HDR Setup

Why HDR?

HDR lets your display show a much wider range of brightness and color than SDR. In practice this means:

• Bright highlights like sunlight, fire, and reflections have real intensity instead of being clamped to the same white as everything else
• Dark scenes retain shadow detail without crushing to pure black
• Colors are more vivid and accurate across a wider gamut (Rec. 2020 / DCI-P3 vs. sRGB)
• The overall image has more depth and dimensionality — closer to what your eyes see in real life

If you have an HDR-capable display, you’re leaving a lot on the table running games in SDR.

The problem with native HDR

Most PC games that offer built-in HDR do it poorly. Common issues include raised black levels, washed-out colors, clipped highlights, and tone mapping that ignores the original SDR color grading. In many cases the native HDR mode looks worse than SDR.

Recommended solution: RenoDX

RenoDX intercepts the game’s rendering output and applies correct HDR tone mapping that preserves the original artistic intent while expanding to the full dynamic range of your display. The result is HDR that actually looks right.

• Check game compatibility on the RenoDX Wiki
• For Unreal Engine games without a dedicated addon, the generic UE HDR addon usually works — read more

The easiest way to install RenoDX is through ReShade HDR Installer, which handles everything automatically.

Getting set up

1. Download ReShade HDR Installer and run the installer
2. Your installed games are detected automatically
3. Install RenoDX and ReShade for each game
4. Optionally install ReLimiter for display management
5. Launch the game, open the ReShade overlay (Home key), and adjust RenoDX settings

Many games require opening a menu or pausing for RenoDX changes to take effect live.

Tips

• If your game isn’t detected, drag the .exe directly into the RHI window
• Check the per-game notes in RHI for game-specific setup steps
• If installing ReShade manually (without RHI), disable the “Generic Depth” and “Effect Runtime Sync” addons

What NOT to do

• ❌ Do not use Windows Auto HDR — it conflicts with RenoDX
• ❌ Do not use RTX HDR — same issue
• ❌ Do not install ReShade manually if using RHI — let it manage the files

Links

• RenoDX Wiki — Game Compatibility
• RenoDX Discord
• ReShade HDR Installer Downloads
• Ultra Place Discord — for additional help