09-28-2023, 08:37 AM
After some experimentation today attempting to get Windows 11 Auto HDR working with PCSX2 under Windows, I decided to try something that was "too dumb to be realistic", but thought I would give it a go anyway to rule it out.
Launching PCSX2 nightly build from the "pcsx2-qt.exe" file never triggers Windows 11 Auto HDR. You can tell when this is active, as there's a pop up on screen when it happens, and with the default filename, no combination of settings work.
Creating a copy of the exact same file and simply renaming it to "pcsx2.exe" changes this behaviour, and Windows 11 Auto HDR works when the binary is named that way and launched from that named file.
Usual caveats apply - you need to be running in either DirectX11 or DirectX12 (other renderers don't work), and of course you need a screen that supports HDR output from the Windows desktop with HDR enabled and Auto HDR turned on in system settings.
Anything else doesn't seem matter (various resolutions at the desktop level, 4:4:4 vs 4:2:2 output modes, HDMI 2.0 vs HDMI 2.1, PCSX2 settings to render with boderless fullscreen versus a specific fullscreen resolution, etc, etc). You can set all those to suit whatever hardware/display setup you have (I didn't try 8bit vs 10bit, although if you're doing HDR you should probably stick to 10bit).
I've seen a lot of people commenting they can't get this working in Qt builds of PCSX2, and couldn't really understand what was any different about that from older versions with respect to Auto HDR specifically. Looks like it's entirely down to file name matching, and someone somewhere at Microsoft put "pcsx2.exe" into the global allow list, perhaps.
Only thing to remember with this trick is if you update PCSX2, ensure you copy the new binary across to the pcsx2.exe name every time.
Hope this helps anyone attempting to get AutoHDR working. Would be lovely if the kind soul at Microsoft who added "pcsx2.exe" in the first place also added "pcsx2-qt.exe" to the database.
Launching PCSX2 nightly build from the "pcsx2-qt.exe" file never triggers Windows 11 Auto HDR. You can tell when this is active, as there's a pop up on screen when it happens, and with the default filename, no combination of settings work.
Creating a copy of the exact same file and simply renaming it to "pcsx2.exe" changes this behaviour, and Windows 11 Auto HDR works when the binary is named that way and launched from that named file.
Usual caveats apply - you need to be running in either DirectX11 or DirectX12 (other renderers don't work), and of course you need a screen that supports HDR output from the Windows desktop with HDR enabled and Auto HDR turned on in system settings.
Anything else doesn't seem matter (various resolutions at the desktop level, 4:4:4 vs 4:2:2 output modes, HDMI 2.0 vs HDMI 2.1, PCSX2 settings to render with boderless fullscreen versus a specific fullscreen resolution, etc, etc). You can set all those to suit whatever hardware/display setup you have (I didn't try 8bit vs 10bit, although if you're doing HDR you should probably stick to 10bit).
I've seen a lot of people commenting they can't get this working in Qt builds of PCSX2, and couldn't really understand what was any different about that from older versions with respect to Auto HDR specifically. Looks like it's entirely down to file name matching, and someone somewhere at Microsoft put "pcsx2.exe" into the global allow list, perhaps.
Only thing to remember with this trick is if you update PCSX2, ensure you copy the new binary across to the pcsx2.exe name every time.
Hope this helps anyone attempting to get AutoHDR working. Would be lovely if the kind soul at Microsoft who added "pcsx2.exe" in the first place also added "pcsx2-qt.exe" to the database.