• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

RTX HDR for games!

Caporegime
OP
Joined
4 Jun 2009
Posts
31,052
Reddit user has worked out how RTX HDR settings work so if you want an accurate image you need to change the default settings

* When you enable RTX HDR, the saturation slider is set to 0. This is adding extra color saturation. If you want a color correct image, set the slider to -50. At minus 50 the colors are accurate.

* The default contrast slider is 0, this translates to a gamma of 2.0. Most people use 2.2 gamma, so change the slider to +25. This gamma curve option is the real reason why RTX HDR looks better than Windows AutoHDR, AutoHDR doesn't use a gamma curve and is why it raises the blacks.


* The mid grey slider controls the exposure of the image. This is similar to a HDR paper white setting that some games have and you calculate the correct value to use: the formula is: targetPaperWhiteNits * (0.5 ^ targetGamma), so if you usually enjoy gaming with a paper white of 200 nits and a 2.2 gamma then this mid grey slider should be set to 200 * (0.5 ^ 2.2) = 44, so I should set the Mid Grey slider to +44 and if I wanted 200 nits paper white and a 2.0 gamma then I should set the slider to +25 etc


For most people the about correct values to use would be: Mid grey = 44, Contrast = 25 and Saturation = minus 50

Nvidia taking note

d0ONHOb.png


May give these a go myself to see what is what. Most comments are positive but some saying it can crush details in other games....
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Feb 2019
Posts
17,598
you don't have to use it, if you're happy with the default settings. I for example don't think I'll set saturation to -50, I like a bit more color pop in hdr

the crushed black thing could be that the game just doesn't work well with hdr or work well with trying to have dark black levels - Starfield for example looks bad in sdr and autohd, that game is doing something weird with its black levels even without engaging RTX hdr

I see there is now also an app that adds a gamma curve to AutoHDR, which fixes the raised blacks but can still result in crushed blacks in certain games. MacOS is actually ahead of Windows in this regard, MacOS has built in settings that can be configured by the user that controls how sdr to hdr conversions work, including a configurable gamma curve and the gamma curve is probably something that needs to be changed if your game is crushed or washed out I don't think one size fits will when converting sdr data to hdr output
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
27 Jul 2004
Posts
3,522
Location
Yancashire
I see there is now also an app that adds a gamma curve to AutoHDR, which fixes the raised blacks but can still result in crushed blacks in certain games.

Do you mean this or has something else come out?......


If it's the above that's been around for a while - I've tried it and it's not for me. You have to manually go in and switch your icc profiles around and it messed up the various automated systems I've been using.

From what I can tell RTX HDR pretty much nails the gamma issue so far in my testing so it's on the right track.

The whole HDR scene really needs proper standardisation though, it's been a mess for years and it really isn't that difficult.
 
Last edited:
Caporegime
OP
Joined
4 Jun 2009
Posts
31,052
Tried those reddit settings in a range of games and it's very good, definetly much more "accurate" in terms of colours like sRGB level but I also prefer a bit more punch perhaps so may put saturation to -20 but obviously depends on the game.

The whole HDR scene really needs proper standardisation though, it's been a mess for years and it really isn't that difficult.

Yup, it's a joke, people say it's just PC which is a mess, which is true to some extent but as shown in gamingtech videos, consoles suffer just as badly too.

This is why RTX HDR is now the new must have feature for me as so far it has solved the issues in a lot of games I've played with either lacklustre hdr where I have had to put up with raised blacks or where I have ended up just using SDR. Sure, redux, special k are about and do work well especially with the custom filters but it's such a faff and can cause issues or just outright not work based on my experience, with rtx hdr "it just works".
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Jul 2004
Posts
3,522
Location
Yancashire
with rtx hdr "it just works".

Yes and no - the official one "just does not work" ;) for me as I have a multi monitor setup.

The RTX HDR mod however does work for me, but not in everything, and the TrueHDRTweaks files are also hit and miss depending on the game. So it's still all a mess really!
 
Caporegime
OP
Joined
4 Jun 2009
Posts
31,052
Yes and no - the official one "just does not work" ;) for me as I have a multi monitor setup.

The RTX HDR mod however does work for me, but not in everything, and the TrueHDRTweaks files are also hit and miss depending on the game. So it's still all a mess really!

You know what I mean ;)

Out of all the options we have, rtx hdr is by far the most easy and less faff method there is now if you want to get an even remotely good hdr experience (as in windows auto hdr is easier to apply but as we all know, it's not worthwhile with the raised blacks etc.), of course, if you want absolutely perfect output and to get things exactly how it should be then special k with its filters etc. is there but as said, it's a mess that based on my experience, it more often causes issues than is worth the faff.

Obviously nvidia have work to do to make it even better but for a first iteration, it's very good. They have confirmed the multi monitor thing with non hdr monitors will be sorted. The only thing I want to see is the ability to use rtx hdr with dldsr and less of a performance hit although this seems very game dependent, dying light 2 has the biggest performance hit where as avatar is hardly any performance hit.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
27 Jul 2004
Posts
3,522
Location
Yancashire
You know what I mean ;)

Out of all the options we have, rtx hdr is by far the most easy and less faff method there is now if you want to get an even remotely good hdr experience (as in windows auto hdr is easier to apply but as we all know, it's not worthwhile with the raised blacks etc.), of course, if you want absolutely perfect output and to get things exactly how it should be then special k with its filters etc. is there but as said, it's a mess that based on my experience, it more often causes issues than is worth the faff.

Obviously nvidia have work to do to make it even better but for a first iteration, it's very good. They have confirmed the multi monitor thing with non hdr monitors will be sorted. The only thing I want to see is the ability to use rtx hdr with dldsr and less of a performance hit although this seems very game dependent, dying light 2 has the biggest performance hit where as avatar is hardly any performance hit.

Yep, can't argue with any of that.
My favourite is still SpecialK, but it is a faff and also hit and miss.
 
Caporegime
Joined
8 Sep 2006
Posts
38,095
Location
On Ocuk
Just been playing The Evil Within 2 using the new HDR RTX and WOW!! I never got round to playing the game when it first came out, but now damn what a game! It's a third person FEAR :D

Clipboard01.jpg


Annoyingly Irfanview doesn't take pictures of HDR images, just HDR in SDR mode :mad:
 
Last edited:
Caporegime
Joined
30 Jul 2013
Posts
28,909

Going to have to do a replay of batman arkham series from the start I think!
Weirdly, I have just played Arkham Asylum and Arkham City to completion with the HDR fix and upgraded textures and new launcher from Nexus mods - using completely new save games again to start from scratch.

And I've already played them a shed-load before. I think that is my 4th or 5th run-through of Arkham Asylum now.

Such a great game series. Shame about Suicide Squad.

Arkham Knight again next (Playthrough #4). There's no texture mod update for that but it still looks pretty good from what I remember.
 
Caporegime
OP
Joined
4 Jun 2009
Posts
31,052
A big tick on my next upgrade.

Yup, this is my biggest must have feature now. As people have said themselves, HDR is the best thing to have for IQ improvement and well now, nvidia are kings for HDR gamers given how poor the majority of games official HDR implementation is, I'm even using this over games which have somewhat passable hdr too e.g. avatar, helldivers.
 
Associate
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
1,277
Location
Leeds
I’ve got a LG C9 calibrated. I’m wondering is there any point in using the new RTX HDR over HGIG for native HDR supported games? I have a windows profile for HDR so don’t use auto hdr. I’ve paper white at 200 and peak brightness at 800 in my Windows HDR profile.
 
Caporegime
OP
Joined
4 Jun 2009
Posts
31,052
I’ve got a LG C9 calibrated. I’m wondering is there any point in using the new RTX HDR over HGIG for native HDR supported games? I have a windows profile for HDR so don’t use auto hdr. I’ve paper white at 200 and peak brightness at 800 in my Windows HDR profile.

This and auto hdr is for games which don't provide a great/true hdr experience, having oled displays and calibrated profiles will not provide hdr like experience in games which don't properly support/do hdr e.g. elevated blacks, highlights not being bright and so on are fixed with RTX hdr. Essentially this converts SDR into HDR which means even games which have no HDR at all will be able to have a hdr like experience.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Dec 2004
Posts
9,839
Location
NE England
Anyone able to explain to a non-HDR user how I enable RTX HDR and configure it for Helldivers 2? Would like to give it a try.

(Yes I do have a HDR enabled monitor, I just never faff about with these things normally!)
 
Back
Top Bottom