Diablo IV - The Real Official Thread

I've got HDR on in W11, and had it on in-game. It looks washed out. Never looked right in the beta either, so I turned it off. On a CX48. Never saw the panel show it was being toggled for HDR either so I may have a setting wrong somewhere.
Agreed. HDR is broken in this game. Raised black kills it by looking washed out. This is apparent on IPS, FALD VA and OLED displays I've tried. Looks much better in SDR.
 
I'm surprised to see criticism of HDR for this game, since I think the game looks much worse with it off on my system. This is the first game to sell me on HDR actually, and a lot of detail seems lost with it off.

LG CX55 (HDR Picture/Game mode, HDMI Ultra HD Deep Color enabled, Energy Saving disabled, default brightness/contrast, AudioQuest sky48 8K-10K HDMI cable)

In-game HDR settings: Black Point 0.0001, Brightness 292, White Point 4,000; DLSS and Frame Gen disabled

I guess we all have different setups and preferences. It looks so much better to me with it on though that I almost always close and reload the game if I forgot to enable it in W11. I'm no expert when it comes to display tech though, and maybe there is some room for improvement with it that I am unaware of.
 
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What is PvP like?

I just started messing around in there for the first time, but I generally just tp out whenever I see someone go aggro. Old diablo games PvP tended to be 1 shot knock outs lol.
 
I'm surprised to see criticism of HDR for this game, since I think the game looks much worse with it off on my system. This is the first game to sell me on HDR actually, and a lot of detail seems lost with it off.

LG CX55 (HDR Picture/Game mode, HDMI Ultra HD Deep Color enabled, Energy Saving disabled, default brightness/contrast, AudioQuest sky48 8K-10K HDMI cable)

In-game HDR settings: Black Point 0.0001, Brightness 292, White Point 4,000; DLSS and Frame Gen disabled

I guess we all have different setups and preferences. It looks so much better to me with it on though that I almost always close and reload the game if I forgot to enable it in W11. I'm no expert when it comes to display tech though, and maybe there is some room for improvement with it that I am unaware of.
I guess you haven't seen many HDR games. By reading your CX55 settings, it's doesn't look like it's properly calibrated either.
If you see Blizzard official forums and reddit, there are tons of complaints regarding HDR in this game. 99% of the complaints are raised black resulting in washed out image.
From the looks of it, I think it's a black level mistmatch between 0-255 and 16-255. (Speculation on my part)
Also with white point at 4,000 in this game, you're severely clipping white point on your OLED. Perhaps, you have Dynamic Tonemapping enabled on the CX55 and it heavily tonemaps the whooping 4,000 white point input from this game. But this is not ideal config for reference level of HDR contents.
 
Gave the game another chance level 15 finally saw other players in town. Some helped in a quest to the North but nothing I couldn't handle solo World Tire 1.

I guess World Bosses pop up after the Main Quest campaign but not sure what level that is.
 
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Damn only 4 a day there should be 12 a day.
 
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For some reason I decided to try and hit max level having never done the main story quest at all after the tutorial or leaving the first zone(fractured peaks), so far I’m level 51. I also played new worlds when it launched to max level having never chosen a faction. I don’t think I play video games right.
 
Really? I turned it off an noticed a difference.
I turned it off. Didn't notice a difference. Try messing with the sharpness setting. It defaults to 10. I run it at 20. Another post said to try 40 or 50, but beyond 25 there are obvious sharpening artifacts that start to appear on my PC. Only explanation I could come up with is that they must be using TAA. I am using DLAA.
I've got HDR on in W11, and had it on in-game. It looks washed out. Never looked right in the beta either, so I turned it off. On a CX48. Never saw the panel show it was being toggled for HDR either so I may have a setting wrong somewhere.
FO48U on Windows 11, here (same panel as the CX48). It looks a lot better with it turned on. If you have HDR turned on in the Windows display settings, there should be a checkbox that appears in the game options that you need to enable for HDR. If it doesn't appear, make sure the game is running in windowed (fullscreen) mode. The best calibrations settings for the LG OLED panels are the defaults (black point 0.0001, brightness 250, white point 1,000). You may need to turn down the white point to 800. I need to turn it down to 600 due to the more aggressive ABL on the Gigabyte version of the display. You can tell if it's too high if when you adjust the game's white point setting the ruts in the snow on the test image appear darker when turning it down.
Agreed. HDR is broken in this game. Raised black kills it by looking washed out. This is apparent on IPS, FALD VA and OLED displays I've tried. Looks much better in SDR.
It's not the best implementation, but it is not completely broken. I have also played the game on my PG27UQ, which is an IPS 384-zone FALD, and HDR looks much better compared to SDR. I think the biggest issue with the game is it ignores your Windows color profile, so even if you use the HDR calibration app on Windows 11 it doesn't affect the output in this game. All I do on the PG27UQ compared to the FO48U is turn the black point up to 0.0007 since some details are lost in the darkest areas of the screen compared to the OLED, which is to be expected.
I'm surprised to see criticism of HDR for this game, since I think the game looks much worse with it off on my system. This is the first game to sell me on HDR actually, and a lot of detail seems lost with it off.

LG CX55 (HDR Picture/Game mode, HDMI Ultra HD Deep Color enabled, Energy Saving disabled, default brightness/contrast, AudioQuest sky48 8K-10K HDMI cable)

In-game HDR settings: Black Point 0.0001, Brightness 292, White Point 4,000; DLSS and Frame Gen disabled

I guess we all have different setups and preferences. It looks so much better to me with it on though that I almost always close and reload the game if I forgot to enable it in W11. I'm no expert when it comes to display tech though, and maybe there is some room for improvement with it that I am unaware of.
You should set contrast to 90-100 and brightness to 50 on your TV. Set the OLED light to 100 for HDR, if it doesn't default to that setting in HDR mode. Best game settings for the LG OLED are the defaults, as stated above. The "white point" setting is actually HDR luminance in this game, so set it to the panel's peak brightness. On the CX it should be around 800. Adjust down it if the ruts in the snow on the test image disappear. The brightness setting is the full frame brightness and doesn't affect HDR luminance, but it doesn't seem to match the desired nit level of your display. I found that turning it up or down messes with the black level, causing the empty space around the test image to turn from black to grey.
 
I turned it off. Didn't notice a difference. Try messing with the sharpness setting. It defaults to 10. I run it at 20. Another post said to try 40 or 50, but beyond 25 there are obvious sharpening artifacts that start to appear on my PC. Only explanation I could come up with is that they must be using TAA. I am using DLAA.

FO48U on Windows 11, here (same panel as the CX48). It looks a lot better with it turned on. If you have HDR turned on in the Windows display settings, there should be a checkbox that appears in the game options that you need to enable for HDR. If it doesn't appear, make sure the game is running in windowed (fullscreen) mode. The best calibrations settings for the LG OLED panels are the defaults (black point 0.0001, brightness 250, white point 1,000). You may need to turn down the white point to 800. I need to turn it down to 600 due to the more aggressive ABL on the Gigabyte version of the display. You can tell if it's too high if when you adjust the game's white point setting the ruts in the snow on the test image appear darker when turning it down.

It's not the best implementation, but it is not completely broken. I have also played the game on my PG27UQ, which is an IPS 384-zone FALD, and HDR looks much better compared to SDR. I think the biggest issue with the game is it ignores your Windows color profile, so even if you use the HDR calibration app on Windows 11 it doesn't affect the output in this game. All I do on the PG27UQ compared to the FO48U is turn the black point up to 0.0007 since some details are lost in the darkest areas of the screen compared to the OLED, which is to be expected.

You should set contrast to 90-100 and brightness to 50 on your TV. Set the OLED light to 100 for HDR, if it doesn't default to that setting in HDR mode. Best game settings for the LG OLED are the defaults, as stated above. The "white point" setting is actually HDR luminance in this game, so set it to the panel's peak brightness. On the CX it should be around 800. Adjust down it if the ruts in the snow on the test image disappear. The brightness setting is the full frame brightness and doesn't affect HDR luminance, but it doesn't seem to match the desired nit level of your display. I found that turning it up or down messes with the black level, causing the empty space around the test image to turn from black to grey.

Checkbox is checked, Fullscreen. Everything goes from black to grey. Looks like shit.
 
I have started noticing unusual artifacting on my PS5... Praying it's not a bad sign.

That being said, first aspect dungeon in nightmare, second elite pack, Sword of Crimson Shit Everywhere dropped (rupture unique)... I couldn't get one of the cool ones to do cool things, it's my Diablo 4 life. Anyways. swapped build to a Rend/Bleed build working kinks out now on resource management.

The universe is making me eat crow because I picked on the sorcerers. Yay me.

Still having a blast :), but maybe I'm just a simple, hillbilly pleeb from a bygone era.
 
Anyone notice stuttering when there are more players running around areas? It feels like shader stutter or something similar. Game runs perfectly smooth in large combat setups, but walking around the major towns with players it just stutters.
 
I have HDR enabled in Windows 11, and also enabled in the game settings. I think it looks great on my AW3423DW OLED monitor.

Yeah the blacks do seem a bit washed out in this specific game, but the lighting effects, the glow of torches and spells really pop being very vibrant and colorful.

I tried the beta with no HDR, and the game does look blacker and deep dark, meaning better, giving those true inky blacks. But...you lose those vibrant colors and lights don't glow as much with it off. I went back to HDR enabled I like the pretty vibrant colors LOL but I do wish we would also get those OLED blacks at the same time.

Is Blizzard aware of this? Will there be an HDR patch?
 
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Checkbox is checked, Fullscreen. Everything goes from black to grey. Looks like shit.
You can try setting the Fine Tune Dark Areas option on your TV to around -15 to -20. You need to turn Freesync on to use that option. You can also try setting tone mapping to HGiG and turning the TV brightness down to 40.
Anyone notice stuttering when there are more players running around areas? It feels like shader stutter or something similar. Game runs perfectly smooth in large combat setups, but walking around the major towns with players it just stutters.
I notice there are lag spikes sometimes when players enter my "network zone." It happens a lot when I port into Kyovashad, but it smooths out after a few seconds. It's not performance-related. I never noticed this during the server slam. I suppose there are a lot more people playing the game now than there were during the betas.
I have HDR enabled in Windows 11, and also enabled in the game settings. I think it looks great on my AW3423DW OLED monitor.

Yeah the blacks do seem a bit washed out in this specific game, but the lighting effects, the glow of torches and spells really pop being very vibrant and colorful.

I tried the beta with no HDR, and yes the game dies look blacker and deep dark, meaning better. But...you lose that vibrant colors and lights don't glow as much with it off.

Is Blizzard aware of this? Will there be an HDR patch?
They must be aware of it because the black level was improved a lot from the first open beta to the server slam. All they really need to change is to make the game respect the Windows color profile.
 
I am amazed by the sound and graphics, this game is superb... And by the way, not sure if this is normal, but the 4070 Ti heats up the room really good.
 
What's the most "fun" class to play? Not world bester top tier, but the Class that puts a smile on your face and it's just enjoyable.

I'm playing the rogue right now and it's fun. The one thing I don't like is I'll run out of energy/ mana constantly. I want a different class. Maybe that doesn't burn up the mana so quickly.
 
From what I've seen in this game the melee classes are boring. But that's just me. I like necro because I can either do a mob build or solo build. Druid has some interesting things going on as well. Every time I see a barb player it just seems so boring. They're just spinning around and not really doing anything particularly different. My main is a necro and I enjoy it because I've got to manage my mobs, and I've got a couple different mob builds I can choose from. Or just drop the mobs entirely for a different build.
 
It's not the best implementation, but it is not completely broken. I have also played the game on my PG27UQ, which is an IPS 384-zone FALD, and HDR looks much better compared to SDR. I think the biggest issue with the game is it ignores your Windows color profile, so even if you use the HDR calibration app on Windows 11 it doesn't affect the output in this game. All I do on the PG27UQ compared to the FO48U is turn the black point up to 0.0007 since some details are lost in the darkest areas of the screen compared to the OLED, which is to be expected.
Current state of HDR in this game is raised black level resulting in washed out image. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. If HDR image is washed out while SDR image shows no such problem, I say its HDR is broken.
As for your comment on this game ignoring your Windows color profile, not sure why you brought this up as this has nothing to do with this game's current state of HDR. And it is normal for games ignoring Windows color profile. Games ignore the system color profile by calling a DirectX(D3D)-related function that allows fullscreen applications to use their own color management independent of the system's color profile. Almost 100% of games on Windows ignores Windows system color profile.
 
Current state of HDR in this game is raised black level resulting in washed out image. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. If HDR image is washed out while SDR image shows no such problem, I say its HDR is broken.
As for your comment on this game ignoring your Windows color profile, not sure why you brought this up as this has nothing to do with this game's current state of HDR. And it is normal for games ignoring Windows color profile. Games ignore the system color profile by calling a DirectX(D3D)-related function that allows fullscreen applications to use their own color management independent of the system's color profile. Almost 100% of games on Windows ignores Windows system color profile.
I'm not stupid. HDR is not washed out in this game. The designers of the game set the color profile to what they think is appropriate for their vision, which is why the color profile is ignored. A big reason you may think the image is washed out is due to the ever-present fog in most areas of the game. Since the nit floor of HDR is much lower than SDR, the fog effect makes it look hazy and appear that the black are grey, but that is not what is happening in this game. The Windows color profile created using the HDR calibration app would resolve this issue by virtue of it setting the contrast correctly to your display rather than the static values set by the designers for the game.

A good area to see the fog issue at is Vision of Tristram during the act 1 quest Shroud of the Horadrim. The fires in the area generate a lot of smoke that fills the area. In HDR, the dynamic range between the lit areas and the dark areas is showing a lot more contrast than HDR, but as a result the dark areas appear to have a grey haze above them due to the smoke. In SDR you don't have that haze, but the ground texture looks flat in tone since there is no dynamic tone being mapped between the darkest and lightest areas. As a result, SDR has far less contrast to the image resulting from no dynamic range.

If you want the HDR to look how you want, then run the game in SDR and turn on Auto HDR in Windows. If you want to see a game that really looks washed out with HDR turned on, play Resident Evil 2 remake. In that game the designers purposefully lifted the black level for some reason in HDR compared to SDR, to the detriment of the image.
 
I'm not stupid. HDR is not washed out in this game. The designers of the game set the color profile to what they think is appropriate for their vision, which is why the color profile is ignored. A big reason you may think the image is washed out is due to the ever-present fog in most areas of the game. Since the nit floor of HDR is much lower than SDR, the fog effect makes it look hazy and appear that the black are grey, but that is not what is happening in this game. The Windows color profile created using the HDR calibration app would resolve this issue by virtue of it setting the contrast correctly to your display rather than the static values set by the designers for the game.

A good area to see the fog issue at is Vision of Tristram during the act 1 quest Shroud of the Horadrim. The fires in the area generate a lot of smoke that fills the area. In HDR, the dynamic range between the lit areas and the dark areas is showing a lot more contrast than HDR, but as a result the dark areas appear to have a grey haze above them due to the smoke. In SDR you don't have that haze, but the ground texture looks flat in tone since there is no dynamic tone being mapped between the darkest and lightest areas. As a result, SDR has far less contrast to the image resulting from no dynamic range.

If you want the HDR to look how you want, then run the game in SDR and turn on Auto HDR in Windows. If you want to see a game that really looks washed out with HDR turned on, play Resident Evil 2 remake. In that game the designers purposefully lifted the black level for some reason in HDR compared to SDR, to the detriment of the image.
Lol. What? I'm afraid the more you talk, less sense you make. If it is due to "the ever present-fog" in most areas of the game, it would affect the SDR image as well. I think the easiest way to spot it really is on the login screen where you can see the blacks in the background brighten up a bit as soon as you turn hdr on. Messing with the settings on our end does not fix this.
As for your comment on Resident Evil 2 Remake, you're full of it. Designers are Capcom purposefully raised the black level for the game? Can you provide a source / link on the interview of the designers at Resident Evil team?
 
Now I'm confused with all this HDR talk.

Is it the game designers Blizzard needs to make a patch or is it our settings?

I have an OLED monitor and have HDR enabled in the game and also auto enabled in Windows 11. Is that correct?
 
Screenshot029.jpg


These fires in are not helping our drought.


Game picks up combat wise in Act 2 all I have to do is spam my left and right triggers on my controller and use my cold barrier once in a while.
I really like the Flame Wall and the Meteor level 21. I haven't even used HDR yet I might have to try it sometime don't think I need it though.
 
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These fires in are not helping our drought.


Game picks up combat wise in Act 2 all I have to do is spam my left and right triggers on my controller and use my cold barrier once in a while.
I really like the Flame Wall and the Meteor level 21. I haven't even used HDR yet I might have to try it sometime don't think I need it though.
Just wait....till the Butcher comes for you. SOB got me 4 times last night......
 
From what I've seen in this game the melee classes are boring. But that's just me. I like necro because I can either do a mob build or solo build. Druid has some interesting things going on as well. Every time I see a barb player it just seems so boring. They're just spinning around and not really doing anything particularly different. My main is a necro and I enjoy it because I've got to manage my mobs, and I've got a couple different mob builds I can choose from. Or just drop the mobs entirely for a different build.
I did Necro in the first beta and it was pretty fun. I’m a barb now and my main gameplay loop is shout shout shout spin and has been since about level 5, I just have a couple more shouts now. I’ll probably stick with it just because I don’t feel like doing Act 1 again but my next character will be a necro or a sorc.
 
Lol. What? I'm afraid the more you talk, less sense you make. If it is due to "the ever present-fog" in most areas of the game, it would affect the SDR image as well. I think the easiest way to spot it really is on the login screen where you can see the blacks in the background brighten up a bit as soon as you turn hdr on. Messing with the settings on our end does not fix this.
As for your comment on Resident Evil 2 Remake, you're full of it. Designers are Capcom purposefully raised the black level for the game? Can you provide a source / link on the interview of the designers at Resident Evil team?
It cant be the fog. Even the menus have elevated back levels. Not only that but it screws the saturation up compared to sdr. With the settings on my LG CX 48 its passable, but on my Alienware 34" DWF the menus are gray. Ruins the ambience.

I actually came to the thread to see if anyone had a fix.
 
Now I'm confused with all this HDR talk.

Is it the game designers Blizzard needs to make a patch or is it our settings?

I have an OLED monitor and have HDR enabled in the game and also auto enabled in Windows 11. Is that correct?
If you don't like the way it looks, you can adjust your monitor or TV settings to compensate. You can also disable HDR in the game and turn on Auto HDR in Windows 11.

If you just want to use the game's HDR:
  • Turn on HDR in Windows, leave Auto HDR turned off.
  • Check the HDR box in the game.
  • Adjust the white point in the game's brightness calibration page to match your display's peak HDR luminance (1,000-1,050 with the new firmware on the AW3423DWF).
  • Leave the other settings at default if you have an OLED display, adjust the black point up slightly on a FALD LCD until you can just barely make out the details in the corner shadow of the first test image.
    • I can't suggest any changes for edge-lit or fake HDR screens since I don't have any to test with.
It cant be the fog. Even the menus have elevated back levels. Not only that but it screws the saturation up compared to sdr. With the settings on my LG CX 48 its passable, but on my Alienware 34" DWF the menus are gray. Ruins the ambience.

I actually came to the thread to see if anyone had a fix.
Can't say I am experiencing that. At the default game brightness of 250 the menus are deep black on both of my screens. Changing that setting at all will make the menus turn grey.
 
What element is Astaroth weak too? My fire attacks don't do much thinking of respecing for him.
 
I’ve killed him both times he has appeared, but luckily I was already high level. He showed up in the capstone dungeon and then again in a standard dungeon.
I faced him when I hit 16. And honestly, I prefer it that way. You die at 16, yeah, you only have an hour or two to make up. You die at a higher level, and it can be tedious to make up if you don't have a group to powerlevel you.
 
Still haven't died yet, level 40. Maybe I should've played hardcore? Barb is boring so far. Can't get any skill besides whirl wind to deal any meaningful damage. I just got the ancient cast aspect which is making it more fun but the campaign really feels like it's slowing down and getting dull. I think I should've played a caster.
 
Has anyone killed the butcher? For fucks sake, he's impossible to kill.
Welp, he just found me, dropped on me in the Buried Halls dungeon. I tried so damn hard to kill him, got him really low, but ultimately just couldn’t avoid the damage long enough and ran out of potions. So pissed.
 
If you don't like the way it looks, you can adjust your monitor or TV settings to compensate. You can also disable HDR in the game and turn on Auto HDR in Windows 11.

If you just want to use the game's HDR:
  • Turn on HDR in Windows, leave Auto HDR turned off.
  • Check the HDR box in the game.
  • Adjust the white point in the game's brightness calibration page to match your display's peak HDR luminance (1,000-1,050 with the new firmware on the AW3423DWF).
  • Leave the other settings at default if you have an OLED display, adjust the black point up slightly on a FALD LCD until you can just barely make out the details in the corner shadow of the first test image.
    • I can't suggest any changes for edge-lit or fake HDR screens since I don't have any to test with.

Can't say I am experiencing that. At the default game brightness of 250 the menus are deep black on both of my screens. Changing that setting at all will make the menus turn grey.
Yeah I’ve moved the slider both ways. I assumed the way I had my black level and tone map settings on the tv were correcting it. Unfortunately the monitor just doesn’t have those settings.
 
My biggest gripe so far I think is that resource management is fucking horrid on half the classes initially.

It's starting to get a little better on my sorceress but holy fuck you're out of mana CONSTANTLY. Like literally 2 or 3 right clicks. You're just stuck with this bullshit until you find certain aspects.

You basically only use abilities on giant packs or elites because they take a while to come back online, and you're out of mana from full in literally seconds and you get to stand there and bonk shit with Arc Lash
I actually like the new resource management, limited potions and slower combat. You lower resource regen and slower combat meant you actually have to (and have time to) think how to manage the fight instead of spamming the generator and than spamming you spender like D3
 
I actually like the new resource management, limited potions and slower combat. You lower resource regen and slower combat meant you actually have to (and have time to) think how to manage the fight instead of spamming the generator and than spamming you spender like D3
There are only six buttons you can hit that fire your spells and weapon attacks off. Nothing to think about or manage once you have your combos all lined up. Literally, as the sorcerer I'm tying the same effing layered AoE effects together constantly. I maxed out the skill tree and there is little to tweak. Paragon levels just buff your attributes and some combat effects or resistances. Growth after Level 50 is dog ass slow. I don't see the combat getting any slower for anyone but the players. The NPC still hack away at you like crazy.

The Game is a repetitive grind fest at some point. I can vaporize nearly any mobs, enemy heroes, semi unique baddies with relative ease. While I am always out of mana, I never really thought about it enough to consider that was the issue. If anything, having limited potions and such slows down our progression ... almost nothing else is effected.

I like the game, but it's already repetitive. Even with respec on abilities I have found my optimal death dealing combos for the sorcerer. I can't imagine anything else gets much better for any other class. All of em require us to spam the shit out of our respective abilities and all the limited potions and timed healing effects do is get us killed and slow down / nearly destroy immersion in the game.

I totally miss resource management with potions for healing, mana boost, etc. The other potions in the game that all give a flat 5% exp bonus and limited layers of protection are ok... But the cost to produce them and farm materials is a pain in the arsehole and didn't need to be in the game. I have something like 3 MILLION gold pieces with nothing to spend it on. They really missed the boat with some of the features. We should be able to go out any buy our own damn super items and even craft them but the crafting system is limited and linear. This game has an expiration date and it's coming faster than I expected it would
 
The Game is a repetitive grind fest at some point. I can vaporize nearly any mobs, enemy heroes, semi unique baddies with relative ease. While I am always out of mana, I never really thought about it enough to consider that was the issue. If anything, having limited potions and such slows down our progression ... almost nothing else is effected.

I like the game, but it's already repetitive. Even with respec on abilities I have found my optimal death dealing combos for the sorcerer. I can't imagine anything else gets much better for any other class. All of em require us to spam the shit out of our respective abilities and all the limited potions and timed healing effects do is get us killed and slow down / nearly destroy immersion in the game.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you just described every mmorpg and arpg there is in a nutshell.
 
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