HDR ON or OFF?

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,799]

24 minutes ago, AnkH said:

For me, the need to turn HDR on in Windows for having it in the sim is the reason I keep it off, as HDR on in Windows results in washed out apps and desktop. I prefer solutions where you can use HDR in the game without turning it globally on...

Windows HDR support is pretty bad.

When I was using HDR I found the opposite in MSFS. The best graphics in game came with HDR set to ON in Windows and OFF in the game.  Looked better that way than both ON or both OFF -  however my screen is only HDR 400 which likely explains why set to ON in game was a bit insipid. 

Recording with Nvidia Experience with HDR turned on was pretty messed up though -  oddly OBS recorded fine regardless of my HDR settings.

 

 

 

 

[Pepsimachine 10]

I have an Asus 34in ultrawide monitor 2K and HDR looks phenomenal.

[Pepsimachine 10]

ASUS TUF Gaming VG34VQL1B 34” Curved HDR Monitor

Edited July 6, 2021 by Pepsimachine

[Bandyka 75]

Funny peeps here are only now discovering HDR 🙂 I always fly with it on, mostly because you get a much wider color space getting you closer to real life. the "HDR" effect is just a little extra. Yes you do no need to have HDR on in Windows for it to work, Windows 11 will have the Auto HDR function. It will be especially nice with Ray Tracing enabled soon!

You do need a good HDR display to enjoy it though as early ones were just meh.

[hanhamreds 592]

Always use HDR, looks great on my monitor, will try on the LG OLED one day - should be on another level that👍

[Bandyka 75]

OLED will look the best, I've had a couple and some LCD. Settled playing in the cinema room on the big screen on a JVC projector. Nothing beats sheer size for a sim. In HDR evening flights are the most stunning just before sundown.

[webstef68 52]

17 hours ago, Bandyka said:

Funny peeps here are only now discovering HDR 🙂 I always fly with it on, mostly because you get a much wider color space getting you closer to real life. the "HDR" effect is just a little extra. Yes you do no need to have HDR on in Windows for it to work, Windows 11 will have the Auto HDR function. It will be especially nice with Ray Tracing enabled soon!

You do need a good HDR display to enjoy it though as early ones were just meh.

I love when i get blended by the sun, adds to the immersion. Only downside is you cannot do printscreens, they are washed out.

[FlyBaby 659]

18 hours ago, Bandyka said:

OLED will look the best, I've had a couple and some LCD. Settled playing in the cinema room on the big screen on a JVC projector. Nothing beats sheer size for a sim. In HDR evening flights are the most stunning just before sundown.

I had been trying to decide for a while, large OLED or projector screen. Just built an 80 inch projector screen...so I will see how this goes once everything is hooked up.

[Bandyka 75]

3 hours ago, FlyBaby said:

I had been trying to decide for a while, large OLED or projector screen. Just built an 80 inch projector screen...so I will see how this goes once everything is hooked up.

Its a very complicated topic, for a great projected image you need to have a proper cave otherwise it will look all washed out with any stray light coming in, than there is the projector itself then, the color of the walls and the screen etc they all have come together. With a TV its an instant success but if you get the projector and the room setup right there is no equal.

[Bandyka 75]

5 hours ago, webstef68 said:

I love when i get blended by the sun, adds to the immersion. Only downside is you cannot do printscreens, they are washed out.

Yeah because it does the screenshot in SDR for whatever reason. I don't mind as its a much more realistic experience.

[FlyBaby 659]

8 minutes ago, Bandyka said:

Its a very complicated topic, for a great projected image you need to have a proper cave otherwise it will look all washed out with any stray light coming in, than there is the projector itself then, the color of the walls and the screen etc they all have come together. With a TV its an instant success but if you get the projector and the room setup right there is no equal.

True, my issue with a large TV is that sitting almost directly in front of it can irritate the eyes, plus reflections from the glass screen.

[Bandyka 75]

3 minutes ago, FlyBaby said:

True, my issue with a large TV is that sitting almost directly in front of it can irritate the eyes, plus reflections from the glass screen.

Yep i did have that too, a projected image is much better for the eyes. OLED are similar though because they are organic self emitting pixels. LCD I could not tolerate in the dark. What projector will you have?

[styckx 1,872]

Off without a question. Horrible HDR implementation.  It's the story of Windows 10 HDR, it's either good or awful.. There is no middle ground

[FlyBaby 659]

2 hours ago, Bandyka said:

Yep i did have that too, a projected image is much better for the eyes. OLED are similar though because they are organic self emitting pixels. LCD I could not tolerate in the dark. What projector will you have?

Trying out the EPSON LS500...

So your eyes could tolerate the OLEDS...much like a projected image?

[Chock 17,769]

Yet another example of consumers being told 'you must have this function' so they'll race out and buy a new monitor, even when they don't actually know what HDR is. 🤣

There are quite clearly a lot of people who have absolutely no clue what high dynamic range actually is if they think you need a specific monitor to display an HDR image. It's true that a monitor designed to display HDR will probably make a better job of displaying extreme HDR content, but since the technique of creating HDR images dates from the mid-Nineteenth Century - a period when as far as I'm aware, there weren't many LED or CRT monitors kicking about - the notion that only a specific HDR monitor will be capable of displaying HDR, is quite clearly utter nonsense. What you probably could do with, is a properly-calibrated monitor, preferably set to accurately depict sRGB IEC 61966-2-1 standard for best results.

All an HDR image is, is a simultaneous composite display of more than one exposure at different aperture settings so that an image can replicate the wider range of detail a human eye with a pupil capable of dilating will see as it adjusts when looking about (aka saccades). That's it. HDR isn't some super-new concept.

This is 'Brig Upon the Water' by Gustave Le Gray, which is from1853. It is an HDR image...

Brig Upon the Water was created using what Le Gray called 'combination printing', but which we would nowadays refer to as a high-dynamic-range-technique. It was made by doing two separate exposures of the same scene at different aperture settings and exposure lengths, a longer, wider one for the sea detail and a shorter stopped down one for the sky detail. The two were combined into a composite using the most detailed exposure settings of the two negatives for various areas of the overall image when printing onto the paper the image was finally displayed on. In essence, it is similar to the in-process 'dodge and burn' techniques which used to be common it darkrooms, where you'd use a cig lighter or a bit of cardboard to either brighten or darken a bit of the image whilst exposing it the negative through an enlarger onto photographic paper.

If you have a camera with an adjustable exposure setting, you can take an HDR image with it just as Le Gray did with his much more primitive camera; to use a digital camera to do that, you need a camera with either three separate CCD plates for R, G and B which can switch to taking three simultaneous composite RGB exposures at different aperture settings to make an HDR image of a moving object. For a still object or scene, you can simply take two shots at different exposure settings and then combine them to use the best detail of either for specific areas of the image. Photoshop, and indeed a few other image editing programs, can do this combination to HDR process for you (somewhat) automatically.

Or in other words, the basic ability for a monitor to display an HDR image has absolutely bugger all to do with whether it is 'an HDR one' or not.

Edited July 7, 2021 by Chock