Paid some attention recently to my display setup, implementing an HDMI switch that will allow for easy switching between my monitor for MSFS and my TV for other more casual gaming. The HDMI switch has a little flipper that downscales one output to 1080p, so I have that going to my TV. Confirmed I’m putting out native 4k 60hz to my monitor.
There’s an “EDID” switch on this HDMI splitter. When it’s set to one setting, I noticed that I have Dolby Vision available inside of my Xbox’s Display settings. When I launch MSFS, it looks brighter, almost more washed out. Is this what Dolby Vision is? A quick google shows that most people think Dolby Vision is too dark - but it’s brighter in my case.
Is this just a side effect of my HDMI split setup? I have verified the splitter and all cables are HDMI 2.0 compliant.
Just wondering if this is what Dolby Vision is supposed to look like on MSFS, and if it’s just a personal preference thing, or if I should stick with it. Is this desired?
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Upon further review, it appears like I might just not like it.
I didn’t know that FS2020 has Dolby Vision.
HDR10 is the only option that I have seen and use.
Washed out colours is usually due to the HDR setting not in sync. If you enabled HDR in your Xbox Display Setting. The first time running MSFS will always make it look washed out because the sim is trying to input SDR content on a display that’s set to HDR, so the colour tone and contrast and brightness are all in the wrong values. It also happens in PC as well, btw when the Windows setting has the HDR enabled but not in the sim.
Go to your Graphics settings in MSFS, and enable HDR10 setting in there. That should make the sim renders the game in the proper HDR values. It may require you to close the sim and restart your Xbox, and try again before you can see the proper HDR mode.
Thanks for the discussion. HDR is enabled in MSFS settings, and HDR10 and Dolby Vision are both enabled within Xbox settings. Those settings are what yields that washed out, brighter looking color to everything.
In that case, have you tried to plug in the HDMI directly between your Xbox to the correct HDMI port in your TV without going through the splitter?
Have you also checked your TV’s HDMI setting? Make sure the HDMI is running in Enhanced Mode and not standard mode, because only Enhanced mode can pass through HDR signal.
Have not tried direct HDMI from Xbox > monitor with Dolby enabled yet; no. Good call. Will try.
Just to be clear - HDR vs non-HDR is night-and-day. My monitor flashes as the signal input changes, ‘HDR’ pops up in the corner, picture looks vivid and fantastic. My question are moreso:
- Should HDR be enabled in the MSFS settings menu? Does this a) augment b) nullify or c) have any effect at all on the Dolby Vision settings enabled within Xbox menu?
- Should Dolby Vision make my MSFS picture appear much brighter, almost washed-out? Do people enable Dolby Vision and then make other modifications to the picture settings on their monitor to compensate for the white wash in order to enjoy the added dynamic range?
- Does any of this even matter? Dolby Vision support, within the Xbox circles at least, seems to be mostly online discussions like “I think it should work like this, I’m not really sure I guess, either way you’re not really going to be able to tell any real difference so yeah I guess I’m still not really sure.”
Well the thing is. MSFS only supports HDR10, not even HDR10+ nor Dolby Vision are supported. So it depends whether if your Xbox is pushing Dolby Vision signal, but MSFS isn’t supported for Dolby vision thus showing you the washed out colours.
To answer your question:
- For me to enjoy HDR, I have to enable HDR10 setting in MSFS menu. This is because the sim itself is rendering the game in HDR mode. If this setting is turned off, the game will render in SDR signal. Your Settings in your Xbox menu is the one pushing the HDR signal to your TV. If the HDR10 setting is turned off in MSFS, that means MSFS will render in SDR signal, while your XBOX is looking for HDR signal to pass through, so the rule in computing is, your hardware will only perform on the weakest link. So in this case, even if your Xbox setting is passing through HDR signal, the source coming from the Sim is only SDR so it will only render SDR.
As far as Dolby vision is concern, Dolby Vision and HDR10 are completely two different standards and they are not compatible with one another. If possible see if you can look in your Xbox settings to Disable Dolby Vision or HDR10+, but do enable HDR10. Just to make sure it’s in-sync with the game settings.
So by enabling HDR in MSFS, it’s neither augment nor nullify, instead it will not be compatible with one another causing issues. You need your MSFS to render the game in HDR10 format, and your Xbox to pass through the correct HDR10 signal to your TV as well for the signal to be correct.
This is the same with my experience in my PC. If my Windows setting has HDR disabled while MSFS rendering HDR, it will push oversaturated graphics to my display. If my Windows setting has HDR enabled but HDR disabled in MSFS, it will display bleached graphics in my display. Only when both Windows HDR enabled and MSFS HDR enabled, that it displays the correct HDR display contrast and colours. But only once I restart my PC and restart MSFS once all the settings are saved.
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No, Like I said, MSFS doesn’t support Dolby Vision. So MSFS will not push any Dolby Vision signal to Xbox or PC and therefore not pushing Dolby Vision signal to your TV. So even if you have Dolby Vision enabled in your Xbox, the sim will not render in Dolby Vision format so therefore you’ll get weird colours and contrast, etc.
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It probably doesn’t matter. Like I said, MSFS only supports HDR10 standards. Not HDR10+ nor Dolby Vision standards. So talking about getting this to work will never work. Unless the discussion centers around giving suggestion to Asobo dev team to make MSFS support Dolby Vision standards.
Be sure you are using an HDMI 2.0 or higher cable.
Required for HDR.
A HDMI 1.4 cable does not support HDR.
Great response! I really appreciate this, thanks. I guess my confusion stemmed from seeing online in a few different places that MSFS was one of the (few) titles (at time of launch) that supported Dolby Vision, along with like Halo and a couple others maybe. And there’s smatterings of people online that have called out MSFS specifically as a Dolby show-off product.
Reconciling all of that against your information though, that does make sense. I do not believe it’s natively supported, and I do believe the best 4k picture on Xbox comes from HDR on, Dolby off (Xbox settings) and HDR10 On (MSFS settings).
One more recommendation: disconnect your hdmi switch first and get things to work with a direct connect cable (at least hdmi 2.0 certified as mentioned above). Once you get things sorted out and working the way you want it you can then try the hdmi switch in the mix.
I had an hdmi switch but at the end of the day I had to remove it even though it technically supported the 4k set up I had. Unfortunately my screen would just go blank from time to time for just a second or two and it got irritating enough I just did the direct connection.
Went through that a lot, buying and returning various other splitters. Know what you mean.
You can’t adjust the settings for Dolby Vision in MSFS or in the Series X calibration tool… you have to do it on your TV. I changed some peak brightness settings in my LG C2’s HDMI override hidden menu and it fixed the blown out look in MSFS/Dolby Vision even if it is not natively rendered in DV.
Also I thought that Dolby vision is sort of dynamic HDR10? wouldn’t HDMI 2.0 limit that?
Disable DV for gaming in your Xbox settings. It’s nonsense.
Most games are rendered natively in HDR10. MSFS20 is one of them.
I don’t care about this guy’s assessment and yes, I know who he is.
HDR always looks better to me and looks perfect for games that use it natively.
Correct, HDMI 2.0 only officially supports Static HDR such as HDR10 standards. Dolby Vision and HDR10+ is Dynamic HDR, which requires HDMI 2.1 to work to its full potential.
Both of which is useless for MSFS, since MSFS only supports static HDR10, and not the Dynamic Dolby Vision and HDR10+. That’s why the recommendation is to turn off Dolby vision setting in Xbox when playing with MSFS. Because it would start sending the wrong signal to the TV.
However I can confirm on my C2 that it looks better in DV mode, even if it is not native Dolby Vision… HDR10 with dynamic tone maping is bright with detail loss, dtm off is dimmer with detail loss, hgig dim but with detail. It is only in DV (mode) that you have brightness while retaining detail. However I did set set Mastering Peak to 700 nits and MaxCLL to 10000 on the C2’s HDMI signal override to match MSFS’s output. I wouldn’t say it is sooooo much better… but it balances it better between less overblown whites without washing out detail.
On the other hand who cares about HDR when the LOD is rubbish and I am looking at cartoon mountains or pixelated ground textures.
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HDR10 in FS2020 is great on my 1499 nits display with HDR calibrated via the
Windows HDR Calibration app.
Whites are white, blacks are black, and colors are vivid.
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I agree. It’s just best to keep DV off on Xbox unless you have a game natively supporting it… Gears 5 is among them I believe.
Besides, DV introduces artifacts like banding and I don’t know, just looks dull and less lively compared to HDR10
