Microsoft and Sony set up interest group to improve HDR experience in games
Microsoft and Sony, two major rivals in the game consoles, have jointly formed an interest group with the aim of improving the HDR experience in games.
The so-called HDR Gaming Interest Group wants to optimize the HDR gaming experience as much as possible through an extensive number of best practices. The companies behind the interest group recognize that the HDR experience in games is not always optimal due to the different standards and different hardware. The recommendations are intended for game developers, game platforms and screen manufacturers.
Roughly speaking, all recommendations fall under four principles. First of all, the interest group calls on parties to recognize that not all screens perform the same, as it varies quite a bit in how HDR content is processed. With this in mind, it is the intention that the HDR capacities of any arbitrary screen are used to the maximum. Second, there’s the principle that creative game elements should look roughly consistent and the same regardless of which screen is used. This concerns, for example, a zombie looming up from a dark corner or an enemy whose silhouette is only visible due to bright backlighting.
Third, the companies have introduced the forward compatible principle, with which they want to prevent the existing HDR experience in games from deteriorating; this should form the basis, so that the HDR experience remains at least at this level or further improves if screens can mainly deliver better HDR performance in the future. Finally, there is a principle that practical and easily deployable resources should be made available to game developers and consumers. For example, complicated actions to properly set up HDR should be avoided and processing an HDR signal should not be at the expense of the overall gaming experience.
An example of what the interest group describes as an undesirable situation: some gamers may hardly see any details in the clear parts, while others already see that after the tunnel a bend to the right follows.
Specifically, the way in which tone mapping is applied is a topic that gets quite a lot of attention from the interest group proposals. With this technique, the dynamic range can be adjusted so that, for example, HDR content also looks good on a screen that is not a high-flyer in terms of HDR capabilities. This is specifically about how a screen and a used game console work together.
The idea is that a TV transmits its capabilities such as maximum black levels, peak brightness and color range to the console via HDMI. If the console has a database of the picture properties and tone mapping information of a variety of TVs, then the video output can be automatically adjusted to what the TV can handle. Rob Tobias, the director of HDMI Licensing, has already announced that HDMI 2.1 is ready for these HDR improvements. The HDMI 2.1 standard will not appear in TVs until next year.
The participating companies acknowledge that a considerable number of different HDR standards are used on TV screens, but the participants ignore a discussion about the different formats. The various participating parties sometimes support different HDR standards, but the documents do not say anything about, for example, HDR10, Dolby Vision or HDR10+. The recommendations are purely aimed at improving the HDR experience, regardless of which platform is played, which HDR standard is applied or what type of screen is used.
The list of participating companies is quite large: in addition to Microsoft and Sony, this includes TV and screen manufacturers such as Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Philips and Asus. In addition, a number of large game companies also indicate that they are interested in participating in the interest group. These include Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Epic Games and Square Enix. An important absentee is Nintendo, but that is probably related to the fact that Nintendo does not yet offer a console with HDR support.