3D brightness issues with fx5600 and iiyama

[suicidal_monkey]

I have the ingame brightness levels of HL2 set to maximum (well, minimum) Gamma (1.6?) for the brightest HL2 will allow and I think it's almost on the dark side of correct brightness using their little visibility picture under the slider and monitor brightness&contrast settings up to 100%. Surely I should be able to wash-out the picture if I so wished on a normal setup? Most games don't allow for bright enough settings, possible exceptions being UT titles and LFS/RichardBurnsRally.

I've been able to confirm the lack of brightness at LANs when compared to anyone elses computer and it's very annoying. I use 3rd party gamma adjusters (and lately nvidias own driver-based gamma hotkeys (buggy as hell though )

The problem only really appears in OpenGL and DirectX games, though. My normal desktop brightness/contrast levels are quite bright but as soon as a game fires up everything's really dark. Same goes for divx/mpeg playback. Often video files are really dark and require their brightness to be increased (sometimes this works, often it doesn't allow you to change it :eyebrow: )

I've had this problem with my graphics cards and monitors for years and I thought it was about time to seek a solution. I've come across this problem in other forums and the common link seems to be nvidia graphics cards, though there might be something in the windows display drivers...


graphics cards: Nvidia GeForce2 ultra 64mb, Nvidia GeForceFX 5600 128mb
drivers: latest official Nvidia

motherboards: Elite k7s5a, Sparkle NForce 2 400
drivers: latest official elitegroups/nvidia-nforce drivers

Monitor: Iiyama VMpro454
drivers: latest official iiyama drivers

OS: Windows XP, Windows 98se
software affected: directx and opengl 3d games, excluding LFS and UT-variations, also divx/mpeg video playback



Anyone got any suggestions?
 :frusty:  :help:

[TeaLeaf]

LCD panels and gamma historically do nto adjust well on the monitor controls and need thrid party software to make the difference.  I use Powerstrip for my ATI.  My guess would be to keep using third party software and find some that is less buggy  Any nVidia users otu there with some good recs?

TL.

[suicidal_monkey]

iiyama VMpro454 is a crt btw, not tft...  :unsure:

[TeaLeaf]

:blush: it was late and I read 'tft' where there was none  :blush:

As it's a CRT then you are officially screwed  

A quick google has shown up several other peeps with similar problems.  3rd party software seems to be the only answer they come up with.  Thought of swapping the monitor for a TFT?

TL.

[suicidal_monkey]

I have thought about swapping for a TFT, but that'd see me about £300 poorer, though I guess someone out there might want the 19" iiyama. Thing is the brightness is perfect for all desktop and 2d useage...besides, it's a damn fine monitor. I'm positive it's a driver issue somewhere between the monitor, gfx card, openGL and dicrectX, specific to certain settings used by certain graphics engines typically associated with FPS genres (UT excluded as that has a much wider brightness setting range)

I've sorted out the movies-being-dark-issue via the nvidia drivers "overlay" settings. Up's the brightness of movie-windows and other graphics overlaid on the main OS or something

In 3D games I have good brightness in some games, like LiveForSpeed (...and funnily enough other racing games...) and games like RomeTotalWar and other RTS games tend to have much more flexibility on the brightness settings, but I still plagued by very dark results for most 3D First person shooters, mainly those based on the halflife and Quake engines it would seem.

There are settings available within the Nvidia drivers to bind hotkeys to the gamma settings, but they keep resetting to default keys and often don't work once inside a game. Think I'd better find a Nvidia forum to go post on as nvidia does appear to be the common link in forums and stuff I've read...might even email their technical support... :huh: