[HN Gopher] From SDR to 'Fake HDR': Mario Kart World on Switch 2
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From SDR to 'Fake HDR': Mario Kart World on Switch 2
Author : ibobev
Score : 31 points
Date : 2025-06-17 19:07 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.alexandermejia.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.alexandermejia.com)
| jldugger wrote:
| > But when Gamers in ESA surveys report that the quality of the
| graphics being the #2 factor in deciding when to purchase a game
|
| Somehow I doubt this survey is representative of the typical
| Mario Kart player. And to those for whom it is a concern, I don't
| think SDR is high on the list relative to framerate, pop-in, and
| general "see where I'm going and need to go next" usability.
| Loughla wrote:
| You are exactly right. I don't care if it's all blocks and
| squares. As long as I can not lag and see enough to destroy my
| children at the game.
| jm20 wrote:
| Nintendo has never competed on graphics. They compete on having
| the most fun, accessible, entertaining games as possible. And say
| what you will about their business practices, they've probably
| done a better job of that than any other gaming company in
| history. As more devs bundle ever higher quality graphics with
| ever higher in-app purchases and pay to win schemes, Mario
| remains...Mario.
|
| I seriously doubt many Switch users would bail on the system
| because of "fake" HDR. They probably don't care about HDR _at
| all_. As long as Mario remains Mario, they're happy.
| MBCook wrote:
| I'm heavily disappointed. I've always been a HUGE Nintendo fan.
|
| If the system was SDR only I would be disappointed but fine.
|
| But they made it HDR. They made a big deal about it. And it
| doesn't work well. It's impossible to calibrate and ends up
| just looking washed out.
|
| It's broken.
|
| And I don't appreciate the insinuation that Nintendo fans will
| buy any piece of junk they put out. See: Wii U.
| gjsman-1000 wrote:
| I read the above post, and honestly thought it was satire.
| esseph wrote:
| https://youtu.be/X84e14oe6gs?feature=shared
| HeyMeco wrote:
| Agree, with the HDR marketing for the Switch 2 I expected a
| proper implementation. Sad that they cheaped out on it but at
| least we got this great article out of it
| badc0ffee wrote:
| The Wii U had terrible wifi, but I can't really say I hated
| it. There were some real classics on that console - Mario
| Kart 8 and Super Mario 3D World (although those were both
| eventually ported to the Switch). It played Wii games and
| supported all the original controllers, but output HDMI and
| had real power management. I still use mine to play Wii
| games.
| Retr0id wrote:
| Nintendo graphics are rarely _technically_ impressive, but
| their games do tend to look good. I 'd expect their games not
| to have washed-out colours.
| theshackleford wrote:
| I'm a Nintendo purchaser. I absolutely care about HDR. Given
| they specifically advertised HDR, I suspect they expect me to
| care, otherwise why make noise about it?
| MBCook wrote:
| I'm glad to see this getting attention in the last day or two.
| HDRVTest did a video too.
|
| I'm having a blast with MarioKart but the track usually looks
| washed out. Some of the UI and other things have great color on
| them but most of the picture just looks like the saturation was
| turned down a bit.
|
| Very disappointing as a Mario game and its colorful aesthetic is
| the kind of thing that should be able to look great in HDR.
| ge96 wrote:
| Interesting how the images pop on that site, everything else has
| like lower opacity/faded, worked great, maybe more noticable on
| retina monitors
| badc0ffee wrote:
| On macOS 15.5, Firefox 139 shows super dark images for me.
| Safari seems to work fine, though.
| ziml77 wrote:
| I'm curious if someone knows what's going on. It feels to me
| like Firefox is showing the image in HDR but with the wrong
| gamma curve applied.
| GRiMe2D wrote:
| MacBook Pro can "display" HDR content on SDR displays.
|
| macOS puts a slightly higher brightness than it required
| and artificially (in software) changes absolute white
| (0xFFFFFF) to greyish color (0xEEEEEE). So when a HDR
| content is required it will remove mask around that
| content. Safari ideally, probably that's on Firefox why
| tone mapping doesn't work well
| badc0ffee wrote:
| There's a HDR video on that page, and on my built-in MBP
| display, it's much brighter/has noticeably more range
| than the rest of the UI. Moving the window to my non-HDR
| external 4k monitor, it looks like a regular YouTube
| video.
| tempaway43563 wrote:
| Literally only makes a difference to the clouds. Nintendo know
| what they're doing and made the right call
| braiamp wrote:
| There's someone that did the job to actually figuring out how to
| make the HDR of the switch work, but it needs your display to
| support certain features to be correct
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X84e14oe6gs
| mortenjorck wrote:
| The most unpleasant effect from cut-rate HDR is when graphics
| with bright backgrounds get lazy-mapped to HDR.
|
| Perhaps the worst offender I've ever seen was the Mafia remake by
| Hangar 17, which loads every time with a sequence of studio logos
| with white backgrounds that cut from black. The RGB(255,255,255)
| backgrounds get stretched to _maximum HDR nits,_ and the jump
| from RGB(0,0,0) (especially on an OLED) is absolutely eye-
| searing.
|
| I literally had to close my eyes whenever I'd load the game.
| xnx wrote:
| Even worse when you're in a dark room. The white flash when
| loading many otherwise dark mode websites and apps is the
| worst.
| theshackleford wrote:
| > (especially on an OLED)
|
| Why would it be any more impactful on OLED than any given FALD
| display capable of putting out >1000 nits sustained?
| fxtentacle wrote:
| I believe the article is based on a wrong assumption. The author
| argues that everything could look more realistic and that VFX
| could pop more with stronger HDR, but in my opinion it makes a
| lot of sense to keep a stylized cartoon game also stylized in its
| brightness choices.
|
| When you drive towards the sun, what is more fun? A realistic HDR
| brightness that blinds you, or a ,,wrong" brightness level that
| helps the background stay in the background without interrupting
| your flow? Similarly, should eye candy like little sparks grab
| your attention by being the brightest object on screen? I'd say
| no.
|
| The hardware can handle full HDR and more brightness, but one
| could argue that the game is more fun with incorrect brightness
| scaling...
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