HDR + 4K
True HDR on an HDR display, wide gamut on a P3 panel, and 10 bit recording. Every tier.
Light above white
A normal screen stops at white. An HDR screen can go brighter than white, so a sun, a flare or a spark glows instead of flattening out. IKANDY does this automatically once Windows and the display are set up for it, and it tells you in plain words whether you are seeing it.
Set it up
- In Windows, open Settings, System, Display, pick the HDR monitor and turn on Use HDR. Without this, Windows hands IKANDY a standard screen.
- In IKANDY, open Settings and the About tab. HDR output is on by default when an HDR display is detected. Read the status line under the switch: it names exactly why the current frame is or is not in HDR, and which destinations are receiving it.
- HDR headroom sets how far highlights may rise above white: 1.5x, 2x, 3x or 4x. 2x suits most displays. Try 3x or 4x on a bright panel and step back down if it feels like too much. The cap is 4x for viewing comfort.
- Wide gamut output turns on by itself when the display reports Display P3. Leave it on: the SDR show presents in P3, colors stay exact on every display, and feeds and recordings stay sRGB.
- On a 4K display, open the Output tab and set Visual Quality to HIGH or ULTRA so the GPU worlds render at the panel's native size. AUTO picks a tier from your GPU.
- HDR output and headroom apply on the next frame. Turning HDR output on or off also changes the canvas format, and that part takes effect on the next launch.
What stays HDR
- Every engine finishes on one pipe. Shader imports, compute worlds, MilkDrop, WGSL scenes and video loops all enter the same chain, so god rays, the color grade and temporal AA look the same in HDR.
- Supported HDR sources keep their range: PQ and HLG PNG and AVIF files, JPEG gain map images, high bit depth video, Windows screen capture and Spout input.
- Mirror and span map the finished frame for each display's own capability, so an HDR screen and an SDR screen beside it each get the right picture.
- Wallpaper presents scRGB on an HDR display and a mapped SDR result elsewhere.
- Spout offers a separate FP16 HDR sender beside the compatible SDR one. NDI output stays SDR: HDR NDI needs the separately licensed NDI Advanced SDK.
Record in 10 bit
In the Output tab, under Rolling replay, pick a Recording dynamic range: SDR, SDR 10 BIT, HDR PQ or HDR HLG. SDR 10 bit writes 10 bit WebM with BT.709 color from the full precision show frame, so smooth gradients keep 1024 levels instead of 256. The HDR options write 10 bit WebM with BT.2020 color: PQ for HDR mastering, HLG for broadcast workflows. Changing the range restarts the replay buffer. If the encoder cannot do HDR, IKANDY says so instead of silently writing SDR.