Series X Oversaturated and Dark

Aodan · January 2021

Hello, I'm playing on a Series X, and all my games look quite amazing apart from ESO. Nothing I have done seems to fix the problem. It is massively oversaturated and very dark. Adjusting Brightness seems to have no noticeable effect. HDR Brightness also seems to be ineffective.

Has anyone else had this problem and found a resolution? Thanks.

TheValkyn · January 2021

I think it’s the hdr is not adjusting correctly. If you shut the game down completely and restart then it fixes but that’s a terrible user experience.

TheValkyn · January 2021

I’ll add that frame rates have dropped significantly too.

Balibe · January 2021

I have better graphics in ESO compared to the One X on my Samsung 65" UHD TV, now waiting for ESO to add the support for the Series X.

Have you gone to Settings/General/TV & Display Options and run the Calibrate HDR for Games?

May also want to check settings in Video Modes and Video Fidelity & Overscan. I checked everything that wasn't checked that I could before I did a calibrate. My settings moved over from the One X, so some where not checked.

It may be a TV issue, not sure how old your TV is. In the Series X, look at 4K TV Details. This will give will give you a status of what your TV supports. Mine supports everything but Dolby Vision and 120 FPS.

Notes:
1: Dolby Vision is only for movies & TV.
2: You will not get support for 120fps unless you have a very new tv that has an HDMI v2.1 input.
3: If your TV has a Game Mode setting, make sure it is enabled (mine is set to Auto)
4: Make sure you are using the HDMI cable that came with the Series X. It is a newer HDMI v2.1 cable versus the older v2.0 you were using before.

.

Aodan · January 2021

I'm actually using a monitor. It's a 27" 1440p monitor that supports up to 144mhz, although I have it set to 120. It supports HDMI 2.0, not 2.1. I have managed to improve the image significantly by switching the XBox to PC-RGB, however it is still far too dark. I've tried to compensate with the monitor settings, creating a special profile to use only when playing ESO.

I don't understand why ESO requires its own settings though, and I still cannot compensate for the overly dark image. It makes indoors and dungeon content considerably more difficult.

Balibe · January 2021

Have you tried to connect it on a TV versus a monitor to see if there is a difference? Monitors and TV's are not the same.

The settings are not set by ESO, it is Microsoft that makes the hardware. ESO needs to make it work to Microsoft specs. ESO has not released full support for the next-gen yet.

On my TV, I notice dungeons to have better graphics, not worst. Especially in trials, I see NPC's AOE's more visible with everything going on, easier to see with 12 people spamming attacks. I see no issues indoor either. My graphics look the same or better.

NewBlacksmurf · January 2021

Short answer HDR was done very wrong and you can’t adjust to fix it.

You can however make adjustments in the game to lessen some effects if your OK with increasing other impacts visually.

Also congrats on the series x just got mine so upgrading from the One X

I also have this on PC running an i7 with a RTX 2070 so this game without HDR is the way they should go unless they plan to go back and redo HDR properly.

DrSlaughtr · March 2021

Mine is also very saturated.

lprnub19_ESO · March 2021

Looks horrible right now on series x. Oversaturated. Hopefully the series x enhanced version will fix this.

Darth_Pinhead · April 2021

Thank God for this thread! I thought it was just me or something... I spent a LOT of time, adjusting the picture to get it more normalized. Playing ESO on Series X, on a 40-inch 4K TV (which doubles as my VERY HUGE computer monitor on my desk).

Desktop publishing was never so detailed and amazing to do work on before!!!

I can't wait for the update for ESO on Series X!!!

NewBlacksmurf · May 2021

Darth_Pinhead wrote: »

Thank God for this thread! I thought it was just me or something... I spent a LOT of time, adjusting the picture to get it more normalized. Playing ESO on Series X, on a 40-inch 4K TV (which doubles as my VERY HUGE computer monitor on my desk).

Desktop publishing was never so detailed and amazing to do work on before!!!

I can't wait for the update for ESO on Series X!!!

You’re not the only one
There’s lots of folks in the main section that’ll give bad advice. My BIG hope @ZOS_GinaBruno is with the upcoming Xbox series x update they turn off HDR for the game and allow the Xbox’s to do hdr on their own.

C0L0SSUS · May 2021

No problems with Siries X.... on 65 inch 4K Samsung.

Uberkull · May 2021

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

Short answer HDR was done very wrong and you can’t adjust to fix it.

You can however make adjustments in the game to lessen some effects if your OK with increasing other impacts visually.

Also congrats on the series x just got mine so upgrading from the One X

I also have this on PC running an i7 with a RTX 2070 so this game without HDR is the way they should go unless they plan to go back and redo HDR properly.

Isn’t this the same HDR problem on consoles that has been there for 3 years or so? I actually remember back when, how much effort you put into the research on TV settings with game mode and trying to give the best advice for this issue.

How is it possible that ZOS hasn’t added a HDR toggle in the game settings and not force us to turn it off at the Xbox settings? Since they obviously can’t fix the HDR issue and don’t seem to play other games on Xbox that implemented HDR perfectly so they can get an idea their HDR implementation in ESO is just bad....the minimum they could do is add a HDR toggle in game. I care less if it forces a restart of the game, as long as i don’t have turn off HDR in Xbox settings each time.

Bottomline...the HDR slider in game does nothing for me. The night in this game is so dark i need to equip a lantern item to see in some areas. I can even tell it’s nighttime on the character select screen because the characters are darkened.

This issue isn’t a TV vs console issue. It’s ZOS not following the HDR spec properly and failing to implement. Other games get it right.

Since Microsoft owns ZOS now, it might take Phil sitting down and playing a MS Game Studios game...say Sea of Thieves with perfect HDR and then switch over to ESO. That might make ZOS wake up,

ShinyBacon · June 2021

I’m wondering if anyone’s issues with over saturation have been resolved with today’s upgrade? I’m about to upgrade my TV but saw how awful ESO looked on my friends TV and I’m quite turned off by the candy explosion look.

BearCubInSky · June 2021

HDR is broken in this game. The developers have acknowledged it and refuse to fix it. When turning HDR off, the default brightness is also too low. That has also been broken for 4 years. I cannot believe the developers have done this even with the enhanced versions, but they have. PS4 and PS5 have the same problems.

frosty_117360 · June 2021

I had this same issue with it being really dark and I discovered why that is, or at least something that isn't helping matters.

Every time you launch the game your brightness settings have reset. I have to go back in every single time I log in now and manually raise my brightness back up each time.

Brrrofski · June 2021

Yeh, it seems pretty dark in places.

Those corridors in mazzatun are pitch black now

DrSlaughtr · June 2021

The update reset my brightness setting. It was all the way down. I put it back where I like it. Issue fixed. Maybe this helps.

davitof · June 2021

Brightness is reset each time you start the game now. Not just once after the update.

BearCubInSky · June 2021

davitof wrote: »

Brightness is reset each time you start the game now. Not just once after the update.

And the default Brightness is too dark to begin with.

BearCubInSky · July 2021

Still waiting for an HDR fix.

ZOS_Bill · July 2021

As an update, we wanted to let you know that we are aware of this brightness issue on Xbox and we are working on a fix. With another thread already open on this topic we are closing this thread. You can continue discussion in the thread below.

Xbox Console Enhanced Brightness Resetting