Sweet spot for graphics settings? [Dev feedback?]

There have been several threads over the last couple months/years about zones or items being too light or too dark.

I would like to think there is some combination of gamma, brightness, and contrast that could be set on the graphics driver side that could render EQ some decently consistent level of "brightness".

I thought I had a pretty good setup then went back to do some missions in bloodfields and PD only to find the zones so dark that navigation was impossible with out boosting the gamma to the point where other zones where completely washed out.

Has anyone figured out a sweet spot that works across the board ?

Are we doomed to adjust the display settings when ever we go into a "dark" zone?

For example my Nvidia driver settings has:

Brightness : +20%
Contrast: +12%
Gamma: 1.56

I've tried a few other combinations with higher gamma (2.1) and lower brightness/contrast.

I'm curious what other folks are do to maintain a usable "brightness" across the EQ "light" vs "dark" zones.

Calibrate your monitor and leave the game/driver stuff in defaults and it should mostly be fine

Riou, can you confirm the following statement:

You are able go from a bright zone in ToV: Kael to ToL: Bloodfall and feel that both have acceptable levels of brightness. ie. you have no problems seeing the ground in Bloodfalls and the ground is not pure white in kael ? With other zones looking washed out because of the loss of dynamic range?

If so which in game settings are you using?

I have:
----------------------------------
2.0 pixel shaders = on
Enable Windowed Gamma = off ( I'm doing it at the graphics driver level )
Increased windowed gamma = off
Use Advanced Lighting = off
Shadows = off
Radial Flora = off

Enable Post Effects = on
Enable Bloom Lighting = off

Driver level settings in NVidia control panel - changed it today because I was in PD and couldn't see worth a D@mn
----------------------------------
Brightness +20%
Contrast +7%
Gamma 2.10

I have windowed gamma off, as far as I can tell Radeon control is off or app controlled. You should be able to set Nvidia to allow the game to control, see if that helps, it may be over correcting for how old EQ is.

Leave your NVIDIA gamma at 1.0. You must have something really setup weird with your monitor if you need to adjust gamma that much.

I reset the monitor and video card back to defaults and I could get a decent "low grey" in EQ when I have "increased windowed gamma" on, but the whites are still pretty over saturated. Currently testing using:

In Game:
Pixel Shaders 2.0 = ON
Enable Window Gamma = off
Increase Windowed Gamma = ON < -- Odd that this works when "enable gamma" is off
Use Advanced Lighting = off
Shadows = off
Radial Flora = off
Enable Post effects = ON
Enable Bloom Lighting = off


Driver:
Brightness: 50%
Contrast: 50%
Gamma: 0.98

Monitor:
Brightness: 80%
Contrast:100%
Gamma: 2.2 vs 1.8 ( tried both )

Makes my EQ client kind of washed out and the client has a strange enhanced gamma -> no gamma -> enhanced gamma flicker when you first start up but at least I'm not completely blind in the dark zones and don't need to adjust the in game gamma for each zone.

I'm using Enable Windowed Gamma but I have Increase turned off. Driver is 50%, 50%, 1.0. Monitor I turn down so I'm at like 45% brightness and contrast like 70%. Each monitor is different though. I don't even have a gamma setting but I always would set those to 1.0.

It's kind of tough to compare this sort of thing. If I take a screenshot and look at it on my phone it's a good bit darker and higher contrast.

That's intentional. The "Enable Windowed Gamma" option lets you revert to the legacy gamma slider functionality to let you continue to control the gamma level within the application itself. This was introduced alongside the change that made the default functionality use the desktop's settings. A few months after that, they added the "Increase Windowed Gamma" option that could be enabled when using the default functionality (i.e. while the legacy "Enable Windowed Gamma" option was disabled), which was to provide brightness correction for desktops with "dark" default settings.


Game Update Notes: Dec 9, 2015

Game Update Notes: Mar 16, 2016

My monitor is calibrated, and I can't see anything in Bloodfalls without "Increase Windowed Gamma" enabled. The desktop, browser, and other games look just fine. I just have the issue with EQ.

I've tried reverting to the legacy "Enable Windowed Gamma" slider, but it doesn't work for me. The slider doesn't change anything regardless of its setting when the option is enabled, so I suspect it's being overridden somehow, not that that's an issue I suppose considering it's intended not to use it.

When "Enabled Windowed Gamma", the slider does change the gamma curve of my system.

The main issue is its system wide and when EQ starts / closes it leaves the entire system level gamma in a different state. EQ will often leave the gamma at "zero" so I gave up using windowed gamma mode.

What I'd really like to hear is how the developers setup their systems, and if they have the same issues and if so what steps they use to mitigate them.

Bloodfall is an exception as a bad dark zone, the Ice Shader stuff is also overly bright for ToV/CoV, but iirc you can turn off 2.0 shaders to remove the brightness if a zone with it is too much, they aren't really that common of a thing though across the whole, as long as future ones don't get weird like that

The rest of ToL and NoS aren't that bad for that kind of stuff

I would argue that Paludal Depths also has areas where the caves are overly dark.

Its not like we're humans with no ultra vision. Every modern character has some form up enhanced night vision.

The standard for the gamma factor is 2.2. and the monitor seems to be the basis. I would not play around with the nvidia driver settings at first. Instead do calibrate the monitor for the windows desktop while using the standard nvidia setup. The driver settings could be used for different setup profiles tho. AMD Adrenaline Edition does support a separate profile for each game.

You can also calibrate your screen with QuickGamma.

I always leave 2.0 pixel shaders off. Enabling makes my armor insanely bright...but only on certain pieces. Both distracting, and looks ridiculous.

Advanced Lighting, I will turn on/off depending on the zone I'm in.
I turn off when in PoK, otherwise some of the walls are incredibly bright white.
But in places like Shard's Landing, I have to turn it on, otherwise the terrain is grey and featureless.

The body armor of the original PC models does not get affected by pixel shaders but modern shields and weapons do. For an unknown reason I do fail to reproduce the orginal armor tints like in 2004 for their retro style.

Turning off 2.0 pixel shaders helps in Paludial Depths. The zone gets noticeably darker with with them enabled.

I don't know if anyone else has run into this issue but I have noticed when doing collection for ground spawn that depending on the zone sometimes you need to turn off 2.0 shaders or it is impossible to see the little ball for the ground spawn. In other zones I have found the opposite where it is impossible to see them if 2.0 shader isn't on. I tend to turn it on and off depending on the zone I am in to make it easier to just see sometimes. In old school days for EQ most people had gamma turned all the way as bright as it goes but gamma doesn't do anything today for my computer (given there is a glitch or something that I can sometimes cause the entire screen to go bright by playing around with turning settings on and off in a sorta random way). This does make it impossible to see in some dark zones and I just run around using the map as a guide since I can't see the floor or walls at all.

I assume this will all change with the October DirectX 11 API port.

In fullscreen mode the gamma control unit has an effect. In window mode it does depend on the advanced setting
"Enable Windowed Gamma". When it is enabled it also has an effect for the window mode.

That is the problem for me even in window mode with enabled windowed gamma checked it does nothing for me. It used to work years ago but not today.