PSA: HDR looks great.

[nabbed]

Found this in another thread.
You can enable HDR, and it looks amazing. The only downside is 2d textures for items in the inventory look washed out.

Here's how to enable it.
Edit this file

C:\Users\USERNAME\Saved Games\Nightdive Studios\SystemShock\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\Engine.ini

and insert these lines at the bottom

[SystemSettings]
r.AllowHDR=1
r.HDR.EnableHDROutput=1
r.HDR.Display.OutputDevice=5
r.HDR.Display.ColorGamut=2

[draeath]

Are the white and black points configurable at all?

[nabbed]

Originally posted by draeath:

Are the white and black points configurable at all?

No. Only the original gamma level that was meant to be used w/o HDR.

[draeath]

Darn. My monitor doesn't have many nits, so i almost always have to fiddle.

Might be worth it despite. Thanks for the information!

[nabbed]

Originally posted by draeath:

Darn. My monitor doesn't have many nits, so i almost always have to fiddle.

Might be worth it despite. Thanks for the information!

Try it. You should be able to see the HDR effect already on the title screen where Saturn and rings are super bright and the Citadel station is dark, with super bright lights.

[Microsoft Windows 95]

I found that just activating Windows HDR before launching seemed to work. It wasn't "Auto HDR", but I think the Unreal Engine sees it activated at the OS level.

[rhylos]

The option is sort of in the display options. Arrow down, on the right side of the screen you will see it say HDR. Press the A or equivalent button on your controller to toggle, followed by the X or enable button. Visually the option box is not visible. There needs to be a bug fix update to correct.

Edit: "display options"

[draeath]

Originally posted by Microsoft Windows 95:

I found that just activating Windows HDR before launching seemed to work. It wasn't "Auto HDR", but I think the Unreal Engine sees it activated at the OS level.

I didn't see this behavior myself. Which Windows version? 11 apparently does some of this better than 10 (which is what I'm on).

----

Also, I found where these parameters are documented at the engine level, in case anyone wants to fiddle around with color spaces and such:

https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.27/en-US/RenderingAndGraphics/HDRDisplayOutput/

[ParasiteX]

I prefer the HDR from special k myself. Didn't look quite right with the ini settings for me.

[draeath]

Originally posted by ParasiteX:

I prefer the HDR from special k myself. Didn't look quite right with the ini settings for me.

I just edited my reply to include a link you might find interesting. Could be just the two parameter values provided aren't the same color spaces you're used to with Special K.

[zombipuppy]

Originally posted by rhylos:

The option is sort of in the graphics options. Arrow down, on the right side of the screen you will see it say HDR. Press the space button on your keyboard to toggle, followed by the enable option. Visually the option box is not visible. There needs to be bug fix update to correct.

Nice catch. The option doesn't actually enable HDR for me, no matter how I toggle it, though. It seems they disabled it completely.

[draeath]

Hmm. OK, here's what I have:

In Engine.ini:
[SystemSettings]
r.AllowHDR=1
r.HDR.EnableHDROutput=1
r.HDR.Display.OutputDevice=5
r.HDR.Display.ColorGamut=2

(I tried r.HDR.UI.CompositeMode as well, but not only did it not help, items were purple tinted).

In GameUserSettings.ini:
[/script/engine.gameusersettings]
bUseHDRDisplayOutput=True
HDRDisplayOutputNits=400

I tuned my Nits to 400 - my display can only do just over 400. Both of these parameters were present, set to False and 1000 respectively.

Additionally, you *must* use exclusive fullscreen. I haven't determined if changing the Nits value does anything useful.

Note: I found a post on the UE forums stating that the OutputDevice and ColorGamut values listed here so far are correct for D3D11 on nvidia and amd: https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/rec-2020-hdr/69802/38

[draeath]

Update: HDRDisplayOutputNits and r.HDR.UI.CompositeMode are nonfunctional, changing them seems to change nothing (and HDRDisplayOutputNits is automatically reset back to 1000). Also, items look purple using the default Infrared theme anyway - i shouldn't have changed that while also testing HDR at the same time, lol.

I'm not happy with the results of this either, since without being able to bring the white point way down, it washes everything out. I can see the potential, the colors really pop - but yea.

If there was a tool that did what you have Special K doing that does *nothing else* I would grab it in a heartbeat. Not liking what I see when I check this tool out.

[rhylos]

Originally posted by zombipuppy:

Originally posted by rhylos:

The option is sort of in the graphics options. Arrow down, on the right side of the screen you will see it say HDR. Press the space button on your keyboard to toggle, followed by the enable option. Visually the option box is not visible. There needs to be bug fix update to correct.

Nice catch. The option doesn't actually enable HDR for me, no matter how I toggle it, though. It seems they disabled it completely.

I can see a difference but not a major blinding one. I'm using fullscreen mode as well and my display kicks in the HDR identifier.

[zombipuppy]

Originally posted by rhylos:

Originally posted by zombipuppy:

Nice catch. The option doesn't actually enable HDR for me, no matter how I toggle it, though. It seems they disabled it completely.

I can see a difference but not a major blinding one. I'm using fullscreen mode as well and my display kicks in the HDR identifier.

Interesting, I'll give it another try. I notice that the game likes to revert to borderless window every time I boot it up, so maybe it was flipped back to that when I tried to toggle HDR.

Edit: Yeah, the game is kind of bugged with the window/fullscreen options. I don't think it ever switches to true exclusive fullscreen, and the menu keeps reverting back to saying "Windowed" no matter what I try. Perhaps that's why the hidden HDR toggle doesn't do anything for me.

[Kaldaien]

Originally posted by draeath:

If there was a tool that did what you have Special K doing that does *nothing else* I would grab it in a heartbeat. Not liking what I see when I check this tool out.

LOL..... what?

Special K improves latency, has the industry's best framerate limiter, optimizes windowed mode, HDR stuff, the list goes on and on. How could you possibly "not like what you see"? All of those features are unique to Special K, years and years of work improving D3D on Windows.

Either way, there is a tool that does what Special K does with *nothing else*, it's called Special K. Don't turn any other feature on if you don't want, though you're really missing out if you don't use its framerate limiter.