FULLSCREEN COLOR FIX: How to limit HDR output on non-HDR displays

Unreal Engine 4 supports high dynamic range color output (HDR) on supported displays. However, sometimes non-supported displays will be incorrectly reported as HDR-capable, causing bad colors in fullscreen mode. This can be easily prevented with a simple driver setting to limit output to the color range actually supported by your display.

Introduction

Modern game engines feature support for HDR displays which exceed the color range of older display technology. For HDR-capable displays, this is great news. However, those still using older displays may find that some games appear with bad colors when running in fullscreen. This occurs when the display is incorrectly reported by the GPU to support HDR, causing the game engine to render HDR output. The results look a bit like this:

Since HDR output requires exclusive fullscreen, you will find that switching to other screen modes (such as windowed or borderless fullscreen) will not exhibit the same problem. However, using these screen modes will result in slightly lower performance. A better solution is to simply prevent your display from being reported as HDR-capable in the first place.

Fortunately, doing so is quite simple. In this guide, we'll examine how to configure your GPU drivers to limit color depth to an acceptable range for your display, eliminating HDR where it doesn't belong.

NVIDIA

1. Open the NVIDIA Control Panel in your system tray by right-clicking the NVIDIA icon and choosing "NVIDIA Control Panel"

2. Navigate to Display > Change Resolution and select the display which is incorrectly outputting HDR.

3. Check the "Use NVIDIA Color Settings" box and set "Output color depth" to "8 bpc" (8-bit)

4. Apply changes. That's it!

AMD

1. Open the AMD Radeon Control Panel in your system tray by clicking the Radeon icon

2. Select "Radeon Additional Settings"

3. Select the display which is incorrectly outputting HDR from the menu on the left.

4. Set "Preferred color depth" to "8" (8-bit)

4. Apply changes. That's it!

* AMD Radeon Control Panel images taken from https://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/DH-008.aspx

Conclusion

With your display limited to the correct bit depth, you can now enjoy exclusive fullscreen on non-HDR displays!

[Lulech93]

@govermsk That probably means your laptop has an iGPU that's controlling display output. You'll need to use the Intel or AMD control panel (depending on your CPU manufacturer) to change output bit depth.

[govermsk]

I have MSI Creator laptop and it doesn't have "Display" menu in Nvidia control panel. What shoud I do to change this setting?

[Lulech93]

In the context of color depth, "bit" is understood as "bits per channel/component". Most HDR displays are reffered to as "10-bit", for example. Both terms are correct.

[Siyuko Valkyrie]

8 bit is not 8 bpc
if you look at it 8 bit is the color depth of ur desktop an 8 bpc is bit per component of the output color depth there is a difference between them if it was 8 bit it would be like playing super mario or so back in the day

[Siyuko Valkyrie]

ok everything works well for me in every format so the only thing is in opinion its if the monitor supports it as well as the TV that can support the settings i use a 43 inch vizio tv as my display so i can go wild

[PunkSteve]

I'm using a HDMI cable into a LG IPS FULLHD Monitor.
Ok, so i changed the "Output color depth" to Full & wow, the difference is crazy surprising straight away. Even just on the desktop with Steam open colors r way more clear.

Just did some research & apparently it's because the GPU thinks that if u use a HDMI cable, then u must b plugged into a HDTV & not a monitor.

Now i'm looking into the "Output color format", RGB, YCbCr422 or YCbCr444.
It seems when i change the "Output color format" off RGB, the "Output dynamic range" dropdown get's greyed-out.
This is quite interesting. thanks for sending me down this rabbit-hole, lol.

[Lulech93]

I haven't tried changing that setting, but it shouldn't matter either way, in theory. That's for HDMI output to TVs, primarily.

[PunkSteve]

Yeh, the only option i've got for "Output color depth" is 8bpc.
What about "Output dynamic range" should that b Limited or Full?
I'm using Nvidia Control Panel btw.

[Lulech93]

Ha, the images in this guide with the wacky colors are just a simple color filter. It's not accurate at all ;)

A non-HDR display can't show colors above 8-bit anyway, so no, enforcing that setting won't affect how other things look at all.

[PunkSteve]

Just wondering, will changing this setting "Output color depth" to "8 bpc" (8-bit)" make any other games/programs look strange?