Initial impressions and brightness

[Bemused]

Had to fire this up in the middle of a work day just to see. Feels and looks just great on a NVidia 4080 super and I'm impressed by the performance on this card, given how great everything looks. One problem though, the clouds are incredibly bright and this does not seem to vary as a function of gamma adjustment, HDR on/off or the level of detail in clouds in settings. I have a HDR monitor and am used to games providing the option to adjust brightness on load but not here. 

Anyone else experiencing same and any solutions?

[Rocket_Knut]

Screenshots look desaturated/underexposed at my end. Happens with in game HDR on and off.

[Regingrave]

Sounds familiar. Can you post some screenshots here?

[Rocket_Knut]

Just a second

[Regingrave]

Does it appear only on screenshots you take? Do you take this screenshot by ingame tool (PrintScreen, with .bmp stored in IL2Series/Screenshots/), or some external tool?
HDR is on in Windows/Monitor settings I suppose?

[Rocket_Knut]

HDR in Win11 is set to "on", screens made with in game screenshot function, saved as .bmp, game looks ok, only screenshots affected.

[Regingrave]

Thanks! 

[FodderMonkey]

I'm really struggling with the HUD aiming reticles.  I can't see them against clouds, etc.  They're too faint.  Maybe there's a way to adjust this and I'm missing it, but if not, the ability to change color and brightness would be much appreciated.  I get that this goes against authenticity, etc., but I'd just like to see where I'm aiming before I fire the guns.

 

Edited June 26 by FodderMonkey

[I/JG53_Kurtz]

On 6/25/2026 at 2:38 PM, Bemused said:

Had to fire this up in the middle of a work day just to see. Feels and looks just great on a NVidia 4080 super and I'm impressed by the performance on this card, given how great everything looks. One problem though, the clouds are incredibly bright and this does not seem to vary as a function of gamma adjustment, HDR on/off or the level of detail in clouds in settings. I have a HDR monitor and am used to games providing the option to adjust brightness on load but not here. 

Anyone else experiencing same and any solutions?

Same for me, clouds are overly bright and blinding, regardless of the gamma correction and HDR settings in the game. How can I fix this?

[Dash,Polder]

They're also very bad on the horizons, the old white horizontal banding is still there.  Doing a level turn no matter what direction with the sun at high noon it's difficult to see the reticle on the white horizon banding.

[Habu]

On 6/25/2026 at 4:29 PM, Regingrave said:

Sounds familiar. Can you post some screenshots here?

I have the same thing in game and on screenshot.

I have a faded image. In game and in game menu, and on the map.

On screenshot, some color change the yellow become blue.

Here is a screenshot of the P51 which should have yellow. I have yellow in game.

Here is a video of my menu, loading screen, on the map and in game.

Here are my graphic settings. I test with HDR and without HDR in game with the same result. As you can see, my menu is fade out.

I have a 5090 with the lastest nvidia driver.

[Habu]

Here is the solution for in game, not the screenshot which still have the color bug.

I have a nvidia Card.

Go in Nvapp => Settings and turn off Filter in game and photo. Even if you don't have any filter. 

[Bemused]

That doesn't work for me Habu unfortunately - was off in the first place.

[Habu]

Try to turn off the nvidia interface. A budy has to disable it too. 

The HDR in windows 11 could be another thing too. 

I had to disable it to have the map in the editor.

I still have a problem with screenshot, but it's better.

[I/JG53_Kurtz]

I disabled windows HDR and the excessive brightness stopped, but the game looks quite matt and faded... I have to test more the options...

[Rocket_Knut]

On 6/25/2026 at 4:29 PM, Regingrave said:

Sounds familiar...

So, any progress, a fix even? Or will it remain as is?

[Regingrave]

4 часа назад, Rocket_Knut сказал:

So, any progress, a fix even? Or will it remain as is?

Should be fixed already, is it not?

[Rocket_Knut]

@Regingrave You´re part of the team, you should know. Here is your answer anyway:

 

 

[3ra_Luke]

The only solution, until developers solve this HDR problem with Windows 11, is to use ReShade. I think last version is 6.7.3.  I love HDR on games, and for MSFS 2024 its a must for me,  and I hate to be forced to turn it on and off every time I want to play any game or sim. So I found the solution for IL-2 Korea. First of all, remember to calibrate you screen using Microsoft HDR Calibration Tool. This step is important.

As a reference, my settings are:

Techniques=Levels@Levels.fx,Curves@Curves.fx,Technicolor@Technicolor.fx,Tonemap@Tonemap.fx,Technicolor2@Technicolor2.fx

[Curves.fx]
Contrast=-0.463000
Formula=4
Mode=0

[Levels.fx]
BlackPoint=16
HighlightClipping=0
WhitePoint=235

[Technicolor.fx]
Power=4.471000
RGBNegativeAmount=0.880000,0.880000,0.880000
Strength=0.117000

[Technicolor2.fx]
Brightness=0.568000
ColorStrength=0.200000,0.200000,0.200000
Saturation=0.648000
Strength=1.000000

[Tonemap.fx]
Bleach=0.000000
Defog=0.000000
Exposure=-0.479000
FogColor=0.000000,0.000000,1.000000
Gamma=1.419000
Saturation=0.136000

 Paste this text on a file named ReShadePreset.ini and paste it in the game folder. My path is C:\IL2Series\game\bin\game.

Its a matter of time that developers solve this problem, like they did with IL-2 GB or the developers of DCS did, both with no native HDR. Until then I can fly with amazing colors and effects, and also I can tweak ReShade settings depending on the season or day/night changes.  I hope this info would help you.

[Rocket_Knut]

@3ra_Luke From 1C´s point of view, the issue is solved already, please see statement above. Must be a me-problem then.

[Rocket_Knut]

1 hour ago, 3ra_Luke said:

 Paste this text on a file named ReShadePreset.ini and paste it in the game folder. My path is C:\IL2Series\game\bin\game.

I hope this info would help you.

 Forgotten to thank you, sorry for that. 😉 

[3ra_Luke]

Well, obviously, if before every flight you need to disable HDR on Windows 11, and that is unnecessary for the rest of the games/sims installed, well, the problem is NOT solved and it's an IL-2 Korea problem. And its worst in VR.  😊 Anyway, try it and decide what is better for you. Cheers.

[Rocket_Knut]

@3ra_Luke Yeah, disabeling HDR in Win 11 before firing up the game isn´t a solution either. Because the game then looks just like the screenshots... I paid for a product and I want it to work. It does in GB obviously, it should be doable in this theatre. The fact, that it is known from beta testing already and the answer I´ve got, leaves room for interpretation and some questions unanswered though. Cheers to you!

Edited July 5 by Rocket_Knut

[Habu]

8 hours ago, 3ra_Luke said:

The only solution, until developers solve this HDR problem with Windows 11, is to use ReShade. I think last version is 6.7.3.  I love HDR on games, and for MSFS 2024 its a must for me,  and I hate to be forced to turn it on and off every time I want to play any game or sim. So I found the solution for IL-2 Korea. First of all, remember to calibrate you screen using Microsoft HDR Calibration Tool. This step is important.

As a reference, my settings are:

Techniques=Levels@Levels.fx,Curves@Curves.fx,Technicolor@Technicolor.fx,Tonemap@Tonemap.fx,Technicolor2@Technicolor2.fx

[Curves.fx]
Contrast=-0.463000
Formula=4
Mode=0

[Levels.fx]
BlackPoint=16
HighlightClipping=0
WhitePoint=235

[Technicolor.fx]
Power=4.471000
RGBNegativeAmount=0.880000,0.880000,0.880000
Strength=0.117000

[Technicolor2.fx]
Brightness=0.568000
ColorStrength=0.200000,0.200000,0.200000
Saturation=0.648000
Strength=1.000000

[Tonemap.fx]
Bleach=0.000000
Defog=0.000000
Exposure=-0.479000
FogColor=0.000000,0.000000,1.000000
Gamma=1.419000
Saturation=0.136000

 Paste this text on a file named ReShadePreset.ini and paste it in the game folder. My path is C:\IL2Series\game\bin\game.

Its a matter of time that developers solve this problem, like they did with IL-2 GB or the developers of DCS did, both with no native HDR. Until then I can fly with amazing colors and effects, and also I can tweak ReShade settings depending on the season or day/night changes.  I hope this info would help you.

It's a solution, but if you play in multiplayer, you can have a problem if the server blocks the injection.

6 hours ago, Rocket_Knut said:

@3ra_Luke From 1C´s point of view, the issue is solved already, please see statement above. Must be a me-problem then.

But it's not. And the windows HDR setting is link to the GUI map in the mission editor. 

The screenshot are not fixed too. The problem is from Korea, because when i take a screenshot with bandicam, my colors are fine.

We need a fix asap.

[MajorMagee]

We discussed this in the screenshot thread. The problem is that the game is using Windows default Print Screen function which does not properly tone map from HDR to SDR. It compresses the HDR levels into the center of the SDR histogram producing the flat matt images posted above. Taking screenshots with something like Gamebar that is taking the data directly from the HDR rendering engine versus from the Windows host get's around this limitation.

@33-regingrave to fix this would require the game having its own screen save output rather than relying on Windows.

Edited Monday at 12:05 AM by MajorMagee