RTX Video HDR Modded For Games... And The Results Are Excellent

Nvidia recently added driver-level RTX HDR support for video, adding impressive HDR to any SDR video - but modders have discovered that it works for games too - and the results are impressive. There's support for more games than Microsoft's AutoHDR, the HDR delivery is much improved, and it even works on emulators too. Alex Battaglia has the full lowdown.
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00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:46 Legacy API Support better than Windows 11 Auto HDR
00:11:15 Image Quality advantages over Windows 11 Auto HDR
00:13:23 Performance cost
00:14:28 Experiments in OpenGL and Vulkan
00:16:03 DirectX 8, DirectX 6, and 3Dfx Glide in HDR?
00:18:51 Conclusion

[@TheBlackIdentety]

Nvidia needs to make this a real feature.

[@fffrrraannkk]

I'm sure they will. They recently released the auto HDR feature for videos. So maybe they were waiting to make sure that works fine in the wild before they push out another feature. Or, maybe it's just one part of a suite of features for games they want to officially release at the same time.

[@Navhkrin]

They may even go a mile extra and announce DLSS-HDR that does this even better by using game-engine data.

[@kevinbrodacki]

I bet this'll be a 50xx series feature you'll see

[@paulustrucenus]

​​@@Navhkrin Might as well have a native hdr then.

[@DriveCancelDC]

@@kevinbrodacki It already works on current hardware so probably not.

[@hollydillion1315]

It's rare to see a KZbin video in HDR, let alone mastered without looking too dark or too bright. DF nailed this one. Great work.

[@josephjoestar515]

This video looks crazy good on my iPhone. He really did nail this video down.

[@cyjanek7818]

SDR is way too dark, just compared it between Pixel 7 HDR and LG 4k IPS and the portion of video labeled as HDR on SDR Screen looks way closer to HDR on phone than to their "SDR" simulation. They crushed brightness to hard (as comparisons usually do) to make the difference bigger than it is.

[@lordkhan]

Yeah weird brightness on that Deus Ex one

[@dingleberries360]

looks terrible imo

[@mariokotlar303]

HDR developer here. It's actually the opposite from what you suggested about contrast around minute 4 mark. SDR games that already have strong contrast and high exposure are the ones that are least compatible with any Auto-HDR method such as this one, while the ones that have low contrast and little to no burned out highlights are the one that will benefit the most out of any such Auto-HDR treatment, because in those cases, there actually is data there that Auto-HDR can work with, while in high contrast scenario, the data in below shadows and above highlights is irretrievably lost, and scaling the remainder into HDR brightness range results in burned out blown out picture with crushed shadows. Footage you're showing from Lost Planet is actually painful to look at on a properly powerful $3000 QD-OLED HDR monitor that I use for HDR production. I'd actually much rather play that particular game in SDR. It's also worth mentioning that most games are internally HDR, but this doesn't have any bearing on Auto-HDR methods efficiency, since externally all those games are still ultimately outputting in SDR and discarding all that internal HDR data.

[@garethsmith6611]

we'll take your word for it.

[@mariokotlar303]

@@garethsmith6611 If you'd like proof of me being an HDR developer, just google my name Mario Kotlar and you'll find that I work for Croteam, where I handled the HDR implementation for the Talos Principle 2. If you search Talos Principle 2 steam forums for HDR, you'll see a dev under a nickname Eagleshadow answering threads about HDR, that's me. If you google "mario kotlar eagleshadow" you'll find the demo reel I used to apply for work that I uploaded on my youtube channel named "Eagleshadow", and a short video recorded in Croteam offices, uploaded to Croteam's youtube channel titled: "Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope - 'Eagleshadow' avoiding projectiles", with video description stating "Our level lead for SSVR, Mario Kotlar aka 'Eagleshadow'..." That should prove that I am indeed a professional game developer, and that I handled HDR implementation in our latest title.

[@TheRedRaven_]

I believe it, the Lost Planet footage looked incredibly overblown on my HDR set when other examples looked great.

[@L1vv4n]

Thanks, I was confused if it is an issue with me watching on SDR monitor.

[@KhanhDinh291]

true. i thought i was looking at generic GTA ENB videos for a second. cant see anything

[@Rodjeurs]

It blows my mind to see how good Killzone 2 still looks 15 years later.

[@Ark_Strike]

Is killzone 2 the game at 1:30? It looks amazing, made me want to play it

[@Akrymir]

@@Ark_Strike yep that's the one

[@Rodjeurs]

@@Ark_StrikeYes and also check the video starting from 15:57, this is Killzone 2 as well.

[@ristuksenvittu]

I think it was one of the best looking ps3 games, just like the first killzone was one of the best looking ps2 games. Too bad the game itself was not that great. I feel like half life 2 set all my expectations for fps games very high and i've not been able to enjoy any shooters after it. We don't go to ravenholm...

[@Vysair]

15 years old game?? wth

[@Chasm9]

Darn, that DOOM 3 with HDR looks like it got a major graphical upgrade. 😮

[@BigPandaGamer]

These dark games with oclusion and atmosphere can be revitalized with, FEAR, Amnesia and many others will look great

[@mais4u]

I will try this in fear and DOOM 3 as soon as possible

[@miguelroman4294]

Man I regret selling my copy of Fear ​back in the day on the XB360@@BigPandaGamer

[@essencialreal]

Install Doom3 Absolute HD Mod

[@martinantelo7086]

Now imagine it with full path tracing

[@GrigRP]

Seeing Deus Ex now is bitter sweet.

[@pvim]

classic embracer L and with 1400 employees laid off I'm really unsure about the future of tomb raider as well

[@SpartanArmy117]

@@RicochetForce Not surprising, unfortunately. I actually like Mankind Divided but man did that game end abruptly. And then it got panned critically which was pretty much the nail in the coffin.

[@g36cvek]

True I built my V as Adam Jensen just couldn't find the right trench coat

[@TwinOpinion]

@@SpartanArmy117 It was a flawed game, but I really enjoy it. I hope we get a ending for Jensen someday.

[@paul1720]

@@SpartanArmy117 "And then it got panned critically" - This is just a straight up lie. It's sat on 84 on metacritic, which is higher than a lot of well received games, and its stock has only risen over the years. As an example, its hub often comes up when talking about best designed worlds.

[@ArthurLopes39]

Don't have an HDR-capable display but seeing Blur mentioned in this day and age made me all smiles.

[@Hazzehh]

What a fucking game. Mint soundtrack as well.

[@ArthurLopes39]

@@Hazzehh Yup. Blur and Split/Second gave me hours of fun when I was a kid and they still hold up awesomely despite the latter's PC port being depressingly barebones.

[@PoRRasturvaT]

Watch the video on your phone.

[@ArthurLopes39]

​@@PoRRasturvaT My Galaxy A23 doesn't support HDR.

[@Mr.MasterOfTheMonsters]

I have an HDR monitor, but since like 5 updates ago Windows said "no you god-damned not".

[@Youtube-Censorship-Police]

i will never understand people who like overblown highlights and thus missing details in games, in photography this is something you want to avoid at all costs.

[@mcguireoutdoors5187]

FYI. Love these HDR uploads. They help show more of what you’re trying to explain. Thanks

[@tapsofosiris3110]

This absolutely needs to be tuned per-game. A lot of this footage from all games is completely blown out.

[@SolidBoss7]

Yea, no. You’re seeing bloom which was always overbearing in older games. Using HDR just brightens the bloom. Simple as that. It would still look blown out in SDR as you can see in the side by side comparisons lol.

[@Kiwiiizzz]

This is probably due to it being an old game tbh, kinda wished he showed more modern games

[@tapsofosiris3110]

@@SolidBoss7 I just tried the modded driver and it completely blows out all games. I think there's a good reason it's disabled at the moment. I'm going to wait for the official implementation in hopes of the terrible color crush being addressed.

[@SolidBoss7]

@@tapsofosiris3110 you mean you tried the mod? The feature is already in the latest Nvidia driver, just hidden. I also went immediately and downloaded the mod from nexus and set it up with Deus Ex, just like Alex did here, and it looks phenomenal . Nothing is blown out. Sounds like you don’t have windows HDR setup properly or you’re on a bad HDR display. Looks great on my LG OLED just like it looked great in this video. You also probably forgot to disable AutoHDR in windows so you may be getting both at the same time. I simply think you shouldn’t be spreading misinformation when there’s literally proof right in front of your eyes in this video that not every game is “blown out” as you say. I don’t believe you’ve even tried it yourself.

[@tapsofosiris3110]

@@SolidBoss7 I'm glad this looks good on your display. I have a Samsung Neo G8 and it looks like absolute blown out garbage. Native HDR games like Cyberpunk and Shadow of the Tomb Raider look fantastic because you can adjust the HDR luminance per-game. There is no comparably granular way to adjust any settings with this mod. That's why I said that this needs to be tuned per-game (maybe even per-display) in my original comment. Not everyone will have a display that will work out of the box with this mod's blanket settings. It is what it is.

[@AkaiSuzume]

As much as I despise NVIDIA's pricing, one must admit that the technologies they offer are certainly impressive.

[@thecooljohn100]

It's precisely because of their cutting edge software/hardware combo that their prices are what they are. Especially when AMD is still very behind on the software features. I for one think Nvidia is absolutely worth it, although I appreciate the pricing backlash they face as lower prices are obviously better for everyone.

[@AndrewEwzzyRayburn]

I feel like I'm going crazy. I watched in HDR on my LG OLED's built in KZbin app and all I saw was blown out highlights.

[@Tectosaurus]

I’m watching this on my C2 and it looks great, make sure you’re using Film Maker and Warm 50.

[@blkshp25]

Same here

[@bconxept]

Also dont forget to run Windows HDR calibration. Makes a world of difference.

[@paul2609]

They may have encoded the video wrong, it doesn't look blown out in person when I tried both AutoHDR and RTX HDR.

[@krazyfrog]

@@bconxept Why would he run Windows HDR calibration for watching videos on his TV's KZbin app

[@grahamt19781]

Just tried this on Bioshock Remastered. The HDR does indeed look way better than Windows Auto HDR. Nice.

[@LateNightFire]

I really appreciate this video not being highly compressed, watching on my 4K HDR monitor and this entire video is sharp and rich in color.

[@mar2ck_]

Just turn the "layered DXGI" option on globally. It improves all opengl and vulkan games by letting them run in hardware composed mode. It's similar to fullscreen optimizations for DirectX titles.

[@SolidBoss7]

Not sure what DXGI has to do with HDR

[@granglerarcade1950]

It stops depth working on some emulators though like Yuzu i added reshade rtx to some of the games but if you use the swapchain stops it working.

[@MaaZeus]

​@@granglerarcade1950 You mean Depth Of Field? I say good, I always disable it anyway if given the chance.

[@granglerarcade1950]

@@MaaZeus No display depth needed By Reshade Rtx Ray tracing like effect needs the deph of field to determin were the rays are going to bouce not as good as rayracing as it cant prdict oud of the display area properly.

[@MaaZeus]

@@granglerarcade1950 Oh, I get it now.

[@tayjn]

I wish you would've compared against a native HDR implementation to see how close it comes

[@MaaZeus]

Provided native HDR is implemented correctly (unfortunately not always the case) it will always be superior because with real HDR even if darks get darker and brights brighter you should not loose any details (in fact you should see more vs SDR) unless they go beyond the capabilities of your screen. And if your screen has good Dynamic Tone Mapping that is worth using (Panasonics and Sonys implementation for example) then not even that as those details get scaled down and fit to your screens limitations. As good as this RTX HDR looks it cannot dig out any details that are not there. If something is blown out or crushed, they will still be blown out and crushed, contrast is just more dramatic and lifelike than in SDR.

[@osidiusemphatic3505]

I'm curious about that too, just to see how it compares to poorly-implemented HDR. I'm currently playing Alan Wake 2 on PC on an LG C2, and while I'm not about to say the HDR is bad, the torch light seems to cause blow outs at times. Keen to see how RTX HDR would react to torch lighting in comparison.

[@Akrymir]

@@MaaZeus No doubt, I think what he's referring to, or at least I would be, is seeing the differences. I'd assume it'd mostly boil down to better tone mapping across the wider color gamut... but it would be interesting to see just how close it is.

[@grahamt19781]

I'm willing to bet it looks better than most games' native HDR implementation because most of the time it's not implemented well at all.

[@Akrymir]

@@grahamt19781 Yeah, I'd bet decent ML would do a better job than the half-assed implementation most games get, especially on pc.

[@andre_ss6]

Alex, not sure if this is an issue with KZbin HDR encoding, or if you’re unaware of how HDR mastering works; HDR is not really about blindingly bright highlights (nor is it really about true blacks either) - it is about being able to **perceive details** in both dark and bright areas of an image *at the same time* - because that’s what our eyes (and cameras) do! Although the tech looks cool and I’d definitely prefer to play many of these games this way, some of the examples you chose are simply horrible representations of HDR content, such as the blinding snow in Lost Planet or the white sky outside on half life or in Blur; You cannot see any detail at all in those parts of the images. It’s just pure white. A bunch of literally white pixels. What a good HDR image would actually look like in those scenes would be having the snow texture completely visible and discernible - with all its details and noise patterns - but with some 4000 nits sparkles, for example. Or, in the half life example with the stained glass windows, the details, textures, everything both in the interior _and_ in the sky should be visible at the same time. An extremely bright white sky simply makes no sense (both physically and even intuitively) and, at least to me, the image simply looks bad. Ps.: I know that’s how the game renders it (because, in fact, that’s the devs ~~abusing bloom because it was hot~~ trying to simulate HDR perception on an SDR container… though the tech could probably be programmed with certain ease to use the frame pre-bloom eg use the buffer before post process ps and use an heuristic to detect bloom shader). I’m just pointing out that those examples do not look “good” as far as HDR goes.

[@vamwolf]

they think it should be blinding...

[@boss350z5]

Exactly right. A nicely tuned OLED screen can really show what HDR is capable of... most people never have their panels tuned; but with time and trial you can get most OLED displays to display amazing HDR content, assuming the content was implemented correctly in the source. Alot of games just do bad job of it.

[@endlessparadigm332]

what you’re talking about is going to be incredibly possible by the end of the decade with some machine learning tech, brighter OLEDS, brighter QD-OLEDS, and improved mini-LEDs are going to make these older and more recent games look incredible you can see a hint of it with finely tuning re-shade with the the brightest QDOLEDs/OLEDs in a blacked out room. Nearing the end of the decade it’s going to be possible in a well lit room and the machine learning tech and tools will be out of this world.

[@yourlocalhuman3526]

Game Devs can't even implement HDR properly, HDR has been out for almost decades or am I misinformed? If they haven't mastered it now then they aren't ever going to do so​@@endlessparadigm332

[@HEADSHOTPROLOL]

I agree with you overall like you are right but it does bring up an interesting question about artistic intent and value. Like sure, HDR is capable of showing detail and depth with an extreme range like that's the literal point of it in the first place. But let's get theoretical, say something like Lost Planet did have official real HDR at launch (just pretend), would they really have wanted to reintroduce visibility and perception for the sake of a detailed image? Or is the blinding bloom in all the highlights, and the oppressive darkness in the low range, all meant to convey a feeling of overwhelming disarray and so should be kept even in an HDR presentation? Point being, games are a creative medium and raw technical ability and precision isn't always going to compliment the actual experience the game is trying to convey. Sometimes things are meant to look, for a lack of a better term, a bit fucked up.

[@xBINARYGODx]

Halo 3 had the most advanced internal-HDR in existence when it came out, would love to see what this does to the MCC.

[@Link3131a]

The HDR calibration in this video seems to be really off btw. I'm using a professional colour calibrated monitor. Highlights in lost planet are extremely clipped

[@gastondelacaze4863]

Was thnking the same, it looks horrible

[@Wierie_]

HDR is the future

[@mechanicalmonk2020]

The main issue of UI elements being too bright isn't solved here. Unfortunate. And this video might have an issue because like a bunch of others all I see are blown highlights.

[@random_n]

That is the one aspect I would have hoped the machine learning to have helped with. And yeah, blowouts abound over here on a 600-nit panel, but I would expect a proper release to allow customization of the target peak. Similarly, Control's appearance looked like it was mostly attributable to a gamma difference, but again, that _should_ become one of the core adjustable parameters.

[@NeovanGoth]

That's much more complex, since it would require the tool to somehow guess which buffers to work on. I believe this should be possible with Special-K, but I haven't found out how yet.

[@wiegraf9009]

It's not an issue with the video it's just representing blooming from that era of games in HDR. Intense bloom was super super common in that era of gaming.

[@usagi_hase]

I'm impressed how good Killzone 2 still looks today.

[@nunosa528]

it already used HDR, I guess Killzone 3 did too. also Uncharted 2, 3 and The Last of Us. and pretty sure some 3rd parties from 7th gen were already trying to implement it on consoles.

[@gavinderulo12]

​@@nunosa528it didn't.

[@Keelvin321]

@@nunosa528 No, hdr only appeared on consoles in 2016 with the launch of ps4 pro and xbox one s.

[@mbsfaridi]

@@Keelvin321He’s talking about the internal rendering pipeline, not what’s sent out to the display. Alot of engines did this before the PS4 gen.

[@nunosa528]

@@mbsfaridi that's right. many games already used HDR on their rendering. I couldn't find any proof on the Killzone games but I know since it's documented for Naughty Dog games since Uncharted 2 (they also talked about it on GDC 2010). I ended up searching a bit (at least on 1st parties) and Gran Turismo 5 and 6 already used HDR.

[@maxheidenreich8717]

Finally a HDR Video from DF! Can we please get more of those? For example i really appreciate the „best HDR Games“ video. Why is not possible to Upload Most of the content in HDR? This would be awesome!

[@wiegraf9009]

Because uploading HDR content to KZbin is a major pain in the ass. The system sucks.

[@subjectivereviews]

Glad Alex is doing these tech focus videos

[@ShaneNA01]

0:00 Good work DF! If I recall correctly, this is the first youtube video talking about differences in HDR that was actually recorded and presented in HDR of the KZbin channels that I watch. Of all that Ive watched discussing HDR, its always been presented in SDR and not conveying the visual differences that you see. Now we can also see how it actually appears! Thanks! Though, I only have an AMD GPU (RX6650XT) so will keep on using AUtoHDR or native HDR in games when offered

[@Neb_Raska]

Pretty sure they have an old Control video in HDR where they explain the differences in SDR and some HDR mod

[@KefazX]

Thank you so much for this video! I did not know about this feature and mod at all. Getting the games to render in a wider colour space is probably my favourite part of it!

[@HeLithium]

I can't believe this channel has only 1m sub...

[@pkilljoy5797]

RTX HDR just made my new QD OLED monitor go from a 9/10 in SDR games to 10/10. All my games pop in ways ive never seen on a display before. Amazing

[@apostolos8734]

I literally just got an amazing lg OLED gaming monitor a few days ago, this is extremely good timing!

[@edragyz8596]

4:05 No, we need to talk about this error. HDR is all about expanding the DYNAMIC RANGE of a game/display/camera. A proper HDR image will have more highlight detail AND shadow detail simultaneously, will have a lower black floor and higher white ceiling simultaneously, as well as access to wider color gamuts. Any game that blows out highlights, crushes shadows, or does anything other than allow your EYES to control the perceived dynamic range is a bad example of HDR rendering (rather than a good one). In this case we're talking about an SDR to HDR conversion so that highlight detail was never going to be in the final image, but it does not change the fact that what you said here is wrong. That bloom is a sign of a compressed dynamic range, not an expanded dynamic range. This isn't to say that a good HDR experience should never allow blooming like this. Were you actually walking through that cave your eyes would need to adjust to the bright light source in real life, as they do this the shadows will be crushed. As you move away from the light and back into shadow, your eyes will bring the black floor down again, allowing you to see more clearly in the dark. Both the game camera and the display you are watching on should NEVER lose that detail, just your eyes. And a bonus edit: A little bit of camera shenanigans is okay so long as it's not oppressive. There is nothing worse than walking out of a dark cave into a scene with an APL of like 100 nits and not being able to see anything. Because that is a completely normal dynamic range for our eyes. These tricks can continue to work on displays under 1000 nits of brightness but as we cross the 2000 nit mark these tricks become less useful and more annoying. 7:59 Hehe, there's the issue. Really nice sky over there, it'd be pretty cool if I could see its details instead of a big white void. 8:42 Watch the sky bloom out at the top of the stairs, that's BAD. The complete opposite of HDR. Look I love you Alex, you're easily my favorite DF presenter by a MILE, but the first 9 minutes of video are so littered with misinformation that I'm genuinely in pain. 11:15 Okay, things are turning around in this section. You're making all the right observations. A lower black floor, maintained shadow detail as it fades to that deeper black, and less color banding. The only thing you're missing is kinda unfair of me to point out, but it's helpful for anyone reading this to know. Windows uses the sRGB gamma curve for SDR content in an HDR container, most games are rendered in gamma 2.2, this conversion and THEN upmapping causes Auto HDR and tonemapped SDR to exhibit an elevated black floor and color banding. This gamma mismatch can be corrected with an advanced ICC profile.

[@MKR3238]

there's a surprising amount of "miss" in this video, I can't believe The examples he picked to show how "good" it looked that was some gaudy reshade/ENB level of terrible

[@edragyz8596]

@@MKR3238 Yeah, check out this patch of [pure white] pixels! Now they're at 1000 nits instead of 200 for all your unecessary eye searing pleasure!

[@MsMarco6]

@@MKR3238 I know it's kind of insane how the games he shows off as real lookers are the worst examples of this technology. Meanwhile a game he's not so impressed with, Warhammer looks absolutely fantastic. It's shocking how much HDR is still so misunderstood 10 years later. You don't need HDR to get a bright, contrasty image. Everything you see in Lost planet could be achieved with an SDR signal (just max out the brightness and saturation on your Tv). HDR is about maintaining detail with that high peak brightness and wide colour gamut. It's simply allows you to make use of the full capabilities of modern displays without banding or the loss of subtle details. Most HDR movies are on average darker than their SDR version (in terms of abl not peaks). SDR forces you to push everything into the midtones to achieve detail, whilst it's HDR's ability to allow for exceptional detail in dark scenes with sparing use ultrabright specular highlights that really sings.

[@MKR3238]

@@MsMarco6 I'm not so sure about the last part. regular rec709 SDR movies are 100nits i think? HDR movies are often around 200 apl, at least from the Metadata in the movies i have, tho i guess this can be lower depending on the setting, e.g. movies predominantly at night etc could be totally wrong here tho

[@jameso6845]

Thanks Alex. This is a feature I was excited for and your video was an awesome surprise.

[@MegaLPlover]

Omg you guys havent made an HDR video in FOREVER! Finally!!

[@adonisds]

It does sometimes look cool, but I it doesn't seem like it does a good job of converting games to HDR and you can see that more clearly in the Lost Coast (8:43). HDR is supposed to increase dynamic range, not brightness. The increase in brightness is meant to preserve detail in brighter parts of the image that would be blown in SDR. Making these parts just and much blown and lacking detail but with much higher brightness is not increased dynamic range, just like stretching a standard definition picture to fill an antire 4K screen doesn't make it 4K, even if KZbin or your TV says it's a 4K signal

[@shadesn]

This comments needs to be higher.

[@Maxoverpower]

A non-native HDR implementation can't possibly create detail in the highlights that were originally blown out. It can nonetheless increase the displayed dynamic range, as was clearly demonstrated in Control and Doom 3 at 15:20. Darker areas either stay just as dark, or get darker where it's warranted (would lend itself well in Cyberpunk), whereas highlights get brighter than they'd ever get in SDR.

[@Kryptonic83]

the rtx hdr mod on nexusmods now has some optional files to tweak the peak brightness, saturation, contrast etc. I bet that would help. Also I'd like to see this compared to SpecialK HDR conversion.

[@concinnus]

@@Maxoverpower The AI could add a gradient up to full brightness to make it look less blown out (just as it does at the other end to reduce banding in shadows), but the added steps on the brighter end would be more artificial.

[@shadesn]

@@Maxoverpower but then it's nothing more than hdr retrofit tools that already exist (like special k, which does loads of other useful things) or particularly sophisticated reshade scripts that achieve the same results and are far more customisable. Sure, user side is way easier to "set and forget" (I'd argue that Special K is the same) but technology wise, if that's the result, than it's not really "extraordinary" in the current iteration...and does not really use AI in any meaningful way.

[@ps3inquisition441]

The most impressive thing is how good Killzone 2 still looks. Can we get a PS5/PC release? It still feels a little wonky on RPCS3, unless you have some settings suggestions.

[@MLWJ1993]

At this point they should just pack them all in a bundle. I'd pay for reliving the original Killzone from the PS2 😁

[@davidbondy2250]

This video made me learn my phone's screen is HDR, and I now get the hype. Some of these games look utterly amazing. I really can't wait to eventually get a high quality HDR monitor to experience this.

[@KevinCRM]

LoL same I just realized My phone has HDR because of your comment

[@timetobargeinandgivemyopin7260]

What phones do you guys have

[@IntegerOfDoom]

An ancient Note 20 Ultra I built from scrap phones. Still works great.@@timetobargeinandgivemyopin7260

[@KevinCRM]

@@timetobargeinandgivemyopin7260 OnePlus 11

[@ArifDiamanta]

@@timetobargeinandgivemyopin7260modern iPhone and flagship androids usually have it

[@RetroProg]

my take: really want a Lost Planet and Blur remakes. Both criminally overlooked games.

[@Mozts1]

I usually don't expect much of these types of solutions but damn this is incredible. The results are amazing.

[@MrMooMoo89]

Please make more videos in HDR. Looks fantastic on my iPhone.

[@Doug-mu2ev]

And KZbin’s tone mapping for non HDR displays is decent as well; nobody loses!

[@yeeterbriffim1016]

OMG! You have an iPhone?😮

[@KARLOSPCgame]

+1 my samsung galaxy a52s with uncertified Oled HDR at 800nits also looks good 😅

[@wiegraf9009]

It's really hard to upload HDR content to KZbin. That's why they don't do it very often.

[@BraianSilveira]

thanks for uploading this in HDR

[@zaq_d]

Great video, Alex! Would love to see a comparison between SpecialK and RTX HDR. Any HDR content is appreciated!!

[@willian4428]

This video looks amazing on my iPhone screen!

[@Heckstrike]

It seems to handle darker values pretty well, but highlights look over exposed and clip quite a bit.

[@MaaZeus]

Limitations of the video probably but in many cases it is because of the game too. Many older games really went into town with Bloom effects if you remember. If they are blown out in SDR then they are also blown out in this simulated HDR, just more dramatic looking. It cannot dig out details that aren't there because it does not have access to the to the internal functions of the game rendering, it all happens in post.

[@tnykuuh]

@@MaaZeus no OP is right. I tried it in a couple game and while it handles darker area better, it completely ruins any bright area and highlights, removing any details and turning into pure white.

[@MaaZeus]

@@tnykuuh Ah in that case it does not work as intended yet because this doesn't happen with the RTX HDR Video which this is based on. Unless this is a screen issue? Do those details come back if you turn on Dynamic Tone Mapping?

[@commandlinemarx]

Yes! So glad you covered this! Discovered it myself like a week ago trying to find a good HDR solution for P3R and I was like, "this is amazing, df needs to get their hands on this right away"

[@abramjessiah]

This is pretty wild. Enabling it for video makes details previously hidden in the shadows and highlights come out.

[@jsant47]

Definitely unlocked an unexpected core memory with Blur. That was a great game!

[@JerryFlowersIII]

Good timing. I just got an OLED monitor last week and I love it. I'm especially impressed this works with emulated games.

[@halo2bounceguy]

Nothing beats OLED! Which one you get? I've been gaming my PC on a 65" CX four years now and it's perfect

[@juanestrada7757]

YES! THANK YOU FOR FINALLY UPLOADING ANOTHER HDR VIDEO!

[@AsCo1d]

Superb feature and awesome coverage! Thanks Alex!

[@qlum]

Now this is a case where I really hope AMD figures somethiing out (or Valve) having decent hdr conversions on a steam deck oled would be a great addition.

[@Trunks0]

... they don't really need to. Alex doesn't really cover it... but you can already force AutoHDR in similar ways, using some of the same tools already.

[@qlum]

AutoHDR is not on linux though

[@Trunks0]

@@qlum True.dat. Here's hoping both Value and AMD finally get HDR sorted for Linux in general this year :)

[@EthioBlackLion]

Just so people who don't own RTX cards know there is also a mod for Windows Auto HDR called LEDOGE AUTO HDR that does the same thing as this RTX mod. I haven't tried it out on DX9-DX10 games yet but I've used it on emulators and have been playing Tears of the Kingdom in HDR with it. I've got an RTX card so I might try out the RTX version on some games but so far the windows one has been great.

[@90lancaster]

Useful video with different games mentioned to the usual ones was a refreshing change and that Killlzone yikes is that pretty.

[@KorRrnBred]

I've been using this mod for a week now, testing out different games myself. Mad Max has been my favorite so far ❤.

[@danielc04]

isn't hdr supposed to not blow out highlights?

[@rufusvulpecula]

Yes, it is. I have no idea what's going on here but this is the exact opposite of what HDR should do for the most part. I have a QD Oled monitor, I've tried RTX HDR and I love it for the games I play. It looks better than Auto HDR because of the correct 2.2 gamma (no raised blacks) and debanding. However, the examples Alex shows here are really bad examples with oversaturation and overexposed, blown out highlight with no visible detail is just horrible. I had to check if there's something wrong on my end but no. I think Alex needs to educate himself on this a bit. I don't believe this is a good video.

[@RiasatSalminSami]

8:43 holy shit, this scene in the demo looks so beautiful. So well made for a 20 year old art.

[@MarioGoatse]

This is absolutely incredible! Watching this on a proper HDR display shows the improvements really well. Great job guys!

[@mjoe7561]

Improvement for future vids: For the comparison of the dark areas in Control, it would be clearer if you could reduce how bright/white the labels are at the bottom of the screen. As it's HDR, I found myself covering the labels with my hand held up so that my eyes could adjust to the dark and see the details/banding better. Otherwise, this is a fantastic video.

[@mattoth6617]

I’ve been using it for about a week. Threw it on Ocarina of Time PC port and it looks awesome. The green on the tunic really pops.

[@EmilioGalicchio]

Great game !!

[@SolidBoss7]

As an LG OLED user, I can finally watch/play just about anything the way I want to. Love this.

[@SilverBld]

You use HGIG?

[@SolidBoss7]

@@SilverBld nah, I prefer the brighter DTM, even if it’s less “accurate”

[@SilverBld]

@SolidBoss7 man I'm like torn between the two lol I love the look of DTM ON but at the same time I hate the constant change in brightness.

[@SolidBoss7]

@@SilverBld there’s no constant change in brightness with DTM. Sounds like you didn’t disable AI Brightness and power saving settings. If you don’t disable those two then you will have what you’re describing. DTM alone does not adjust brightness on the fly

[@SilverBld]

@SolidBoss7 everything is disabled but sometimes you can notice the brightness gets higher in bright scenes slowly What are your settings? I'm using the C1 maybe I'm doing something wrong on my end

[@LaurenceGough]

Great video, RIP to all those people missing out on HDR and OLED gaming! I've been enjoying it for years.

[@memphis_ut]

I really like my MiniLED Samsung Monitor (G9 Neo) that has even higher HDR rate then usually pure OLED monitors 🤩

[@cheeemzy6651]

gotta say after getting a FO48U monitor and finally calibrating the hdr properly has completely transformed my games and have bene going back through my old library, the assassin creed games as bad as they are the graphics and visuals are absolutely insane and worth a revisit

[@BallinLikeMike23]

Another super informative and entertaining video Alex thanks!

[@astreakaito5625]

Reshade can do true HDR injection like this but with far more options, black floor fix features for correct contrast and black levels, finetuning of both paper white brightness and peak brightness, better/more HDR colors, all with less gpu overhead.

[@MaaZeus]

Aye, it is superior but it cannot be used in competitive multiplayer games and the game has to render in HDR internally for it to function. Not a problem in modern games as most of them do just that already but it was not yet a thing in more classic games that were made before Half Life 2.

[@tnykuuh]

yes but the point is that if nvidia decide to use and implement this, it means we can have better auto hdr at the driver level without the need to download a third party program.

[@alumlovescake]

Isn't reshade HDR just basically a contrast slider? Reshade can only do so much

[@lczp]

@@alumlovescake no, you're thinking of fake autohdr. Reshade HDR as OP mentions uses addons (new feature) to add in (heh) extra layers and introduce proper AutoHDR. The analysis tools he mentioned are available as of now on the reshade installer by "lillium HDR analysis" shader packet and it's absolutely game changer. It analyses native HDR implementations so you can fix problems like raised black levels, finally making PC HDR as good as or betten than console.

[@wiegraf9009]

It's also available through SpecialK

[@kismetrina]

Man Jet set still holds up to my eyes-one of the advantages of stylized graphics.

[@psychomantys902]

Would love to see more HDR deep dives!

[@neorickio]

HDR is the single most game changing feature for me in modern games. Like, it adds SO MUCH to the experience... it's way above ray tracing or anything like that, for my taste of course. I'll definitely give this a try, thanks for the vid ;)

[@sacb0y]

Agreed, I'm a huge RTX enthusiast, but i'll take HDR over Raytracing any day. Generally I don't even buy modern games if they don't support it anymore lol. Cause it's really fucking annoying to play a dim game.

[@wiegraf9009]

Agreed, HDR is generally more impressive than raytracing and also isn't as resource hungry.

[@Enivoke]

This is insane. This will make me try old games again on my HDR TV!

[@kevinbrodacki]

0:46 damn the Silent Hill 2 Remake looks good

[@davencheicodes]

Great video! Please make more hdr vids Alex. Nvidia should open source their ML implementation for HDR tone mapping; as this isn’t about proprietary tech; it’s more about training data quality as the output from autoHDR is similar but not qualitatively equivalent. An open source model for this would be amazing for all gamers. Maybe Microsoft’s will see this and do some more work their ML solution? 🤞🏾

[@YusukeShirogane]

I love HDR. Its the real future in my opinion. Forget 8K.

[@shukterhousejive]

It's a testament to how sloppy HDR standards are that most people watching this see a blown-out mess. Why yes, I'd love to invest in a feature that randomly makes things look like crap unless I hand tweak every single program on my PC, sign me up!

[@ElsweyrDiego]

when i watch in sdr i can see an improvement, like the image was just more brighter. at least i know this can be done to benefit sdr monitors too

[@Ceredante]

Doom 3 looks incredible. Seeing those true blacks on my OLED was a real treat.

[@Arcad3n]

I just got a CRT for the first time since I was a kid and tested it the other day, and I was shocked by the dynamic range. The brightness levels and contrast are insane on CRT’s. IMO, giving older games HDR mods is kinda just restoring an aspect of how they originally looked.

[@wiegraf9009]

Sort of. There was more dynamic range on screen on CRTs but the color gamut of the content was still SDR. The reason there was more visible dynamic range on CRTs was because they had deeper blacks and their highlights bloomed out. In terms of color gradation modern HDR displays are much more capable.

[@will891410]

Sony and Microsoft should add an overlay for image options for games, like a kind of Reshade that allows the user to correct the image the way they like it, because some games now lack even a simple brightness and contrast options..

[@Kryptonic83]

the rtx hdr mod on nexusmods now has some optional files to tweak the peak brightness, saturation, contrast etc. I bet that would help.

[@will891410]

@@Kryptonic83 Yes, but i meant the tweaks for any game, SDR and HDR, some games look pretty bad even with HDR enabled.

[@RyleyStorm]

This video literally seared my retinas. More please.

[@williampinnock2256]

Just used it on Chivalry 2, works great, thanks for the guide.

[@TheNerd]

Sometimes I feel like that a lot of features Nvidia silently drops in the patch notes are more usefull than entire marketed features that AMD releases.

[@George-um2vc]

Correct, I’d never buy AMD, even though I want them to win so we have come competition 😔

[@marcelosoares7148]

AMD is stuck on a predicament: Do hardware accelerated features that are better than what they currently have and lose support of the open source crowd OR continue doing hardware agnostic solutions that will never be as good as hardware accelerated ones but works on pretty much everything. We know Nvidia just does everything HWA/proprietary and people see them as "evil" for that but they are at the top of their game so they don't really care, AMD can't really afford that.

[@TerkelNL]

Nice i wanna use this on RPCS3 since AUTO HDR does not work on RPCS3. Holy shit i just tested it with Sly 3 in 4K 60FPS HDR on my LG OLED, this software is great !!

[@lizardking3268]

How do you get this to work with emulation? Trying pcsx2 but fails to work, I drag the emulator exe or the iso file?

[@TerkelNL]

@@lizardking3268 Hi, the .EXE from emulator itself at first it’s not recognising it, and it says I need to add the game to Nvidia control panel, so I add the game there after that it find the.exe and it works.

[@ReSpAwNkILeR]

oh boi, finally Digital Foundry in HDR is BACK 😎😎 Guys watch this on a HDR600+ display!!

[@LightrockerRon]

Very good video! But I do not like the conversion in Lost Planet. The large uniform areas of maximum brightness hurt my eyes. For me HDR is at its best, when you can see detail, which is not possible in SDR, or in highlights with high contrast.

[@rbaz9454]

Watched this on my S24 Ultra and the HDR is amazing 👏

[@josh6499]

Oh yeah thanks I forgot my phone was HDR lol. I just rewatched it after watching on my SDR laptop and it was a huge difference.

[@socks2441]

6:15 its crazy what happened with blur, considering playing that in splitscreen is basically the best experience you can have with a buddy sitting on a couch. its a brilliant game.

[@drasticmart]

Been wanting to replay Doom 3, this is perfect!

[@prototype_-]

Blur looks incredible. Thanks for the showcase Alex ✌️

[@gavinderulo12]

This looks really blown out to me. All of the detail is lost in the highlights due to clipping. At least while watching on my s21 ultra.

[@MaaZeus]

That is because when bloom became a thing many old games went way overboard with the effect and caused them to clip and hide details. If there are no details then RTX HDR cannot show them because it is just a post processing effect. But RTX HDR itself should not cause any clipping itself, it just makes those clips more dramatic looking, for good and bad.

[@ugzz]

This is why opinions are so awesome, they can just be so opposite! Alex talking how Lost Planet looks good and how the bloom is appropriate and additive.. Could not disagree more! Even just looking at this all I want to do is turn the bloom wayyyy down, turn that overbright effect down. or maybe even OFF, crank the contrast to take away some of that light bleed that almost looks like a fog.. Yuck to the tenth degree! Some of the other games look good though, and I'm pretty on board as long as the bloom doesn't just blow out. Great vid and love to see coverage on this stuff!

[@drx95117]

This is amazing! Combined with RTX Remix, it can definitely revitalize old games

[@AndyGaskin]

Awesome analysis and review. HDR can be a "game changer" for visuals on the right displays.

[@Decenium]

sigh....another thing AMD now needs to copy, great.

[@Oshadorin]

They'll call it FreeHDR, because they're like Robin Hood

[@TheBlackIdentety]

Another thing AMD can't copy due to lack of tensor cores.

[@thetruth8567]

This is a good thing. AMD needs to keep innovating to offer YOU the consumer MORE value for YOUR money.

[@filip9587]

Big AMD fan, but they just fall behind continuously. Where's the innovation AMD?

[@AttilaTheHun333333]

@@Oshadorin Robin Hood wouldn’t sell GPUs that expensive.

[@wing0zero]

BLUR was great, BS what happened to the studio that brought us PGR series and MSR before it.

[@DigitalBroomstick]

Don’t forget the legendary Geometry Wars franchise

[@rafaelpernil]

Wow, you make me want to invest into an HDR monitor, specially when I can enhance lots of old games, it looks amazing on my S23 Ultra.

[@bungleprosy]

Was shocked to realize this video itself was in HDR when the implementation made the snow in lost planet actually blind me while on my phone in my dark room lol

[@MaschinenKopf1998]

Great Video! Two questions: Isn't this functionally very similar to what Microsoft did with old Xbox Games running on the Xbox Series consoles dubbed "Auto-HDR", as you've mentioned? And if it is so similar, what keeps AMD from basically capitalizing on this technology and for once have an advantage over Nvidia? Better said, why did AMD not already start something like this in 2020? Second question: In regards to the Switch successor: Frustratingly, the nintendo switch only outputs SDR (although the Tegra chip is capable of HDR but that's another Story) and thus, on some OLED TVs SDR looks significantly worse, esp. on LG Oleds. If Nintendo were to implement backwards compatibility on the switch 2 (presumably hdr capable), could we in theory see the entire Switch library "patched up" to having an hdr output on the switch? Maybe even NSO classic library games? The chip coming from Nvidia should probably make this at least somewhat realistic. What do you think?

[@kevinbrodacki]

Just letting you know Auto HDR isn't just xbox exclusive anymore it's been on PC too for quite a while now

[@paul2609]

This one specifically runs on tensor cores of Nvidia GPUs which is separate from the graphic cores. AMD does everything in their compute cores, so it's up to AMD if they want to design dedicated cores for ML/AI workflows in their future products but it will drive the costs of their cards.

[@MaschinenKopf1998]

@@kevinbrodackiThank you! Indeed I wasn't aware. Reading again about the whole topic I see that I've been slightly out of the loop on HDR. For a lot of more casual gamers I think this is still somewhat of a niche because of the many factors that need to be assessed to get a "proper" hdr experience and I guess many just don't bother and therefore don't make it a huge topic in the gaming community. I hope that the second part of my question is still relevant though.

[@or1on89]

@@paul2609 RX 6000/7000 GPUs have dedicated cores for ML, they're simply not in a separate cluster, but they're there and they do not concurr with shaders to execute any more than the tensore cores in Nvidia`s cards for models execution. There is even more...things liker upscaling and auto-HDR don't even need AI at all to be good and not that intensive to compute, so the shortcomings of AMD solution would be shown for much more complex things. But still, the 7900XTX has 192 AI accelerators...so it's not a matter of card capability, it is a matter of Software. AMD planned to run with Microsoft and DirectML APIs adoption, and what they got in return is just another stall, as everything Microsoft/Windows since the Vista era...

[@thenonexistinghero]

I'm pretty much convinced that the video creator doesn't understand what HDR is and what it's about. Only thing he seems to care about is bright highlights that drown out detail (which is pretty much HDR done wrong).

[@pathway4582]

Yep, spot on. Most of these examples look horrible.

[@realforest]

I recognized that intro song from Half Life 2 right away, recently played the VR mod and it was phenomenal.

[@galen__]

My iPad mini 5th gen has HDR support in the KZbin app, which never worked well in the past. Maybe the app has been improved recently, because this video looked so much better. For others interested in SDR/HDR testing on iPads: You can disable or toggle HDR by either enabling Low Power Mode while playing a HDR video, or you can force it to only accept the SDR stream by enabling Low Power Mode before opening the video to play. Low Power Mode can be added to the Control Centre for quick access when pulling down from the top right corner of the screen 😊

[@bullettime2808]

I love how even after years after buying a GeForce GPU you keep getting these excellent features

[@paul2609]

No you need atleast RTX 30 or up (RT Tensor cores needed). I think RTX 20 may work but it really uses a lot of tensor cores.

[@TexelGuy]

@@paul2609 All RTX features (except frame generation) work on ALL RTX GPUs, no exceptions. This includes all RTX 20 series cards too. The weakest RTX 20 GPU (2060) is a decent amount faster than the weakest RTX 30 GPU (3050), so this has nothing to do with generational differences in "tensor core" architecture. Faster RTX GPUs will perform AI stuff faster.

[@TheUnrealPirate]

hello Alex, did you know in autoHDR you can actually adjust the intensity of the white highlights via an option in gamebar? This fixed it for me in many games.

[@eddyh252]

Doesn't help with the raised blacks still

[@mytommy]

@@eddyh252 regarding raised blacks.. have u tried SpecialK HDR? u can adjust the raised blacks... u can also try Lilium's Reshade shaders

[@dandrydog]

Doom 3 deserves a proper remaster at 120fps with HDR and Ray Tracing and optimization for OLED and modern sound systems with a multiplayer component

[@matthewsmith3817]

Along with higher quality sound samples from uncompressed assets if they exist, and full reverb/occlusion without needing an EAX solution. Same goes for Quake 4.

[@uncouthliyouth4486]

Awesome tech. Currently playing Mafia 3 with it on Very High and it’s awe inspiring. Also played Condemned Criminal Origins as well and it felt as atmospheric as when I first played it

[@Rainquack]

Shouldn't we (or the tech itself) be able to bypass/disable the built-in eye adaptation, cause many games internally work with HDR principles. And having both fake HDR on SDR eye adaptation with real HDR output counteracts the entire point. Hell, why can't we just directly tunnel the internal HDR calculations/lighting to an HDR display, disabling eye adaptation, no "machine learning" or "AI" needed?

[@wiegraf9009]

You would probably need source code level access to the game to do that but it is of course possible.