Is black smearing software or hardware?

[vic]

Black smear never used to be a problem when we could run ED in Extended Mode; but when we were forced to use Direct mode it started happening. This is definitely something that can be resolved, it's not a inherent problem with the display. Just what that fix is, and if or when we might see it... that's the real question.

Black smear was indeed a problem when we could run in Extended mode too. But- we were able to alleviate most of that issue back then becuase we had control of sharpness/contrast/brightness thru nvidia ctl panel AND use reshade to further enhance. Now with Direct mode, we have no more control of the graphics visuals from outside the game.