Can I make it brighter? Gamma won't increase brightness

[jessica]

In the past, I was always able to go to Settings/Graphics/Gamma and increase the value to make the display brighter.

But now, it is set at 100, and won't go brighter if I slide it to the right (to increase the value).  If I slide to the left, it definitely gets darker.

Is there something I'm missing?

[Mr. Apocalypse]

that weird because I just checked my settings and the gamma slider goes to the right to get darker and will go to 300% with red text and will go to the left to a min number of 30% with an increase in brightness.

 

I normally run my gamma setting at about 65%

 

[Captain Fabulous]

Try changing the screen resolution to borderless and/or a fixed resolution. Some video cards lock the gamma in certain modes.

If all else fails you can try using ReShade, which will allow you to apply all kinds of filters including gamma, sharpness, vibrancy, levels, curves, etc. It makes a HUGE difference in the visual quality of the game. Seriously, it's like night and day.

[Troyusrex]

I had the same issue with the last release. This helped and made it playable, although not 100% fixed. 

 

 

[jessica]

Thanks for the tips!  But not able to improve the brightness unfortunately.   I'll just continue playing in the dark.  Looks great at night in my house.

[uninventive]

Other idea I haven't seen said yet, check the video card settings (In Start, Programs, varies by model: NVIDIA Settings, AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition, Intel Graphics Settings, etc.)  Some settings apps override choices made in games, if you don't make a habit of changing apps in this way, make sure Gamma is Application Controlled and not defined by the Settings for your card.

[SuggestorK]

since it havent been mentioned yet, what is the brightness setting of the hardware aka Display, regular Monitors haven their own adjustment buttons.

 

Of course that wont apply if its a Laptop Display but without detailed information this could be a reason too that the Display is getting old and thus darker (thats the way they go).

 

Edit: If it is a Laptop try attach a regular Monitor to it and see if it makes a difference.

Edited December 17, 2023 by SuggestorK

[jessica]

The brightness looks great everywhere else on my computer (it's not a laptop, but a real tower with a 27" monitor).  If I change the brightness of my monitor, it looks better in the game,  But then everything else looks way too bright.  I can't see borders and certain text on websites since it's all too bright.   So it's something with the game.

Also, as I mentioned, the Gamma slider simply doesn't work.  When I move it to the left, the brightness does nothing and goes down to 30% without changing the brightness.  If I go to the right, it does nothing but the value in the slider turns green at 100%.  If I continue going to the right, the value turns red and the display gets darker and darker until it maxes out at 300% and is very dark.  The brightest is if I keep it at just under 100% it seems.

[Mr. Apocalypse]

6 hours ago, jessica said:

The brightness looks great everywhere else on my computer (it's not a laptop, but a real tower with a 27" monitor).  If I change the brightness of my monitor, it looks better in the game,  But then everything else looks way too bright.  I can't see borders and certain text on websites since it's all too bright.   So it's something with the game.

Also, as I mentioned, the Gamma slider simply doesn't work.  When I move it to the left, the brightness does nothing and goes down to 30% without changing the brightness.  If I go to the right, it does nothing but the value in the slider turns green at 100%.  If I continue going to the right, the value turns red and the display gets darker and darker until it maxes out at 300% and is very dark.  The brightest is if I keep it at just under 100% it seems.

What are your system specs?

what video card, monitor, are you using?  how old is your monitor, and has it lost a lot of brightness over time, requiring the settings to be maxed out for a decent image? ( I had this problem on my last Samsung monitor, it was over 10 years old and had dimmed over time.)

 

what are your system bright/contrast and gamma values set to in your driver software.  and what settings on your monitor?  Gamma in the game settings menu can only do so much if it is setup wrong in some other portion of they system.  I was just playing around with my driver and monitor setting and was able to get into a similar situation as what you described by going one direction in my driver settings, and another with my monitor settings.

 

if you have an NVidia card, you should go to the Nvidia control panel->Display->adjust desktop and color settings,  and check the gamma settings. make sure the bright and contrast are near equal values and close to 50% and the gamma is ~1.0. then re adjust your monitor bright and contrast for a good image within windows.  after all that is done, then try to improve the gamma within the game settings, and let us know what you see.

 

It really sounds like you are hitting a limit somewhere due to the driver and monitor settings being way out of whack. hope this helps

 

 

 

 

 

[jessica]

This will probably put me in the "un supportable" box, but here goes:

I run Linux, and use Wine to play.  So, it's pretty much identical to how it is done on a Mac.

Prior to this, I used a Mac and never had an issue with the Gamma.

System is quite new:

32G memory, M2 drive

 

CPU:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FXDLX95?th=1

 

Motherboard:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQD58D96?th=1
 

 

[Mr. Apocalypse]

I suspect your issue is related to gamma settings within your Linux video drivers, or in how Wine is translating those settings. that is where I would start. Unfortunately I am of no further help with Linux systems. I plan to build a new Linux box and give it another try, but my last experience with Linux gaming was over 12 years ago, and I am sure much has changed, and I have forgotten 99% of what I knew  at the time!

[jessica]

Actually I just found my answer!  Well, I found AN answer.  I can simply adjust the brightness on the command line before I start the game:

 

$ xgamma -gamma 1.5

 

Which will make it 1.5x brighter.  Worked like a charm!

And when I'm done, I can set it back so that my desktop isn't super bright:

$ xgamma -gamma 1

 

Hope this helps someone else.  Super easy fix, and not permanent.

 

[uninventive]

Actually, that is awesome.  Just tried that on my own Ubuntu install with the game.  Thanks for sharing that!

[jessica]

2 hours ago, uninventive said:

Actually, that is awesome.  Just tried that on my own Ubuntu install with the game.  Thanks for sharing that!

 

Something I noticed though-- the game will reset it back to 1.  So, the only way I can get it to "stick" is to actually start the game, and wait for the Login screen.  Then ALT-TAB (or whatever) out of the game, and set it back to 1.3 (or whatever level).   Then go back into the game.  It will then stick.

 

[Captain Fabulous]

23 hours ago, jessica said:

 

Something I noticed though-- the game will reset it back to 1.  So, the only way I can get it to "stick" is to actually start the game, and wait for the Login screen.  Then ALT-TAB (or whatever) out of the game, and set it back to 1.3 (or whatever level).   Then go back into the game.  It will then stick.

 

See if setting the game's gamma to the same as whatever you use on the command line prevents it from resetting. Also check out ReShade. You should be able to get it working under Linux.

Edited December 19, 2023 by Captain Fabulous