CMBB has awfully dark graphics

[vhydro]

Hello,

I have an NVIDIA GeForce 2 with the latest drivers opreating on Windows ME.

CMBB works fine, but the graphics are so dark that I can't play any scenarios except the ones with snow on the ground. I've got the brightness maxed out in the simulator. If I tweak up the brightness on my computer/monitor, it doesn't seem to make any difference for CMBB.

Please help!!

-Lee

[Schrullenhaft]

As far as I'm aware any 'sofware-based' tweaks to the gamma outside of CM won't affect the display while you're playing the game. In game you can press Alt-G to cycle through the possible gamma selections (there are a total of 5).

If this isn't enough, then maybe a BIOS update to the video card may help. Which version of the NVidia Detonators are you using ?

[vhydro]

Thanks for getting back so quickly. I honestly don't know how to check the NVIDIA detonator. I'm downloading the latest 40.71 Beta NVIDIA detonator driver right now to make sure I've got the latest.

My BIOS version is 3.11.01.26.02, I don't know if that means anything to you or not.

Will the new driver do the trick do you think?

I've toggled the brightness in the game with alt-G to the maximum; it'd do the trick if there were three higher levels of brightness!

[Schrullenhaft]

I DO NOT recommend the 40.xx series of drivers for NVidia chips if the primary game you play is CM. There are problems with FSAA utilizing those drivers. A better choice would be the current official driver 30.82.

What is your monitor's model and manufacturer ? Do you know if there is a switch or menu selection for the signal voltage (1.0V or 0.7V) ? Is there a white point adjustment (9300K would be recommended for CM) ?

Which exact card do you have ? Is it a GeForce2 GTS an MX 200 or 400, etc. ? I'd guess by your BIOS version that you have a GeForce2 MX400, but I'm not sure. Do you know what brand of card it is (Hercules, Creative, PNY, Leadtek, etc.) ? Does your card have video (TV) out capability ? There may be a newer BIOS for your video card, but I don't know if the gamma values have been reprogrammed for it or not with the latest version. In other words the default gamma values in the Video BIOS may be the same as your current BIOS.

As far as I'm aware the only way to change CM's gamma is to do it in hardware (or whatever the driver provides as a default value). Software gamma adjustments outside of CM (even if they're geared towards adjusting the gamma of DirectX games) usually don't 'stick' when CM is launched.

[ September 29, 2002, 01:40 PM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]

[vhydro]

I have the GeForce2 MX400 and I'm using the 30.82 driver. I'm trying everything here with rebooting and removing my monitor hardware and putting it back on.

I do have to have my monitor contrast and brightness up pretty high normally, but this isn't normally a problem, because I just bump up the brightness/contrast a bit on the video card. My monitor is a generic monitor compatible with IBM VGA 8514A.

Is there anything I can change on CMBB that might allow me to increase the brighten/contrast? You were saying something about changing the BIOS?

[Schrullenhaft]

The gamma adjustment with Alt-G is the only 'brightness' control that you have within CM that will change what you're seeing. Beyond that it comes down to the driver's default gamma values, which can also be programmed into the Video BIOS.

The latest NVidia Reference Video BIOS for the GeForce2 MX 400 is 3.11.01.37.00. If you have an TV encoder output chip you'll need to know the manufacturer. To flash the BIOS you'll need the NVFlasher (upper left hand side).

To be honest, I highly doubt that an update to the video BIOS will probably change the default gamma values. If you don't know what you're doing you could mess up your video card too with this flashing.

You're monitor's compatiblity probably isn't enough info to really help here. What you need is a manufacturer/model specific monitor profile. However this usually only provides info to Windows that affects display timings, refresh rates, etc. and rarely has gamma-related info.

Your monitor may be old enough that there will be little that you can do to change what you're seeing in CM. If there is no switch to adjust the signal voltage (to 0.7V from 1.0V) and no other controls beyond brightness and contrast, then you're stuck with what you're seeing on the monitor. The only other way around this is to replace the monitor.