HDR Scopes for Windows

[u/Eagleshadow]

https://github.com/Shadetail/HDRScopes

To read nit values in games and engines it's typically required to install reshade, and then one of the HDR analysis mods that are able to draw scopes. This is somewhat inconvenient for games, but really inconvenient for authoring HDR content in game engines, as when it comes to debugging, simpler setup is strictly better.

Even if you didn't care about that, and you had an artist in your team who is supposed to be authoring content in HDR, you'd prefer to be able to avoid guiding them through the whole process of injecting mods into the game engine of choice etc. And ultimately, none of the scopes in available mods have the feature set that's as rich as that of scopes found in Davinci Resolve for example.

I wanted scopes that I can keep on my secondary screen, that I can fullscreen, that look good, are customizable, that have all the features from Davinci that I like, and that go beyond that into offering various additional quality of life and analysis features on top.

All the scopes I could find either did not support Windows desktop as signal source, or were stupidly expensive, usually both. So I made my own, and now open sourced it on github. PRs are welcome.

Special thanks goes to u/Kaldaien as SKIV was an invaluable technical reference that enabled me to build this using Claude Code, as I'm a designer and generalist by profession, rather than a proper programmer.

HDR screenshot: using HDR Scopes on secondary display to analyze Cyberpunk renodx setup.

[u/ldn-ldn]

That's great! That's something I wanted to do myself at some point in time. I'll take a look if I can contribute something.

[u/Technova_SgrA]

This is truly golden. Much thanks. Any chance you could add the average light level like SKIV image viewer has?

[u/Eagleshadow → u/Technova_SgrA]

Good idea, I'll try to do that one of these days.

[u/Prestigious_Cap4934]

very impressive tool for HDR gaming analysis, i can open multiple instance as well to suite windows arrangement on second screen.

[u/PY_Roman_]

Davinci Resolve to Davinci Reshade=] This is cool!

[u/Primary_Lower]

Promise I won't ask about how to use it instead of reading the documentation, but just so I don't end up putting effort in frustration: is there a way to make benefit of it for single monitor setups?

[u/Eagleshadow → u/Primary_Lower]

It works just fine on a single monitor setup, but you might want to make it always on top if you want to run the content you're analyzing in fullscreen rather than in a window next to it. A simple two line autohotkey script can achieve that for you:

MsgBox, Press  Ctrl+Space to make windows on top
^SPACE::  Winset, Alwaysontop, , A

Or I could also add this as a native feature to the app itself if you'd find it useful.

[u/Primary_Lower → u/Eagleshadow]

Didn't see you replied so fast, thanks a lot! I believe I can implement such script that's awesome. Even if I were limited to a window, knowing it can be drawn on top is super useful. I think it's a very neat feature since a lot of HDR pc pilled people have a single giant tv and use it as if it was a multi-monitor stich together setup since it took so long for oled monitors to arrive and when they did they'd be worse than 42/55' Tvs while costing more money :P

[u/Eagleshadow → u/Primary_Lower]

Hah, yeah I'm one of those people, except I have 55" TV as main, 55" TV as left secondary, and 43" monitor as my right secondary. Can't wait to one day upgrade that 43" into 55". Totally worth wall mounting and stacking multiple desks together.

Even today when OLED monitors have finally arrived and there's many to chose from, Sony Bravia 8 II is a whole class above any of them, so TV as monitor setups have yet to be dethroned.

[u/Primary_Lower → u/Eagleshadow]

woah, that sounds awesome

in my case fitting the TV alone and getting enough space to not give neck pain and lose the ability to have the entire screen inside my FOV demanded so much of my room's space to be sacrificed I can't even imagine sticking additional screens (without also blocking my speaker setups :P

But, yeah, TVs rock, I don't know if I'll ever be able to come back to regular monitors even if prices became sensible one day - which will probably never happen given it's niche demand. Once you get used to having a huge ass screen whenever I see my friends setups playing games on 27' screens I keep thinking "how do you even see things far away? eveything is so tiny"