BetterDisplay VS barrier

> the 4K monitors the author recommends are not good for macOS due to them not supporting native retina scaling above 1080p

Is this true even with the help of 3rd party apps?

My 3840x1600 ultrawide has that problem using the native screen resolution tools but I can get it to full-res HiDPI using BetterDisplay [0].

[0] https://betterdisplay.pro/

2. "BetterDisplay" for better scaling quality on bigger screens, especially if you have a 4k ultrawide. https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay

It isn't a device, it's a software tool. It doesn't make the monitor magically 2x the resolution; it can trick macos to render onto a 5k buffer and then downscale the output to the physical display so it looks not-broken.

https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay

I'm not saying that it'll make 4k look good. I'm saying macOS is unusable on native resolutions - everything is either too small or too blurry, so a 4k display won't do me any good. 25x14 is the sweet spot for me, but I guess Apple decided I'm holding it wrong.

Download BetterDisplay (free to try, $18 for Pro, and well worth it IMO): https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay

This article is very good to explain this ppi thing https://bjango.com/articles/macexternaldisplays2/ also an extra app can make some monitors display sharper (hidpi) https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay

It can be found here: https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay

So I installed the Better Display 2 app [link] , enabled HiDPI 1280x720, and suddenly everything looked both extremely sharp and in a good size. Judging by the size of the screenshot, it mimics Retina 2560 × 1440 and scales it down 2x to 1280x720, making it HiDPI. I can totally recommend you to do as I did.

For software KVM you can use https://github.com/debauchee/barrier

I use it between a Windows PC & a Macbookpro (Linux version available but I don't have Linux)

libei looks useful. But IDK why libei is necessary to run Barrier with Wayland?

For client systems, couldn't there just be a virtual /dev/inputXYZ that Barrier forwards events through

And for host systems, it looks like xev only logs input events when the window is focused.

Is xeyes still broken on Wayland, and how to fix it so that it would work with Barrier?

With Barrier, when the mouse cursor reaches a screen boundary, the keyboard and mouse input are then passed to a different X session on another box until the cursor again crosses a screen boundary rule.

Barrier is a fork of Synergy's open core: https://github.com/debauchee/barrier

libei:

I have a similar gaming/WFH setup (2 monitors at 1440p 144hz) and I’ve been using Barrier instead of a physical kvm, and it works really well. Not sure if you’re open to a software kvm but if you are, I’m happy to answer any questions about it if you have any.

Have you tried Barrier? I casually used it to swap between my main rig and my MBP. Took a minute to get it setup but once I sorted it all out it worked pretty well. It has some settings and tweaks built in to address some of the layout issues you mentioned...

Barrier appears to handle PC switching only for the keyboard and mouse.

Sorry, probably not entirely on topic and can't answer anything reliable about the multimonitor stuff, but a tip regarding the 2 mice and 2 keyboards for the 2 different computers: use this: https://github.com/debauchee/barrier It's oss multi-os software that lets you use one mouse and keyboard (server) on several PCs (clients) easily over your LAN.

Barrier is a free and open source alternative.