HDR with Intel UHD graphics?

RetroArch Windows devices
#1

I’m using a small mini-pc with Intel UHD graphics with an LG monitor that does support HDR, and I’m able to enable HDR in the Windows display preferences, but I’m not seeing HDR available in the Video settings within RetroArch. WIth the Nvidia cards I’ve used in the past, it always was present and I don’t recall having to do anything special to enable it.

I’ve tried with the Vulkan and D3D drivers in RetroArch but it didn’t make any difference.

Does HDR only work with Radeon/Nvidia chipsets/drivers? Or should it be available for anything that supports HDR in Windows? Any guidance on supported chipsets?

2 Likes
Sony Megatron Colour Video Monitor
#2

Bumping this back up after a discussion with @Cyber over on Reddit. I’m able to enable HDR in the Windows desktop settings but I don’t see any HDR menu item in the RetroArch menus. @Cyber seemed to think this should not be an issue.

Any suggestions?

1 Like
#3

I kinda responded to you over on reddit but can you state what Intel IGP you’re currently using and what driver version you currently have installed as well?

Also you might want to update your Slang Shaders and your RetroArch installation as well as your Intel IGP drivers.

Check to make sure you’re not loading any overrides or cores which are switching the driver to one which doesn’t support HDR in RetroArch.

1 Like
#4

I have the latest drivers installed, which are 31.0.101.4575. Vulkan version is 1.3.250. The processor is an Intel N95 running at 1.7Ghz and it just says that it is UHD graphics. It’s a very low end setup that only cost around $130. I was buying this to just play Ghouls n Ghosts and others in the series on this cabinet, so didn’t want to invest a lot.

I confirmed that RetroArch is configured to use Vulkan and I’ve updated RetroArch to the latest Stable release (1.16) and still don’t see the HDR options in the menu. I’ve also confirmed this both with no core loaded and with the MAME core loaded and see that Vulkan is still the selected driver.

When I’m using RetroArch with my other Nvidia based PC’s I always see the option once I’ve enabled HDR, though I’ve had weird issues where I needed to set the HDR settings prior to any core being loaded or I’d get a black screen. That’s an easy thing to work around though.

I did try your Royale 1080 arcade shader but it was a slide show on this PC, unfortunately. I’m going to be building an Ikari Warriors cabinet using the new rotary sticks from Glenn from Glenn’s Retro Show once they arrive. I may bump up the PC to a more powerful Radeon based mini PC instead. It will cost me another $150 probably but it would give me more options in terms of shader performance, run-ahead, etc. And I’m guessing the Radeon drivers will work better with RetroArch for HDR too.

1 Like
#5

Interesting, seems like you’ve done a lot of testing. Have you updated your Slang Shaders using the Online Updater? The Sony Megatron Color Video Monitor had some nasty bugs a couple versions ago which would actually prevent HDR from being enabled when using the Vulkan Driver. It would have still showed up in the menu though.

After updating you can possibly try other cores besides the Mame core and see if the behaviour is the same.

You can also try backing up your RetroArch.cfg file and starting over your configuration from scratch or backing up your entire RetroArch folder then try a clean RetroArch installation.

You can also try reinstalling your Intel IGP drivers.

You can also try the D3D11 and D3D12 drivers as well or even GL_Core to see if they will make a difference because they are all supposed to support HDR in RetroArch as well. So that might work if there is an issue with Vulkan on your system especially since you said that HDR works in Windows.

If using any of the D3D Drivers or if you’re on Windows 10, you will have to also enable HDR in Windows before launching RetroArch for the HDR option to even show up.

I think this is something that should be brought to the attention of @MajorPainTheCactus in case there’s some bug involved.

Maybe someone else with an Intel IGP can test as well.

1 Like
#6

Yes, I did update the slang shaders with the updater and I’m getting the same issue with the SNES core. It doesn’t appear to be core related.

I also tried with a fresh install of RetroArch and the behavior was the same. Likewise with the Intel drivers.

I’m guessing there is just some piece of logic related to enabling the option that is failing a check related to driver HDR support. It’s definitely working correctly in Windows itself.

Thanks for all your troubleshooting help! I was able to get both runahead and preemptive frames working on the games (I found that preemptive causes Golden Axe to crash after a while, but runahead seems stable and performs ok for that game), and I’m getting much more responsive gameplay :slight_smile: I have mistercades hooked up to CRT’s in some of my other game cabinets and don’t really feel there is a difference once the latency tools are configured in RetroArch. Very nice!

1 Like
#7

I added a little bit to my previous post. Since HDR is working fine in Windows, why don’t you try using the D3D11 or D3D12 driver in RetroArch as those use the Windows implementation of HDR whereas the Vulkan Driver uses a more proprietary implementation.

That may not work if the Core needs to use a Driver other than D3D though. GL_Core is also an option.

A final option is to try the ReShade version of Sony Megatron Color Video Monitor.

You’re welcome! Very good! I’m glad I could help. Do remember to ony use “Second Instance” when using Run Ahead if you are experiencing audio issues when using a single instance.

Also, BSNES as well as a couple other cores have an internal implementation of Run-Ahead that has to be enabled via the Core Options.

1 Like
#8

I did try the D3D and GL core drivers a while back and got the same result, so it seems independent of that :frowning:

I may try downloading the code myself to see if anything jumps out in the HDR menu or driver detection logic. I’m not familiar with the RetroArch codebase though, so might take some time.

1 Like