Precomputed scene routing · held-out evaluation

Can target brightness choose the heatmap loss?

A frozen three-branch rule routes eight remaining HDR scenes and DragonBunny before optimization. The same 5e−3 × 300 setting, seed and hard evaluation are used throughout.

R > 0.04 → D2Sparse-dark → CurrentOtherwise → D112 HDR aggregateDragonBunny SDR100 / 200 / 300

Full 12-HDR audit

Safer than Charbonnier, balanced versus Current

The selector was frozen from four calibration scenes. The remaining eight HDR scenes were not used to tune thresholds.

Adaptive − Charbonnier

Strong, consistent gain

+0.070JOD +0.55 dBPSNR +0.0129SSIM

Wins: JOD 12/12 · PSNR 11/12 · SSIM 11/12

Adaptive − Current

Pixel/structure trade-off

-0.057JOD -0.01 dBPSNR +0.0045SSIM

Wins: JOD 5/12 · PSNR 7/12 · SSIM 7/12

Dragon adaptive − Charbonnier

DragonBunny 2D

+0.124JOD +0.45 dBPSNR +0.0123SSIM
Result: the selector beats Charbonnier on JOD in all 12 HDR scenes and on PSNR/SSIM in 11 of 12. Against the existing heatmap it keeps PSNR essentially equal (-0.01 dB), improves SSIM (+0.0045), but loses JOD (-0.057), largely because Anime2 strongly prefers the original heatmap for JOD. Nits-based routing therefore works as a balanced-quality safeguard, not yet as a universal JOD maximizer.

Frozen selections and held-out deltas

SceneMedian nitsRelative medianDark fracHighlight fracSelectedΔJOD vs CharbΔPSNRΔJOD vs CurrentΔPSNR
Anime261.10.08610.0880.006D2 · Luminance-stratified+0.031+0.18-0.643+0.19
Bloom35.40.05070.0600.033D2 · Luminance-stratified+0.008-0.08-0.025-0.03
Glade18.50.01860.0970.107D1 · Log-budget+0.030+0.14+0.026+0.13
Lounge13.00.01260.1740.006D1 · Log-budget+0.092+1.03-0.047-0.52
Meridian33.60.05090.1720.005D2 · Luminance-stratified+0.052+0.13-0.023-0.27
Rushmore13.60.01300.2650.035D1 · Log-budget+0.061+0.42+0.037+0.09
Showgirl4.20.00440.4800.009D1 · Log-budget+0.194+1.32-0.153-0.58
Snow27.10.05090.0280.008D2 · Luminance-stratified+0.021+0.22-0.006+0.08
DragonBunnySDR0.01990.7010.012D1 · Log-budget+0.124+0.45-0.023-0.06

HDR_EXR · selected automatically

Anime2

D2 · Luminance-stratified · relative median 0.0861

Anime2 target

Ground truth

HDR_EXR

Charbonnier reconstruction for Anime2

Charbonnier

JOD 8.100 · PSNR 27.72 dB · SSIM 0.7209 · L2 0.001690

Current luma heatmap reconstruction for Anime2

Current luma heatmap

JOD 8.774 · PSNR 27.71 dB · SSIM 0.7215 · L2 0.001695

Selected · D2 · Luminance-stratified reconstruction for Anime2

Selected · D2 · Luminance-stratified

JOD 8.131 · PSNR 27.90 dB · SSIM 0.7286 · L2 0.001621

vs Charb: +0.031 JOD · +0.18 dB · +0.0077 SSIM vs Current: -0.643 JOD · +0.19 dB · +0.0071 SSIM

HDR_EXR · selected automatically

Bloom

D2 · Luminance-stratified · relative median 0.0507

Bloom target

Ground truth

HDR_EXR

Charbonnier reconstruction for Bloom

Charbonnier

JOD 9.080 · PSNR 22.24 dB · SSIM 0.7005 · L2 0.005976

Current luma heatmap reconstruction for Bloom

Current luma heatmap

JOD 9.113 · PSNR 22.19 dB · SSIM 0.6974 · L2 0.006046

Selected · D2 · Luminance-stratified reconstruction for Bloom

Selected · D2 · Luminance-stratified

JOD 9.088 · PSNR 22.16 dB · SSIM 0.6958 · L2 0.006082

vs Charb: +0.008 JOD · -0.08 dB · -0.0047 SSIM vs Current: -0.025 JOD · -0.03 dB · -0.0016 SSIM

HDR_EXR · selected automatically

Glade

D1 · Log-budget · relative median 0.0186

Glade target

Ground truth

HDR_EXR

Charbonnier reconstruction for Glade

Charbonnier

JOD 8.841 · PSNR 24.07 dB · SSIM 0.6388 · L2 0.003920

Current luma heatmap reconstruction for Glade

Current luma heatmap

JOD 8.845 · PSNR 24.08 dB · SSIM 0.6345 · L2 0.003908

Selected · D1 · Log-budget reconstruction for Glade

Selected · D1 · Log-budget

JOD 8.871 · PSNR 24.21 dB · SSIM 0.6427 · L2 0.003796

vs Charb: +0.030 JOD · +0.14 dB · +0.0039 SSIM vs Current: +0.026 JOD · +0.13 dB · +0.0082 SSIM

HDR_EXR · selected automatically

Lounge

D1 · Log-budget · relative median 0.0126

Lounge target

Ground truth

HDR_EXR

Charbonnier reconstruction for Lounge

Charbonnier

JOD 9.332 · PSNR 31.96 dB · SSIM 0.8069 · L2 0.000636

Current luma heatmap reconstruction for Lounge

Current luma heatmap

JOD 9.471 · PSNR 33.51 dB · SSIM 0.8403 · L2 0.000445

Selected · D1 · Log-budget reconstruction for Lounge

Selected · D1 · Log-budget

JOD 9.424 · PSNR 32.99 dB · SSIM 0.8297 · L2 0.000502

vs Charb: +0.092 JOD · +1.03 dB · +0.0228 SSIM vs Current: -0.047 JOD · -0.52 dB · -0.0106 SSIM

HDR_EXR · selected automatically

Meridian

D2 · Luminance-stratified · relative median 0.0509

Meridian target

Ground truth

HDR_EXR

Charbonnier reconstruction for Meridian

Charbonnier

JOD 9.227 · PSNR 29.76 dB · SSIM 0.7505 · L2 0.001058

Current luma heatmap reconstruction for Meridian

Current luma heatmap

JOD 9.302 · PSNR 30.16 dB · SSIM 0.7586 · L2 0.000963

Selected · D2 · Luminance-stratified reconstruction for Meridian

Selected · D2 · Luminance-stratified

JOD 9.279 · PSNR 29.89 dB · SSIM 0.7521 · L2 0.001026

vs Charb: +0.052 JOD · +0.13 dB · +0.0016 SSIM vs Current: -0.023 JOD · -0.27 dB · -0.0065 SSIM

HDR_EXR · selected automatically

Rushmore

D1 · Log-budget · relative median 0.0130

Rushmore target

Ground truth

HDR_EXR

Charbonnier reconstruction for Rushmore

Charbonnier

JOD 8.667 · PSNR 26.53 dB · SSIM 0.6482 · L2 0.002221

Current luma heatmap reconstruction for Rushmore

Current luma heatmap

JOD 8.691 · PSNR 26.86 dB · SSIM 0.6500 · L2 0.002063

Selected · D1 · Log-budget reconstruction for Rushmore

Selected · D1 · Log-budget

JOD 8.728 · PSNR 26.95 dB · SSIM 0.6596 · L2 0.002020

vs Charb: +0.061 JOD · +0.42 dB · +0.0114 SSIM vs Current: +0.037 JOD · +0.09 dB · +0.0096 SSIM

HDR_EXR · selected automatically

Showgirl

D1 · Log-budget · relative median 0.0044

Showgirl target

Ground truth

HDR_EXR

Charbonnier reconstruction for Showgirl

Charbonnier

JOD 8.824 · PSNR 28.14 dB · SSIM 0.6275 · L2 0.001536

Current luma heatmap reconstruction for Showgirl

Current luma heatmap

JOD 9.171 · PSNR 30.04 dB · SSIM 0.6617 · L2 0.000990

Selected · D1 · Log-budget reconstruction for Showgirl

Selected · D1 · Log-budget

JOD 9.018 · PSNR 29.46 dB · SSIM 0.6565 · L2 0.001133

vs Charb: +0.194 JOD · +1.32 dB · +0.0290 SSIM vs Current: -0.153 JOD · -0.58 dB · -0.0052 SSIM

HDR_EXR · selected automatically

Snow

D2 · Luminance-stratified · relative median 0.0509

Snow target

Ground truth

HDR_EXR

Charbonnier reconstruction for Snow

Charbonnier

JOD 9.475 · PSNR 34.19 dB · SSIM 0.8825 · L2 0.000381

Current luma heatmap reconstruction for Snow

Current luma heatmap

JOD 9.502 · PSNR 34.33 dB · SSIM 0.8871 · L2 0.000369

Selected · D2 · Luminance-stratified reconstruction for Snow

Selected · D2 · Luminance-stratified

JOD 9.496 · PSNR 34.41 dB · SSIM 0.8875 · L2 0.000362

vs Charb: +0.021 JOD · +0.22 dB · +0.0050 SSIM vs Current: -0.006 JOD · +0.08 dB · +0.0004 SSIM

SDR_sRGB · selected automatically

DragonBunny

D1 · Log-budget · relative median 0.0199

DragonBunny target

Ground truth

SDR_sRGB

Charbonnier reconstruction for DragonBunny

Charbonnier

JOD 8.390 · PSNR 23.16 dB · SSIM 0.4228 · L2 0.004830

Current luma heatmap reconstruction for DragonBunny

Current luma heatmap

JOD 8.537 · PSNR 23.67 dB · SSIM 0.4344 · L2 0.004298

Selected · D1 · Log-budget reconstruction for DragonBunny

Selected · D1 · Log-budget

JOD 8.514 · PSNR 23.61 dB · SSIM 0.4351 · L2 0.004358

vs Charb: +0.124 JOD · +0.45 dB · +0.0123 SSIM vs Current: -0.023 JOD · -0.06 dB · +0.0007 SSIM