It’s a shame Darktide has no native HDR implementation
I used RenoDX to apply HDR in the past but it was unstable. Only recently it was updated in October. More stable. So thought to do a quick setup guide.
RenoDX is better than Auto HDR and RTX HDR visually.
It really makes Darktide into a different game.
Advise to use Windows HDR calibration tool from Microsoft store first.
Step 1
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Enable HDR in Windows 11. But Auto HDR OFF
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Place the renodx-darktide.addon64 into binaries folder of your Darktide folder
Step 2
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Download Reshade. Choose the one with full add on support. https://reshade.me/
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Run it and browse for Darktide.exe file.
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Choose Direct X 10/11/12 option. Click next.
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Under “Add-ons” tab. Untick “Sweet FX by Ceejay”. Don’t need it. Click next.
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Next screen just click Skip.
Step 3
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Delete shader cache file \AppData\Roaming\Fatshark\Darktide\shader_cache.hans
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Or can use this powershell script which clear caches. I run this every time Darktide has an update.
$EBWebViewCacheFolder = $env:APPDATA + "\Fatshark\Darktide\EBWebView\Default\Cache\Cache_Data"
$hansCacheFile = $env:APPDATA + "\Fatshark\Darktide\shader_cache.hans"
Get-ChildItem $EBWebViewCacheFolder | Foreach { Write-Output ("Deleting " + $_.FullName); Remove-Item $_.FullName }
if (Test-Path $hansCacheFile) {
Write-Output "Deleting hansCacheFile..."
Remove-Item $hansCacheFile
}
Read-Host -Prompt "Press Enter to exit..."
Step 4
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Load into mourningstar. Press Home on your keyboard
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Untick Generic Depth… and Untick Effect Runtime
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Only keep ticked RenoDX
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Ensure Tone mapper is set to RenoDRT
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Peak Brightness. There is a bug where the slider works but no visual change above 200 nits brightness. So yea HDR 400, HDR 1000 won’t work.
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UI brightness. Recommended turning way down otherwise player health bars will be too bright. This will also effect other menus like mission board.
Press Home on keyboard to go back to game
Uninstall process
From Step 2. Run that same installer and Choose Direct X 10/11/12 option. Click “Uninstall Reshade and effects”.
Issues
Don’t jump into Havoc yet. Do a quickplay mission and it will stutter for about a minute. However on next mission afterwards it was only stutter for about 10 secs.
Your mileage may vary.
Alternative to RenoDX if too much performance issues/stutter
Not as good as RenoDX visually.
Lilium’s SDR TRC Fix. It is part of reshade. Install, Press Home, enable Add on that’s it. Gamma 2.2 should be default and best. But can try out 2.3 so deeper blacks and some detail/shadow loss.
Or if you don’t like to install Reshade at all. This is more band aid. Using a HDR ICC profile.
