@bekopharm I was very confused when Half Life demo with HDR first game out as the screenshots looked arguably worse.

I think I came to realize that HDR really only stood out for me in game, or at least with moving footage, as I think it was more about how the lighting would change depending on where I was looking.

I do really like some of the ReShade FX on some games like Elite Dangerous though - just a bit of a shame settings get lost when either Reshade or the game itself gets an update.

@bekopharm I'm not sure, I gather you can lock files and mark them as read-only to prevent it from happening.

I think maybe the ED patcher removes files it is not sure about from the gamedir after a large update (but I think not for small patches; not certain).

@bekopharm I'm still really curious about HDR monitor support and how much that adds. I have a couple of Acer Predator monitors, and one has okayish SRGB support (but not quite 100%).

After I'd had it for a year or two I stumbled on a setting - I think in the Nvidia control panel and/or in the monitor itself - that really improved how games looked (especially stars and the galaxy in ED) - with deeper blacks and brighter lights but it wasn't just whacking the contrast up across the board.

@bekopharm Ah yes, I think this was the setting that improved things, especially stars / the galaxy... the Dynamic Range option IIRC. I think I got the tips from forums / Reddit.

I can't believe I had the monitor for about 2 years before I found it.

@bekopharm Unrelated story: Once in 1998 or 1999, I was configuring X on MkLinux (on my PowerPC 7100) and of course being a niche distro on niche hardware it was hard to figure out the config.

I REALLY wanted to play "Abuse" on it, and there was a port for Linux/PPC.

I got the X config for the monitor wrong, and blew the Apple monitor (actually a rebranded Sony Trinitron). It went POOF and there was smoke and a smell of burning. After that it only ever did 640x480 at ~30 Hz.