A description for an adaptive sharpening filter has been included with the latest Linux kernel patches that Intel has sent out to developers for testing. The notes describe a new feature that will debut in its Display Engine starting with its Lunar Lake processors featuring Xe2 “Battlemage” graphics that are launching this year. Intel engineer Nemesa Garg said in the notes that the feature will be included moving forward following the launch of Lunar Lake.
Per Kernel (via Phoronix):
“Many a times images are blurred or upscaled content is also not as crisp as original rendered image. Traditional sharpening techniques often apply a uniform level of enhancement across entire image, which sometimes result in over-sharpening of some areas and potential loss of natural details.
Intel has come up with Display Engine based adaptive sharpening filter with minimal power and performance impact. From LNL onwards, the Display hardware can use one of the pipe scaler for adaptive sharpness filter. This can be used for both gaming and non-gaming use cases like photos, image viewing. It works on a region of pixels depending on the tap size.
This RFC is an attempt to introduce an adaptive sharpness solution which helps in improving the image quality. For this new CRTC property is added. The user can set this property with desired sharpness strength value with 0-255. A value of 1 representing minimum sharpening strength and 255 representing maximum sharpness strength. A strength value of 0 means no sharpening or sharpening feature disabled. It works on a region of pixels depending on the tap size. The coefficients are used to generate an alpha value which is used to blend the sharpened image to original image.
Userspace implementation for sharpening feature and IGT implementation is in progress.”
Release timeline
An adaptive sharpening filter could be a very useful feature for those using upscaling technology, such as Intel’s XeSS, in improving image quality. As the notes explain, it can be set with values ranging from 1 (minimum) to 255 (maximum), or 0 to disable. It is designed to have a minimal power draw, a requirement given that Lunar Lake is intended as a mobile processor, and has a minimal performance impact, something that from gamers to productivity is also essential. VideoCardz notes that Intel has not specified an exact release date for Lunar Lake, and neither do the Linux patch notes, but the feature is expected, per Phoronix) to roll out with the v6.9 kernel cycle once testing has been completed.