The Picture Mode itself is called Game Mode. I do know the QN90A is the first of Samsung local dimming Mini LEDs so I thing its that algorithm. I just tried Donkey Kong and it looks fine.
See my post, #36, above for solution.
Its not the algorithm per say, you say its related though, its a choice they've made to always try and interpret the HDR signal as per their own focus testing of what people think is a "good image", ie an overbrightened one where the overall image is brighter (at the expense of some highlight detail being lost, dw about this though) and colours are pushed to more vibrant one within the gamut to make it seem like it has an edge in these areas when its side-by-side with other brands on the shop floor.
Hisense does the same thing now in their non-accurate picture modes, I used to promote them, it really works to sell people TVs and most don't care about accuracy anyway so why not eh.
So in Summary:
Turn on the nits counter in the S2's 1st calibration screen (Peak brightness), bang it to 1450 nits and set 2nd screen (Paperwhite) to 4 clicks from left for 200 nits. Then test it out in MKW with a day and a night track. If it still seems washed out then don't touch Peak brightness screen and set the Paperwhite screen to 3 clicks. Check that out.
Worst case bang Peak to a few thousand nits as per the section of Vincent's video where he talks about TVs with undefeatable DTM. Set Paperwhite to preferably 4 clicks but 3 if that looks better.
If it doesn't look right after all that then just turn it off because either the TV has made it impossible for HDR to look right without crazy amounts of trial and error or you probably just prefer the look of SDR, where the bottom and top end of the gamma is crushed to try and give a good contrast within a standard dynamic range. Often developers use HDR to show more shadow detail that users can perceive as blown out shadows, its understandable.
Fun facts: Vincent Teoh calibrated my TV personally and he told me Samsung is frustrating for him because of all this undefeatable tonemapping and fuckery... but they also pay his bills since so many have them ha. This was late 2018 and he told me on his way to calibrate a customers Q9FN alongside Samsungs first 8K: the Q900R, he was frustrated that the 8K model actually had overall worse PQ than the Q9FN despite being comically more expensive, but the customer was lost in the benefits of the 8K and wouldn't take his advice to buy something else instead.
The Q900R didn't even have an HDMI port capable of handing 8K60, it was limited to 30hz when taking 8K, and (at launch anyway) the youtube app didn't support 8K video
I unintentionally annoyed the Samsung rep when I (genuinely excitedly) asked to see some 8K youtube content on it the day it was installed in the shop. Nearly came to blows over it lmao. Brand promotional work is funny shit.
