Starfield - HDR Optimized Settings (Patreon)

The game DOES USE/APPLY Xbox and PC HDR Calibration app settings now.

Starfield had one of the worst HDR implementations I've ever seen at launch (very raised HDR black level, fixed and dim Peak HDR Luminance, washed out colors with bad color filters) but after official Patch 1.8 the HDR presentation vastly improved (even if not perfect yet) by actually leveraging the system-level HDR settings on both Xbox and Windows 11 (with Auto HDR enabled), so just make sure to have properly setup those and you should already be mostly done.

"Mostly" because the actual in-game Peak HDR Luminance seems maxing out at 1.000 nits (from 400 nits of before), so for example if you have an LG G3 OLED (or any other TV with higher Peak Luminance), Dynamic Tone Mapping is still recommended over HGIG there.

For all other TVs the values of the system-level HDR calibration app will be applied correctly up to 1.000 nits.

Also the game now introduced 3 new "Brightness", "Contrast" and "HDR Brightness" sliders which don't work as good as hoped as even when changed drastically, the actual difference of the picture is minimal and often to the worse side

I found that it's best to leave those slider to their default values except for HDR Brightness slider to be set at 1.0 for further improving the contrast between darkest and brightest part of the image.

I also recommend to set the "Interface Opacity" slider to 70% to lower the otherwise excessively bright HUD elements after the patch.

That said, the original/excessive game filters are still there as a "creative intent", but this will inevitably still lead to not yet perfect black levels and a bit washed out look. The only way to fix this is to install the latest Normalized LUTs Mod (3D variant) on PC and then make sure that on Windows 11 the Auto HDR is enabled.
Mod support will come to Xbox versions as well but only in 2024, so keep an eye for this mod also there when it will come.

BONUS:

• Set Film Grain Intensity to 0.50: as the default of 1.00 has a bit too much of it while a lesser intensity could contribute to improve clarity while preserving the intended look for the game;
• Evaluate using other Mods for the PC version: to noticeably improve performance with the same picture quality and almost fix all the game issues right now
  
  I currently highly recommend the following (Free):
  Performance Optimization Patch
  HD Reworked Project Mod
  60fps HUD Mod
  Customized INI Mod
  Achievement Enabler Mod
• Optimize your PC for Gaming by following my guide

Enjoy :)

-P