UPDATE: 2016 12 09: Patch 1.05 Fixes HDR bug.
"The Witness HDR implementation is completely amazing on my TV"
UPDATE:
Should be fixed soon! Thanks for the awesome communication!
for posterity:
At least on my Sony X800D lol. (and I am not the only one: scroll down for a temp fix, hopefully until we see a patch)
Anyway, Several GAF'ers had discussed issues with this games' HDR implementation, but no-one had posted images, so here goes.
I ran some tests here, examining bit depth, chroma subsampling and image quality. The findings: the HDR is completely broken, with severe issues with color mapping and color banding.
I took this from my phone, as you will not see a difference using in-game screenshot. Here is looking back down the hallway in the very beginning. Bright magenta 'shadows, I think really the pictures speak for themselves. Notice the walls to the immediate left and right, no banding, no gradient evident.
Auto PS4 settings with HDR on results in 12-bit YUV422. Forcing 10-bit YUV420 did not display a noticeable difference, so I don't take a photo.
Now examine the scene in SDR, where i forced 10-bit YUV420 (there was a slight improvement over 8-bit RGB 4:4:4 in the darkest areas in the gradient). You clearly see no magenta, there is a bit of banding, but noting like the ridiculousness of the HDR enabled image.
So what do you got for me GAF? Can you take an off screen photo with HDR enabled looking down this same hallway that isn't severely busted here?
EDIT: I should mention that bright areas are spectacular looking and the HDR really does add a very much surreal look to other areas, its just the dark areas that are having major issues, from what I have seen so far.
2nd EDIT: sigh mod title edit lol, can't agree with the assessment that this is a 'my tv' issue, I still think it is the game due to the 'fix' implementation...
3rd EDIT: Witness Dev Jonathan Blow communicated that they would look into the issue.
4th EDIT: Wallach was right... this thing is botched and the only fix is to drop down to 1080p, running in full RGB from the PS4 Pro, and then set the display setting to limited! bat shit crazy, but true. It works, I might add that you should also map the color container back to Rec709 for the proper color space. You still get a gorgeous HDR picture, but hopefully even better if a patch comes.
Below is an image of the same hallway (I ran back so maybe not on the same stair) but as you can see, the issues described have been resolved, somewhat replaced by new issues of lower resolution.
"The Witness HDR implementation is completely amazing on my TV"
UPDATE:
We determined that we do have a bug in the actual HDR rendering code of The Witness. We are going to issue a patch pretty soon, but we don't want to rush it out immediately, because we want to make sure our fix is good, and be careful not to break something else!
Should be fixed soon! Thanks for the awesome communication!
for posterity:
At least on my Sony X800D lol. (and I am not the only one: scroll down for a temp fix, hopefully until we see a patch)
Anyway, Several GAF'ers had discussed issues with this games' HDR implementation, but no-one had posted images, so here goes.
I ran some tests here, examining bit depth, chroma subsampling and image quality. The findings: the HDR is completely broken, with severe issues with color mapping and color banding.
I took this from my phone, as you will not see a difference using in-game screenshot. Here is looking back down the hallway in the very beginning. Bright magenta 'shadows, I think really the pictures speak for themselves. Notice the walls to the immediate left and right, no banding, no gradient evident.
Auto PS4 settings with HDR on results in 12-bit YUV422. Forcing 10-bit YUV420 did not display a noticeable difference, so I don't take a photo.
Now examine the scene in SDR, where i forced 10-bit YUV420 (there was a slight improvement over 8-bit RGB 4:4:4 in the darkest areas in the gradient). You clearly see no magenta, there is a bit of banding, but noting like the ridiculousness of the HDR enabled image.
So what do you got for me GAF? Can you take an off screen photo with HDR enabled looking down this same hallway that isn't severely busted here?
EDIT: I should mention that bright areas are spectacular looking and the HDR really does add a very much surreal look to other areas, its just the dark areas that are having major issues, from what I have seen so far.
2nd EDIT: sigh mod title edit lol, can't agree with the assessment that this is a 'my tv' issue, I still think it is the game due to the 'fix' implementation...
3rd EDIT: Witness Dev Jonathan Blow communicated that they would look into the issue.
4th EDIT: Wallach was right... this thing is botched and the only fix is to drop down to 1080p, running in full RGB from the PS4 Pro, and then set the display setting to limited! bat shit crazy, but true. It works, I might add that you should also map the color container back to Rec709 for the proper color space. You still get a gorgeous HDR picture, but hopefully even better if a patch comes.
Below is an image of the same hallway (I ran back so maybe not on the same stair) but as you can see, the issues described have been resolved, somewhat replaced by new issues of lower resolution.