Horizon Forbidden West - HDR Optimized Settings

The game DOES USE/APPLY Playstation and PC HDR Calibration app settings. (after patch 1.18)

The game now supports and (partially) applies Playstation HDR Calibration app settings and has a very good but cumbersome HDR implementation.

Peak HDR Luminance can go up to 4.000 nits but correctly setup the game for your TV is more difficult than it should.

On PC side, Peak HDR Luminance will max out to 1.500 nits instead but additional controls are provided.

ON PLAYSTATION SIDE:

The game has three HDR sliders, all inter-dependent in order to achieve the desired Peak HDR Brightness:

• Highlights: the one that actually controls Peak HDR Luminance (but not in nits);

• Brightness: adjusts overall exposure and UI Brightness, but can also affect Peak HDR Luminance;

• Shadows: adjusts the black levels and shadow details.

The reference image doesn't represent how the game will actually look during gameplay (this will be more bright compared to what you see there).

In all cases, the easiest way to correctly setup the game is:

• Leave Brightness slider to 0

• Leave Shadows slider to 0

• Leave Highlights slider to 0 (but if you want more "punch" from the highlights, use +5 or +10 but in my opinion this tends to overblown them a bit too much compared to reference)

ON PC SIDE:

The values should automatically be setup from Windows 11 HDR Calibration, but if not set it this way:

If you have an LG OLED and:

> you're using Dynamic Tone Mapping or Dynamic Contrast:

• Set HDR Max Luminance to: 1.500 (nits, Max)

• Set HDR Paper White to: 200 (nits)

• Leave HDR Shadow Boost to: 0 (Default)

• Leave HDR Highlight Boost to: 0 (Default, but if you want more "punch" from the highlights, use +5 or +10 but in my opinion this tends to overblown them a bit too much compared to reference)

> you're using HGIG:

• Set HDR Max Luminance to: 800 (nits) or 1.000 (for G2/C4) or 1.500 (for G3/G4)

• Set HDR Paper White to: 200 (nits) or 276 (for G3/G4)

• Leave HDR Shadow Boost to: 0 (Default)

• Leave Highlight Boost to: 0 (Default, but if you want more "punch" from the highlights, use +5 or +10 but in my opinion this tends to overblown them a bit too much compared to reference)

If you don't have an LG OLED and:

> you don't have an HGIG option:

• Set HDR Max Luminance to: 1.000 (nits)

• Set HDR Paper White to: 200 (nits)

• Leave HDR Shadow Boost to: 0 (Default)

• Leave Highlight Boost to: 0 (Default, but if you want more "punch" from the highlights, use +5 or +10 but in my opinion this tends to overblown them a bit too much compared to reference)

> you're using HGIG:

• Set HDR Max Luminance to the corresponding real Peak HDR Luminance of your TV in "nits"

• Set HDR Paper White to: 200 (nits) or 250 (if your TV goes above 1.000 nits) or 300 (if your TV reaches around 2.000 nits)

• Leave HDR Shadow Boost to: 0 (Default)

• Leave Highlight Boost to: 0 (Default, but if you want more "punch" from the highlights, use +5 or +10 but in my opinion this tends to overblown them a bit too much compared to reference)

BONUS:

• Disable Chromatic Aberration: to much improve visual clarity

• (PC) Set Sharpness to 4: instead of Default 5 to fix slight oversharpening artifacts

Enjoy :)

-P