HDR Guide

[ŞĦÅÐΘЩЌÌŁŁΣŘ]

TDLR! (Easy version)

Navigate to C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\b1\Saved\Config\Windows and open the Engine.ini file. Scroll down to the very bottom and copy/paste this.

[SystemSettings]
r.AllowHDR=1
r.HDR.EnableHDROutput=1
r.HDR.Display.OutputDevice=5
r.HDR.Display.ColorGamut=2
r.HDR.UI.CompositeMode=1
r.FullScreenMode=0
r.HDR.UI.Level=1.5
r.HDR.Display.MidLuminance=54
r.HDR.Display.MaxLuminance=750




UPDATE #2!
The search for the best settings never ends! I have been going back and forth between the engine INI version and the reshade version and they both that their positives and negatives. I find the engine INI one to be truer to the original vision of the game, whereas the reshade version changings things quite dramatically. If you just want basic HDR without fussing with programs, use the engine INI version.

I would love to try the nvidia HDR but i dont have windows 11. I hear there is bit of a performance impact with that one too. I will put the engine ini version here at the top for the people that want HDR without a fuss...



Reshade method (More flexible, harder setup, less true to original game visuals)
1) Download reshade 6.2.0. (latest version) Make sure you get the one with addon support (important!)

2)Run the reshade exe and install it to the b1.exe. (game executable) When you install it select the directx 10/11/12 option. https://ibb.co/hHBqPLV

3)When it asks to select which effects to install, install the default ones but also scroll down and select reshade hdr shaders by lilium. https://ibb.co/MSfRxFq

4) Then on the addons page select auto hdr by endlessly flowering. (this is why you need the addon version of reshade) https://ibb.co/8xJHdqp

5)Launch the game and press home to open reshade. You can follow the tutorial if youre not familiar with it. At the top select the "addons" tab and enable auto hdr, enable hdr and use hdr10. After you enable those either restart or just change your games resolution to enable it. https://ibb.co/vvfRK7h

6) Go into the home tab and enable liliums inverse tonemapping. The default settings should work great, but if you want to adjust brightness, contrast etc you can do it below.
https://ibb.co/jV8r654

7) When you have your settings dialed in, enable the performance mode of reshade in the bottom right corner of the window. This will disable the realtime editing of the settings but help with performance.

Here is a quick video i recorded using the default settings with the reshade method. The compression is a bit high but it gives you a sense of the increased contrast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bid260Ao4W4


Other notes...
For some reason it appears the game is elevating the black levels by default, (even in sdr) making everything look very washed out. I enabled the levels adjustment filter (default settings) and that dramatically improved the contrast. I also like very colorful images so i added a small vibrancy boost but that is 100% optional.
For those who are more technically inclined, you can use the liliums hdr analysis tool to dial in your settings. It has things like brightness histograms, heatmaps, gamut maps etc.


If you get some great settings please post them for others!



Info for engine ini edits (for advanced users)

r.AllowHDR Creates an HDR compatible swap-chain and enables HDR display output.0: Disabled (default)
1: Allow HDR, if supported by the platform and display

r.HDR.Aces.SceneColorMultiplier Multiplier applied to scene color. Helps to reduce over saturation

r.HDR.Display.ColorGamut Color gamut of the output display:
0: Rec709 / sRGB, D65 (default)
1: DCI-P3, D65
2: Rec2020 / BT2020, D65
3: ACES, D60
4: ACEScg, D60

r.HDR.Display.MaxLuminance The configured display output nit level, assuming HDR output is enabled.

r.HDR.Display.MidLuminance The configured display output nit level for 18% gray

r.HDR.Display.MinLuminanceLog10 The configured minimum display output nit level (log10 value)

r.HDR.Display.OutputDevice Device format of the output display:
0: sRGB (LDR)
1: Rec709 (LDR)
2: Explicit gamma mapping (LDR)
3: ACES 1000 nit ST-2084 (Dolby PQ) (HDR)
4: ACES 2000 nit ST-2084 (Dolby PQ) (HDR)
5: ACES 1000 nit ScRGB (HDR)
6: ACES 2000 nit ScRGB (HDR)
7: Linear EXR (HDR)
8: Linear final color, no tone curve (HDR)
9: Linear final color with tone curve

r.HDR.EnableHDROutput Creates an HDR compatible swap-chain and enables HDR display output.0: Disabled (default)
1: Enable hardware-specific implementation

r.HDR.UI.CompositeMode Mode used when compositing the UI layer:
0: Standard compositing
1: Shader pass to improve HDR blending

r.HDR.UI.Level Luminance level for UI elements when compositing into HDR framebuffer (default: 1.0).

r.HDR.UI.Luminance Base Luminance in nits for UI elements when compositing into HDR framebuffer. Gets multiplied by r.HDR.UI.Level

[willian]

I agree this creates a mess of GS team chooseing not to implement HDRs for this game.

Originally posted by CapitanPumbo:

Unreal Engine 5.0 (used by the game) UI HDR composite mode is broken (it's been fixed in 5.3), so this, while allowing HDR to run properly on the game rendering, will have borked UI colors and alpha blends.
DLSS Frame Generation also wouldn't work correctly.

If that's case we might not be able to see a close update on this AFAIK for what's differentiating UE5.0 with modern UE5.3/5.4

[Ofan]

Originally posted by ŞĦÅÐΘЩЌÌŁŁΣŘ:

Im sure the nvidia HDR is better. I would love to try it but you need windows 11, which i dont have, nor want...
For now reshade or the engine.ini edits are better than sdr. Reshade also lets me adjust other things like levels and saturation. Lets just hope they add official HDR support in a patch. (And a slider to reduce the sharpening!)

I'm not proficient at this, how would someone make rtx hdr work with W11?

[Red Hefner]

I'm not messing about going to these lengths, configuring and re-configuring an .ini file just to get HDR working, it's not that much of a deal breaker, especially when it could break after an update or even be added in an update.

[Kickfister]

There's always Special K HDR as well, which is significantly easier to setup.

Steps:
Join the discord https://discord.com/invite/ER4EDBJPTa
Download and run the latest installer from the installers channel
Go to the game in steam, open properties and set this launch option: SKIF %COMMAND%
Once in-game, press ctrl + shift + h, and click HDR10 (for compatibility with framegen, if you aren't using it go ahead and use scRGB). You may need to restart the game now.
You're done, tweak peak nits, color boost, or gamut expansion however you like.

[Lexsan]

The best reshade is usually Lilium inverse tone mapping.

[ThE_StiFF_StIcK]

Originally posted by Lexsan:

The best reshade is usually Lilium inverse tone mapping.

I use Reshade (full addon support version) Liliums HDR tools, so I can analyse everything, then I use the AutoHDR addon by MajorPainTheCactus, then I use Liliums Inverse tone mapping, then I use Liliums black floor leveling to fix the aweful raised black levels, its just insane, now you can also use some other de-sharpening tools to remove the overly sharpen images.
I then set to peak brighness of 800 for my LG OLED TV (will soon get the G4 that can do 1500 nits). Method A, gamma 2.2. thats it, looks amazing.

But regardless, the game needs fixing on everything

[Satori]

Originally posted by Troy Muni:

Originally posted by Satori:

This is great. tnx to whoever contributed.

my lg 65 c1 settings in case it may help someone, or anyone has advise.

r.allowhdr=1
r.HDR.EnableHDROutput=1
r.HDR.Display.OutputDevice=5
r.HDR.Display.ColorGamut=2
r.HDR.UI.CompositeMode=1
r.HDR.UI.CompositeMode=1
r.FullScreenMode=0
r.HDR.UI.Level=1.2
r.HDR.Display.MidLuminance=54
r.HDR.Display.MaxLuminance=750

ive put ingame brightness to 52. played+tested a bit.

Looks rly good to me. Huge difference, crazy they didnt put hdr standard into the game..

Thanks, I've got a G1 and going to try yours tomorrow...just got to bump up the 750 on mine to 900. Are you using these with Nvidia's HDR from the new app or running it through Windows? I've got mine configured through Nvidia...think it's the same settings from the reddit post above.

I still use win 10, read u cant use the nvidia app with it. so just turned on windows hdr and put these ini settings. May be a way to get better hdr with reshade and some tools, but i dont feel like tinkering that much. and this is simple and looks great imo.

GL HF tomorrow. Game looks and plays amazing.

btw hardware unboxed did a great settings video which may be helpfull as well.

[Zyrconia]

Thank you for this!

But I've decided to wait for HDR support, no rush :).

[Casscadiya]

its wild we have to do this at all, HDR was in the benchmark, along with other missing settings

[ravdo123]

Originally posted by Satori:

This is great. tnx to whoever contributed.

my lg 65 c1 settings in case it may help someone, or anyone has advise.

r.allowhdr=1
r.HDR.EnableHDROutput=1
r.HDR.Display.OutputDevice=5
r.HDR.Display.ColorGamut=2
r.HDR.UI.CompositeMode=1
r.HDR.UI.CompositeMode=1
r.FullScreenMode=0
r.HDR.UI.Level=1.2
r.HDR.Display.MidLuminance=54
r.HDR.Display.MaxLuminance=750

ive put ingame brightness to 52. played+tested a bit.

Looks rly good to me. Huge difference, crazy they didnt put hdr standard into the game..

I've tried your settings. Although this looks good, but it breaks the image so much when rotating the camera or on a very high speed scene (very visible on the UI and subtitles).
Maybe it conflicts with FG or something? I'm not sure.

[Incubus]

Best settings for Dell 27" Alienware AW2721D

[SystemSettings]
r.allowhdr=1
r.HDR.EnableHDROutput=1
r.HDR.Display.OutputDevice=5
r.HDR.Display.ColorGamut=2
r.HDR.UI.CompositeMode=1
r.HDR.UI.CompositeMode=1
r.FullScreenMode=0
r.HDR.UI.Level=1.2
r.HDR.Display.MidLuminance=75
r.HDR.Display.MaxLuminance=500

[MROOD]

so what does this do?
what benefits do u get by messing around with the game file settings

[Satori]

Originally posted by ravdo123:

Originally posted by Satori:

This is great. tnx to whoever contributed.

my lg 65 c1 settings in case it may help someone, or anyone has advise.

r.allowhdr=1
r.HDR.EnableHDROutput=1
r.HDR.Display.OutputDevice=5
r.HDR.Display.ColorGamut=2
r.HDR.UI.CompositeMode=1
r.HDR.UI.CompositeMode=1
r.FullScreenMode=0
r.HDR.UI.Level=1.2
r.HDR.Display.MidLuminance=54
r.HDR.Display.MaxLuminance=750

ive put ingame brightness to 52. played+tested a bit.

Looks rly good to me. Huge difference, crazy they didnt put hdr standard into the game..

I've tried your settings. Although this looks good, but it breaks the image so much when rotating the camera or on a very high speed scene (very visible on the UI and subtitles).
Maybe it conflicts with FG or something? I'm not sure.

i dont think i have this issue. i have Fg off. on a 3060 ti.
Ive tried fg before on ghost of tsuchima and yes there i had the issue with terrible motion. Was unplayable for me. So decided to just turn fg off with wukong.
so try turning it off and see if that fixes ur issue. it probably will.

[patrick]

On my side I use Special K and the SDR black floor simulation (in ReShade, Lilium shaders). Working like a charm. Beautiful HDR with blacks really black

[Revan]

Originally posted by MROOD:

so what does this do?
what benefits do u get by messing around with the game file settings

Srsly? Did you even read OP posts? Hell, the title!?