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[SolidusDave]

As we know, the real graphics upgrade last year (and probably until next gen, sorry Scorpio) in gaming has been HDR. But I don't want to bash the PS4pro too much as we are getting the HDR support only via the pro-supporting games, so thanks for that!

I can't comment on HDR on XB1S, as I'm waiting with that purchase for the 4K UHD Blu-ray release of Planet Earth II. But feel free to write comparisons of the HDR implementation in XB games compared to the PS4 ones (maybe even the same multiplatform game?)



HDR has been a really muted, subjective topic as you can't really show it off in screenshots etc.
People are using different HDR TVs with different settings and the games themselves use it differently or even require individual adjustments on the brightness/TV settings. Coupled with information being a bit hard to find, it creates also a lot of misinformation.

Don't get me started on the TV HDR settings though. I enjoy setting up my TV manually, disabling all the post processing stuff etc.
But for HDR in games I went now through 3 different calibration processes to figure out what the fuck I'm supposed to do. Especially as you have to match it with some of the console settings (Full/Limited RGB etc.) as well.

Nevertheless I'm very happy with the majority of the HDR output. In several cases it drastically changes and improves how the lighting works/looks. That's the main reason why it's more obvious to tell the difference between HDR and non-HDR for most people compared to OG PS4 and PS4pro (millage may vary).
Be aware that (all?) TVs basically switch into a different mode when displaying HDR games though. So the image can look very different either way (especially if you have been using some ... unfortunate settings), like with switching between vivid and gaming mode or something. That's why it's important to calibrate both your SDR and HDR settings. e.g. there should not be a drastic difference in colors, navy blue should still look like navy blue.


These are the HDR games I've tested (all OG PS4):

• Uncharted 4
• Hustle Kings
• The Witness
• Final Fantasy XV
• The Last Guardian
• inFamous (First Light standalone)
• The Last of Us (Left Behind standalone)
• Deus Ex: MD
• Ratchet & Clank

- The best implementation I've seen is in FF15 followed by The Witness.
They also happen to be games that provide the best tools to configure your HDR TV settings, IMO. FFXV to test if you cut off any blacks or whites while some of the panels in the Witness can be used to check if you over-saturate certain colors etc. (e.g. when light green panels almost hide the yellow line of solved puzzles, you might wanna configure again). Both games allow to toggle HDR and seemed competent enough that I tested and slightly adjusted settings like color temp to adjust a bit more to my taste.

At the minimum I recommend checking the brightness option in FFXV to see if you have the right settings combo regarding the RGB option on consoles vs. the black level options on your TV. You will see nicely when it's fucked as the icons simply disappear.


- Some games like R&C and TLG are a bit hard to point at the differences as they don't have an option to toggle HDR. All I can say there is that at least those two look just right (i.e. great) and didn't require me to fiddle more with my settings. Some of the HDR typical things can be seen like the brightness adjustments and blinding brights/high contrast.
edit: heh... didn't think of manually disabling HDR on the TV instead, gonna have to try that just to see how big the differences are.


- Deus Ex gave me a headache in how to set up HDR right. To be fair though, I did not had my HDR TV mode correctly configured at first. Deus Ex was the most sensitive to that though and gave me some over-saturation/bloom-looking artifacts. The brightness option is necessary to adjust but doesn't give any indication in HDR mode for how it should be set up.

I'm also weirded out when I take screenshots in both HDR and non-HDR mode and drastic differences can be seen on non-HDR displays. I don't think that makes sense and the game does some funky stuff on top of HDR.


- Uncharted 4 and Left Behind are more subtle in my opinion, but are still quite good in showcasing HDR (more blinding skies, refined looking colors etc). TBF I only checked one level each though. Unlike the next example, they also do their existing human-eye-reacting-to-brigthness-changes mimicking effects (should we call it software-HDR?) correctly in HDR mode.


- By far the worst offender for me is First Light though. It looks quite bad in any situation that is not neon-running at night. And holy shit their software-HDR effect on top of the HDR. Looking at the sunny sky darkens the image so that it looks like night. That's not how anything works. Like e.g. in the Witness, there should be an initial blinding brightness, followed by a sliiiight adjustment that is mostly noticeable by how shadowed areas look darker now. And of course the sky remains bright...
I'm at a loss how DF could claim inFamous to be the best HDR example in one of their videos. On top of it you can even see black crush from switching to HDR in screenshots, come on...



As a side note, every pro-patch that doesn't come with HDR saddens me. I have several games in my backlog that I'm still hoping to get HDR support. It was mentioned for BF1 at least, but still nothing.. Other examples of pro games without HDR are Hitman, TItanfall 2, Bound and Abzu


I guess the main point of this thread, apart from my ramblings is to kinda collect our thoughts on this slightly messy subject. To educate and highlighting the games that do HDR right.
Now that I learned more about the tech etc., I would also like to hear some opinions of the OLED flagship TV owners. My 4K TV is a 2016 model but not OLED and so low on the HDR capability spectrum that I almost feel ill equipped for it.

 

[Transistor]

The Witness.

So damn beautiful in HDR

 

[jack....]

The Last of Us is the nicest looking one I've tried so far.

 

[bananafactory]

Best:

The Last Guardian

Runner ups:

Ratchet & Clank, Final Fantasy XV

 

[SEGAvangelist]

FFXV is by far the worst. It's way too bright and has no calibration option from within in the game. The Witness has good use of color but is also a bit too bright for my tastes and once again has no in-game brightness calibration to help with this.

My fav uses of it are in Uncharted 4, The Last of Us, Gears 4, and Forza Horizon 3. Those 5 games really use HDR in a very natural but impressive way, and I love it.

EDIT: And for those having issues with inFamous, make sure to change the contrast setting in-game. That helps a TON!

 

[tonypark]

Best - The witness
(Vibrant color, bit over saturated at places maybe) Almost no color banding.

Second best - FF15

Worst - The last guardian
Color banding is horrible and the game still look bland to me.

 

[SolidusDave]

FFXV is by far the worst. It's way too bright and has no calibration option from within in the game.

Huh? In my PS4 version it does have a brightness calibration option in HDR mode. And unlike in Deus Ex it actually behaves like you would expect.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

Huh? In my PS4 version it does have a brightness calibration option in HDR mode. And unlike in Deus Ex it actually behaves like you would expect.

It has a game brightness calibration setting, but not a separate HDR Brightness calibration setting, at least in the XB1 version I have.

 

[SolidusDave]

Worst - The last guardian

Best:

The Last Guardian

I think this is why we need more information for why you think something looks good/bad. Personal preferences aside, if others don't experience something it might just be a setting that has to be adjusted.

It has a game brightness calibration setting, but not a separate HDR Brightness calibration setting, at least in the XB1 version I have.

nah it's just the same option. But what do you suggest such a setting should do? I've read it as you experience the image being too bright. I assume you already set up your TV and don't want to change the settings there, but doesn't the ingame brightness setting still let you darken the HDR image? It does it for me at least unless you mean something else

 

[RuhRo]

Odd to hear people saying The Witness. There was a whole thread on how the HDR implementation is broken, with Jonathan Blow chiming in and acknowledging they botched it.

The Last Guardian is the most dramatic on my Samsung. Night and day better looking. Turning off HDR is shocking - everything looks garish and washed out. It's a rare game that's clearly meant to be played in HDR.

I find Infamous to be okay but a bit too dark, Uncharted to be a plus but a subtle one - it just seems to make the colors a bit subtler. The Last of Us also looks nice, but is again subtle. Deus Ex is fine but to be honest barely noticeable. The Witness is a color banding hot mess that, on top of the problems, looks no better or richer than it does with HDR off on my set.

Haven't tried FFXV but tempted to just to see the HDR, based on this thread.

 

[SlimySnake]

I fucking hate HDR. Bought a $1000 tv just to get HDR and cant fucking tell the difference in most games.

The last Guardian was better with less bloom allowing you to see more, but nothing mind blowing. Not worth $1000.

Ratchet, loved how it looked on my 1080p tv and i swear i cant tell the difference on my 4k HDR tv. I turned off the HDR on my KS 8000 and i couldnt tell the difference.

Uncharted 4 looked ok but again, nothing special.

FFXV looks more vivid and colorful but again, is that it?

Infamous omg looks worse in HDR. dark at night. almost like it is missing colors. It seriously looks better in regular mode.

overall, i am very disappointed. i dont know if its my set up or if it is supposed to be this muted. and that is the most frustrating part. you buy something for $1k and you dont even know if it is set up correctly.

 

[Resident_UA]

I'm already confused by some posts.

FFXV is by far the best. Yes, you need to turn down the brightness, but it actually changes how the game looks. It's like enabling additional level of textures.

Last guardian is also very good, but the issue is that you can't calibrate it well until a bit later in the game. The lighting in the caves is simply not sufficient. That playable scene is amazing with HDR enabled.

Uncharted 4 is way too subtle. And it requires A LOT of tweaking on my panel. This is the only game where I felt like messing with color in addition to brightness/contrast.

 

[SolidusDave]

Odd to hear people saying The Witness. There was a whole thread on how the HDR implementation is broken, with Jonathan Blow chiming in and acknowledging they botched it.
.

Maybe I have to play it more but I did not notice any color banding. Was it maybe fixed already (I played it yesterday) or only a bug with OLEDs/certain platforms/PS4pro mode only?

 

[SEGAvangelist]

nah it's just the same option. But what do you suggest such a setting should do? I've read it as you experience the image being too bright. I assume you already set up your TV and don't want to change the settings there, but doesn't the ingame brightness setting still let you darken the HDR image? It does it for me at least unless you mean something else

It's only a problem with FFXV. Even if I turn my backlight all the way to zero, the whites are absolutely blinding in this game. The Witness is very bright too, but also very dark in the darkest areas. In FFXV, it's blinding even even at night.

EDIT:

We're also comparing HDR on multiple TV sets. HDR will be more about colors on sets with poor or no local dimming (like most of the Samsung and Sony owners here) and HDR will be more about luminosity and enhanced contrast ratios for people using OLEDs and sets with FALD (LGs and Vizios).

 

[WordsintheWater]

I fucking hate HDR. Bought a $1000 tv just to get HDR and cant fucking tell the difference in most games.

The last Guardian was better with less bloom allowing you to see more, but nothing mind blowing. Not worth $1000.

Ratchet, loved how it looked on my 1080p tv and i swear i cant tell the difference on my 4k HDR tv. I turned off the HDR on my KS 8000 and i couldnt tell the difference.

Uncharted 4 looked ok but again, nothing special.

FFXV looks more vivid and colorful but again, is that it?

Infamous omg looks worse in HDR. dark at night. almost like it is missing colors. It seriously looks better in regular mode.

overall, i am very disappointed. i dont know if its my set up or if it is supposed to be this muted. and that is the most frustrating part. you buy something for $1k and you dont even know if it is set up correctly.

OG PS4?
Did you use proper calibration settings? Backlight should be set at 20 whenever HDR is enabled, you have to manually set it yourself.

 

[mrklaw]

Maybe I have to play it more but I did not notice any color banding. Was it maybe fixed already (I played it yesterday) or only a bug with OLEDs/certain platforms/PS4pro mode only?

It was fixed

 

[WordsintheWater]

It's only a problem with FFXV. Even if I turn my backlight all the way to zero, the whites are absolutely blinding in this game. The Witness is very bright too, but also very dark in the darkest areas. In FFXV, it's blinding even even at night.

Maybe it's your TV settings then? All I had to do was bump the brightness in game in FFXV a notch or 2 down and it was calibrated correctly in the menu.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

Maybe it's your TV settings then? All I had to do was bump the brightness in game in FFXV a notch or 2 down and it was calibrated correctly in the menu.

Like I said, it's just FFXV. FFXV seems to use very aggressive HDR implementation in regards to brightness. Setting the backlight down very low is not a good solution if you have a TV with FALD. Turning the brightness down in-game just seems to crush the blacks.

 

[SolidusDave]

It's only a problem with FFXV. Even if I turn my backlight all the way to zero, the whites are absolutely blinding in this game. The Witness is very bright too, but also very dark in the darkest areas. In FFXV, it's blinding even even at night.

EDIT:

We're also comparing HDR on multiple TV sets. HDR will be more about colors on sets with poor or no local dimming (like most of the Samsung and Sony owners here) and HDR will be more about luminosity and enhanced contrast ratios for people using OLEDs and sets with FALD (LGs and Vizios).

Do you play both FFXV and The Witness on XB1? As the post above mentions, I only had to turn down the ingame brightness a notch and it was ok. Might also be because my TV can't really get as super bright as the flagship OLEDs.


Your point about the two main HDR aspects is definitely true. Though I think the increased color spectrum will always be the far less noticeable difference of HDR (even though it's marketed so much). If you don't have scenes in games with some wide range of colors, i.e. nuances within the same color that you can only see with HDR, you should not see much change at all.
I suspect this is the case for people claiming no difference between HDR and SDR, they simply have a TV that doesn't allow them to really benefit from the main HDR differences (brightness, contrast via dimming etc.).

It was fixed

Ok I can trust my eyes again I guess.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

Do you play both FFXV and The Witness on XB1? As the post above mentions, I only had to turn down the ingame brightness a notch and it was ok. Might also be because my TV can't really get as super bright as the flagship OLEDs.


Your point about the two main HDR aspects is definitely true. Though I think the increased color spectrum will always be the far less noticeable difference of HDR (even though it's marketed so much). If you don't have scenes in games with some wide range of colors, i.e. nuances within the same color that you can only see with HDR, you should not see much change at all.
I suspect this is the case for people claiming no difference between HDR and SDR, they simply have a TV that doesn't allow them to really benefit from the main HDR differences (brightness, contrast via dimming etc.).

I play The Witness on PS4 and FFXV on XB1. The Witness gets a bit aggressive with brightness in the outdoor areas, but that seems intentional. FFXV just looks bright all the damn time. It sucks, because it removes what I love about HDR. Seeing the contrast of something incredibly bright after being in a dark area is so effective in games like R&C, UC4, Gears 4, and FH3.

 

[King_Moc]

I couldn't really see much difference in FFXV. The Witness looked incredible though. The bunker area and that orange forest look amazing.

 

[Vlaphor]

I've never seen actual HDR, but if I set my Samsung JU6500 to dynamic, then FFXV looks like how I imagine HDR would look, just with more jutter, overblown brights, and a small amount of noticble input lag.

 

[SolidusDave]

I play The Witness on PS4 and FFXV on XB1. The Witness gets a bit aggressive with brightness in the outdoor areas, but that seems intentional. FFXV just looks bright all the damn time. It sucks, because it removes what I love about HDR. Seeing the contrast of something incredibly bright after being in a dark area is so effective in games like R&C, UC4, Gears 4, and FH3.

Mh, might be something specific to the XB1 version of FFXV then, maybe something they overlooked in how the XB1S handles HDR etc.


All this shit is supposed to get easier in the future right? With Meta-data that just tells every TV what it's supposed to do. Would also be a nice future in which no one has messed up settings on their TV, HDR or not

 

[jiggles]

I couldn't really see much difference in FFXV. The Witness looked incredible though. The bunker area and that orange forest look amazing.

The easiest way to see the difference in FFXV I've noticed is with foliage. With HDR off, there's a very uniform brightness to the leaves and bushes that gives away them being intersecting 2D objects, while with HDR on, the brightness is varied along them and they just look like 3D objects.

It's the single easiest improvement to spot provided by HDR I've ever seen, and for that, FFXV gets my pick.

 

[black070]

The Last Guardian looks stunning in 4K with HDR.

 

[Markitron]

I haven't played FF15 yet, so far the best HDR I have seen is The Last Guardian. I played thru the first half of the game with HDR on, then turned it off to see how it looks. The colours were all horribly saturated and it lost all it's subtlety.

 

[ZOONAMI]

Imo the winners are UC4, FFXV, FH3, and Gears 4.

 

[scitek]

Shadow Warrior 2 is great with HDR.

 

[NinjamicWZ]

Dammit, I didn't know Witness had Pro support. I would have gotten it while it was $20 the other day before the sale ended. Ah well... all I do is play MGSV and neglect my backlog anyway.

The best looking HDR enabled game so far for me was probably FFXV. That was like night and day difference from how it looked for my entire play through weeks ago. I could really see the difference fighting Iron Giant at night, when they'd cast haste or shell (whichever it is), and the translucent green would pop out of the screen while still having full blue, yellow, black etc underneath on the giant's body.

Last Guardian looks amazing, but it's range of art styles and color pallet is so much more restrained compared to FFXV, as a game, so it's harder to point to it as having any specific "see?" elements.

Uncharted 4 I need to do a fresh playthrough now that I've got everything calibrated. That game is so pretty and clean to begin with that it was hard to pinpoint particular improvements vs overall. I was just jukeboxing through games when I got my TV, so I didn't spend a lot of time with that, Last of Us, Infamous or R&C before taking them back off my HDD. Still haven't tired Deus Ex but I got that for $20 during holiday sales and am just waiting until I'm ready to actually play it.

 

[SuperLurker]

Shadow Warrior 2 is great with HDR.

This has been the most impressive for me so far.

What I have tried so far:

PS4 Pro -
Infamous Second Son
Infamous Last Light
The Last Guardian
Uncharted 4
Ratchet and Clank

XB1S -
Forza Horizon 3
Gears of War 4

PC -
Shadow Warrior 2

 

[Lucifon]

Seen a number of people say FFXV is the best they've seen but when I toggle HDR off the game just looks genuinely wrong (as in mistakenly wrong not shocking difference wrong) - are people using that as the gauge for hdr vs non hdr?

 

[SlimySnake]

OG PS4?
Did you use proper calibration settings? Backlight should be set at 20 whenever HDR is enabled, you have to manually set it yourself.

Pro of course. I have been a regular in the KS8000 thread. I have set up everything i can.

 

[meltingparappa]

I hope I'm not alone on this, but I gotta say... after experimenting with settings on my PS4 and TV a million times and staring at a patch of grass in The Witness while turning HDR on and off 50 times, I really don't see a significant difference in any game.

Loading up 'The Grand Tour' on amazon prime though, holy hell, it's a complete night and day what a difference it makes. I would have expected videogames to use HDR in an overt gaudy way, but I'm surprised how it's quite the opposite.

 

[Rbk_3]

I fucking hate HDR. Bought a $1000 tv just to get HDR and cant fucking tell the difference in most games.

The last Guardian was better with less bloom allowing you to see more, but nothing mind blowing. Not worth $1000.

Ratchet, loved how it looked on my 1080p tv and i swear i cant tell the difference on my 4k HDR tv. I turned off the HDR on my KS 8000 and i couldnt tell the difference.

Uncharted 4 looked ok but again, nothing special.

FFXV looks more vivid and colorful but again, is that it?

Infamous omg looks worse in HDR. dark at night. almost like it is missing colors. It seriously looks better in regular mode.

overall, i am very disappointed. i dont know if its my set up or if it is supposed to be this muted. and that is the most frustrating part. you buy something for $1k and you dont even know if it is set up correctly.

I have to agree. I have the KS8000 and I just don't really see it. Sure it is a little better, but it isn't all it's hyped up to be.

 

[meltingparappa]

I have to agree. I have the KS8000 and I just don't really see it. Sure it is a little better, but it isn't all it's hyped up to be.

I can see that the potential is there when I watch the 4K 60FPS HDR LG chess demo on youtube, but I think these early PS4 Pro games just haven't spent a lot of time implementing it.

 

[OmniscientZiltoid]

KS8000 here and having mixed feelings about HDR.
I have the set properly calibrated but I'm not getting the 'holy crap' effect.

Makes me wonder if some people overhype it, or perhaps some of the KS8000s have a defect. Ratchet and Clank literally look identical in HDR.
Grand Tour is nothing special.

I'd love to have two same sets, properly set up showing a difference. Not sure if a retail store would be able to do a good job, given the crazy settings they usually have.

 

[dragonzdogma]

KS8000 55" (e.i, best panel)
GOAT HDR & graphics Final Fantasy XV

No competition.

Zero
nada
byebye

 

[dragos495]

Ratchet and Clank by a mile.

Followed by the witness, uncharted and ofcourse forza horison 3.

By the way, i game on a 2016 oled so the hdr looks amazing!

 

[XNarte]

FFXV by far. I feel bad for those getting an overblown image. The nighttime is unreal now. I couldn't believe how much better the particle effects looked and the silhouettes of the trees against the starry sky popped, and the foliage looked redrawn in 3D. So good.

I also like the subtler uses of it in games like Deus Ex too!

 

[MazeHaze]

55 inch ks8000 owner here.

I've tried:
Infamous
Ratchet and Clank
Final Fantasy 15
Shadow Warrior 2


Final Fantasy is the best imo. Toggle HDR off and the game looks very bland. Toggle it back on and holy crap, the green grass amd leaves on a sunny day in the second area, good god. I don't even mind the long travel times in the car, it looks amazing.

Shadow Warrior is very impressive too, the others are more subtle imo.

 

[dragonzdogma]

55 inch ks8000 owner here.

I've tried:
Infamous
Ratchet and Clank
Final Fantasy 15
Shadow Warrior 2


Final Fantasy is the best imo. Toggle HDR off and the game looks very bland. Toggle it back on and holy crap, the green grass amd leaves on a sunny day in the second area, good god. I don't even mind the long travel times in the car, it looks amazing.

Shadow Warrior is very impressive too, the others are more subtle imo.

This guy know what's up ^
If you don't mind could you PM or link me to your calibration settings you decided on?

BTW- when you are swimming in the duscae pools next to the giant cablopelas (or whatever they are called)

just JAW dropping

 

[_woLf]

FFXV for me, no doubt. The game is beautiful on my KS8000.

 

[Lucifon]

55 inch ks8000 owner here.

I've tried:
Infamous
Ratchet and Clank
Final Fantasy 15
Shadow Warrior 2


Final Fantasy is the best imo. Toggle HDR off and the game looks very bland. Toggle it back on and holy crap, the green grass amd leaves on a sunny day in the second area, good god. I don't even mind the long travel times in the car, it looks amazing.

Shadow Warrior is very impressive too, the others are more subtle imo.

I swear the game doesn't look like this in non hdr. In all the footage I've seen it looks great, and that's from non hdr sources.

Yet flick that setting off and the game looks horribly washed out. Which as a result is making people praise the game's hdr implementation for the huge leap in visual quality. I feel like something else is going on.

What I want to see is a non hdr tv toggling hdr on and off in game - is that possible?

 

[NinjamicWZ]

Seen a number of people say FFXV is the best they've seen but when I toggle HDR off the game just looks genuinely wrong (as in mistakenly wrong not shocking difference wrong) - are people using that as the gauge for hdr vs non hdr?

Uncharted 4 is probably the best HDR. It's pretty beautiful and painterly. Even the first chapter with young Nate is like a dreamscape of purple haze and fiery street lamps.

FFXV is the biggest night and day difference with the most prominent color jumps because it has such a wide spectrum of colors that aren't necessarily trying to mesh with each other so much as they are just being colors. With HDR, the overall color begins to match the intensity of it's global lighting.

You make a fair point about subtle quality increase and augment vs the "on/off" nature of FFXV. Far more qualified people than me could tell you better than I could what's happening with tech, color spectrum and IQ.

 

[MazeHaze]

I swear the game doesn't look like this in non hdr. In all the footage I've seen it looks great, and that's from non hdr sources.

Yet flick that setting off and the game looks horribly washed out. Which as a result is making people praise the game's hdr implementation for the huge leap in visual quality. I feel like something else is going on.

What I want to see is a non hdr tv toggling hdr on and off in game - is that possible?

It does look like that in SDR though. It looks great SDR, but compared to HDR is night and day. There's nothing else going on. If I turn off hdr on my ps4 and boot the game in sdr, it looks the same as when I toggle off hdr. Not bad by any means, but the vibrant color and contrast of HDR looks super crisp which makes the SDR bland in comparison. I notice this same effect with all sdr to hdr comparisons on my tv.

There's no bug or tom foolery. Good hdr implementation just makes sdr look bland.

Edit: also it would be impossible to toggle hdr on a non hdr tv. The ps4 has 2 settings for hdr, auto and off. Auto detects your hdr capable set, with a non hdr set it would default to off and the option would be greyed out in game.

If I hook the ps4 up to my other tv, which is right next to my hdr tv, it looks the same as when I toggle hdr off on the hdr set.

 

[SolidusDave]

edit: nvm, apparently taking screenshots while in HDR mode is not a good idea. See posts below.



old post:

Ok, I don't know anymore what the hell is going on.

Did some more comparing and took PS4 PNG screenshots while running FFXV in HDR mode and in SDR mode:

SDR:

http://abload.de/img/finalfantasyxv_20170114u3s.png


HDR:

http://abload.de/img/finalfantasyxv_201701hcu11.png


This is raw so TV settings etc don't have anything to do with it.

So what is this game doing?! You are not supposed to see the HDR differences on non-HDR displays but I think all of us can agree that we see a pretty big fucking difference. Are they faking some additional stuff to make it look more flashy in HDR?
It's not just more vibrance or whatever, look at the sky. That basically looks how HDR is advertised (w/o a HDR screen).


For comparison, this is R&C

SDR:

http://abload.de/img/ratchet_clank_2017010ngzi9.png


HDR:

http://abload.de/img/ratchet_clank_2017010uwl6p.png


In screenshots (on our SDR laptops/monitors), only a slight difference is visible. Slightly more flat/brighter dark areas in SDR, probably to account for visibility.

I saw the same minor differences e.g. in TLOU screenshots. While inFamous does something as ridiculous as FFXV, only that it looks like ass in HDR while FFXV looks worse in SDR (which doesn't come across well here with that messy misscoloring in the screenshot).


Fun fact: As R&C doesn't have an HDR toggle setting, I had to disable HDR on my HDMI input. If you do this while the game is running, the game will still render in HDR and the image on the TV will look quite funky (very oversaturated compared to normal SDR). For the screenshots I restarted the whole game while HDR was enabled or disabled on my TV.

 

[Trojita]

Ok, I don't know anymore what the hell is going on.

Did some more comparing and took PS4 PNG screenshots while running FFXV in HDR mode and in SDR mode:

SDR:

http://abload.de/img/finalfantasyxv_20170114u3s.png


HDR:

http://abload.de/img/finalfantasyxv_201701hcu11.png


This is raw so TV settings etc don't have anything to do with it.

So what is this game doing?! You are not supposed to see the HDR differences on non-HDR displays but I think all of us can agree that we see a pretty big fucking difference. Are they faking some additional stuff to make it look more flashy in HDR?
It's not just more vibrance or whatever, look at the sky. That basically looks how HDR is advertised (w/o a HDR screen).


For comparison, this is R&C

SDR:

http://abload.de/img/ratchet_clank_2017010ngzi9.png


HDR:

http://abload.de/img/ratchet_clank_2017010uwl6p.png


In screenshots (on our SDR laptops/monitors), only a slight difference is visible. Slightly more flat/brighter dark areas in SDR, probably to account for visibility.

I saw the same minor differences e.g. in TLOU screenshots. While inFamous does something as ridiculous as FFXV, only that it looks like ass in HDR while FFXV looks worse in SDR.


Fun fact: As R&C doesn't have an HDR toggle setting, I had to disable HDR on my HDMI input. If you do this while the game is running, the game will still render in HDR and the image on the TV will look quite funky (very oversaturated compared to normal SDR). For the screenshots I restarted the whole game while HDR was enabled or disabled on my TV.

You still see differences with HDR screenshots on a SDR screen. They just end up looking bad, like the hdr ones you provided.

Edit: Actually nvm, you might be on to something with the extra layered brightness.

 

[ss_lemonade]

While FF 15 does become more vibrant, it's really hard to know the difference. Like if you randomly asked me what the game was using now, I wouldn't be able to tell if it was in hdr mode or not. I guess the only way I would be able to tell is if it was night time and looking at the moon. With the pause screen up and the moon blurred in the background, you could see the moon's texture in hdr mode. In sdr, it gets masked by the moon's light. That's probably the only way I would have known lol.

 

[SolidusDave]

You still see differences with HDR screenshots on a SDR screen. They just end up looking bad, like the hdr ones you provided.

Oh ok... Sorry I was under the assumption that it would not lead to such drastic changes in the way the game is rendered but that the TV takes the additional information and displays it in HDR.


However, I just switched back and forth with a screenshot and the same scene ingame and you're right. Ingame it looks first of all better (colors are not off), and the screenshot e.g. will brighten the whole sky and misses the details that are displayed correctly on the TV (while still having a very bright sky).

Regarding your edit: So that might clear it up why the brightness also changes, they assume that on the HDR TV you will be able to see the details within the bright sky while they have to darken/"flatten" the sky more for SDR.


That also means for the screenshot thread I need to toggle off HDR...
Come to think of it, this effect looks like when I disabled HDR while R&C was still running. So for the one poster asking above, you can check a game's graphics running in HDR on a non-HDR display. It will just look bad

 

[kyser73]

This thread has made me happy that I've held off on jumping in on 4K/HDR even though I bought a Pro. The variation in settings required, the huge discrepancies in subjective good/bad implementation views...it's a TV FFS, I just want to plug my HDMI cable in, calibrate once & go.