High on Life 2 (PC) HDR Analysis

[KoKlusz]

Technical Info:

• Unreal Engine 5.5
• HDR available in the windowed mode
• Ignores peak brightness from EDID/OS calibration
• Possible sRGB/G2.2 EOTF mismatch in HDR
• UI transparency appears broken in HDR

HDR Settings:

Display Output - color space in which the game is meant to output the image. Default is Auto

Doesn't do anything.

Max Luminance (Peak Brightness) - values range from 00 nits to 10,000 nits, default is 1000 nits

Doesn't do anything. The game is locked to output 1k nits

Mid Luminance (Paper White) - screen brightness, values range from 00 to 100, default is 15

Despite what the name suggest, it's an tonemapper mid-pont adjustment, so not linear. Uses internal UE values instead of nits, default value of 15 should be around 200 nits.

HDR UI Brightness - alues range from 00 to 300, default is 150

Uses internal UE values instead of nits, default value of 150 should be around 420 nits. Value of 66 is close to 200 nits

Review:

Important

HDR output has been added to the game with Patch 3.

Stock UE HDR that could probably be enabled by the users on PC with just a few CVars, no idea why it took the studio months to ship it offically. Shame that once again, the HDR presentation doesn't get the attention a high-end feature like this deserves.

Display Output being exposed to the user in the first place is bonkers, even if it did anything, any options besides the ST-2048 ones would be completely broken.

Comparisons

Warning

In order to view them correctly on Windows, you must use a Chromium browser with Windows HDR enabled and the brightness slider set to the value of 31

SDR Defaults (200 nits, sRGB EOTF)
HDR Defaults
SDR Defaults (200 nits, Gamma 2.2 EOTF)