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Mario Kart World on the Switch 2 is in hot water, folks. Apparently, it’s pulling a fast one with this ‘fake HDR’ stuff, and yeah, the TechTubers are not happy. It’s like the internet has decided to rage-farm over this, but there’s this deep dive by Alexander Mejia — sounds like a tech guru. He’s on board with them, claiming Mario Kart World was slapped together with “an SDR-first content pipeline with a last-minute HDR tonemap.” Mejia’s got a serious HDR resume, having worked on the Dolby Vision HDR experience for Xbox Series X and Unreal Engine. So, he’s not just blowing smoke, ya know?
The developers kind of did this to themselves, right? They’re out here hyping up 4K60 HDR like it’s the second coming. I mean, sure, but Mejia’s screaming, “They’re not taking HDR seriously!” Developers, even the hotshots, just aren’t all in on this HDR stuff, and I guess Mejia’s not totally surprised. He says if HDR feels like a Monday morning after a wild weekend, you’re definitely not alone. Pro tip from the master himself: dive into HDR from the get-go, don’t slap it on at the last minute like a Band-Aid.
Oh! A little gallery sidebar caught my eye — images from Mejia’s findings. Apparently, when you max out brightness at 10,000 nits, peaks don’t even hit 950 nits in-game. That’s… uh, not great. One image from Nintendo tops out at 500 nits, even with the brightness cranked. Oof. Keeps nagging me that the game’s art looks like it’s playing in a sandbox, color-wise, stuck in an SDR-like color space. It’s missing the big leagues of the Rec.2020 standard. Like watching a blockbuster on a tube TV. Anyway, rambling now.
Oh, before I forget, Mejia offers a peek into his test methods, sharing tips so you can poke around at home. His findings are clear as day—charts, stats, the whole shebang. Devs aren’t treating HDR with the kid gloves it deserves.
Wrapping it up, seems like even the big-name devs just go back to their SDR habits, never fully embracing what HDR tech can do for the gaming world. Mejia’s got his consultancy flag waving for studios needing guidance on “HDR first rendering pipelines and Dolby Vision doohickeys.” So, yeah. Keep that in the back pocket if you’re pondering the whole mess.
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