HDRLightStudio on 4K screen

Gethin

Hi. The main application is scaling really badly on my 4k screen. Everything is massive icons, text and buttons. The splash screen is pixelated and blurry as are the icons. Did I miss something. All my other apps are fine.

Mark Segasby

Hi Gethin, what operating system are you using please?

Gethin

↪Mark Segasby

Windows 10 20H2. I have upgraded to Xenon drop 2 -same problem.

Mark Segasby

I am sorry you are experiencing a problem. Supporting HiDPI displays is tricky and I don't think we have it right yet based on what you are experiencing. There are many variables and even bugs in Windows OS on how it's handling HiDPI depending on if you mix resolutions across different panels too.

To help we implemented a windows environment variable to further control the UI scaling in HDR Light Studio, for people with issues like you.

HDRLS_SCALE_GUI
Forces scale of the User Interface through HDRLS_SCALE_GUI environment variable. The value represents the scale size you want. 1 = 100%, 2 = 200% etc.

For example, to double the scale of the UI:
HDRLS_SCALE_GUI = 2

Please try setting this, and then restarting HDR Light Studio, see if this gives you the control you need over the UI, thanks.

Gethin · Screenshot 2021-04-19 092805

All other apps fine with windows scaling at 150% (recommended) on 3840 x 2160 screen. See lightmap UI -over scaled and pixelated. Tried no dpi scaling and various dpi compatibility modes -no effect.

Mark Segasby

Did you try my setting above, that I suggested?

Gethin

↪Mark Segasby

yes no effect sorry. see attached

Mark Segasby

It will have an effect, so perhaps a system restart is required for the environment variable to work for you.

Gethin

Surely this is a common issue as most studios I know now run Uhd-4k screens as seems to be the future standard.

Gethin

↪Mark Segasby

ok I'll restart.

Gethin

No effect with restart.. sorry:lol:

Gethin

Is HDR Light Studio DPI aware?

Mark Segasby

Please can you screen grab the windows settings you are using to control the HiDPI scaling. Also, do you have more than one display, what resolution and DPI is each display set to please?

Gethin · Screenshot 2021-04-19 100658

↪Mark Segasby

Attached

Gethin · Screenshot 2021-04-19 100901

↪Mark Segasby

app scaling (compatibility settings) attached

Gethin

↪Mark Segasby

I had the env variable wrong it should be in system variables -variable name column: HDRLS_SCALE_GUI -value column: 1

Gethin

scaling works now. Thanks.

Gethin · Screenshot 2021-04-19 104734

Well I say it works the UI is either super big or super tiny. Can I just have it like my other apps like 3dsmax, photoshop etc?

Mark Segasby

You can scale it to what you like 1.2, 1.5, 1.7.... it doesn't work like your other apps correct, but you do now have full control over its scale.

Jeff Krigstein

Hi Mark,

I've used the solution you provided above and have come across an issue. The environment variable used above doesn't seem to be consistent when I open up HDRLS as Standalone and then Cinema 4D. If I adjust the setting to work well for Cinema 4D, the Standalone version is huge and vice versa.

Also, I'm using two monitors of different sizes (both 4K resolution though). Windows allows me to set a different scaling per monitor, whereas HDRLS does not. As a result, the scaling that looks good on one monitor then looks way too big/small when dragged across to the other.

I thought I might be able to override the Display Scaling in the preferences as needed, but when I open HDRLS, on the preferences page Display Scaling is always greyed out, listed as "Not Set" and unable to have anything input. When I input the Environment Variable in Windows it does show up though.

I'm using Windows 11 and the Cinema 4D connection. My two monitors are both 3840 x 2160.

Thanks for any advice on the best approach.

Forum Admin

Sorry for the delay in replying. This is very strange. Windows should just handle all of this. I am working on a 4k and 1080 screen and moving HDRLS between them both works correctly. But this does not help you. Can we have a couple of screen grabs please?

Rob

Just wanted to say the Environment Variable worked for me. I've had HDRLS for many years and never had a scale issue till the latest version in Max 2025. But the Env Variable did the trick. Thanks.

HDRLightStudio on 4K screen

New for December 2020

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