ESO on PS4 Pro in 4K/HDR

katanagirl1

I recently bought a 4K/HDR TV to replace my old regular HD flatscreen, and am surprised at how different the game looks in many ways, and quite a few of them are not for the better. I have seen some old posts about how the HDR was not implemented properly on console, but did not find anything to indicate that the problem was ever fixed.

The first thing I noticed was that textures were greatly improved, which was expected, but that the lighting is just horrible, especially for colored lights and even some brightly colored foliage. Everything is either supersaturated red or supersaturated ultraviolet blue. The overall brightness is very dark for everything else, so I have had to increase the brightness within the game to the maximum setting. The only other option under settings is a slider bar for the HD brightness, but moving it either left or right does not seem to have any effect. I have chosen the Game option on the TV for Picture Mode.

First of all, a comparison of one old snapshot that I was able to recreate:

Regular HD



4K/HDR


Shadows in a lot of zones are a bright blue color, or change the color or plants drastically:


The stars are all bright blue instead of white


Auroras are flat and lifeless


Flora too bright




Lava loses its color variations


I used the Hectahame relic on my Thieves Trove to give it a blue/purple glow, here is what it should look like:


versus what I see


From what I can tell, objects that had red in them, plus some other color like yellow (fires, fire atronachs, etc.) have lost most or all of the yellow tones. Same for purple objects, they are now super bright blue. My understanding is that HDR should make the shadows darker and crisper but it should not actually change the color of things, especially if those things are light sources themselves. When I press Share to save a video I see a message that indicates colors in the video may look different because of HDR. I did actually go back and change the game settings to 1080p I think it was, but the bright colors remain.

Note that I only see these supersaturated colors in the game, when I watch movies or play other games I don't see this.

Does the game look like this on PC as well? Not to say that would mean that it is working properly, just curious.

joebloggs81

I can confirm this is the same for me as well. HDR mode looks crazy, shadows are a strange colour and I have to turn the brightness in game all the way down. That unfortunately makes the whites look flat. The HDR brightness slider really doesn’t do much.

Beardimus

Do a search. Most of us love it

Around Q3 they went to 'fix' it and turned off HDR and it looked chronic. Big noise on here, luckily they reverted it.

They did say they would revisit it at some point, but honnestly I prefer by far.

Question. Is your TV in shop mode settings? As your whole experience will be awful if so. You need you calibrate your 4K TV. Do a search on YouTube or via a Digital forum and you'll find some proper settings and then the HDR in all its splendar will be show.

katanagirl1

@Beardimus no these images are not taken with factory settings. I did go through the whole calibration setup for the TV and the limited options for 4K in-game. I mentioned this previously but I’ll add some more detail here. I originally used Photo Mode on the TV for Picture Mode to try to tone down the excessive reds, but that boosted the ultraviolets. Game Mode makes things more red but tones down the blues. I calibrated the brightness with the three eso circles properly but had to go back and increase it to the max because I could not see anything in delves due to it being so dark. Even sunny outdoors looked like everything was in shade.

As I mentioned, it is only ESO that I see this and not in other games or when watching movies or You Tube videos.

The non-4K version of this game had lower resolution, but the colors and brightness were preferable to this.

I have noticed that the extremely blue shadows are in base game areas, and that places like Summerset and Elsweyr the shadows are more realistic, though the image above shows that in Elsweyr the pink flowers become blue in shadow there. The base game areas have those blue shadows when the sun is shining, but when it it’s cloudy the shadows look better.

Nord_Raseri

I waved at you at brin today

katanagirl1

Nord_Raseri wrote: »

I waved at you at brin today

I’m really mad now, see my thread about waiting in queue for an hour and then a game crash nearly bricking my PS4. I have 7 hours of download left before I decide whether to try MidYear Mayhem again.

Nord_Raseri

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Nord_Raseri wrote: »

I waved at you at brin today

I’m really mad now, see my thread about waiting in queue for an hour and then a game crash nearly bricking my PS4. I have 7 hours of download left before I decide whether to try MidYear Mayhem again.

Damn, sorry. Yeah my game crashed about 7 times in 3 hours. One of the times it took multiple tries before being able to get back on the game. Also sorry for derailing here, just wanted to say hi.

Edit: Just saw your other thread. Sorry if me charging in like that contributed to your crash. I have a tendency to go 'bonzai'

katanagirl1

No it wasn’t you, it was later at a battle in front of Fort Ash

Nord_Raseri

katanagirl1 wrote: »

No it wasn’t you, it was later at a battle in front of Fort Ash

Ah ok, good. By that fight I was on the other side of map I think.

LeHarrt91

I had the same issue with my newest TV and PS4 (which is NOT a Pro). I just ended up turning HDR off to get it close to was it use to be.

joebloggs81

I haven’t tried it since I had the same problem. Mine also isn’t in factory settings with some calibration done. Other games in HDR look great, cannot get ESO to look remotely pleasing, so switched it off.

WildRaptorX

Try Change the TV settings to game settings. Luckily my one x didn’t have this problem but others on the one x did aswell

joebloggs81

Yeah mine is set up on the game preset, plus LG recommended settings on some sites I found for calibration. Might try again in a bit and grab some screens.

joebloggs81

Do you guys have your black level set to high on your HDR input?

joebloggs81

Looks like I’ve got the same problem as the OP.

This one is with HDR off.



This one is with HDR on.

joebloggs81

@katanagirl1 did you have any luck with yours?

Veinblood1965

I don't have HDR but have been thinking about upgrading, this thread has been helpful although I'm sorry OP.

Is there anyone who has HDR that is happy with it and ESO?

Anotherone773

Those 4k pics look terrible. Have you tried adjusting some of the settings on the tv such as brightness and contrast and such?

katanagirl1

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Those 4k pics look terrible. Have you tried adjusting some of the settings on the tv such as brightness and contrast and such?

Yes, I mentioned all the things I did in the first post and again later. It seems like it was tl;dr for most people though, unfortunately.

Anotherone773

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Those 4k pics look terrible. Have you tried adjusting some of the settings on the tv such as brightness and contrast and such?

Yes, I mentioned all the things I did in the first post and again later. It seems like it was tl;dr for most people though, unfortunately.

Its the pictures, they are mesmerizing and distract you from the actual text

joebloggs81

Had a little success with mine, setting my TV colour to warm from neutral, and black level down to low (when in HDR mode). Then adjusted in game brightness, and turned down the HDR brightness slider to the left. TV settings are in Game picture mode, Brightness on 50, contrast on 100 and backlight on 100.

The lava in places around Davon’s watch is insanely bright orange, and some things are still very blue, but overall it’s better.

katanagirl1

Again, the only time it looks awful like this is in ESO. Other games look great.

If I watch something on DirectTV or a You Tube video, everything looks awesome.

You know the storyboard artwork that shows up when there is a loading screen in ESO? That looks really awesome, but the gameplay seems to cater to all those 420 friendly players - it looks like a bad acid trip.

joebloggs81

Haha! Know what you mean. I can’t get mine looking any better than I have. Played non HDR this morning and a lot of areas definitely look better with it off. And it was nice to not be blinded by lava.

Dazzaw

I have the same issue and I hate it! I have an xbox one x on a 2019 Samsung 4k HDR tv and it looks ok, still blue but bearable. But my xbox one s that’s connected to a 2018 Samsung 4k HDR tv looks blue like the OP and I ended up turning HDR off. The 2018 tv looks the same with my xbox x connected too.

katanagirl1

I'm going to try to show a comparison of what I see in the game versus what the video looks like by first posting a screen snapshot and then follow it immediately with a video taken right after the snapshot. When I see the video in ShareFactory and edit it, it still looks much brighter than the final product, so it might not be perfect but I can't think of any way other than taking a photo with my phone of the TV when in ShareFactory, and that won't look right either. The video viewed in ShareFactory looks extremely bright, which makes sense given the brightness in the game is at max, but the gameplay is much darker. It's also possible that either ShareFactory or YouTube is doing some sort of balancing to make it look better that is out of my control.

First the snapshot:



Now the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vjvBAzSexk&list=PLGGjwEyVKCjpNeVP6-MCuwzs0s7bzrkc9&index=52

It almost seems as though the game is suppressing the brightness automatically even though I have changed the setting and the raw video going to the buffer on the PS4 is unaffected.

Again, the video is not representative of what I see during gameplay, the snapshot is more accurate.

ZarkingFrued

Yeah I don't have a multi thousand dollar tv, but I do have a TCL Roku 6 series which is one of the best tvs for around 800-900, 2020 model, and HDR on everything else is fantastic on it. ESO tho was dark with super saturated colors. Ive adjusted and calibrated and gave up. I like to upload clips anyhow so I had to turn HDR off and go to regular 4K which looks much better imo. Still happy to have the 4K as it makes the old game look great, but would like to see an update to HDR and also conversion of HDR clips. HDR is supposed to make colors better as well really, but here it makes them all way to weird.

Beardimus

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

I don't have HDR but have been thinking about upgrading, this thread has been helpful although I'm sorry OP.

Is there anyone who has HDR that is happy with it and ESO?

@Veinblood1965 yes. A load of us, as when they 'adjusted' it mid last year there was uproar and they reverted it. Do a search.

You need to setup your TV properly.

Veinblood1965

Beardimus wrote: »

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

I don't have HDR but have been thinking about upgrading, this thread has been helpful although I'm sorry OP.

Is there anyone who has HDR that is happy with it and ESO?

@Veinblood1965 yes. A load of us, as when they 'adjusted' it mid last year there was uproar and they reverted it. Do a search.

You need to setup your TV properly.

Thank you Beardimus

katanagirl1

Beardimus wrote: »

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

I don't have HDR but have been thinking about upgrading, this thread has been helpful although I'm sorry OP.

Is there anyone who has HDR that is happy with it and ESO?

@Veinblood1965 yes. A load of us, as when they 'adjusted' it mid last year there was uproar and they reverted it. Do a search.

You need to setup your TV properly.

How many times do I need to keep saying I adjusted everything and it’s only ESO that looks like total crap???

If I didn’t have the TV set up properly everything would look bad.

Beardimus

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Beardimus wrote: »

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

I don't have HDR but have been thinking about upgrading, this thread has been helpful although I'm sorry OP.

Is there anyone who has HDR that is happy with it and ESO?

@Veinblood1965 yes. A load of us, as when they 'adjusted' it mid last year there was uproar and they reverted it. Do a search.

You need to setup your TV properly.

How many times do I need to keep saying I adjusted everything and it’s only ESO that looks like total crap???

If I didn’t have the TV set up properly everything would look bad.

I hear you, but likewise I adjust my TV between sources etc, and day parts. Not one setting fits all.

I, and many others, like the HDR..I appriciate not everyone does. However what I do know is that many folks did get into it after making adjustments.

Bottomline, adapt and overcome. The uproar when they lessened it made them revet between patches. That was a huge step as ZOS don't backtrack. They even had to refund crown purchases that looked naff with reduced colours.

Don't get frustrated, I'm just trying to help.

dotme

katanagirl1 wrote: »

How many times do I need to keep saying I adjusted everything and it’s only ESO that looks like total crap???

If I didn’t have the TV set up properly everything would look bad.

Agreed - And as others have pointed out, yes ESO is oversaturated with HDR. They admitted as much a while ago and pushed out a fix that in many minds went too far the other way (Game almost looked greyscale - less color than with HDR off) so they rolled that back in a subsequent update.

I ended up turning HDR off via the PS4 Settings menu. Game looks pretty good without it. If you have the PS4 Pro you also have a choice for 4K vs 1080 Enhanced (Video settings menu in ESO Options).

The 1080 Enhanced option adds water reflections and much better shading/shadows so I ended up using that instead of 4K. I sit far enough from the screen that 4K offers minimal benefit compared to better overall graphics.