The technical makeup of Bethesda's Starfield has mostly been praised so far, well, aside from the lack of any sort of 60FPS option on console. However, users across Xbox and various different PC setups have reported spotty HDR results across the board - an issue that Bethesda has acknowledged and is working on improving.
Bethesda Support recently responded to a fan query about this subject on Twitter. According to the support page, the dev team is "still investigating the issue with HDR", although no further specifics were given.
"Hello, our team is still investigating the issue with HDR. Please continue to submit this issue via feedback as its the best way to bring it to the attention of our development team."
We have heard that some form of 'Auto HDR' has been applied to the Windows 11 PC version of the game since launch, but user reports on that being effective are still mixed at the time of writing.
We're hoping that Bethesda deploys a more thorough HDR update in the coming days that works for all players across all platforms, including Steam. The feature can be quite dependent on how well your own display handles colours though, so it's probably worth fiddling about with your display settings to try and get the best HDR picture for Starfield if you're noticing any issues.
How are you finding Starfield's HDR support so far? Let us know if you've had any issues with the feature.
Comments 15
If the HDR is going to be anything like Elder Scrolls Online's... please just leave it off lol.
Didn't notice a thing on LG c1, 55"... Dolby Vision recognised ok. Maybe just me
@Porridge2215 It's not that HDR isn't working, it's just not very good (supposedly). I guess people are noticing that darks are very "grey" rather than black and brights aren't very bright.
While I haven't noticed grayed out darks, I have noticed that lights weren't overly bright as I have seen in the past. I just figured Bethesda was going for a more muted tone - relying more on the higher color depth that HDR provides rather than the extreme brights/darks.
I also play with Dolby Vision.
@GamingFan4Lyf I definitely noticed greyed out blacks in that opening lift ride, but just accepted it was a stylistic choice. But was a little annoyed there was NO brightness or HDR sliders at all to make it a little better (to my eyes). I don't like needing to change my TV settings on a per-game basis.
And it is a bit odd when you go into a small hanger and they deliberately change the lighting to make it suddenly dark so you have to put on the flashlight on (you can notice it fading out/changing). Less obvious in things like caves because there is a load screen between you don't see the fading transition.
@themightyant I'm on the fence with this because I believe the PS5 games rely on the system-level HDR calibration for its games (I don't play much there except for exclusives, and it's been a while, so memory could be wrong). It's been praised by the TV-specific "influencers" out there.
Microsoft has the system-level HDR settings, but it never seemed like a single game used it and relied on a per-game basis (via game menus). It's been kind a criticism for the TV-specific "influencers" out there.
Personally, I'd rather calibrate once and never do it again. But I also see the value in being able to tweak it on a per game basis if things don't look "right".
Then again, I also play with Dolby Vision and let the game and TV do the work for me.
My series x and LG c2 have just picked and used Dolby Vision, like the Xbox does, but we know that’s a forced thing as most game are not programmed in Dolby Vision say like Gears 5.
Yes, Bethesda should have had HDR adjustment sliders etc ready for launch, god knows why they didn’t, even though Starfield is great I do find Bethesda lacking in some aspects like the HDR slider thing and inventory menus.
I definitely don’t put them up on pedestal as a developer like some do on here.
This isn't helped by the weird colour filters that the game uses. Blacks, aside from being grey, often have a green tinge to them that you can see changing as you walk from location to location.
I watched a YouTube video last night on recommend PC mods, and the guy's number one pick was a mod that removes this - the image looked so much better.
That being said, it's all moot on my crappy Hisense 50". It does HDR but not really, and the cheap led's are slowly turning blue, so everything has a slightly purple tinge in certain lighting conditions. 😔
@GamingFan4Lyf I had a similar impression, and also wondered if it was intentional. I've been bouncing between Series X and PC. Last night I experienced the nighttime cycle in Akila City for the first time, and that did not look right at all.
It's the same HDR issue with resident evil 2 and remothered. It looks like grey smoke with hdr enabled. It's awful. Just play it with it off. But even with sdr, the black levels are bad. There is no slider on the options. Bad oversight.
A Bethesda game with issues? Say it isn't so.
@S-Bacc Not a good habit to get into, though. You should never have to adjust your display on a per-game basis, first and foremost because that means you're throwing off the settings for other games that are set up correctly. Not to mention that w/e settings you modify will need to be reverted once BGS steps in and rectifies the current HDR implementation.
I'm on Series X and LG C1 65" OLED. BF 2042 puts a shame into Starfield regarding graphics and HDR implementation! From the first moment I disliked what I saw with Starfield. Have played around 15h-20h and find it's HDR very disturbing!!
@S-Bacc I own the G1 and used to calibrate displays as a side hustle. But that's a fair point — if you wanted to have a separate profile for Starfield and can remember to switch back to a standard calibrated profile every time you play a different game, that's not a bad solution. But I could see this getting quite unwieldy if you were to start creating unique profiles for every game that struggles to implement HDR well.
@S-Bacc I do wish there were stronger standards around HDR, as it seems several developers struggle with it. It's presumably why several notable releases the past couple years have omitted it entirely (e.g. High On Life, Atomic Heart, Redfall come to mind). It seems that some studios are concluding that it's more trouble than it's worth. But it does make a material difference to the visual experience when done right (and you have a properly calibrated display to match).
I love that guy's videos, perfect for calibrating the OLED and Xbox
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