Kena: Bridge of Spirits
HDR analysis Kena: Bridge of Spirits on PC and PS5 Pro.
The game does not support HDR on either PC or PS5.
On PC we can get native HDR into the game by using the standard RenoDX HDR mod. It simply looks amazing.
With RenoDX we get amazing bright high-lights.
We also get a lot more detail in bright objects (bright lamps etc) compared to SDR, because this is a native HDR implementation done on the game level. It does not just convert SDR into HDR like Auto HDR or RTX HDR does.
Native HDR should also give us more detail in shadows than SDR, but I haven't looked for it.
And RenoDX gives us a lot of settings to optimize HDR with, such as paper white.
On PS5 we can force HDR on. It's still basically just SDR, but it changes the image significantly. It makes colors much more saturated and shadows darker. You may like that more, but it's not how the game is intended to look.
Read more about PS5's HDR Always On in my HDR Always On article.
Picture 1 shows the beautiful bright high-lights on the beautiful black background (perfect black levels) with RenoDX.
Picture 2 is from PS5 using HDR always on. Look how shadows are darkened and colors more saturated compared to SDR in picture 3.
Picture 4 is with RenoDX.
