Mario Kart World on the Switch 2 has been catching flak lately for what some folks are calling ‘fake HDR.’ Or, you know, whatever that means. This whole hoopla kicked off with a bunch of TechTubers who clearly have some feelings about it. Now, not to throw fuel on the fire, but Alexander Mejia – a big shot in HDR tech, or so they say – chimed in. He’s got this long, detailed blog going on about how Mario Kart World is basically using something called an “SDR-first content pipeline,” whatever that is. I guess it’s like putting lipstick on a pig when it comes to HDR? No idea why this caught my eye, but here we are.
Anyway, the folks behind Mario Kart World seemed to be asking for this. They marketed the game as having all these fancy features—4K resolution, 60 frames per second, and HDR visuals. Sounds impressive, right? But nope, Mejia wasn’t buying it. According to him, they didn’t really think the HDR part through. Or maybe they did, but just… didn’t care? I dunno.
Oh, here’s a thing: apparently, getting HDR right is tough. Mejia admits this much to us regulars. So, if your game’s HDR isn’t looking as snazzy as you’d hoped, welcome to the club, I guess. His advice? Start with HDR in mind from the get-go instead of tacking it on like an afterthought. Not that I’d know what that process looks like. Sounds complicated.
So, okay, back to the nitty-gritty. Mejia, in his nerdy quest, went all out and tested Mario Kart World’s HDR. You wouldn’t believe the charts and graphs he put together. They basically scream that the HDR quality here is lacking — big time. Take this one example: even with max brightness cranked to 10,000 nits, the game doesn’t go above 950 nits. I don’t even know what nits are, but that’s a big gap, right? And there’s something about colors too, like it’s all trapped in a gloomy box when it could’ve been this wild, technicolor dream.
Oh, and there’s a side-by-side video comparing Mario Kart World to something called Godfall Ultimate Edition. Both are captured in HDR — wild stuff.
In the end, Mejia stands firm on his main point. Our beloved developers might just be dropping the ball when it comes to HDR. Like, they’re pretty much cruising with their eyes closed, he says. But then, in a clever move, Mejia kind of nudges you to consider his services if you’re stuck with HDR woes. That’s one way to do it, huh?
So, if you’re into this sort of thing, maybe follow Tom’s Hardware for more updates. Or not. Up to you.
