Mario Kart World's HDR Fail: The SDR-First Pipeline Trap

Nintendo's Switch 2 launched with Mario Kart World, promising 4K60 + HDR. However, a detailed analysis reveals the game suffers from poor HDR implementation. The author, a veteran of Xbox's HDR program, demonstrates that the game uses static tone mapping, capping peak brightness at around 950 nits and limiting color gamut to Rec.709. This points to an SDR-first workflow where HDR is a last-minute afterthought, rather than native HDR production. The author explains this 'fake HDR' stems from many developers still using SDR-first pipelines, resulting in subpar HDR. The solution? Prioritize HDR from the start, embrace wide color gamut and dynamic tone mapping to unleash the full potential of HDR hardware and significantly improve visual quality.