Contents

• Introduction
• Terminology
• Special K HDR
• Auto HDR
• Native
• Do It Yourself "HDR" (aka the weird ones nobody should follow)

Introduction

The following illustrations detail the dynamic range of games towards the end of the rendering pipeline, and how the range is affected by third-party tools.

Terminology

• SDR Rendering - Lighting calculations are performed (rendered) in a standard/limited dynamic range (SDR).
• HDR Rendering (HDRR) - Lighting calculations are performed (rendered) in a higher/expanded dynamic range (HDR).
• HDR Display Output - The higher dynamic range is also outputted as such to the display.
• Classic "HDR" games - The classic "HDR" game, popularized by Half-Life 2: Lost Coast and seen in most games between 2005-2016, meant games performed their lighting calculations in a higher dynamic range (HDR Rendering; HDRR) but then tonemapped (compressed) the result and outputted it as SDR. This was done due to technical limitations at the time as no consumer-grade hardware or software supported outputting the rendered image in its original dynamic range.
• Modern HDR games - Introduced in the TV space through various formats between 2014-2016, with Nvidia introducing PC support in 2016, the modern HDR experience means a game that not only performs lighting rendering in a higher dynamic range but also supports outputting this data as such to the display. Both the software, graphics card (incl. driver), connection and display need to support this technology in order to actually be able to put a HDR image onto a HDR display.
  • Note that some modern games which claim to be HDR games might not actually be rendering at a higher dynamic range, but merely rebalancing (tonemapping) the brightness of the final SDR rendered image over to a higher dynamic range. These games do not take advantage of the additional range available, and are essentially just classic SDR games in disguise.
• See PCGamingWiki's HDR article for a more detailed description.

Special K HDR

# Game with HDR Rendering

HDR Rendering (Game)	HDR-to-SDR tonemapping (Game)	SDR decompression -> HDR approximation (SK HDR Retrofit)	Game Output (SK HDR Retrofit)	HDR Display Output

# D3D11 with Pipeline Remastering

HDR Rendering (SK Pipeline Remastering)	HDR-to-SDR tonemapping (Game)	SDR decompression -> HDR approximation (SK HDR Retrofit)	Game Output (SK HDR Retrofit)	HDR Display Output

# Game with SDR Rendering or D3D11 w/o SK Pipeline Remastering

SDR Rendering (Game)	"SDR-to-HDR" (SK HDR Retrofit)	Game Output (SK HDR Retrofit)	HDR Display Output

Auto HDR

# Game with HDR Rendering

HDR Rendering (Game)	HDR-to-SDR tonemapping (Game)	Game Output	SDR decompression -> HDR approximation (Auto HDR)	HDR Display Output

# Game with SDR Rendering

SDR Rendering (Game)	Game Output	"SDR-to-HDR" (Auto HDR)	HDR Display Output

Native

# HDR Rendering + HDR Display Output (modern HDR game)

HDR Rendering (Game)	Game Output	HDR Display Output

# HDR Display Output Only (modern fake "HDR" game)

SDR Rendering (Game)	"SDR-to-HDR" (Game)	Game Output	HDR Display Output

# HDR Rendering Only (classic "HDR" game)

HDR Rendering (Game)	HDR-to-SDR (Game)	Game Output	SDR Display Output

# SDR Rendering

SDR Rendering (Game)	Game Output	SDR Display Output

Do It Yourself "HDR" (aka the weird ones nobody should follow)

# Starfield (aka "Save us, Auto HDR, you're our only hope!")

SDR Rendering (Game; most passes)	HDR Rendering (Game; some passes)	HDR-to-SDR tonemapping (Game)	Game Output	SDR decompression -> HDR approximation (Auto HDR)	HDR Display Output

# NieR: Automata (aka "Let's rebalance SDR and call it a day!")

SDR Rendering (Game)	"SDR-to-HDR" (Game)	Game Output	HDR Display Output

⚡