So I started playing RDR2 today on a PS4 Pro after an 80min install I got very excited and then i noticed something odd. On my bravia XE9305 everything seemed a bit off when it concerned the colors, brigthness, local dimming etc. This was after the HDR notification that popped up at boot of the game. After comparing non HDR and HDR setup beside better colors the black levels seem very bad and washed off. Even the black bars in cinematics look greyish and I feel there is some weird post processing happening as well.

When I turn off HDR and convert it by the TV then contrast and black is much better, even brightness and local dimming improves but the wider color range is missing and I notice that quite a bit.

The best HDR solution is when you can't fiddle with TV settings. Netflix Dobly Vision does this well. God of War, Gran Turismo, Spider Man, Uncharted 4, NBA 2K18 and many other games have much better HDR. This looks more like the HDR solution of Fifa which is bad as well. I hope it gets a fix or that they opt for Dolby Vision if they can't get HDR10 to work properly. 

Other than that the game is amazing, I love the details but expected more on image processing side for HDR. If there is a way to make this better please let me know. 

Black levels while using PSVR as a display were excellent (after turning the in game brightness setting all the way down) Of course no HDR and color banding due to 8 bit color. The bit I got to play on tv was during the day so black level was naturally compromised. I'll compare it when I get to use the tv later. I have the X900E or XE9005 in Europe.

I did some testing, and so far I can't see any benefit of HDR and actually get slightly better contrast with HDR off. At least it doesn't look worse as long as you make sure the tv isn't set to HLG (which makes it look washed out) From what I can see it's sending the same signal as GT Sport, YUV422(HDR), wide color HDR10. However GT Sport looks completely different with HDR on and off. Night and day difference. In RDR2 no difference. (at least where I am atm)

However when you turn HDR off you also lose wide color as it then switches to RGB full, an 8 bit signal. That does mean that you get full color without HDR as YUV422(HDR) is a chroma subsampled signal halving the horizontal resolution for color. (Which actually doesn't matter since RDR2 is upscaled from 1920x2160, half the horizontal resolution in the source format as well. Perhaps that's why the devs chose that specific resolution)

So

HDR on -> YUV422 BT.2020 color space HDR 10
HDR off -> RGB full color (8 bit)

Visable difference: negligable except the image pops a bit more without HDR due to slightly higher contrast and menu backgrounds appear greyish with HDR on.

I'm a little sad that it's not living up to the hype for me. I tried liking GTA in the past and it's much of the same things, I suppose. The input lag for almost every action makes it very tedious to navigate the world, in particular moving the character is really "animation"-heavy. For example, any movement from the left analog stick will take probably 0.4 or 0.5 seconds before any indication of movement on-screen is seen. And the menus are so laggy as well. I like to read all the extra bits of lore in open world games, but backing out of the compendium takes so much time I've given up on it.

A lot of people really like the realism approach Rockstar takes with these games, and to an extent I believe it's excusable for a game this ambitious to have some shortcomings, but 20 ~ 25 FPS on a PS4 Pro hooked up to a 1080p TV is disappointing.

So yeah, maybe I'll make my own thread about this at some point to hear what other people think. As of this writing, I've yet to read a single review about this game, so I haven't heard about the issues others have had.

I'm going to keep playing for now because I have been finding a lot of enjoyment in the story missions, and I am still near the beginning of the game.

My TV does not support HDR, and I haven't noticed any issues on that front.

I guess I'll be playing it with HDR off since my TV can do better processing anyway. I'll figure something out to get the colors better and will be playing that anyway. I was expecting to have a huge contrast difference with dark and bright areas but that's unfortunately not the case. 

I figured it out sort of. The setup suggestion is completely wrong. It suggests 100 for LCD, 300 for OLED for brightness at setup. I figured that would give better detail in the black. It does not, it just makes it all look slightly washed out compared to no HDR. Set it to 500 (max) instead to get the full benefit of HDR on LCD. (Or crank it up until the bright areas in the sample picture start to blend, yet any decent LED LCD should be able to handle the max brightness)

This still doesn't improve the black level, nor reveals extra detail in the clouds or highlights in water reflections yet at least it uses an expanded brightness range. You can sort of see the difference in screenshots:

I took a couple shots where the contrast is highest

No HDR:


HDR (500)


HDR (100) as suggested by the game


Except it does not look that washed out on the actual tv. The HDR(100) is a lot closer in brightness to no HDR while the HDR(500) simply cranks up the max brightness. It's not really HDR as other games use it yet it does allow a much brighter picture.

Another example:

No HDR


HDR(500)


HDR(100)


A shame better black levels are not on the table.

I've read that the game is substantially better on XB1X than PS4 Pro. If anyone here is playing on 1X, please chime in and let us know how HDR and black levels in general are working for you.

I own a Pro, and was figuring I'd play RDR2 on it. But, I am likely to buy myself a 1X if there is a good deal this holiday season. So, if there really is a very big difference, maybe I'll wait to play it.

I turned HDR off and haven't looked back. It looks phenomenal in SDR with proper black level.

One more example how HDR has been done wrong:

SDR:


HDR:

HDR just makes the image brighter, You don't get to see more detail through the windows as you would expect with HDR rendering, nor any more details in the dark range as it simply increases the black level to greyish. And you still get the same fake HDR transitions with actual HDR on when you move from inside to outside and back.


As for the image quality on ps4 pro:

This game better get a damn HDR patch it currently looks like a gray filter is blocking vibrant colors

just the grotesque size of updates and a shitty datacap for the month. other than that will look forward to playing it in nov on xb1x!