HDR - Just randomly broke?

[FrozenStorm]

I've been playing Elden Ring for awhile and loaded up a new game about a week ago. Everything was fine. HDR on and looked fantastic.

Loaded the game up today, no settings changed at all, and the game is completely washed out. Fires are white and the colour is terrible. Turning off HDR makes the game look somewhat normal but I can tell it's "NOT" HDR.

I searched and couldn't find any solution but others reporting this. I just can't figure out why all of a sudden it broke. What's even weirder is if I let the game run and the title screen loads, everything looks fine until I hit a button on my controller, then the screen changes and the washout starts. It's like the game is purposely changing to make it look this way.... Very frustrating.

[FrozenStorm]

Update: Fixed it.

So for anyone else out there who experiences this. One of 2 things fixed this for me. Since I did both at the same time, I'm not sure which it was.

1. Disable Nvidia Overlay.

Nvidia Overlay does not work for me in Elden Ring anyways. Every time I tried to use it Elden Ring would minimise and tell me to launch a supported game. So I never had any filters setup for Elden Ring.

2. Download the Windows HDR Calibration Tool. I think this is what fixed it. Once I ran the calibration and generated a new profile - Elden Ring returned to normal in game. It's odd because I use this tool all the time if I'm messing around with my screen, so I have a lot of profiles. Maybe Elden Ring is glitching with this and loading a very off calibration. Bug maybe?

[Tommysonic5]

Did you happen to restart your computer between those fixes? I've been having the same issue the past few weeks (made obvious by overly bright menus and red colors like HP bar or incantations looking almost orange) and the only temporary solution I found is to restart, as mentioned in some other discussion threads about the broken HDR.

Will try to find some discussion links and edit one in
Edit: Here's a Reddit comment that matches my experience:

basically if Elden Ring is the first game you launch after a fresh reboot HDR works in game as expected 100%. If you played any other game that also uses HDR before it, you get the washed out colors. Try it, you’ll see.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/t0ror7/pc_hdr_washed_out/

Found by googling Elden Ring HDR washed out

Tbh I think they need to modernize the display settings, seems outdated and weird that HDR works only in Exclusive Fullscreen, while modern games can use HDR with borderless fullscreen.

[FrozenStorm]

No. I just played some other HDR titles and also used the Nvidia Overlay in Diablo 3 since it has no HDR. Went into Elden Ring and HDR looks fine still.

Like I said, since running the display calibration tool and turning off Nvidia overlay when I launched Elden Ring, everything is normal again. I can leave Nvidia Overlay "On" since it's not impacting Elden Ring so it seems that the display calibration tool was the fix (For me at least).

I can reboot, load up any other HDR title. Play for a bit, leave and go straight to Elden Ring without needing to reboot.

I'm on Windows 11 and it don't look like that post mentions what WIndows they are running. 10 and 11 have different issues/suggestions in some of the posted I have Googled.

[OrbVeggie]

I downloaded the HDR calibration tool and that fixed the problem for a little while then after playing some counter strike 2 elden ring is again washed out with HDR on

[dece870717]

Go to System - Display - Graphics, find Elden Ring, select it and check the box Don't use Auto-HDR. https://i.imgur.com/JI3a4LJ.png fixed

Was extremely helpful to do for basically all the Resident Evil games, always seemed to have problems with the HDR otherwise.

[Sam Urai]

Originally posted by dece870717:

Go to System - Display - Graphics, find Elden Ring, select it and check the box Don't use Auto-HDR. https://i.imgur.com/JI3a4LJ.png fixed

Was extremely helpful to do for basically all the Resident Evil games, always seemed to have problems with the HDR otherwise.

I'm guessing this is just for Windows 11 and not 10?

OP, get used to how broken HDR is. I played Elden Ring for a long time and was able to use HDR, though it required pressing alt+enter twice if it was washed out to reset it but that no longer works. Various fixes eventually get it to work now and again, restarting PC etc but it's never consistent. It seems to be particularly noticeable in From Software games ER/AC6 sadly. I've had some luck with CRU which lets you just restart your graphics drivers https://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-Custom-Resolution-Utility-CRU

Of course the general confusion about what is and isn't HDR doesn't help. Like playing ER with Windows HDR on is not the same as having it properly enabled in-game.

[w.c. higgenbobber]

Reposting this

If anyone else is having an issue where your HDR for this game (or Armored Core/Sekiro) has really faded colours and you don't want to restart PC/update your drivers every time to fix it-- try just rebooting your monitor. The easiest way for me to do it is running restart64.exe from Custom Resolution Utility (CRU).

This has been working for me every time I've tried since realizing I've also done this to fix gsync/freesync when it's being stubborn.

Link here: https://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-Custom-Resolution-Utility-CRU

[TneX]

Originally posted by olvlvl:

Hi everyone, HDR was broken for me as well since I started to play Shadow of the Erdetree. I did disable auto-HDR but the image was still super washed out. I noticed in "Windowed" mode the colors were correct so I switched from "Fullscreen" to "Borderless Windowed" and the colors are correct now. Hope that helps.

That can't be right. Native HDR only works in Fullscreen, it doesn't work in Borderless Windowed (without mods). If the colors looked correct then it must be auto-HDR, but you said you disabled it. So maybe you re-enabled auto-HDR.

[krbi]

@Tnex I removed me message. When I'm in "Borderless Windowed" the HDR is disabled, although my desktop is in HDR. It doesn't matter if auto-HDR is enabled or not, in Fullscreen the colors are completely washed out. I also tried launching from regular steam and not the steam-deck version, but it's still wrong. It worked for Lord of the Fallen, but it doesn't matter here. I gave up. I'd rather play the game then deal with this crap.

[TneX]

Originally posted by olvlvl:

@Tnex I removed me message. When I'm in "Borderless Windowed" the HDR is disabled, although my desktop is in HDR. It doesn't matter if auto-HDR is enabled or not, in Fullscreen the colors are completely washed out. I also tried launching from regular steam and not the steam-deck version, but it's still wrong. It worked for Lord of the Fallen, but it doesn't matter here. I gave up. I'd rather play the game then deal with this crap.

Yeah completely understandable, I'm also getting sick and tired of dealing with the various issues that come up.
For me when the colors are washed out in Fullscreen with HDR enabled, a complete PC restart fixes that. It happens only rarely thankfully.
But if even that doesn't fix it for you, I don't know why it's happening.

[Sam Urai]

Originally posted by olvlvl:

@Tnex I removed me message. When I'm in "Borderless Windowed" the HDR is disabled, although my desktop is in HDR. It doesn't matter if auto-HDR is enabled or not, in Fullscreen the colors are completely washed out. I also tried launching from regular steam and not the steam-deck version, but it's still wrong. It worked for Lord of the Fallen, but it doesn't matter here. I gave up. I'd rather play the game then deal with this crap.

Did you try running the CRU restart.exe?

[MadDogMichl]

Had this issue too. It only appears if you played another HDR game beforehand. Just be sure that Elden Ring is the first game you play after a restart and your good to go.

[Данил Аганим]

It seems to me that this happens when the game does not recognize (or Windows, I'm not sure) that it is open as the current full-screen window. Because I have a volume wheel on my keyboard and when I use it, a notification pops up from Windows with a volume bar and at this moment the game freezes a little and the hdr disappears (the colors become washed out) and returns to normal after a second when the notification disappears. And now when my hdr is broken too, when I change the volume, nothing happens. It seems that this can happen because of any program that is displayed on top of the game like an nvidia overlay

[Pacino]

It occasionally goes screwy for me, I think it's because I use dual screens. Rebooting my PC usually fixes the issue. Not ideal but Fromsoft seem to have issues with HDR if Sekiro, AC6 and this is anything to go by.