“It's all about achieving colors that are true to the vision of the video game creator.”
– Bill Mandel, Vice President of Samsung Research America
HDR (High Dynamic Range) technology has revolutionized the picture quality of movies and TV shows over the past few years. Now, with Samsung's push for HDR10+ GAMING, the same visual transformation is coming to the video game industry. This benefits both game makers and players, allowing them to get the most visual impact from games' latest graphics and realism.
Samsung Newsroom spoke with Bill Mandel, vice president of Samsung Research America, and Steve Larson, senior manager of digital media solutions, to discuss HDR10+ GAMING and how the technology is changing the gaming industry.
▲ Samsung Research America Senior Manager Steve Larson (left) and Vice President of Digital Media Solutions Bill Mandel
Gamers and game creators need HDR, too
While HDR has dramatically improved the visual experience for TV and movies, its application to video games has been limited. Game engines have built-in color management systems that help a connected TV or monitor determine what colors to display. However, the lack of communication between the screen and the game engine requires users to manually calibrate their displays.
“HDR10+ GAMING establishes a direct communication between the screen and the game engine”
– Steve Larson, Samsung Research America
SRA sought a solution and began developing HDR10+ GAMING. By automatically adjusting HDR settings based on your screen's capabilities, HDR10+ GAMING delivers the best visual experience through accurate color, contrast and brightness.
“HDR10+ GAMING establishes a direct communication between the screen and the game engine,” Larson said. “The screen can understand what the game engine is doing, and the game engine can know what it can display on the screen. This results in a much better visual output.”
“It's all about achieving colors that are true to the vision of the video game creators,” Mandel said.
Designing simple solutions for artists
Game developers were the first to call for new technology to address the limitations of HDR.
“The initial need came from game developers themselves, who wanted their games to look the best possible,” Mandel says. “They were having trouble getting the colors they wanted on their monitors.”
▲ Bill Mandel, vice president of Digital Media Solutions at Samsung Research America, explains how HDR10+ GAMING was introduced to provide a superior visual experience for all gamers.
“We wanted the specification we released to be frictionless and easy for game developers to use,” Larson said. “Once you integrate our specification into a game engine, it can be used in any game built with that engine. It's not tied to any particular configuration or device, which greatly simplifies adoption across the industry. It's simple.”
Simple for players
With HDR10+ GAMING, gamers no longer need to fiddle with dials and test patterns to calibrate their monitors.
“HDR10+ GAMING simplifies the process by automatically adjusting settings for games just like they do for movies,” said Mandel, “so gamers get the best picture quality with no hassle — just launch your game and play.”
▲ Samsung Research America Vice President Bill Mandel (above) and Senior Manager of Digital Media Solutions Steve Larson demonstrate how HDR10+ GAMING automatically improves the gaming experience.
HDR10+ GAMING works on both TVs and gaming monitors, allowing gamers to enjoy a consistent visual experience with immersive graphics across platforms without having to configure anything. This standard is especially important as today's gamers expect photorealistic graphics in games.
“Once enabled, your device will automatically recognize that HDR10+ GAMING is an available option in compatible games and take advantage of it,” Larson said. “No need to navigate hidden menus or tweak settings.”
Lowering the barrier to entry for the gaming industry
For game developers, one of the big advantages of HDR10+ GAMING is that it is free to implement: with the right Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), HDR10+ GAMING can be integrated into existing game engines without any special training.
“It's simple: once a developer integrates our spec into their game engine, it becomes available for use in any game built with that engine.”
– Steve Larson, Samsung Research America
Samsung has put these standards into practice, partnering with NEXON in September 2023 to launch the world's first HDR10+ gaming title, “The First Descendant.”
At the Summer Game Fest in June this year, the company showed off its latest Odyssey OLED gaming monitor with HDR10+ GAMING capabilities. The combination of HDR10+ GAMING with Samsung's Odyssey OLED gaming monitor shows how advanced display technology can improve the gaming experience in video games such as “Red Dead Redemption 2.”
Additionally, Samsung worked with partners such as CD PROJEKT RED to develop “Cyberpunk 2077,” creating the most realistic recreation of the game's fictional Night City, California, which became a massive hit, selling more than 25 million copies worldwide.
“We designed this system to be very easy to implement,” Larson said. “In fact, CD PROJEKT RED knew that HDR10+ GAMING was something they wanted to use. They were impressed with how quickly and easily it was implemented. Their team actually got this up and running in about half a day.”
“This is a freely licensed technology. We're going to see more games and more platforms adopting this technology.”
– Bill Mandel, Vice President of Samsung Research America
HDR10+ Gaming's Bright Future
Samsung is looking to expand HDR10+ GAMING to include more niche game engines, and the company is already working with major studios and developers to add them to their own engines as well as some of the more widely adopted engines.
“Through our collaborations with gaming companies, we will expand the HDR10+ GAMING ecosystem to enable wider adoption and richer gaming experiences,” Mandel said.
This extensive network provides game developers with a versatile and powerful toolset to create visually compelling games more efficiently.
▲ Samsung Research America Senior Manager Steve Larson (left) and Vice President of Digital Media Solutions Bill Mandel
“Because this is a freely licensed technology, we will see more games and platforms adopting this technology,” Mandel continued. “For consumers, this means maximum visual effects with minimal setup, and a consistent, immersive gaming experience across devices.”
Mandel and Larson expect to soon see a significant increase in the number of developers, games and users taking advantage of HDR10+ GAMING.
“Expect big things to come!” Mandel said.
