Just ahead of CES 2022, Samsung Electronics has announced that HDR10+ Gaming standard will be supported on its new line of TVs and monitors. NVIDIA also says that their RTX 30 series, RTX 20 series, and GTX 10 series GPUs will all support this standard as well.
What is HDR10+?
HDR10+ was developed by Samsung and Panasonic as a response to Dolby Vision. These formats are both dynamic HDR standards that support dynamic metadata, while vanilla HDR10 only supports static metadata.
The problem with static metadata is that it remains constant for the entire content. So if a movie or a game has a MaxCLL (maximum content light level) of 10,000 nits (many games do, in fact) the display will tone map the entire content based on that number. There are currently no consumer displays that support more than about 1700 nits of peak brightness on a 10% window, so a TV or monitor displaying content with a MaxCLL of 10,000 would have to compress the entire 10,000 nits down to the range of peak brightness supported by the display. This would make everything look much dimmer than intended. Indeed, dimness in HDR games has been one of the main complaints of gamers over the years.
Enter, dynamic metadata. Dynamic metadata provides the display with brightness and saturation information for each scene or frame. This means that a bright scene with 10,000 nits of peak brightness will be mapped appropriately for that particular scene or frame, without affecting the rest of the content. Each scene or frame will have its brightness and contrast optimized based on the content being shown in that particular scene or frame.
HDR10+ supports dynamic metadata. Dolby Vision has several other benefits on top of that, like support for 12 bit color depth and the ICtCp color representation format. However, HDR10+ is royalty free, while Dolby Vision is not, so this may make it more attractive to smaller indie developers. Dolby Vision for gaming has been available on PC for several years - with Mass Effect: Andromeda being the first native Dolby Vision game - but HDR10+ has been absent until now.
Much like Dolby Vision, HDR10+ will remove the need for users to calibrate their own displays, as the TV or monitor will be automatically put into a 'reference mode' when viewing HDR10+ content.
HDR10+ Gaming Standard
Any HDR format will add some latency, or input lag, to a game. This becomes even more of a factor for HDR formats with dynamic metadata. Dolby developed a Dolby Vision profile specifically for gaming, called Dolby Vision Low Latency, in order to make it more palatable when used in games. Samsung have done the same thing with HDR10+, allowing users to experience premium image quality with low latency. Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) and 120Hz will also be supported.
HDR10+ Industry Support
Currently, HDR10+ is available in the majority of Amazon Prime's catalog, several 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays and movies on Google Play, and a handful of videos on YouTube. Newer displays models from Samsung, Panasonic, Vizio, Philips, and Hisense support the format, as well as devices like the Amazon Fire TV and certain 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray players. Today, NVIDIA announced that their RTX 30 series, RTX 20 series, and GTX 10 series GPUs will all support this standard as well, once a driver update drops sometime in 2022. NVIDIA GPUs already support Dolby Vision, so owners of these graphics cards will have a choice between these two dynamic HDR formats based on which format is supported by their display (and based on content support.)
Additionally, these games are confirmed to be receiving HDR10+ support in 2022: 'Redout 2,' 'Pinball FX,' and 'Happy Trails and the Kidnapped Princess.'
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