Screenshot Quality Problem

[KiritoTR]

Why do my screenshots look poor quality? I'm playing the game 2k. Even if I take it from photo mode or shoot with f12, the photos seem to be blurry. Looking at the screenshots shared in the community, even the 1080p uploaded photo looks better. Where am I skipping?

[KiritoTR]

It seems like I got better results when I turned off HDR. The problem may be here.

[DDimitrescu BI-tch]

DLSS or FSR on?
And yes, compared to other games, photomode quality is the same as the port. It works some kind of, but very far from good. F12 (Steam-Screenshoot) looks always better to me.

[KiritoTR]

Yes DLSS is on.

[Just Chill]

Originally posted by KiritoTR:

It seems like I got better results when I turned off HDR. The problem may be here.

If you take screenshots with HDR, they will always look off.
Steam cannot capture them properly.

I've even a worse problem with Adobe Premiere as it cannot use hardware acceleration for HDR-videos only software (as my hardware doesn't meet the requiremens for), so I stopped using HDR at all.

Especially as I do not like how it messes up my Desktop (as many games requires Windows-HDR to be on, instead of detecting if the monitor is capable and then turn it automatically on).

Ubisoft is pretty good with detecting HDR-compatible monitors and then automatically turn Windows-HDR on if the game is run, and off again if it was previóusly off:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2313357211

[Tommysonic5]

Oh yeah I just recently realized this as well. Was using Steam to take screenshots but it can't capture HDR metadata.

Windows Game Bar can though, the shortcut to take screenshot is Win+Alt+Prtscrn

Edit: Another method if you use Geforce Experience / Ansel: Shortcut is Alt + F1

[KiritoTR]

Originally posted by Just Chill:

Originally posted by KiritoTR:

It seems like I got better results when I turned off HDR. The problem may be here.

If you take screenshots with HDR, they will always look off.
Steam cannot capture them properly.

I've even a worse problem with Adobe Premiere as it cannot use hardware acceleration for HDR-videos only software (as my hardware doesn't meet the requiremens for), so I stopped using HDR at all.

Especially as I do not like how it messes up my Desktop (as many games requires Windows-HDR to be on, instead of detecting if the monitor is capable and then turn it automatically on).

Ubisoft is pretty good with detecting HDR-compatible monitors and then automatically turn Windows-HDR on if the game is run, and off again if it was previóusly off:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2313357211

Even if you turn off HDR from within TLOU, it still appears active in w10 settings. I think you need to turn off the setting from there too. When you turn it off in W10 settings, the HDR selection in TLOU becomes locked. Ubisoft has done a good job on this.

[KiritoTR]

Originally posted by Tommysonic5:

Oh yeah I just recently realized this as well. Was using Steam to take screenshots but it can't capture HDR metadata.

Windows Game Bar can though, the shortcut to take screenshot is Win+Alt+Prtscrn

Edit: Another method if you use Geforce Experience / Ansel: Shortcut is Alt + F1

When a screenshot is taken with Geforce Experience, it only saves the photo in JXR format.

It saves in both JXR and PNG formats with Game Bar.

I don't know which one to use, JXR or PNG. I couldn't convert it to JPG with online converters.

[KiritoTR]

I took a screenshot of the same scene with all the alternatives. In the versions with HDR turned off, I also turned off HDR in the w10 settings. I shared all the photos in the google drive link below. (I don't know if it's okay to share the link) Which do you think is better? Photos with JXR have no preview. Sorry you have to download it.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gau1tfD7y1hempaaZjqYG_Y7yOKjw5g5?usp=share_link

[Just Chill]

Originally posted by KiritoTR:

When you turn it off in W10 settings, the HDR selection in TLOU becomes locked. Ubisoft has done a good job on this.

Yes they did.
Ubisoft is one of the only companies I know, which are aware of how to handle HDR on Windows.

Even in Hogwarts Legacy (WB Games), I need to manually turn on HDR in Windows 10, so the game recognizes my monitor is capable of HDR.
If I turn it off, then the HDR-setting is locked there too.
I tried to use it there, but I am also quite disappointed of how the screens look so "grey" and washed out:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2944166192

Same for Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerilla Games).
Meaning it also requires to manually be turned on in Windows Display settings. Screens will always be washed out over Steam even in Ubisoft games.

So I rather stick to not using HDR at all, when it comes to screens or video recording. :/

[KiritoTR]

Originally posted by KiritoTR:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gau1tfD7y1hempaaZjqYG_Y7yOKjw5g5?usp=share_link

What do you think about theese screenshots. Which one is better ?

[ko]

Another thing that messes up screenshots (jpg) in this game is the film grain. It looks good in motion while playing, imo, but once it is jpg compressed it blurs the image quite a bit, especially in dark scenes. All the fine grain is smushed by the jpg compression.

It looks a lot better if you set Steam to save an uncompressed png as well. Now you'll have the fine grain detail.

Alternatively turn off film grain.

[KiritoTR]

Originally posted by ko:

Another thing that messes up screenshots (jpg) in this game is the film grain. It looks good in motion while playing, imo, but once it is jpg compressed it blurs the image quite a bit, especially in dark scenes. All the fine grain is smushed by the jpg compression.

It looks a lot better if you set Steam to save an uncompressed png as well. Now you'll have the fine grain detail.

Alternatively turn off film grain.

I set Steam for uncompressed screenshot. I also turned off the film grain. Both from settings and photo mode. It didn't seem like much difference to me, but I've updated the pictures. You can take a look. Still not at the level I want.

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1gau1tfD7y1hempaaZjqYG_Y7yOKjw5g5