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Why HDR works in DirectX games but not Vulkan games on a virtual display

On a streaming virtual display, Windows HDR and DirectX 12 games look fine, but Vulkan games say “HDR not supported.” Here’s the reason — and a two-minute way to confirm it with vulkaninfo.

It’s a confusing symptom: on the same virtual display, Windows HDR is on, the desktop and DirectX 12 games stream in proper HDR, but a Vulkan game insists “this device does not support HDR.” The display didn’t change between the two — so what’s different?

Two paths to the same display

HDR capability is reported through two independent paths. The compositor path — the Windows “Use HDR” toggle and the desktop — reads HDR from the display’s metadata and the OS, and a virtual (indirect) display reports it correctly. DirectX games largely ride this path, which is why DX12 HDR usually works when streaming. The Vulkan path is separate: a Vulkan game asks the GPU’s Vulkan driver to list the swapchain surface formats and looks for an HDR color space. On a virtual display the NVIDIA/AMD driver doesn’t list one — so the Vulkan game sees no HDR, even though the OS and DirectX do.

Confirm it in two minutes

You can see the gap directly with vulkaninfo (it ships with your GPU driver and the Vulkan SDK) or the GUI VulkanCapsViewer:

  • Run it with only the virtual display active and look at the surface formats. You’ll see COLOR_SPACE_SRGB_NONLINEAR_KHR and no HDR — no HDR10_ST2084_EXT.
  • Attach a real HDR monitor (or run it there) and the same list now includes HDR10_ST2084_EXT. Same GPU, same Windows HDR state — only the display path differs.

That missing HDR10_ST2084_EXT is exactly what a Vulkan game checks for before it offers HDR.

So what fixes it?

Because the gap is just a missing entry in a list — the GPU will present HDR there fine — it’s fixable by adding the format back, which is what a small Vulkan layer does. For the short how-to see Vulkan games say “HDR not supported”; for the engineering details see the Vulkan HDR layer write-up. punktfunk ships that fix, so Vulkan games like Doom: The Dark Ages get HDR on the virtual display out of the box.

For the full HDR streaming picture, see HDR game streaming that looks like HDR and the best self-hosted game streaming setups in 2026.