The Auto HDR feature that Xbox Series X users have been enjoying since the console’s launch in November is coming to Windows PC games, giving nearly 1,000 games a boost for high dynamic range color and lighting.
HDR provides deeper contrast, richer color luminance and a wider range of colors for an image. You need an HDR-enabled monitor to take advantage of this, of course. There are already HDR games natively rendered for PC; Auto HDR updates the look of games dominated in the standard dynamic range with DirectX 11 or DirectX 12.
Auto HDR for PC is currently a viewing feature available in the Windows Insider Program (sign up for the program here if you don’t have access). When fully ready, PC gamers with an HDR-equipped monitor can access the feature with a toggle on the Windows HD color settings page.
Microsoft program manager Hannah Fisher notes in the announcement post that an Auto HDR image is not as detailed as games with native HDR, but it is a “vastly improved experience over normal SDR,” writes Fisher. This “luminance heat map” gives an idea of the difference in contrast and color range between SDR, automatic HDR and native HDR:
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22378031/heatmap.png)
Image: Microsoft DirectX Developer Blog
At the moment, Auto HDR also has a “development and evaluation only” feature that will allow a split-screen mode that shows the original content rendered in SDR and the Auto HDR image side by side. Fisher says the trick is “for advanced users only”, but he offers instructions on his blog on how to make it work.