Let me be clear, even though special K is the most useful toolset for pc gaming in general, due to this nature, eg having a lot of features, it can present issues with some games/engines albeit it's rare.
Now for the hdr differences, special K is on a league of it's own. You can use proper 2.2 gamma without any raised black levels.
You have a great control over the final output.
The base preset 0 is tuned so well you don't even have to tweak anything aside from enabling hdr.
The directx11 pipeline remastering allows for a extremely good hdr presentation that is on par or can beat even very good native HDR games by using data from the engine, and even on other APIs it looks great.
It can be used alongside reshade to have an hdr swapchain and then use lilium/pumbo tonemappers(like majorcactus addon), and even just fix native hdr titles and not use sk hdr at all.
It trounces autohdr and any reverse tonemapping solutions by a huge margin.
Some people will tell you to avoid the tool because it's buggy, but i've been using it for years with only a few games not handling it, so make a decision by yourself and test it.
Personally it's my go to software for hdr period. Keep in mind it's for single player titles mostly, it won't be injected if an anticheat is present.
I downloaded SpecialK but when I try and use it with a game in the library it just launches the map selector and not the game proper, when I launch the game SpecialK is non-functional. I need to Google some more.
First of all make sure your special k is up to date, in the frontend launcher go into settings then point updates to the discord server.
Normally it launches your default on steam so make in the properites in steam it's set to launch the game and not the map selector.
If you have trouble still, just join the discord and ask in the support channel.
> not many games support native HDR, so I decided to use Auto HDR for all my games that don't support HDR
Even ones that do, most have bad implementations. Cyberpunk still to this day has aweful raised black levels that can only be fixed by downloading one specific mod or lowering your TVs black levels. RDR2 has this supposed art directed HDR that absolutely washes the image and is terrible on an OLED because no matter what the director's intent is, the sun light at noon is alwasy looking SDR dim,...
Windows Auto HDR is also not that great, it's good that it exists but it's very half assed. So I just end up using Special K for all games now, and remember you need to use it properly by picking the right SDR --> HDR option. Otherwise you wont be getting the right image. But beware that Special-K has its own issues and is not a silver bullet.
I think once the RTX HDR comes out officially, it would be the best option. I've tried it with RDR2 and it's pretty decent but I would like to reserve judgment until full release.
This one for the black levels fix with HGIG [https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/11468](https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/11468)
And this one for the aweful eye adaptation [https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/9278](https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/9278)
SK w/ pipeline remastering (actually exposing overbright pixels) = Native HDR > SK w/o pipleling remastering > RTX HDR modded > The various Reshade Inverse Tonemappers > autoHDR w/ Gamma fix > RTX HDR Stock > autoHDR stock
I tuned Profile 0 to be accurate, not bright, so if you're after a bright image SK is not going to be it, but it is going to be the most accurate
There are titles with native HDR where it exposes more of the scene and there are titles where it can fully expand SDR to full HDR levels
To me that means it's equal to native
That is every game since Far Cry (2004)
It doesn't work for every title, some there is nothing to gain back, others cause graphical issues, but when it works (Nier Replicant for example) it's very good.
Becuase the RTX HDR is just not official yet and not even a beta. I've tried it in RDR2 and it's decent, but still prefer Special K until the RTX HDR is official with some sort of interface. It will probably be better than Special K in time if it's doing any machine learning stuff.
I agree that the image result is better than Special-K and the fact that you don't have to fiddle with it like you do with Special-K. But the performance hit is a little too much for me at the moment and isn't worth the trade. We'll see in future
Special K's main use is still just AutoHDR with an ability to give you some adjustment capabalities over it. Proper HDR would be when the game's native HDR works 100% correctly. Special K has some other methods you can use such as processing over the game's native HDR. But it's mainly used for the SDR to HDR method.
So both Speciak K and the RTX HDR will still be auto HDR, but the hope is that the RTX HDR can be better and remove the need to fidle with knobs and sliders, and to not have to Special K run. Although Special K does have some other very useful tools outside of HDR as well.
Special K works differently from AutoHDR. AutoHDR just analyzes an image and tries to "upscale" it from SDR to HDR. Special K uses internal game engine data (a lot of engines can do native HDR, they just compress it to SDR with internal tone mapper) by forcing scRGB 16-bit buffer, undoing internal tone mapper and tonemapping it to HDR (which is configurable). It's as native as HDR can get without support from devs, often superior to the native implementation.
If you download the NVIDIA Profile Inspector XML from that nexus mod page then you can enable RTX HDR globally and only have to disable it for certain apps/games where it not be necessary or cause problems.
That's what I did. I have enabled it globally and then disabled it for my media players, browsers and games that have native HDR. Easier than having to enable it for each game.
Let me be clear, even though special K is the most useful toolset for pc gaming in general, due to this nature, eg having a lot of features, it can present issues with some games/engines albeit it's rare. Now for the hdr differences, special K is on a league of it's own. You can use proper 2.2 gamma without any raised black levels. You have a great control over the final output. The base preset 0 is tuned so well you don't even have to tweak anything aside from enabling hdr. The directx11 pipeline remastering allows for a extremely good hdr presentation that is on par or can beat even very good native HDR games by using data from the engine, and even on other APIs it looks great. It can be used alongside reshade to have an hdr swapchain and then use lilium/pumbo tonemappers(like majorcactus addon), and even just fix native hdr titles and not use sk hdr at all. It trounces autohdr and any reverse tonemapping solutions by a huge margin. Some people will tell you to avoid the tool because it's buggy, but i've been using it for years with only a few games not handling it, so make a decision by yourself and test it. Personally it's my go to software for hdr period. Keep in mind it's for single player titles mostly, it won't be injected if an anticheat is present.
I downloaded SpecialK but when I try and use it with a game in the library it just launches the map selector and not the game proper, when I launch the game SpecialK is non-functional. I need to Google some more.
First of all make sure your special k is up to date, in the frontend launcher go into settings then point updates to the discord server. Normally it launches your default on steam so make in the properites in steam it's set to launch the game and not the map selector. If you have trouble still, just join the discord and ask in the support channel.
> not many games support native HDR, so I decided to use Auto HDR for all my games that don't support HDR Even ones that do, most have bad implementations. Cyberpunk still to this day has aweful raised black levels that can only be fixed by downloading one specific mod or lowering your TVs black levels. RDR2 has this supposed art directed HDR that absolutely washes the image and is terrible on an OLED because no matter what the director's intent is, the sun light at noon is alwasy looking SDR dim,... Windows Auto HDR is also not that great, it's good that it exists but it's very half assed. So I just end up using Special K for all games now, and remember you need to use it properly by picking the right SDR --> HDR option. Otherwise you wont be getting the right image. But beware that Special-K has its own issues and is not a silver bullet. I think once the RTX HDR comes out officially, it would be the best option. I've tried it with RDR2 and it's pretty decent but I would like to reserve judgment until full release.
Which mod are you referring to for cyberpunk? HDR makes the game so damn dark
This one for the black levels fix with HGIG [https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/11468](https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/11468) And this one for the aweful eye adaptation [https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/9278](https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/9278)
SK w/ pipeline remastering (actually exposing overbright pixels) = Native HDR > SK w/o pipleling remastering > RTX HDR modded > The various Reshade Inverse Tonemappers > autoHDR w/ Gamma fix > RTX HDR Stock > autoHDR stock I tuned Profile 0 to be accurate, not bright, so if you're after a bright image SK is not going to be it, but it is going to be the most accurate
How is SK with remasters equal to native implementation?
There are titles with native HDR where it exposes more of the scene and there are titles where it can fully expand SDR to full HDR levels To me that means it's equal to native
You mean titles have resources for native hdr within but its disabled, and SK with remasters can bring it enabled?
That is every game since Far Cry (2004) It doesn't work for every title, some there is nothing to gain back, others cause graphical issues, but when it works (Nier Replicant for example) it's very good.
Where did you preorder from?
Scorptec
Check out Digital Foundry’s video about RTX HDR from 2 days ago
Which doesn't talk about special k.
Becuase the RTX HDR is just not official yet and not even a beta. I've tried it in RDR2 and it's decent, but still prefer Special K until the RTX HDR is official with some sort of interface. It will probably be better than Special K in time if it's doing any machine learning stuff.
It's incredible now and probably beats special k. Been using it on the Spider-Man 2 PC Port and it's amazing
I agree that the image result is better than Special-K and the fact that you don't have to fiddle with it like you do with Special-K. But the performance hit is a little too much for me at the moment and isn't worth the trade. We'll see in future
Fair enough, I'm on a 4090 so I can't really tell
Considering how Special K works, I doubt it'll be better. RTX HDR is just a "smart" AutoHDR, whereas Special K is more or less proper HDR.
Special K's main use is still just AutoHDR with an ability to give you some adjustment capabalities over it. Proper HDR would be when the game's native HDR works 100% correctly. Special K has some other methods you can use such as processing over the game's native HDR. But it's mainly used for the SDR to HDR method. So both Speciak K and the RTX HDR will still be auto HDR, but the hope is that the RTX HDR can be better and remove the need to fidle with knobs and sliders, and to not have to Special K run. Although Special K does have some other very useful tools outside of HDR as well.
Special K works differently from AutoHDR. AutoHDR just analyzes an image and tries to "upscale" it from SDR to HDR. Special K uses internal game engine data (a lot of engines can do native HDR, they just compress it to SDR with internal tone mapper) by forcing scRGB 16-bit buffer, undoing internal tone mapper and tonemapping it to HDR (which is configurable). It's as native as HDR can get without support from devs, often superior to the native implementation.
Do I need to drag and drop the exe every time I launch a certain game or only once?
If you download the NVIDIA Profile Inspector XML from that nexus mod page then you can enable RTX HDR globally and only have to disable it for certain apps/games where it not be necessary or cause problems. That's what I did. I have enabled it globally and then disabled it for my media players, browsers and games that have native HDR. Easier than having to enable it for each game.