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CONTROL - HDR+Ultrawide+DLSS+RT Patch


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About This File

Do not ask for DLSS 3.5 or FSR 3 please.

 

Version 1.5.1 is up. It fixes the hiss/smoke effect on enemies being too bright in HDR.
Version 1.5 is up. It improves the DLSS implementation, improves the quality of shadow and fixes the buggy/noisy ray tracing reflections that are also present in the vanilla game.
Version 1.4 is up. It improves the UI look in HDR and implements the HDR mode that retains the original game look. It improves texture LODs with DLSS. It restores film grain with DLSS and makes it more pronounced. And many other relevant changes.
Version 1.3 is up. It adds a new HDR mode to retain the original hazy look more, keeping it closer to the original artistic vision. It also slightly improves a few other things with the HDR.
Version 1.2.1 is up. It improves the game to screen tonemapping (the highlights were a bit more compressed than they should have been). If you already had the mod installed, make sure to open the "renderer.ini" and change "m_fHDRWhitePaperNits" to 200. Performance is also improved.
Version 1.2 is up. The game is now built with the DLSS 3.1.1 SDK, and uses the new DLSS presets to further increase the quality (and reduce ghosting) (this is NOT frame generation). There are also some minor tonemapping and menus improvements.

This patch adds native HDR and lot more to Control, making it a little bit of a technical remaster. It was achieved by rebuilding the game with modified code and shaders.
This is built on top of my previous Ultrawide fix patch.

Compared to the latest official release version (0.0.344.1879), these are the improvements:

  • Native HDR (gets rid of color banding, greater contrast and brighter highlights, more natural colors).
  • Improved quality of SDR output (10bit->no more color banding, slightly better dynamic range).
  • Upgraded DLSS to 3.1.30 and improved its implementation (it's also now compatible with FSR 2.X injection).
  • Added DLAA support (DLSS at native resolution).
  • Added a new "Max" texture setting to improve the slow texture streaming (min 8GB+ VRAM, 10GB+ are recommended).
  • Added a new setting to use 3x as samples for ray tracing and volumetrics, increasing the quality and reducing noise (this is VERY expensive).
  • Fixed broken ray tracing reflections.
  • Fixed low shadow quality when ray tracing was on.
  • Full UltraWide support: unlock any resolution and aspect ratio, including 32:9+.
  • Some FOV and LOD fixes for UW. Fixed UI issues at non 16:9 aspect ratios (e.g. enemies health bars were displaced).
  • Added a FOV Multiplier config setting `m_fFOVMultiplier` (the game and UI are designed for the default FOV, so only use for accessibility reasons).
  • Add a config to skip the intro video `m_bSkipIntroVideos`.
  • Improved window+borderless+fullscreen management.
  • Fixed the game not launching correctly on non Nvidia non AMD GPUs (e.g. Intel Arc).
  • Restored film grain with DLSS. Tweaked the film grain implementation.
  • Minor crash fixes, bug fixes and features.

How does it work:

  1. Download your version of the patch (Steam, Epic Store, No DRM/GOG).
  2. Copy (with replace) all the files inside the Control install folder.
  3. Open the DX12 version of the game.
  4. You can turn on HDR either from Windows or from the game (on by default).
  5. The game will read the Windows 11 HDR calibration profile (app) and match its tonemapping to your screen capabilities.
    Otherwise see the guide below to calibrate HDR.
  6. Using HGiG is suggested if your TV supports it (monitors usually default to HGiG).
  7. In the game settings, there are multiple HDR settings to tailor the image to your liking, though know that the HDR is already pre-calibrated to roughly match the SDR brightness.

Further details:

  • You can swap between HDR and SDR from the game or Windows at any time. The game automatically changes.
  • Further HDR settings are avaiable in the "renderer.ini" file (after running the game once).
  • config "m_fHDRMaxNitsOverride": If you are incapable of creating an HDR calibration profile (e.g. Windows 10), set this to the nits max nits your screen supports (e.g. ~750 for LG CX).
    The game supports any value there, though if your screen maxes out at only 400 nits, you might want to compare HDR and SDR and play whichever looks best.
  • config "m_fHDRRaisedBlacksCorrection" (also exposed to settings menu): This makes the color correction LUT output black as black (instead of grey, depending on where you are).
  • config "m_fHDRSaturation" (also exposed to settings menu): This artificially generates colors in the Rec.2020 space from the game internal Rec.709 image. Anything that is bright and saturated will shift to colors that don't exist in SDR. This makes the game look more saturated, though it could also make it feel more "HDR". Unreal Engine uses a similar technique.
  • The HDR implementation skips the Reinhard tonemapper the game used in SDR. In my opinion it made the image look overly flat, which was a choice dictated by the limitations of SDR. Removing it allows to take full advantage of HDR, by outputting an image with a much greater level of contrast, and without disadvantages to visibility.
  • If you prefer the original look, enable "HDR Original Look" in the settings menu, which is somewhere in between the SDR tonemapper and my HDR one.
    Disabling the tonemapper in SDR is not the intent of this mod, so it will not be done.
    You can further customize the og look mode by changing the "m_fHDRArtDirectorWhitePoint" config. Set it to a value of 8 to have it as strong as it was in SDR.
  • Note that a very tiny amount of scenes (e.g. the game opening and the furnace), can look a little unbalanced in HDR due to overly strong lights or strong color correction. Use the "HDR Original Look" if this a problem for you.
  • You can set "m_fSDRCustomGamma" to any value > 0 to set a specific gamma, for example if you use a TV instead of a monitor, 2.2 would likely be the best choice.
  • The performance impact from the new code should be within the 1-4% range when running in HDR, and lower running in SDR.
  • HDR is only supported on the DX12 executable.
  • There is no patch for the Microsoft Store version of the game.
  • If for some reasons you need to swap save files between game versions from different stores, you can find the directories here. You might also have to rename the internal save directory, e.g. from `Default-Generic-User` to `Default-Epic-User`.
  • This should work both on the Ultimate Edition and the older standard version that had separate DLCs. The DLC ownership might not be mutually compatible.
  • The save game files are mutually compatible with the official last version fo the game (v0.0.344.1879).
  • PS4 exclusive content is still locked and I will not unlock it. Do not ask please.
  • You can generally change graphics settings at runtime, but don't report problems unless you restart the game.
  • The new UI options miss localization, so they will always show in English.
  • My "Max" texture setting might not be as aggressive as the "Blurry textures fix" mod that was already out there, though it's more safe and stable, performance wise.
    All textures now load immediately, the only exception being a couple of small paintings around the game.
  • I got report that mods like the "Plugin Loader" do not play well with this one. I have contacted the author to hopefully fix the issue.
  • There is no plan to implement DLSS 3 Frame Generation at this time. Please do not ask.

Rare game bug likely not related to this patch:

  • Very rarely, the videos in the background of loading screens seem to get stuck. I haven't been able to reproduce this reliably, but it probably also happens in the the vanilla game.
  • Rarely, after long sessions, if ray tracing GI is enabled, the game renders in black until restarted. This also happens in the vanilla game.
  • Occasionally non ray traced reflections can shimmer. This also happens in the the vanilla game. Doing a fast travel fixes it.
  • 8k resolutuon might not work right (untested).
  • If pre-rendered videos show tearing on RTX 4090 GPUs, disable re-bar.

How to report any potential issues:

  1. Do not start with the assumption that the mod broken, it's been tested a lot. Verify all potential issues from your end first.
  2. Do a fresh install of the latest vanilla game version.
  3. Delete your renderer.ini settings file.
  4. Make sure the issue does NOT happen on the vanilla game. This patch does not aim to fix the bugs of the original game (nor to optimize it), so do not report them please.
  5. Re-apply the latest version of the patch, from the matching store, and override all the files.
  6. If all the above fail, leave a comment on this page.

How does this compare to AutoHDR: AutoHDR is just a post process so it doesn't add any detail. Specifically in Control it makes bright lights and the UI too bright.
How does this compare to SpecialK HDR: SpecialK can increase the rendering buffers depth, thus increasing the amount of color shades the game can output (less banding), but it can't extract any brightness beyond what the SDR tonemapper clamped the game to, so it's mostly still a SDR image with more precision.

Given HDR screenshots can't be seen in browsers, I've uploaded a collection of them. There are SDR .png alongside their HDR .jxr counterpart.
Use the "HDR Image Viewer" app to see them (use this code branch if the app crashes).

Discord community: https://discord.gg/R2Bt3uptw6

Virus Scan

you can Buy me a coffee or PayPal
Thanks: `KoKlusz` `Lilium` `PennyFortnite player420yolo` `Darktalon` `Aemony` `mrtnptrs` and `Alex Battaglia` for the help with testing and feedback.

HDR videos:

more HDR videos here (4K) and here (low bit rate, potentially slightly wrong colors due to the capture).

Control 2022-12-05 19_45_28.png

Control HDR Screenshots.7z

Control_DX12_AQFd0vjSW9.png

DLSS improvements between patch 1.3 and 1.4 with Ultra Performance mode:
image.thumb.png.ed7fe1276377025c7af3cd1c5f3499ce.png


What's New in Version 1.5.1   See changelog

Released

  • Fixes hiss (smoke) effect around enemies being too bright in HDR (it was broken in 1.3).




User Feedback

Recommended Comments



Have been having my eye on this forum thread for a while now in anticipation of if Ray Reconstruction might be implemented into Control/this mod. Such a huge shame as it seems it will never happen though regardless of it not needing a 40-series GPU to work. Control would greatly benefit visually from the addition of RR.

Anyway, thanks for your efforts and this mod @filoppi.

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On 5/14/2023 at 10:03 PM, jademalo said:

The biggest issue is the weird DLC incompatibility, honestly. I can't figure it out 😞

The download that I get strangely doesn't have a build number when checking details of the exe, which is even stranger. It's like I've got some sort of strange build of the game that's extremely weird. I wonder if I can ask Valve to try and remove the weird broken key, I wonder if this has anything to do with me having the Humble Bundle version then upgrading to the full ultimate.

 

EDIT: Fixed it!

I had a copy of the standard edition registered on steam from a Humble Bundle a few years ago. This uses a different depot with an older build, which was taking presidence over the actual ultimate edition depot.

Going through steam support and manually removing the key for the standard edition seems to have fixed it, after reinstalling it loaded my DLC correctly. It seems that the core of the issue is that my DLC wasn't being detected when running through an ultimate edition executable (such as this mod), so saves were incompatible due to them expecting the DLC.

I still can't figure out why ultimate executables wouldn't detect my DLC even if I manually installed the ultimate depot or installed this mod, but at least it's sorted now!

Hopefully that's useful for in the future if someone else has a similar issue!

 

I have the same problem and I am not sure if I understand your solution. Did steam support change your standard edition key with the ultimate edition or did you remove the standard edition from steam yourself to buy the ultimate edition?

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4 hours ago, smilergrogan said:

I have the same problem and I am not sure if I understand your solution. Did steam support change your standard edition key with the ultimate edition or did you remove the standard edition from steam yourself to buy the ultimate edition?

Steam Support typically won't update or change the actual entitlements assigned to your account, however if you own both copies you can do that yourself.

I was in the same situation as that user -- I first bought the actual Ultimate Edition when it arrived on Steam, but then a year later idiotically used the Humble Bundle's Standard Edition redemption key as I thought it would appear as a separate game in my library, but in reality it didn't. Instead it meant the Standard Edition data depots from then onward took precedence over the better Ultimate Edition data depots, screwing me over because of how someone set these editions up on Steam...

Anyway, since I owned both editions of the game on Steam, I could use Steam's support page to "remove" the Standard Edition from my account:

1. Open the Steam Support page for Control: https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpWithGame/?appid=870780

2. Click "I want to permanently remove this game from my account"

3. If you own both the Ultimate Edition and the Standard Edition on your account, you'll get a mesage that you own the product as part of multiple packages, and the question of which package you want removed from your account. If you do not get this message, you do not own both editions of the game in which case removing the Standard Edition will force you to actually purchase the Ultimate Edition from the store.

4. Select "Control" as this is the broken Humble Bundle Standard Edition we want removed from the account.

5. Select "Ok, remove the listed games from my account permanently".

6. The Standard Edition and its data depots should from now on be removed from the account. The Steam client may start downloading the proper data depots automatically, or the game might have to be uninstalled and reinstalled for all data related to the Standard Edition to be removed from the PC.

 

A note is that despite Valve claiming the game being "permanently removed" from the library, in reality (at least for me, a EU citizen) it isn't fully removed but merely disabled. So even though I have "permanently removed" a game from my account I can still use the aforementioned support page and the "It's not in my library" option to restore removed games/content which would restore the removed data depots as well.

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Also, this is a bit of a soapbox rant, but whomever manages the Control store page on Steam (whether that be 505 Games or Remedy themselves), really needs to take the time to resolve this stupid conflicting setup. Either the Standard Edition should've been moved to a separate app ID entirely, or both versions should've been merged into one since you can't even purchase the Standard Edition (or its DLCs I think) any longer.

It's really damn stupid how 505 Games screwed users over, all for some quick and dirty money. They did a similar stunt with Death Stranding on Epic and the Microsoft Store, though at least in those cases the random release of Standard Editions at least (or so I hope) didn't break games for existing owners as it did with Control on Steam.

The Standard Edition data depots on Steam are just inherently worse in every way, even occupying more space than the Ultimate Edition depots. No idea why there's a ~7 GB difference between the two versions, but I have to assume it has various implications such as worse loading times in the Standard Edition and whatnot.

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On 10/22/2023 at 8:27 PM, Aemony said:

Steam Support typically won't update or change the actual entitlements assigned to your account, however if you own both copies you can do that yourself.

I was in the same situation as that user -- I first bought the actual Ultimate Edition when it arrived on Steam, but then a year later idiotically used the Humble Bundle's Standard Edition redemption key as I thought it would appear as a separate game in my library, but in reality it didn't. Instead it meant the Standard Edition data depots from then onward took precedence over the better Ultimate Edition data depots, screwing me over because of how someone set these editions up on Steam...

Anyway, since I owned both editions of the game on Steam, I could use Steam's support page to "remove" the Standard Edition from my account:

1. Open the Steam Support page for Control: https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpWithGame/?appid=870780

2. Click "I want to permanently remove this game from my account"

3. If you own both the Ultimate Edition and the Standard Edition on your account, you'll get a mesage that you own the product as part of multiple packages, and the question of which package you want removed from your account. If you do not get this message, you do not own both editions of the game in which case removing the Standard Edition will force you to actually purchase the Ultimate Edition from the store.

4. Select "Control" as this is the broken Humble Bundle Standard Edition we want removed from the account.

5. Select "Ok, remove the listed games from my account permanently".

6. The Standard Edition and its data depots should from now on be removed from the account. The Steam client may start downloading the proper data depots automatically, or the game might have to be uninstalled and reinstalled for all data related to the Standard Edition to be removed from the PC.

 

A note is that despite Valve claiming the game being "permanently removed" from the library, in reality (at least for me, a EU citizen) it isn't fully removed but merely disabled. So even though I have "permanently removed" a game from my account I can still use the aforementioned support page and the "It's not in my library" option to restore removed games/content which would restore the removed data depots as well.

Thank you for the reply. I had to buy the Ultimate Edition... not ideal but it is running now.

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12 hours ago, rinmaru said:

Does this break achievements by any chance? 

No, I had no problems with the achievements and this mod.

BTW: they made it better in Alan Wake 2. HDR is supported and 32:9 works directly.

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On 10/27/2023 at 4:40 AM, smilergrogan said:

No, I had no problems with the achievements and this mod.

BTW: they made it better in Alan Wake 2. HDR is supported and 32:9 works directly.

Breaks Achievements in GOG unfortunately.

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Any chance you could add hybrid input support, so the game allows simultaneous mouse and joystick use instead of forcing one or the other?

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On 5/23/2023 at 4:48 PM, filoppi said:

I'm sorry I can't help with that at the moment. Just try to use another version of the game instead. 

 

On 5/23/2023 at 4:48 PM, filoppi said:

I'm sorry I can't help with that at the moment. Just try to use another version of the game instead. 

how do you propose we use a different version. I'm in the same boat here, downloaded the mod expecting to just keep playing. But it's broken my save. i would be fine restarting again since i'm only a few hours into this save... however, if i can't play the DLC afterwards, then this mode is beyond useless for some customers. any help would be great. since steam mistakenly says i own control ultimate edition, even tho clearly i don't, myself and many others are SOL.

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Hello, using this patch with the gog version of the game makes the dx12 version crash outright, black screen then closes out. Dx11 version runs fine

 

*edit* Solved after 2 reinstalls

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Can anyone help me on how to get this running on my steam version of the game. Very new to mods/unoffical updates so im not sure what to do once iv downloaded the file

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28 minutes ago, jpeezy said:

Can anyone help me on how to get this running on my steam version of the game. Very new to mods/unoffical updates so im not sure what to do once iv downloaded the file

Read the provided installation instructions like everyone else did. 

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Is there a way to specify on which monitor the game is running? Maybe a renderer.ini setting?

I have two monitors plus a 4K tv plugged into my PC. I want to play the game on my TV because this is where I have HDR. The game boots on my main monitor (as expected) but then HDR is greyed out. I have tried using the Win+Shift+Left/Right shortcut to move the window to the TV. This works and the HDR setting is now available but the moment I try to enable it the window moves back to my main monitor. 

So I can manually move the game to the right monitor but whenever I try to enable HDR the game will automatically move back to the wrong monitor. 

I know I could technically set my TV as the main monitor in Windows but this is a giant pain in the butt as it's screws up all the windows and icons in Windows whenever you change which monitor is the main one.

 

Thanks

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1 hour ago, Megasoum said:

Is there a way to specify on which monitor the game is running? Maybe a renderer.ini setting?

I have two monitors plus a 4K tv plugged into my PC. I want to play the game on my TV because this is where I have HDR. The game boots on my main monitor (as expected) but then HDR is greyed out. I have tried using the Win+Shift+Left/Right shortcut to move the window to the TV. This works and the HDR setting is now available but the moment I try to enable it the window moves back to my main monitor. 

So I can manually move the game to the right monitor but whenever I try to enable HDR the game will automatically move back to the wrong monitor. 

I know I could technically set my TV as the main monitor in Windows but this is a giant pain in the butt as it's screws up all the windows and icons in Windows whenever you change which monitor is the main one.

 

Thanks

Have you tried moving the game as windowed instead of fullscreen? 

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I arrived at this mod via the Digital Foundry video after noticing an odd issue at the very start of the game in the building lobby. It's difficult to describe but where the ceiling lighting reflection hits the smooth painted logo on the lobby floor, the lighting reflection didn't look as sharp or clean as I'd seen it in a YouTube play-through video from a couple of years back. I'm running the game on a 4080 at 1440p with maxed RT settings and no DLSS so I went hunting for an answer. Sure enough, this patch fixed the issue immediately. The lighting on the floor logo now looks crisp and clean. So my question is, what part of the patch is likely to have addressed that? Thank you for the patch.

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So... there's something very weird with this mod...
It destroyed my Windows (so to speak: global) color settings somehow.

Started the game normally, everything fine. Found out about this mod, followed all steps.
Started the game, was wondering why everything was so fucking dark. Closed the game and as it turns out, everything looked like that, not just the game. Like way too dark, high contrast, high saturation or something. Really terrible.
Panicked I opened the Windows color calibration only to notice that this is not the reason. I opened the Intel graphic control panel thingy, only to notice that this is not the reason as well. I tried googling, found nothing.
Only by pure chance I found hidden in some menus this setting: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/auto-color-management-in-windows-11-64a4de7f-9c93-43ec-bdf1-3b12ffa0870b
Disabling this fixed the issue instantly. Enabling it again broke everything again. The game was not running at that time.
Really weird, that Windows feature sounds like it should only apply whatever it actually does when the thing it applies to is running, which was not the case.

So... anyone know what's happening?
I can keep the Windows thingy disabled for now, didn't even know that it existed, but in any case something is not working correctly, might it be Windows or this mod or both together.
Any insight? How can I reset the color issue so that I can enable the Windows thingy again without everything looking broken? (It's not like I necessarily need that feature, but it was enabled before and never produce any problems, so disabling it now just because the mod broke it seems wrong)

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Have you used HDR before prior to using the mod? Does your display support HDR?

If you are in Windows 11 try Windows HDR Calibration app from the App store, it sounds like you have loaded some wrong profile.

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As far as I understand my system can only support video HDR via special HDR apps from the Windows store or something. But I have that disabled anyways, because I don't need it.
I wouldn't assume this game trying to use HDR if it's not active. The ingame options also showed HDR not enabled (and it was impossible to enable) which is how I assumed those settings should work if Windows HDR is disabled.

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