Enabling HDR washes out the colours on Alienware AW2725DF

[Doctor Hades]

Steam installed the latest patch yesterday but after discovering that DLSS was not working, apparently due to a missing file (great testing there QA Department!), I opted into the beta where it now works.

Anyway, obviously owning an HDR monitor, a 27" Alienware AW2725DF from Dell, I wanted to test HDR so I enabled it on the desktop prior to launching the game from Steam. Once the game had loaded and I had access to the Settings menu, I found and enabled the HDR setting in the Display menu by switching it from Off to On.

The problem is that doing this instantly washes out the colours like the black level is massively raised and it looks, to be frank, awful. The game has no HDR settings to tweak, only an off and on setting. The weird thing is that the game looks fine with HDR enabled on the desktop and HDR left disabled in the game but, surely, that can't be right?

Is this another bug along with the DLSS one in the current non-beta patch that needs addressing?

Note that RTX HDR is *not^ enabled in the NVIDIA App Beta and I using the latest 555.85 graphics driver for my RTX 4080 Founders Edition card.

[micronauta]

in truth the hdr of this game is one of the best ever seen on pc...there's something wrong with you brother..maybe the beta version broke the hdr?

[Mofalon]

Originally posted by micronauta:

in truth the hdr of this game is one of the best ever seen on pc...there's something wrong with you brother..maybe the beta version broke the hdr?

Pressing X to doubt on this one.

I'm having the same issue as OP with the HDR implementation. Other games with HDR work fine, and the lack of settings to tweak it makes it worse.

[micronauta]

don't doubt, the hdr is perfect in this game... the black is almost too black, and the highlights are very bright... you have some problems, it could be, try reinstalling the game

[Mofalon]

Originally posted by micronauta:

don't doubt, the hdr is perfect in this game... the black is almost too black, and the highlights are very bright... you have some problems, it could be, try reinstalling the game

Sorry to say this, but I just don't believe you. Also, reinstalling the game would not affect at all how HDR works in a game.

[ChubbiChibbai]

That's a pretty solid monitor. You shouldn't be having issues.

The way you describe the image as 'washed out' is how games can look on my HDR monitor when something has gone wrong, or if i Alt+Tab out of a game using HDR then my desktop appears washed out so i'm almost certain something is wrong with the configuration.

Are you using the auto HDR mode in the monitor. I can't remember what they are called on the Alienware ones but there should be some HDR settings in the actual monitor its self. Maybe try to change the HDR mode. Usually its some stuff like 'auto or smart'.

[micronauta]

Originally posted by Mofalon:

Originally posted by micronauta:

don't doubt, the hdr is perfect in this game... the black is almost too black, and the highlights are very bright... you have some problems, it could be, try reinstalling the game

Sorry to say this, but I just don't believe you. Also, reinstalling the game would not affect at all how HDR works in a game.

instead it could be some messed up file, given that hdr was only added a few days ago... for example in my game, as soon as I start the game hdr is not enabled, if I enter and exit the settings menu it is activated from only...I repeat the game has fantastic hdr, if it doesn't work there is some problem in your pc/monitor/game...period

[micronauta]

https://youtu.be/YWjoyukRMwU?si=xDQi9QESo2yimYNb

[Mofalon]

Originally posted by micronauta:

Originally posted by Mofalon:

Sorry to say this, but I just don't believe you. Also, reinstalling the game would not affect at all how HDR works in a game.

instead it could be some messed up file, given that hdr was only added a few days ago... for example in my game, as soon as I start the game hdr is not enabled, if I enter and exit the settings menu it is activated from only...I repeat the game has fantastic hdr, if it doesn't work there is some problem in your pc/monitor/game...period

If you’re ignorant about a topic (like in this case), it would be better if you stopped giving false information. You’re not credible at all.

[8-Bit Ears]

Originally posted by Mofalon:

Originally posted by micronauta:

instead it could be some messed up file, given that hdr was only added a few days ago... for example in my game, as soon as I start the game hdr is not enabled, if I enter and exit the settings menu it is activated from only...I repeat the game has fantastic hdr, if it doesn't work there is some problem in your pc/monitor/game...period

If you’re ignorant about a topic (like in this case), it would be better if you stopped giving false information. You’re not credible at all.

Hdr works and looks great, but you have to turn hdr off, hit apply, then turn it back on and hit apply every single time you start the game.

His information is correct, just hard to understand.

The devs confirmed this bug in a post if you care to search for it.

[Mofalon]

Originally posted by 8-Bit Ears:

Originally posted by Mofalon:

If you’re ignorant about a topic (like in this case), it would be better if you stopped giving false information. You’re not credible at all.

Hdr works and looks great, but you have to turn hdr off, hit apply, then turn it back on and hit apply every single time you start the game.

His information is correct, just hard to understand.

The devs confirmed this bug in a post if you care to search for it.

I don't have to look for it, I've tested the game on 3 different PCs, two TVs and an UW monitor, and in all of them, the same thing happens. Tweaked TV and monitor settings, and it's still washed out, on all three displays.

You two are probably playing on PS5 or XSX, where it's a non-issue, unlike on PC.

If you play on PC and have a good monitor or TV hooked up to it and have tried HDR in the past, you know it has issues, regardless of the setup.

[8-Bit Ears]

Originally posted by Mofalon:

Originally posted by 8-Bit Ears:

Hdr works and looks great, but you have to turn hdr off, hit apply, then turn it back on and hit apply every single time you start the game.

His information is correct, just hard to understand.

The devs confirmed this bug in a post if you care to search for it.

I don't have to look for it, I've tested the game on 3 different PCs, two TVs and an UW monitor, and in all of them, the same thing happens. Tweaked TV and monitor settings, and it's still washed out, on all three displays.

You two are probably playing on PS5 or XSX, where it's a non-issue, unlike on PC.

If you play on PC and have a good monitor or TV hooked up to it and have tried HDR in the past, you know it has issues, regardless of the setup.

Thats a whole lot of assumptions you are making.

Im playing on PC obviously at 4k on a 65" sony bravia mini led

Never had an issue with HDR on windows 11, even auto hdr works great and was the sole reason I upgraded to w11.

You just seem completely ignorant and frankly low iq to dismiss and insult everyone trying to help you and telling you it works for us. I suggest you switch to console considering you lack the basic level of intelligence required to troubleshoot pc's, you will fit right in with the rest of the self centered know it all teenagers.

[Mofalon]

Originally posted by 8-Bit Ears:

Originally posted by Mofalon:

I don't have to look for it, I've tested the game on 3 different PCs, two TVs and an UW monitor, and in all of them, the same thing happens. Tweaked TV and monitor settings, and it's still washed out, on all three displays.

You two are probably playing on PS5 or XSX, where it's a non-issue, unlike on PC.

If you play on PC and have a good monitor or TV hooked up to it and have tried HDR in the past, you know it has issues, regardless of the setup.

Thats a whole lot of assumptions you are making.

Im playing on PC obviously at 4k on a 65" sony bravia mini led

Never had an issue with HDR on windows 11, even auto hdr works great and was the sole reason I upgraded to w11.

You just seem completely ignorant and frankly low iq to dismiss and insult everyone trying to help you and telling you it works for us. I suggest you switch to console considering you lack the basic level of intelligence required to troubleshoot pc's, you will fit right in with the rest of the self centered know it all teenagers.

Dude, don't waste your time. Just stop lying about the HDR in the game and go back to your console, okay?

Thanks for trying though.

[8-Bit Ears]

Originally posted by Mofalon:

Originally posted by 8-Bit Ears:

Thats a whole lot of assumptions you are making.

Im playing on PC obviously at 4k on a 65" sony bravia mini led

Never had an issue with HDR on windows 11, even auto hdr works great and was the sole reason I upgraded to w11.

You just seem completely ignorant and frankly low iq to dismiss and insult everyone trying to help you and telling you it works for us. I suggest you switch to console considering you lack the basic level of intelligence required to troubleshoot pc's, you will fit right in with the rest of the self centered know it all teenagers.

Dude, don't waste your time. Just stop lying about the HDR in the game and go back to your console, okay?

Thanks for trying though.

You clearly own a budget wal mart monitor if your hdr looks bad, there is no fix for being broke sorry

[TsampaD]

personally I play it without HDR, I feel I don't need it because it's already impressive enough and HDR in this case makes the environment even more overloaded with glare which in my opinion spoils the picture and atmosphere.

In my opinion, some games like this don't really need it, the quality of this game, the environments and the world are already impressive without it.

[Doctor Hades]

After playing around with the game setting and getting HDR to work properly, I can only conclude that the way the setting works is basically bugged.

It seems I can toggle HDR on and off and apply it even when HDR is not active which is completely unlike other games where the HDR setting is greyed out and not selectable unless HDR is actually on. So if I enable HDR while in SDR mode then exit the game to the desktop, enable HDR from the desktop then reload the game then the game will act as if HDR is enabled and the colours will look right even though the HDR setting shows as being off! So if I then turn HDR on at this point then the game's colour palette immediately washes out, presumably because it allows me to toggle HDR on, switching the game to HDR, when HDR is already on!

I got it working properly - HDR looking correct when HDR was set to On in-game - after fiddling around with the in-game HDR toggle and HDR from the Windows desktop but it is still possible to break it if I say change from Fullscreen to Windowed Fullscreen.

It is possibly the buggiest HDR I have come across in any PC game to date and needs more work. Certainly, the game needs to force SDR and disable the HDR toggle (which should show as Off in the menus and be greyed out/not selectable) when the game is loaded in SDR. The HDR toggle should only be selectable if the game detects that HDR is enabled on the desktop. This is how other PC games work in my experience.