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HDR gaming, how important is it, actually, what is it?
- Thread starter lowrider007
- Start date
Sir Abacus
Member
Most games render using HDR internally using 16-bit floats for color channel values (64-bit floats for whole pixels). Before the image is sent to the display, it is tone mapped to something that's both displayable by the screen and looks good. They use something called Reinhard mapping to turn the HDR values into something a normal sRGB display can handle. For games to support HDR displays would merely get them to output the final rendering image (either in 24-bit, 30-bit, 36-bit, whatever color) in a color space the display can understand. For HDR this is usually Rec. 2020 or Dolby Vision. This is usually a trivial operation on the part of the programmer.
The only thing is that the content provider and display have to be on the same page regarding color space. If you provide Rec. 2020 content to an sRGB display the colors will look extremely desaturated. Likewise, if you provide sRGB content to a Rec. 2020 display it will look overly saturated.
The color value merely tells how bright something is relatively. The color space tells you how to take that brightness value and turn it into an actual color.
Most of the lower priced sets (including that LG) aren't that good.
If you're looking for a tv in that price range (around 700 CAD), I would suggest to be on the lookout for the Sony X800D sets. Available in 43 and 49 inches. 43 inch regular price is 900 CAD, but can be gotten on sale for around 650-700 CAD.
KojiKnight
Member
So the question is how important is it to gaming?
The answer is: Not much. HDR doesn't improve gameplay, it doesn't doesn't give you a new way to play, it doesn't add new effects of dimensions to your games... It does give you better colors and contrast... but besides a couple oo-ah moments it doesn't add a whole lot to gaming.
The reason why Microsoft and Sony are pushing it, however, is less for games are more for other media (streaming predominantly).
The answer is: Not much. HDR doesn't improve gameplay, it doesn't doesn't give you a new way to play, it doesn't add new effects of dimensions to your games... It does give you better colors and contrast... but besides a couple oo-ah moments it doesn't add a whole lot to gaming.
The reason why Microsoft and Sony are pushing it, however, is less for games are more for other media (streaming predominantly).
I'd imagine it's going to be pretty stunning for Microsoft's two marquee showcasesHorizon and Gearsthe latter, especially, for its insane in-game weather.
Sir Abacus
Member
Almost all shader model 3.0+ games (i.e. DX9 generation) and later are HDR internally but they'll need to be patched to support HDR output. To support Rec 2020 output on a PC you need two things: A graphics card capable with driver capable of 30-bit output (Rec. 2020 needs minimum 10bpp) and an ICS profile for your TV for Windows to use.
Which TV and GPU is it?
Dzab
Member
Thanks for the reply.
I see, so do any games on the PC currently work that way?
The TV is a Sony 55x850 (it has HDR, 4k@60hz 4:4:4 as well as a bt.2020 option in the colour space settings) and the gpu is a GTX 1070.
ICS profile? This is all so new to me.
Sir Abacus
Member
Not currently AFAIK.
Yeah it's all really new to everyone. So in your nvidia properties the screen that's going to be most relevant is going to be this one:
It might have different output color formats and output ranges. You might want to force enable bt. 2020 on the HDMI input you're using as well.
I think the 1070 supports 30-bit deep color but it might still be limited to Quadros. I'm not sure.
Dzab
Member
Thanks for your help, much appreciated.
TV will still not activate HDR mode when a HDR video is played through the PC but it does when I 'cast' it to the TV through windows media player, maybe it's because of the metadata, I'm a total novice.