An autoexposure/eye adaptation system for HDR implemenation request
I don't remember if vanilla gothic 2 had a rudimentary autoexposure, but even a vanilla-looking version could benefit from such a feature in place, since there are a lot of heavily occluded places, caves, etc, in the game. The in-progress HDR feature being implemented creates an even stronger contrast at times, so there definetely should be something that does not allow shadows to crush, or highlights to clip. Only allowing the adjustment of gamma or brightness will just slightly ruin the picture quality, without keeping a pleasing tone balance and minimal detail loss.
Perhaps, you could even consider to delve in the dynamic frame masks for exposure strength like in GoW 2018 or GoWR 2022, you seem like a ~~calm and reasonable per~~ a very competent programmer.

Hi, @toolatetotheparty !
This screenshot, from worlfofplayers, is a somewhat outdated. Bach then there was no good solution for diffuse color remapping.
For next release, planning for now to use exposure based on time of day. This is supper hd-hook, yet serve well already for old sky-shader.
Current view (somewhat in between your images):

And for next release - yep GoW solution with local tone-mapping is one of most appealing. Anther idea to experiment with is purkinje-shift operator, that been used in Ghost-of-Tsushima game.
For those who also interested: God of war: https://bartwronski.com/2016/08/29/localized-tonemapping/ Purkinje Shift: https://advances.realtimerendering.com/s2021/jpatry_advances2021/index.html#/172
To myself:
One more paper about local-tonemapping: https://caibolun.github.io/RoG/tone_mapping.html