Alby_da_Wolf said:
Agree, games designed to work on SDR devices will at best enjoy a smoother interpolation, using also in the output some of those extra bits currently used just internally, but not a true higher range. Anyhow, if the rumour is true, it's most likely a novelty aimed to technophiles, to keep their interest alive on the product as it ages and the next gen is still far away. 4k and HDR support on non-gaming contents will probably be more effective, movies don't require as much GPU power as games, and once producers invest on HDR 4k cameras they'll use them, so the contents will come more easily, while game devs must rewrite some code and get new HDR texture libraries to get full benefits of HDR, and they also need scalable engines able to generate SDR output too for gamers not having new devices yet, unless they are fine to give up a large part of their potential sales. |
HDR is already used for cinema, that 93% of DCI P3 requirement refers to the color space used for digital movies.
For older movies HDR isn't as much relevant as the higher bit depth, better color representation of the 35mm or 70mm film cells.
HDR is for higher contrast and brighter colors. For games that mostly means less reliance on bloom to simulate brightness, and better details in dark areas. No more crushed blacks. It does mean extra work, as it allows you to see more detail. Less hiding stuff in shadowy areas or agressive use of bloom.
Elite Dangerous would benefit a lot. The high detail HDR backgrounds of the galaxy can't be properly viewed and the engine adjusts the range according to the light level from dark with only the brightest stars visible to a near complete whiteout of the milky way. It never looks like a starry sky and stars themselves look pretty tame, neutron stars even look like a simple dot, not that a display would ever be able to properly show stars (luckily)
