HDR fixed? They added a 'game' style into the HDR menu.

Just today, they added an HDR style in the HDR calibration menu called 'game' with the options to customize peak brightness and paper white. I don't know if this means it's fixed, but I'm checking it out. I really hope others test it out too and say what they think, and I hope Digital Foundry and EvilBorisHDR check it out to say whether it's finally working. The fake HDR in RDR2 was honestly its biggest misstep to me so this could be great.

Edit - Oh maaaan... So, it looks like it's only for Red Dead Online? What the hell? This sucks. I don't plan on ever playing the online portion of the game. This bums me out.

Edit 2 - Okay, I've decided to check the online out just to see how the HDR looks, but like in the campaign, it doesn't seem to do anything? What is going on?

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Alright, so EvilBorisHDR took a look at it. Here's the video.

Can someone test this out as well and tell me if they notice any difference at all? It honestly feels like Rockstar was like 'well, let's make it so the menu does something, but eh, it doesn't actually have to affect the game, right?' I mean, it does nothing! It affects the HDR calibration menu and that's it. I was excited to try this out, now (to say it again) it actually really bums me out.

I'll actually play this game finally if they fix this. I think there's supposed to be a June update, so maybe this is some beta portion before it actually drops then?

If this is indeed just another tease, goddamn. They've fucking lied about this for long enough. Make it right.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnarcher/2019/05/14/the-red-dead-redemption-2-hdr-fix-is-here-but-it-doesnt-really-work/#18e0a4211cf5

Ugh. I'm also curious to see DF take a look at this. I imagine they'll rip it to shreds, because it sure sounds like this is more tricks to try and approximate HDR than actual HDR. As mentioned in this article, I'm becoming increasingly convinced that this game was never actually designed with HDR in mind and will thus never actually have it because the engine is so heavily entrenched in standard lighting effects.

Exactly. It annoys me that Rockstar would do this. Fix it and put it out, otherwise, they should have never put it in the game (as in, not only the patch but HDR in the first place). Thanks for the link. I've already said it but testing it out earlier, there is a difference when you view the actual calibration screen, but when you go back into the previous menu and the game it's as if nothing changed. The article says it does (although only slightly), but I didn't find that it does. Maybe I have to go back and forth between the new and old cinematic, but whatever the case may be, it's not where it should be and it's still ideal to just turn HDR off.

I'm actively trying not to get too riled up about this because it's a first world-ass problem, but for fuck's sake. This game has made them roughly $1.5 billion on sales alone, and that's not including god knows how much in microtransactions on top of that. It's been out for nearly seven months now. The entire fucking time it's had HDR plastered all over it as a feature, and it apparently still doesn't actually have it after the "fix". Completely fucking unacceptable.

At this point, I'm thinking Rockstar's actual plan is to re-release this on next-gen hardware and only then actually have HDR, at which point they'll probably have the gall to tout that as a selling point. If that happens, they can fuck right off. As for right now, I think I might just skip RDR2 entirely and be done with Rockstar games. I don't want to support a company that outright lies about features of their products, especially considering that they reportedly overworked the shit out of their developers to make this and still managed not to give the game features they claim it does.

We need the Benz!

Seriously. I have to assume that in addition to being the person who pulled everything together at the end and made sure the package going out the door worked properly, he was also responsible to making sure the games were fun in some way. It can’t be coincidence that both of those items disappear area when he did.

I'll still get excited about what Rockstar makes, but otherwise, I totally agree. Also, on somewhat of a side note, I was half expecting someone to come on here and give the 'wow, first world problems folks!' comment as if it's not really worth complaining about, and I get that, but still, it bothered me. It's not really bothering me now though, I kind of just give up...

As someone with HDR who owns but hasn’t launched Red Dead 2, yet. This would be cool.

I’m skeptical as hell, though...

As someone that has an HDR TV and has played the game without HDR, yo that game looks pretty goddamn good without HDR and that really shouldn't be something thats stopping you from playing it.

@humanity:

It's almost a principle thing at this point. Games don't get more AAA than this, and Rockstar sure as hell isn't short on the resources to make this happen. It never should have shipped without it in the first place, and they've had plenty of time since to make this right and haven't. If they're plastering HDR on the box, HDR is what we should get.

Instead, the way I'm supposed to play this game for "optimum" visuals is to go out of my way every time I want to play it to turn OFF an awesome feature both my console and TV are capable of, and then turn it back on when I'm done so I can properly enjoy other games that have visuals that actually aren't broken. I didn't buy an Xbox One X and Sony X900 to play SDR shit, and RDR2 was one of the games I was most excited to play in 4K HDR as it was (and still is) claimed to be, disingenuously.

@humanity: Are you speaking in general, or to me specifically? I went through it at launch and fully agree it's an amazing looking game even without HDR, but they added HDR and didn't do it right, and then just put in a patch that didn't really do anything, so it bums me out because making an already stellar game look even better is exciting. I put the game back on the Xbox One X a couple of weeks ago to just roam the world and noticed on Facebook that they patched it, so it's why I tried it out.

@ntm: not to you specifically but rather to the few folks that were saying they’re straight up not going to play the game because HDR isn’t fixed. I’m right there with people saying it’s a pain to disable HDR in console settings each time you want to play. That’s just annoying enough to get under your skin. But to straight up say that hey I’m not going to play this thing unless it has working HDR is a bit much - in my opinion. I mean live your life how you want, I have my own pet peeves about stuff so I get it, but it’s still excellent in SDR. I didn’t buy an XB1X to play Sekiro with a shitty framerate and yet here we are. I still played it although I was annoyed by it because the game was worth it.

Just to further clarify I’m not making excuses for Rockstar. They advertised it and they should deliver on it. People are well within their right to not play it or buy it if the game is not “feature complete” - absolutely 100% agree with everyone on all that. ALL THAT SAID, I just think if you do decide to not play it because of the lack of HDR support, as shitty as it is for them to not get it working for so long, I thing you are ultimately missing out on a great game.

@humanity: Yeah, I agree with that. It is a pretty big disappointment, but the game (as you've said) is an otherwise amazing looking game; in my opinion, one the best period. The disabling of HDR isn't convenient, but it's also not a big issue as it takes less than one minute to do.

Updated first comment with video. I don't like typing 'sigh' down, but I feel like sighing. I'll just have to test it out more to see if it truly improves anything...

Alright, so I'm playing it again and I've switched back and forth between 'game' and 'cinematic'. I may have spoken too soon when it comes to not changing anything at all because I do notice that light sources are properly lit. The issue still is though that the gamma is much too dim elsewhere. It looks as if the weather is hazy or something. It still doesn't look correct, but it's better. I'll probably just keep it on from here on out. To be honest, I went through the entire story with HDR on despite it not being great and it didn't bother me too much; it was only after I had gone through the story that I turned it off.

It still needs work I feel, but it is better. I can alleviate it some more by changing my HDR settings from 'Dark HDR' to 'Normal HDR' on my TV, but I don't really like doing that. I could be wrong, but it also seems as if colors pop more, like walking over a bridge where a stream is underneath, you can see different hues in the water such as green and blue. Maybe that's also in SDR, but I don't know. Soooo, yeah, it did something so that's good, but I wish it was better still. Oh well. As I've already said, I hope people test it out here and come back and say what they think.

Updated once again as Digital Foundry just put up a video talking about the HDR, the downgrade in visuals, etc.

Appreciate the updates. My 4K TV and One X are in storage until June 8th (I'm mid-move to a new place), but I'll fire it up and test it out when I get settled, and will update this thread with my thoughts then. DF makes it sounds like it's worth the try, but it's still annoying that this game clearly wasn't really designed with HDR in mind.

@notnert427: Sounds good. If you're like me, you'll still probably wish it was a whole lot better. That said as I said before, I like it well enough that I don't feel the need to switch back to SDR. I feel it's just enough of an improvement to keep it in HDR. Just a recommendation: follow the instructions that the calibration screen tells you, don't simply go based on your TV's peak brightness. I think a lot of people from what I've seen are having a hard time deciding what to put the slider on, but all that needs to be done, at least with this game, is set it to what the game tells you to. Not all games are like that though.

Seems like a silly reason to not play a game. Each to their own, I suppose.