Gameframe

Steam Gaming Mode compositor for legacy hardware
Rust + Smithay · Apache-2.0

Gameframe replicates the Steam Gaming Mode / gamescope experience on older machines that cannot run gamescope due to missing Vulkan extensions or kernel features. It is a full Wayland compositor built on Smithay 0.7.

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Supported hardware

Vendor	Generations	Kernel driver	Mesa
AMD	HD 5000–9000, R5/R7/R9 200–400 (GCN1–4), RX 400–500	amdgpu / radeon	RadeonSI + RADV
Nvidia	GTX 9xx (Maxwell), GTX 10xx (Pascal)	nouveau + firmware or proprietary nvidia	NV50/NVC0 + NVK (Vulkan)
Intel	Gen 6–12: Sandy Bridge → Alder Lake	i915 / xe	crocus (Gen6–8) · iris (Gen9–12)
	incl. UHD 620 (Whiskey/Cannon Lake)
	incl. UHD 630 (Coffee Lake)
	incl. UHD 770 (Alder Lake)
	incl. Iris Plus G4/G7 (Ice Lake)

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Features

• 🎮 Full-screen Steam Gaming Mode session (every app forced fullscreen)
• 📺 DRM/KMS atomic modesetting with damage tracking
• 🔁 VRR / FreeSync / Adaptive-Sync (AMD + Intel Gen11+)
• 🖥️ XWayland integration for Steam and legacy X11 games
• 📊 In-session overlay (tiny-skia): FPS, GPU/CPU temp, usage bars, toasts
• ⌨️ Input grab with libinput · gamepad / Steam Input pass-through
• 🔔 Notification toasts (app launch, Steam events)
• ⚙️ TOML configuration (~/.config/gameframe/config.toml)
• 🔌 PRIME render offload (dGPU render → iGPU display)
• 🪑 libseat session (no root required)

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Quick start

Build dependencies

# Arch / Manjaro / Bazzite
sudo pacman -S rust libseat libinput mesa drm gbm

# Fedora / SteamOS-like
sudo dnf install rust cargo libseat-devel libinput-devel mesa-libGL-devel

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install rustup libseat-dev libinput-dev libgles2-mesa-dev \
                 libgbm-dev libudev-dev libxkbcommon-dev xwayland

Build & install

git clone https://github.com/gameframe-project/gameframe
cd gameframe
cargo build --release
sudo install -Dm755 target/release/gameframe /usr/local/bin/gameframe

Run

# Auto-detect GPU, start with Steam Big Picture
gameframe start --exec "steam -gamepadui" --xwayland

# Force AMD backend, cap at 60 FPS, scale 1.5x
gameframe --gpu amd --fps-cap 60 --scale 1.5 start --exec "steam -gamepadui"

# Force Nvidia proprietary (make sure nvidia-drm.modeset=1 is set)
gameframe --gpu nvidia start

# Intel UHD 630 laptop – VRR might not be available, disable it
gameframe --gpu intel --no-vrr start

# Show detected GPUs
gameframe gpu-info

# Dump current configuration
gameframe config dump

# Edit configuration
gameframe config edit

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Configuration

Default location: ~/.config/gameframe/config.toml

[gpu]
# vendor = "amd"          # auto-detect if omitted
# drm_device = "/dev/dri/card0"
prime = false
prefer_nouveau = false    # set true to prefer nouveau over nvidia prop.

[display]
fps_cap = 0               # 0 = uncapped (VRR drives pacing)
hdr = false
vrr = true
# preferred_mode = "1920x1080@60"
scale = 1.0

[session]
xwayland = true           # required for Steam and most games
# initial_exec = "steam -gamepadui"
idle_timeout = 0          # seconds; 0 = disabled

[overlay]
fps_counter = true
gpu_temp    = true
gpu_usage   = true
cpu_usage   = true
ram_usage   = true
position    = "TopLeft"   # TopLeft | TopRight | BottomLeft | BottomRight
width  = 220
height = 130

[input]
repeat_delay = 400        # ms
repeat_rate  = 30         # repeats/second

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Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Super + Esc	Toggle overlay / quick-access menu
Ctrl + Alt + Backspace	Kill session

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Architecture

gameframe-cli        clap entry point; merges CLI flags with config
├── gameframe-core   Smithay compositor, calloop event loop,
│   ├── compositor   DRM device init, GBM, EGL, GlesRenderer, outputs
│   ├── state        Central GameframeState (all Smithay delegates)
│   ├── output       Per-connector Output + DrmCompositor + damage tracking
│   ├── session      SessionOptions, run/stop/status
│   ├── frame        FramePacer (FPS cap + VRR)
│   └── xwayland     XWayland lifecycle
├── gameframe-gpu    GPU detection (sysfs), vendor quirks
│   ├── amd          amdgpu/radeon, FreeSync, RADV check
│   ├── nvidia       nouveau firmware check, KMS modeset check
│   └── intel        Gen6–12 identification, mesa driver, UHD 620/630/770
├── gameframe-input  libinput, keybindings, grab management
└── gameframe-overlay tiny-skia HUD renderer → Wayland SHM buffer

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Nvidia notes

For the proprietary driver, add to kernel cmdline:

nvidia-drm.modeset=1

For nouveau (open-source):

# Install firmware (Fedora/Ubuntu)
sudo dnf install linux-firmware       # or
sudo apt install linux-firmware-nonfree

Maxwell/Pascal nouveau 3D requires signed firmware blobs. Without them modesetting works but 3D acceleration is unavailable.

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Intel UHD notes

• UHD 620 (Whiskey Lake / 8th gen U): Gen 9.5, iris Mesa, no VRR
• UHD 630 (Coffee Lake / 8th–9th gen): Gen 9.5, iris Mesa, no VRR
• UHD 770 (Alder Lake / 12th gen): Gen 12, iris Mesa, VRR via PSR2
• Iris Plus G7 (Ice Lake / 10th gen): Gen 11, iris Mesa, VRR via PSR2

For iGPU-only laptops (no dGPU), gameframe works out of the box. For Optimus laptops (Intel iGPU + Nvidia dGPU), enable PRIME in config:

[gpu]
prime = true

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License

Apache-2.0 – see LICENSE