HDR games that use BT.2020 colors

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Sycraft

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I remember discussion from some other threads about color space and if anything past DCI-P3 even matters on account of game support, with shots from Cyberpunk showing it almost entirely in the BT.709 color space. So I thought I'd start a thread posting screenshots for games that do make use of BT.2020. First one up is what I'm playing now, Hogwarts Legacy.

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It has some scenes with very saturated colors. They are used well, in that it isn't like the whole image is blown out and neon, but there are saturated areas and highlights. The effect in game is foliage looks very verdant, and some of the things like the potions stations really glow a neon hue. It is actually calling for colors beyond what my display can produce so I don't get the full effect but it looks great.
 
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Seems like BT.2020 support is (nearly?) nonexistant in the consumer monitor space. Did find the Asus PA32UCR-K ProArt display, which is somewhat affordable and notes BT.709 and BT.2020 support on the product page.

What monitor do you use?
 
PG32UQX.

Inherently any HDR monitor should support BT.2020 color space as a container, because that's what HDR video is done in. The issue is how much of that it can actually render. The PG32UQX isn't bad in that regard, TFTCentral tested it as being 82% of BT.2020, or about 113% larger than DCI-P3. The best QD-OLED TVs do better than that, getting up in to the 91% range.

That's one of the potential considerations of QD-OLED vs WOLED for gaming monitors is color gamut. Because of the white backlight and color filters, and the use of the white subpixel to reach high brightness, WOLEDs don't have a color gamut quite as high. The LG C3 is about 76% of BT.2020. However both are basically 100% of DCI-P3. The only reason they don't measure technically 100% is because the color primaries are different so it doesn't quite get it all.

So basically what it means is that the extended gamut of QD-OLED, or blue-backlight MiniLEDs with quantum dots like the ASUS, really only matter if games make use of that expanded color space.
 
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Next up: Hitman 3. Seems to vary a lot by level, and also by how bright things are. There are places that are all BT.709, and there are places like this. It can be pretty subtle.

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This is interesting. I wonder if there is a list of games and the color spaces used for their HDR.
 
I'm thinking this is why some people say there is zero difference between QD OLED and others say there is a night and day difference, it's because they are both correct, it just depends on the content. If the game is using only BT.709 and the colors do not get very bright then QD OLED won't be able to fully stretch it's legs. On the other hand if a game has very bright colors and is making good use of BT.2020 then there should be a huge improvement with QD OLED over WOLED. Sadly it seems like most games tend to stick to just BT.709 and the colors don't get extremely bright. Perhaps this is because game developers probably don't have super fancy $10,000+ monitors to create their games on but instead are just making them on cheapshit displays unlike the film industry?
 
Yeah that's the main reason I speculate why I really didn't see much difference between the AW3423DW and C2 when I had both side by side. Once in a blue moon there would be a saturation difference but it was pretty rare and I tested across like 20 games. It was also so subtle that I couldn't tell if its a calibration difference or a legit color volume difference. I think a C2 owner could do +3-5 to the color setting in its OSD and they'd be near perceived parity.

If these QD-OLED monitors matched LG OLED brightness in the 10-25% range the difference would be far more prominent IMO. Since they are so dim until <10% though its hard to find scenarios in content that really let the panel flex.
 
And next: Jedi Survivor. This one really likes saturated blues, which sadly my monitor doesn't really go very far into BT.2020 for. It also varies a ton, there are desaturated planet scenes that are almost 100% BT.709 (though Cal's hair is usually in P3), and then there's the deep blue of hyperspace, or some vivid aquas and purples of some of the plants.

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I should add all my screenshots were taken at 4k, but I down sized them to 1080 because the individual pixel detail isn't really of use in the map, just showing the general color space usage.
 
Now for an older one: No Mans Sky

Screenshot 2024-02-25 180016.png


This one has a big caveat to it: Highly depends on HDR setting which is not at all correct. It has settings for HDR400, HDR600, and HDR1000 and actually has massive calibration LUTs. So you'd think it was really carefully done. No, actually. If you set HDR1000 you get a little under 400nits peak brightness, HDR600 is mostly correct at about 600 nits, HDR400 is then actually about 2200 nits peak, as you can see here. It does not pay any attention to calibration in Windows. Additionally, they increase the average picture level as you go down so while HDR400 give the most color and highest highlights, it also makes for a very bright experience, too bright for my tastes.

Also, the amount of BT.2020 color varies a LOT with brightness setting, you see none in HDR1000 (400 nits) and a lot in HDR400 (2200 nits). During the loading scene there was even some in AP0, which is outside BT.2020 and thus outside any monitor, and some that is invalid, meaning something in scRGB that while mathematically possible doesn't actually map to a real color.

Screenshot 2024-02-25 234642.png



Finally, on my system HDR only worked in borderless window mode. In fullscreen it would enable HDR, but the whole image just looked dull and washed out. It only became actual HDR in borderless window.

Not very well implemented at all, but it can some heavily saturation colors if you want.
 
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fyi My samsung QN90C TV does not even bother with BT.2020 and turns DCI-P3 on instead if HDR gets activated. Not even the TV makers are on board anymore in some cases.
 
The HDR color space is BT.2100, by the way, not BT.2020. The color space itself is technically the same between the two, but the latter uses logarithmic gamma ramping instead of quantization for luminance. I think BT.2100 is backward compatible when using HLG.
Carlyle2020 said:
fyi My samsung QN90C TV does not even bother with BT.2020 and turns DCI-P3 on instead if HDR gets activated. Not even the TV makers are on board anymore in some cases.
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Is that with the color space set to auto? DCI-P3 is a lot easier to cover than BT.2020, to be fair, so maybe TV manufacturers just think it's "good enough."
 
Armenius said:
The HDR color space is BT.2100, by the way, not BT.2020. The color space itself is technically the same between the two, but the latter uses logarithmic gamma ramping instead of quantization for luminance. I think BT.2100 is backward compatible when using HLG.

Is that with the color space set to auto? DCI-P3 is a lot easier to cover than BT.2020, to be fair, so maybe TV manufacturers just think it's "good enough."
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Yeah it´s on auto.

You are 100% correct as confirmed here:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP4WC7yzHKg
 
Armenius said:
The HDR color space is BT.2100, by the way, not BT.2020. The color space itself is technically the same between the two, but the latter uses logarithmic gamma ramping instead of quantization for luminance. I think BT.2100 is backward compatible when using HLG.
Click to expand...
While it's true the full HDR spec is in Rec 2100, the color primaries are the same and since most things call it BT.2020, including the analysis software, that's what I tend to use as to not confuse people.
 
Horizon Forbidden West looks to be one of the better HDR games in terms of color space. Can't wait to play on PC.

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