SU5 graphics quality

[CptLucky8]

@scriptkid

Well, currently i’m looking at the sim in 4k on an hdr screen up to 1000 nits at 52inch.

From my personal perspective. I’m kind of impressed. I callibrated the output and set a color profile for my display so color prediction is as accurate as possible for my display. I did made sure i had the st.2084 profile active.

When looking at the colors there are no purple/green artifacts, there is also no whitewashing except the blueish discoloring (brighten up) by haze, which is expected. The details are crisp.

Clouds are having higher contrast, i’m also not seeing the grain. This possibly because of my additional nvidia settings.

Which is also why some are finding that SU5 is degrading the PC experience because of the Xbox, not just from a pixel detail or object popping up perspective.

Don’t draw conclusions too fast about what I’ve just written (I know you won’t @scriptkid ), just take some time to re-read this with an open mind (and 2nd degree) while at the same time asking yourself whether most Xbox connected on TVs are most likely on HDR 4K TVs (what sells the most for the living room) and most PC connected on monitors are most likely on SDR monitors.

With this in mind, it makes it easier to see what I mean:

@CptLucky8

@xtek5473

I found that if I reduce the Gamma level from 1.0 to 0.7 the haze is reduced to the point that the sim is almost back to what I had with SU4.

The difference to me with the exposition problem, before and after SU5, is that the game seems to be "tuned” for Xbox + HDR TV display. Not only many PC + monitor users don’t have HDR capable display devices, but the monitor and the TV might not be using the same gamma either. In addition, PC+monitors are calibrated for sRGB whereas HDR TV are calibrated for a wider color gamut.

Some good starting points:

“While the Rec. 2020 transfer function can be used for encoding, it is expected that most productions will use a reference monitor that has an appearance of using equivalent of gamma 2.4 transfer function”
Rec. 2020 - Wikipedia

“SDR for HD video uses a system chromaticity (chromaticity of color primaries and white point) specified in Rec. 709 (same as sRGB). […] HDR is commonly associated to a Wide Color Gamut (a system chromaticity wider than BT.709)”
HDR Chromacity

I haven’t done the maths, but your experience in lowering Gamma level to 0.7 seems to reflect the inverse of the change from 2.2 (sRGB) to 2.4 (HDTV).

[edit] given the latest update on SU5 hotfix2 I’ve changed to a conditional tense.

And this:

Official Discussion: Upcoming Hotfix Announcement

I honestly think the new shader code is much better representing what you’d observe with a n.aked eye IRL, when the sun shinning through is making it nearly impossible to discerning details in the clouds because they are too bright for your eyes. However the drawback in the implementation like you’re explaining is the global increase of what could be simply described as “ambiant” lighting, therefore reducing or eliminating some shadows, giving what some are also calling a “cartoon” look, etc……

Now honestly there is no reason the game code couldn’t support both transfer functions and chromaticity depending on which type of monitor or TV you’re connecting the computer to, but is it? Is the “PC code” implemented for “PC specific” context? And if this example with chromaticity is sound and showing it is tuned only for a specific type of equipment (HDR TV) which is most likely more often used with a consoler than a PC, what are the other part of the game code which are also only designed and tuned for a console only, if any?