Missing HiDPI / scaling options on DisplayLink-connected external monitors

[catgirlcrypto]

Hi, I’m on the 14-day Pro trial of BetterDisplay and running into an issue.

My setup:
• MacBook Air 2021 (M1)
• Ugreen Revodok CM615 (DisplayLink dock)
• UPerfect 18.5” dual-screen portable monitor (each panel shows up as “Generic Display 1” and “Generic Display 2”)

The problem:
When I go to Manage Display → Configure Display, I only see:
• General Settings
• Hardware Control & Integration
• Video Control Settings

There is no section for Custom Resolutions, HiDPI, or Enable Scaling.
From the wiki, it seems like these features should be part of the free tier already, and definitely available during the 14 day Pro trial.

What I’ve tried:
• Accessibility permissions are enabled.
• “Show details” is turned on.
• Restarted BetterDisplay and my Mac.
• Confirmed that the trial is active.

My questions:
1. Where exactly should I be seeing the HiDPI / Custom Resolutions toggle in the UI?
2. Is this missing because my monitors are connected via DisplayLink and show up as Generic Displays?
3. If so, is there any way to still enable HiDPI/scaling for these monitors (through BetterDisplay or a workaround)?

I’d really appreciate some guidance here — I’m mainly trying to get sharper text scaling on my UPerfect panels, and I can’t tell if I’m missing a setting, if DisplayLink is blocking it, or if this just isn’t supported.

Thanks a lot for your work on this app!

[waydabber]

Yeah, the problem is the DisplayLink connection - resolutions with this setup are managed by the DL app. The workaround is to create a virtual screen and stream it (using Stream Virtual Screen) or mirror it to the DL display (these two might result in different image quality). Virtual screens have a flexible resolution by nature.

[cags12]

Hi @waydabber is there another way to achieve this without Virtual Screens?
I was successful to set up the Virtual screen with Mirroring. the problem I have is that every time my monitor go to sleep or else, the image on the screen that is mirroring the Virtual screen is all messed up an I need to go back and reset settings all the time. Also automatic associations seem to cause a freeze in the monitor and I find myself constantly fiddling with the configuration. Specially screen positioning relatively to my other screens.
I feel the VS workaround is just too unstable.

[cags12]

I just troubleshooted a bit. It seems that when association is enabled and the physical screen is reconnected. Obviously the Virtual Screen is also reconnected but MacOS sees the Virtual screen as a totally new screen (never seen before) and resets its position to the left (in my case needs to be on the right). Is this a n known behavior?
For now I have removed association but everytime I become mobile, this will come up as an issue (having a phantom screen).
.

[waydabber]

macOS should remember the display layout and not move things around. But with a DisplayLink display (itself being virtual) things might get rather shaky. Mirroring a virtual screen is a workaround, not an ideal solution for sure. You can try scripting things (complicated) or try using layout protection to make sure the arrangement does not break. Virtual screens might also cause sleep/wake issues.