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HDR - Some clarification please!

Soldato
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I've recently become the proud owner of an X850XT. I know this card has massive raw power which is why I chose it over the 6800GS (after reading all the threads on the subject;)). And I also understand it has HDR support (which from what I can gather is part of SM2 support or floating point operations or some such jargon), but does not have SM3 support, which most people say makes no difference anyway.

So I've got Far Cry, but can't seem to enable HDR. I think I've worked out that to enable HDR on Far Cry, your card must support SM3 also. Why is this? I thought SM3 made no difference according to most people, but looking at Far Cry HDR screenshots, it looks amazing! Are there any games that can utilise HDR without SM3?

thanks :)
 
Soldato
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I may well be wrong in this but I thought HDR was only part of SM3 and therefore only available ont eh most recent X1*** series of ATI cards?

I thougth the X8 series wasnt capable iof HDR etc, from when these cards first came out ages ago ( or am I thinking of another ATI card with similar name?)
 
Soldato
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It depends on how the game is written as to if your card will run it.

FarCry + X800 = no HDR
HL2/CSS/DOD:S + X800= HDR
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory + X800 = HDR
Pacific Fighters + X800 = no HDR

All the above will run in full HDR with any 6 or 7 series nVidia card (though incredibly slowly on some...)
 
Soldato
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Far Cry's HDR, as well as some other HDR implementations follow ILM's method which requires floating point blending. The X800 doesn't support that - therefore can't run HDR in all games.

The X1x00/6x00/7x00 series all support floating point blending meaning they support HDR in all games.

The method used in Far Cry is the 'proper' way of doing HDR, and is more accurate. However, since realtime graphics is all about approximation you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between Far Cry's and HL's HDR implementation - and there's no reason to say HL2's HDR isn't 'real' HDR.

However, HL2's HDR runs faster if your graphics card supports SM3.
 
Soldato
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That's clarified things a little, thanks guys. It's a shame really, I was looking forward to a bit of HDR action in Far Cry! :p I'll have to invest in HL2 then I spose *grumbles*... ;)
 
Associate
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31 Dec 2005
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Hmmm on the question of HDR - I saw comments that some (all?) of nVidia cards whilst supporting HDR, didn't allow you to use anti-aliasing or something similar at the same time. Anyone know what the deal is exactly, and what cards it may or may not apply to?
 
Soldato
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I don't think they can use AA if the game uses floating point blending (e.g. FarCry), though the X1800 can cope with this perfectly well.

This applies to both the 6 and 7 series cards.
 

TNA

TNA

Caporegime
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It depends on how the game is written as to if your card will run it.

FarCry + X800 = no HDR
HL2/CSS/DOD:S + X800= HDR
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory + X800 = HDR
Pacific Fighters + X800 = no HDR

All the above will run in full HDR with any 6 or 7 series nVidia card (though incredibly slowly on some...)


No mate. 4K HDR TV + Titan XP + Resident Evil 7 = HDR

Pfft, this guy... :p
 
Associate
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I was hoping this would be a thread about this decade's version of HDR - it's confusing that they called it the same thing as the "old HDR" and it has a similar purpose. Will we get HDR version 3 in another 10 years?
 
Caporegime
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I was hoping this would be a thread about this decade's version of HDR - it's confusing that they called it the same thing as the "old HDR" and it has a similar purpose. Will we get HDR version 3 in another 10 years?

Well it's a similar principal, but the old HDR from Half-Life 2, Far Cry etc were artificial which just used extreme brightness to create the illusion you were stepping from dark to bright areas, as if the players eyes are adjusting to the sunlight.

They should have called it HDDR.

Now the screens are actually doing the highlights on specific areas of the screen.
 
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