Currently, KDE Plasma uses a linear scale for brightness and volume control.
Humans do not perceive brightness or volume linearly.
Consequently, the first half of the brightness or volume bar control apparently 90% of the volume.
This is bad for UX, as it makes the controls overly sensitive at the low end, and really insensitive at the high end.
I would really like to see this implemented.
5 Likes
Im willing to contribute an implementation for brightness to plasma (and already have one working locally) btw.
1 Like
This probably makes sense. But the problem is the “KDE” way is actually how it’s handled in most desktops and applications. If you set brightness or volume to 50% in GNOME, or in individual programs like ddcutil or pavucontrol, it would probably be the same as 50% in KDE.
So if it’s wrong, it’s wrong everywhere, and changing it only in KDE might surprise a lot of users.
I think that the superior UX will speak for itself.
I think it could serve to motivate other desktops to adopt this system as well.
It would put plasma ahead of the curve in this one aspect. Its better to pressure software to get better rather than to remain in the archaic way just because everyone else is.
I dont think brightness/volume controls suddenly being MORE intuitive and sensicle will be particularly jarring to anyone.
And if it helps, iOS and Android already have this implemented.
1 Like
this is a change that took i, an amateur developer, all of 90 minutes to make a working prototype.
any professional developer could accommodate this change in only an afternoon’s work.
while you’re here, make it a wishlist item on https://bugs.kde.org/ so it can be tracked (forum threads get buried) and/or send a PR on https://invent.kde.org in case you can refine your prototype to be production-worthy :3
Thank you! Im unfamiliar with this space so its nice to have direction! <3
if you make a report, please link it here so this thread is complete and the progress can be tracked.
Will do! (i’ll be a several hours though)
I think this would not be a problem: aren’t we all waiting for some feedback from the OS regarding how much the volume has changed while we raise or lower it? Unless we change it by a small amount without thinking, and at that point we are trying to get something to change, which won’t happen in the higher end of the scale unless it’s logarithmic
With brightness it’s even easier: one gets immediate feedback on the change, therefore it shouldn’t surprise anyone.
2 Likes
Added it here!
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=521189
Hi, I’m completely new to linux, coming from windows, where the volume settings work this way (and also in android / any game / any webpage / any app / anything really, it’s just different on linux audio settings) and I really would prefer having it like anywhere else.
Do you mind sharing how you made the change?