and Decky. Your client
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declares a type per pad as it connects — Automatic declares what that controller really is, an
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explicit choice declares your choice — and the host builds each virtual pad from that. A type the
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host has no backend for degrades to an Xbox 360 pad rather than failing: Xbox One on a Windows host,
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for instance, or any Sony pad on a Linux host that can't open `/dev/uhid`.
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**Forwarded controller** (*Use controller* on Apple and the console home) — *default: Automatic*,
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which forwards *every* connected controller, each as its own player, on Linux, Windows, Apple and the
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console home. Pinning one restricts the session to that controller alone — single-player. The Android
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app has no such picker.
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**Capture system shortcuts** — *default: on.* Offered by the Linux and Windows apps only; Windows
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spells the row out as *Capture system shortcuts (Alt+Tab, Win, …)*. On, Alt+Tab and the Windows key
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(Super on Linux) reach the host while the stream has input captured. Off, they act on this machine
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instead — what you want when the stream shares a screen with local work. Either way the chords come
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back the moment you release capture with **Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Q**, the window loses focus, or the stream
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ends, and [Desktop mouse mode](/docs/input#mouse-modes) never takes them at all. Leaving this on does
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mean **Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Q is your way out** of a captured stream, since Alt+Tab no longer is.
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On Linux this needs a compositor that supports keyboard-shortcuts-inhibit — KDE Plasma, GNOME and
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the wlroots compositors all do, and X11 sessions grab the keyboard directly. Under
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[gamescope](/docs/gamescope) there is nothing to inhibit: it hands the session everything already.
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**Invert scroll direction** — *default: off*, i.e. the host scrolls the way this machine does.
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## Behavior
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**Auto-wake on connect** — *default: on.* Connecting to a saved host that looks offline sends
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Wake-on-LAN and waits for it to boot — only for a host whose MAC address this client has already
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learned. Turn it off for hosts you reach over a VPN, where "offline" usually means "not reachable by
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broadcast" and the wake only adds a delay. The Linux, Windows, Apple and Android apps have this
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toggle. The console home has no toggle — it offers wake as an explicit action on an offline host
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instead — and the Decky plugin always sends a wake before a stream starts. See
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[Wake-on-LAN](/docs/wake-on-lan).
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**Show game library** — *default: off on Linux and Windows; on in the Apple and Android apps.* Browse
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a paired host's games and launch one directly; the Windows app still labels it experimental. There is
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no toggle in the console home or in Decky. See [Game library](/docs/game-library).
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**Start streams in fullscreen** — *default: on.* On Linux and Windows, F11 or Alt+Enter leaves
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fullscreen live. On a Mac the setting is **Fullscreen while streaming**, and the window comes back
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when you return to the host list. iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Android have no equivalent.
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## Overlay
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**Statistics overlay** — *default: Normal.* Four tiers — Off, Compact, Normal, Detailed — each a
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superset of the one before. This setting only picks the tier a session *starts* at — you can cycle
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them live in-stream, with a shortcut that differs by platform. The Apple app additionally lets you
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choose which corner the overlay sits in (Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Right). The Decky
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plugin has no stats setting. The shortcuts, and every number in the overlay, are in
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[Understanding the stats overlay](/docs/stats).
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## Settings that are facts about your device
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A few of these describe the machine you're sitting at rather than how you want a host streamed. They
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stay global and **cannot be put in a settings profile**:
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- **Video decoder** and **GPU** — the decode path and adapter this device uses. Automatic is
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vendor-ordered and falls back on its own; change it only when debugging, and note that
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`PUNKTFUNK_DECODER` overrides it
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([Configuration](/docs/configuration#client-side-native-clients)). The decoder picker is on Linux,
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Windows and in the console home; the GPU picker on Windows, and on Linux only when the machine has
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more than one adapter. The Apple and Android apps have neither.
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- **Speaker** and **Microphone** device pickers — this device's audio endpoints.
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- **Forwarded controller** — which physical pad is in your hands. The *type* the host creates is a
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preference and can live in a profile; which pad you hold cannot.
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- **Auto-wake on connect** and **Show game library** — decisions about this device and this network,
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not about how a given host is streamed.
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One switch you might expect here isn't in Settings at all: **Share clipboard** lives in a saved
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host's own edit sheet, because handing a machine your clipboard is a decision about that one host —
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see [Shared clipboard](/docs/clipboard).
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Everything else on this page can be overridden per profile and bound to a host; the rows above are
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exactly [what a profile can't change](/docs/profiles-and-links#what-a-profile-cant-change).
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## When the client and the host disagree
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| You ask for | What the host does |
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|---|---|
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| Resolution and refresh | Builds a display at exactly that mode. A host pinned to a real monitor keeps that monitor's resolution and you scale locally. A size the encoder can't take — odd, or past the codec's per-axis limit — fails the connect rather than being quietly changed. |
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| A bitrate | Clamps it to 500 kbps – 8 Gbps, or uses its 20 Mbps default for Automatic (a per-pixel budget for Automatic PyroWave). |
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| A codec | Honors it when it can encode it, else the best shared codec in the order HEVC → AV1 → H.264. |
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| 10-bit HDR | Upgrades only for HDR content on an encoder that can do 10-bit; otherwise 8-bit SDR. |
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| 4:4:4 chroma | Sends it only when every gate passes; otherwise 4:2:0. |
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| A channel count | Normalizes it to 2, 6 or 8. |
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| A gamepad type | Uses it as the session default; an unsupported type becomes an Xbox 360 pad. |
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| A compositor | Treats it as advisory and auto-detects when it isn't available. |
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Every one of those answers arrives before your decoder and speakers are set up, so what you see and
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hear is built from what the host really sent — never from what you asked for.
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