A Poll: HDR on? Or HDR off?

[Rexy]

I'm taking a very serious poll here, do you play with HDR on? Or off? Even when I had a lesser video card, I almost always had it on, if possible, otherwise the game would look really desaturated and bland. But I understand not everyone has the same settings. I'm curious. If a lot of people don't use HDR, I'll probably need to find another solution, but I'm considering how important it is to include those users who don't use HDR.

If you would like to know why specifically check out this image, the top is with HDR off and the bottom is with HDR on--if you know of another work around solution, let me know. It would be swell. In the meantime, take the poll!

 

[Vincent]

I have never seen any difference in HDR compared to LDR. Honestly. Hell I probably have it on and I don't even know it.

 

[Rexy]

If you are by default a Direct X 8 user, than you've probably never seen HDR, as I think it's disabled. There are still some people out there using DX8, probably a lot of them are laptop users with older video cards. If you're a DX8 user, I'd like to hear from you, post here.

 

[Arnold]

I use DX8 and a large pecentage of the competitive community (along with fps configs and all that jazz). I would also guess a good portion of public players play without HDR because it gives them more stable fps but I could be wrong.

You could argue that people playing with DX8 don't care much for visuals but i still think there's no harm in making it look as good as possible for them.

Also I'm guessing the poll will result in an overwhelming majority playing with HDR on since this is a site visited by people who care about visuals a lot more than the average player.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

I assume that I have it on my desktop, but not my laptop, didn't see much difference, though, with that shot you have, I did.

(I have it on, i checked)

 

[grazr]

On my GeForce 7900 i had it off, on my new GTX 460 i have it on.

What i will say is that people with HDR off are (usually) knowlingly sacrificing aesthetic value for performance (otherwise they'd upgrade). So it's not your concern.

I'd also hazard a guess that people who run FPS configs so that TF2 looks like software mode in HL1 (gld-source) really wouldn't be that bothered about this either.

 

[Rexy]

If possible, I would like to find a solution that would cater towards all users, so I will look into a configuration for such a purpose. I have a older PC with a much older card that I'll be using for this. But I agree with you for the most part, grazr.

 

[Empyre]

If your picture, the HDR definately looks better, but the LDR looks good enough.

 

[Omena]

Well.. I run all my games with maxed graphic settings.. So.. Yeah.

 

[LeSwordfish]

Is there an option for "I dont know, i darent touch the default settings?"

 

[Rexy]

Is there an option for "I dont know, i darent touch the default settings?"

Just open your settings and look.

 

[Jeremy]

HDR definitely looks better, but it's not like it's the most important part of the whole game in my opinion. Generally I have it disabled to keep my FPS higher, but when I have it enabled I don't usually see much difference in terms of visuals.

 

[REEJ]

All the 'casual gamers' I know, play with HDR on.

HDR these days is an absolute standard for games if you ask me, it runs smoothly even on cheapest computers that do have a brand graphic card.

Edit: I have it on even on my laptop including all other crap on high

 

[Loc_n_lol]

You HDR off picture is acceptable IMO. Yes it doesn't look nearly as good as the one with HDR on, but that's sort of expected.

 

[EArkham]

Don't worry about dx80 users. I play with dx80 but it's specifically to get as high an fps as possible. Appearance is completely a non-concern. I even have skyboxes disabled.

If I want to review a map's aesthetics or really test how bad the fps can be, I'll play or walk around with full settings.

Though for any other game I play, I do have HDR enabled.

Kep

 

[Seba]

If anyone plays Zig, they need to have HDR on. And if they can't/won't turn it on, they shouldn't be playing it. IMO we're at a time when HDR is off mostly for people with fps configs, comp players, and/or people playing on really shitty computers; keep it on, it's well worth it.

 

[Boylee]

Always on, unless I'm building cubemaps.

I agree with grazr, people not using HDR are most likely sacrificing it for performance, so I wouldn't kill yourself trying to make it look the same with HDR off.

Most people will see it as it is in the bottom picture. People who don't care how it looks will see it as it is in the top one, which still looks pretty good, even though they don't care.

EDIT: To be honest I'm starting to think that the HDR enabled crystals are actually too bright and that a happy medium of the two images might be nicer.

 

[Pocket]

I'm a little confused myself as to why the selfillum is completely disabled in LDR mode, but if I were less than a month away from a contest deadline, I'd probably let finding out wait until after it's over.

 

[Dr. Spud]

Any light can have different setttings for HDR/LDR, so there's probably a way to crank up the lights there just for LDR and make it look bloomy.

 

[StickZer0]

I want it on, but I play with it off because of my horrendous computer.