software HDR Demo: A tool for testing, and learning about HDR. Need feedback.

[sacb0y 2]

After being frustrated that so many games release without HDR support and seeing so much confusion over the terminology (having it often confused with the photography effect/filter) I wanted to make something that could help inform people about HDR.

Because HDR is based on the Display, The Content, and the device it's playing on, often in that order of importance. Sometimes people might have great displays and lack luster content and lack luster displays with great content. Or maybe their PC or their monitors firmware just fucks it all up.

Most displays don't come with testing tools, and even if they do, they aren't accessible or void warranty. And a lot of content implements HDR in a careless way or sometimes borderline not at all despite it's claims. So somewhere along the line people need to be properly informed so they don't by scam HDR displays and know why one content looks one way and another looks a different way.

Anyway, for me HDR is more important than 4K. It has way more visual impact for me, and I'd like to see it more. It's made worse when getting used to HDR content makes SDR and even auto-HDR content dull. And if people are informed, they might demand HDR more.

Thats the purpose of HDR Demo, to serve as both a testing tool when you buy a display and a learning and demonstration tool. At the moment it has some tests and information, and just last night I added a colorbanding test and related information. I also added an image gallery with heatmaps so gamers and devs can see how the colors influence the image. I've also started adding some devtools like shaders and such to the download, Unity specific stuff but still. 

A lot of the demos are inspired by sites like LCD monitor test images (lagom.nl), which was a valuable tool back when I used to sell TV's and wanted to know what the best was objectively. Also, things like tests they do on rtings.com.

The UI is ugly and text full of typos, but I can only work on this in my spare time as my other project takes priority. So, I've taken a lot of shortcuts for efficiency. This is just a side thing, but feedback is very important as I only have my one display to really test on. For example, the discovery of automatic tonemapping came later as I didn't realize if a display doesn't reach a high peak brightness, they'll just tone map the display to show those values at reduced brightness. Making the grid above inaccurate on some displays.

There's a lot to learn but I can only do it with feedback from people with HDR displays. So, any feedback would be valuable.

Thanks.

HDR Demo by Momoiro Software (itch.io)