techoptimized

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - SDR to HDR Optimized Settings

Added 2025-05-03 16:32:44 +0000 UTC

The game is NOT using/applying Xbox, Playstation or PC HDR Calibration app settings.

Unfortunately the game is native SDR only and its default in-game SDR settings provide a slightly washed out image.

The game has also a bug on PS5 when the console is set to HDR "On When Supported": even if this system setting is the recommended one, this will almost completely wash out the picture of the game while HDR: "Always on" will make it even more unaccurate. My recommendation for the PS5 version is to temporarily turn the PS5 system HDR setting to Off before playing this game and back to "On When Supported" before playing other games.

Xbox version is not affected by this bug so there you can keep HDR on for games.

For all TVs/Displays:

Change Gamma to 0.9
Leave Contrast to 1
Change Brightness to 1.25

This will remove a bit the washed look and improve contrast without crushing blacks.

Once you've adjusted SDR, you can then just use RTX HDR on PC to have a good "simil-native" HDR presentation.

Unfortunately the game doesn't support AutoHDR on Xbox for some reason, which is a shame...

BONUS:

On Consoles: use the Performance graphics mode as having higher FPS for a more instant response of the input is crucial for this game
Disable Film Grain and Chromatic Aberration to improve picture clarity
On PC: go have a look at my optimization mod for it :) But I also highly recommend to install ClairObscurFix to fix the game default oversharpening, unlock cutscenes' framerate, fix Ultrawide support and more!

Enjoy!

-P