SGT Barnes Posted August 3, 2002 Share Posted August 3, 2002 Hello to all of you Just purchased this fine game and think its great, but I have a problem that I normally have on alot of games that I buy, the game is to dark. I have the ingame gamma up to maxiuim but its still not enough if only it would let me raise it a few more times it would be fine. I have always had this problem with my video card its a old Veleocity 4400 (TNT) and my monitor is always on 100 percent for both brightness and contrast. I have downloaded the lastest patch for my card and altered the gamma setting on that to about 1.40 which is fine but CM resets these setting when it loads. I had this problem in thief 2, but I got over the problem by accessing the file which contains all the player settings , I had the ingame gamma on maxiuim on that and noticed the setting read something like " gamma 1.4 " I changed the setting by rewriting it and saving, then when I reloaded Thief 2 it was like I had brought a whole new game and I could see everything. I was just wondering if there is a way I could open the players preferences in CM and alter them, but the file for CM is a different file to the thief file and I don't know what program to open it with. I can't afford to but either a new card or monitor at the moment. So if anyone could help please post a message, thanks. SGT Barnes 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted August 3, 2002 Share Posted August 3, 2002 Sorry, there's no user modifiable data in the Prefs file. The in-game Gamma adjustment is the only thing that is available. A number of DirectX/OpenGL games will override the gamma adjustments provided by the NVidia driver. A software program like 3Deep from E-Color may help, but it isn't free (US$49.95). There is a FREE TRIAL vesion for download on this page, but I don't know what functions it lacks (possibly forcing you to reset the settings on every boot). It used to be bundled with some video cards a couple of years ago, but I haven't heard anything about it lately. What monitor (model & brand) are you using ? Is everything, 2D & 3D, dark on your monitor ? Is there an 'input voltage' adjustment (usually a switch on the rear of the monitor) that's selectable between 1.7 & 1.0 V ? This setting, if it is available, may affect the brightness/gamma of your monitor. [ August 03, 2002, 01:53 PM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SGT Barnes Posted August 3, 2002 Author Share Posted August 3, 2002 Thx for the reply I looked for a switch but couldn't find one, my monitor is a Mag Innovision D700 Plug and play type. Its funny because the game is dark and in some missions I can hardly see the details on any of the tanks, there just like dark silhouettes, but when I exit a mission something changes at the last second before I exit and the screen becomes the brightness it should be and I can see all the details on the vechicles and everywhere else. Its as soon as I enter a mission that it becomes dark, its the switching between the menu and the game, the same thing happened in Shogun total war, I couldn't play that in the end due to eye strain. I am so gutted because CM is a real cool game and I just want to enjoy playing it. My graphics card has functions were i can raise my gamma, brightness and contrast, this works and even on the CM menu I can see everything is brighter, its as soon as I enter the playing field that it reverts back to default setting for my card. I remember in Thief 2 that the file was a autoexec program that held the gamma settings and other stuff, I changed it from there and it worked, I don't know much about programming but isn't there a way I could place a autoexec file into my CM folder which overran the other gamma settings ? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted August 3, 2002 Share Posted August 3, 2002 I'm not aware of any utility that you could execute in a batch-file manner to change CM's gamma. Adobe used to have a gamma utility for older versions of Photoshop, but that only does as much as the NVidia driver's gamma adjustment. I tried out the version of 3Deep I have on my computer (a '98 version, I don't know if the latest one is any different) and it didn't change anything that I could perceive. The in-game gamma seems to completely control gamma and no outside utilities have been able to change the gamma of the 3D battlefield on my computer. Another possible course of action is to update your video card's BIOS (if it is an updatable EEPROM). To find out which version of the BIOS you have go to Start Menu > Settings > Control Panel > Display control panel > Settings tab > Advanced... button > TNT or Vanta tab > under the Display Adapter Information heading should be a BIOS Version listing. The latest NVidia Reference version is 2.04.24 (if I'm reading the numbers correctly). The gamma can be hard coded into the BIOS, though I don't know if a BIOS update would change your current gamma since NVidia cards/drivers are fairly well known for their low 'absolute' gamma values. I couldn't really find any info about your monitor online other than the max resolution is 1280x1024 and optimal is 1024x768@85Hz. Do you know if it uses a Trinitron tube (though I think most of Mag's monitors at the time that used such tubes had a 'T' designation at the end of model name at the time) ? I think that this mostly boils down to the need for a new monitor, which may be much farther financially than you're willing to go to play CM. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SGT Barnes Posted August 5, 2002 Author Share Posted August 5, 2002 Thx again I have tried various things but I have only had limited success, I reinstalled a veleocity driver instead of a Nvdia driver, a little difference but not much. I also went to the Mag web site and downloaded a monitor driver, my monitor is a plug and play type and I didn't think it needed a driver, but I installed it anyway and it didn't make any difference. I saw the following problem in the troubleshooting section about some monitors which are to dark in some places and to bright in others and that sounds alot like my problem, in the snow missions in CM the snow is real bright but the green on the shemans tanks and other dark items are real dark. This is how they suggest I solve it... "Some variation in brightness is normal, especially across a large, white area. If the different seems excessive, use the Degauss OSD setting. If the discoloration persists, a strong magnetic field from a motor or other device may be too close to the monitor. Remove any such device. If the problem remains, contact your monitor dealer or MAG service center." I have no idea what a Degauss OSD setting is ? But then again maybe your right and I just need to either buy a new monitor or get another graphics card. SGT Barnes 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted August 5, 2002 Share Posted August 5, 2002 Most likely you'll need another monitor. It's unfortunate that CM's gamma range is limited. Your monitor probably degausses every time you turn it on. Your on-screen menu (OSD) will probably have an icon of a magnet with a 'not line' through it. Select this and you monitor should go 'wacky' for a bit as it applies an AC current to a coil inside you monitor. Unfortunately I don't think that degaussing is going to make much of a difference in the problem that you're seeing. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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