Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 - Beta (PC) HDR Analysis

[KoKlusz]

Technical Info:

• IW Engine
• HDR available in the windowed mode (Allows to enable HDR independently from the Windows toggle)
• Ignores peak brightness from EDID/OS calibration
• No apparent sRGB/G2.2 EOTF mismatch in HDR

HDR Settings:

Black Level - black point of the image, values between 0.00 and 0.15, default is 0.00.

Unlike the last couple of games, it works correctly here

White Level - peak brightness, values between 0.60 and 1.00, default is 0.80.

Values follow the PQ curve (see the description of this video for the information on what value corresponds to what brightness).

In the Beta, the peak brightness in game overshoots the value set in the menu.

Review:

Call of Duty games are like birthdays and regrests - they just keep coming.

The new one is almost upon us, therefore MS/XBOX/Activision(BlizzardKing) gave us a sneak peek in the form of the beta test, this time containing the single level from the campaign even, allowing me to take a look at the HDR presentation in peace.

The result is very similar to the last couple of games, but with some tweaks, improvements, and at least one downgrade, though the last one might be fixed by release (not really planning to spend $70 to find out, so see you on Game Pass, assuming it will still exist over a year from now).

The good news is that the shonky gradients that have been a minor issue have been fixed at last. Possibly now that the franchise is free from the last-gen hardware, the engine can use higher bit depth by default, which would explain why banding is almost completely gone from the real-time content, though it's just an educated guess on my end. Also, the black level slider finally works, that should help people complaining about the visibility issues.

Screen brightness/paper white setting is still MIA since 2023, though possibly to compensate, the baseline brightness has been bumped for the SDR reference of around 100 nits to something closer to broadcast-recommended 200 nits. Thankfully the game isn't particularly deep-fried, so it still looks okay in the dark room. The in-game UI seems clamped in post to around 300 nits, again, no option to adjust it.

Finally, in the beta code the peaks slider does not properly clamp highlights, causing them to overshoot the value set in the menu, it's not a massive issue since setting the slider a few clicks below the recommended value resolves the problem. Still, afaik, it worked correctly before, no reason why it shouldn't now.

Overall, the series still continues to be ahead of almost the entire industry (or at least the AAA one) when it comes to delivering the premium HDR visuals, and this year is no exception. The improvement in gradients is very much welcome. The lack of the screen brightness adjustment continues to be really the only major sore spot, otherwise, it doesn't get much better than this.

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, Gamma 2.2)
HDR Defaults

[khoa971996]

I think I've read somewhere saying that this is the only IP/ Engine that's using native P3/Rec.2020 colors instead of gamut expansion or SDR LUTs scaling like most games?

[KoKlusz]

Highly doubt that's true.

[khoa971996]

you mean there are other games also using native P3/Rec.2020 colors or is this game also using gamut expansion and SDR LUTs scaling?

[KoKlusz]

I mean, I highly doubt assets are authored in WCG.

[khoa971996]

hmm, so does that mean they just designed a LUT that can extend to WCG territory when scaling up to HDR?