I've not done a massive amount of testing with Gamma settings, but I set my Glidos/TR value to around 0.80 which gives good results for me. It's too light and low contrast otherwise.

As for blurriness -- are you using a flat screen LCD or an older CRT? IF it's a LCD, what is the native resolution? If you run games at anything other than the native resolution you will definitely get mild distortion as pixels are either squashed or enlarged to fit the native resolution.

I've updated to the most recent driver ( I think ) , and corrected the windows 98 vmm32 issue (I.e. / windows / system missing vdd.vxd and vflatd.vxd and using vmm32 instead ) and no change .

The gamma remains 'locked' if glidos is run at or above current desktop resolution (if the desktop is set to1600x1200, then one can run 1280x768 and get gamma controls ) . The best guesstimate I have is that the 'locked' gamma setting ( for whatever reason ) is approx= .85 .
When running glidos at lower than desktop resolutions the gamma starts off too high , about 1.3 or so , but one has gamma control in this situation so it can be corrected.

By using the task bar/ win key thing one can get the gamma to flip back to 'normal' . When this happens it 'resets' the gamma to whatever one has teh gamma slider in glidos set to .

The task bar can be moved to the top and minimized , but does not disappear ( sometimes when initially hitting the win key the task bar is not draw on top of the glidos/tr screen , althouth the mouse becomes vivsible when it pass over the area wher ethe task bar should be ) .

After using the winkey/task bar method of adjusting the the gamma only stays 'corrected' (or is only paying attention to the slider setting ) until one loads a new level or saved game . Then the game reverts to the too dark gamma ( and one has to 'unlock' the gamma all over again) .

I am using an ATI 9000 I 'll try switching to an Nvidia and see if that changes anything , I think I have an 4200 I can use around here somewhere .

Although due to the the screen capture / gamma changing on the fly / paint shop pro thing I am thinking that it is a windows thing of some type .

Gambit37 wrote:

... around 0.80 which gives good results for me....

an older CRT?....

The monitor is an older one ( mitsubishi diamond pro 91txm ( TFW9105)) although it is still in fantastic shape. I do normally use a dual head set-up and run either this monitor or another 21 incher ( that I bought from local news station when they went lcd/plasma) and a samsung 17 inch lcd ( native res 1280x1024 ) , but neither the other monitor or the LCD are hooked up as a second head currently

( in fact the lcd flickers when I try and use glidos with it , I have tested it out the wazhoo and think it is some peculiarity with that particular LCD , it dos not like to run dos stuff either )

I now believe the bluring comes in two parts

a) mostly from the over gamma I was getting at the default (lower than desktop resolution ) setting

b) some strangness in the way the textures are displayed : as one moves toward ( or away from ) a texture it can alternate between crisp and fuzzy . you can find spots where standing in from of the texture makes it look very definitely blurry , then by movin toward or away from it a bit it sharpens in a very definite "on", "off" way.

Are you running Glidos resolution below your desktop resolution ? That GAmma number you are quoting is about right to offset the overly high gamma that happens when whatever it is , is implimenting the glidos gamma controls from the get go .

I wonder if it makes any diffrence that I am currently using the 'locked' version of glidos?

( hd failed had to re-install everything , original glidos unlock originally went to X-girlfriends e-mail and I cannot remember the password ...doh!:)

b) some strangness in the way the textures are displayed : as one moves toward ( or away from ) a texture it can alternate between crisp and fuzzy . you can find spots where standing in from of the texture makes it look very definitely blurry , then by movin toward or away from it a bit it sharpens in a very definite "on", "off" way.

Try it again with "EnableMipMaps=1" in your openglid.ini (inside your glidos-folder.)

Yes, I'd agree with Markus -- enable mipmaps for sure! The textures look way too fake otherwise as they remain 'crisp' at a distance with mipmaps off.

I'll give the mips a shot, and it will probably take care of it , but the blurriness /sharpness on/off thing happens even when one is standing right in front of the texture ( where I notice it the most is on the chest of the atlantean statue in fron of the temple inthe villa level )

oh , and gambit are you runing Tr at the same res as your desktop / higher ? lower ?

After a little experimentation some other interesting side effects :

First off I noticed that when using desktop or higher resolutions I do not need to use the winkey / task bar farting around to 'enable' the correct gamma implimentation ,

All I have to do is single (right) click the mouse . This will switch the dark 'default' screen to whatever the glidos gamma slider is set to. this works for both gameplay and main menu screens .

But ,

when I click the mouse to 'gamma correct' the primary tittle/menu screen and then exit Tomb Raider, my normal desktop is corrupted ( right side of below picture ).

Interestingly when I grab a desktop screenshot (using PSP) it shows a normal screen (left side below ) but what I actually see is what appears on the right .
Since the screen shot wasn't capturing what the screen actually looked like I had to break out the camera to get the true image.

Hitting refresh changes nothing , but if I start a game type program ( other 'normal' apps , like psp and mozilla do not clear the corrupted screen ) like unreal tournament 04 (just as far as the menu screen , i don't need to go to actual game play ) upon exiting the game the desktop screen has returned to normal .

It's like some windows event is not 'remembering' to clear some video buffer or something .

weird , but at least I can work around it ....

That very dark dialog box is familiar. TR1 fades in and out by ramping the gamma setting. You should see it fade to dark, but stay there for good.

Glidos wrote:

That very dark dialog box is familiar. TR1 fades in and out by ramping the gamma setting. You should see it fade to dark, but stay there for good.

I am not sure I understand .I should see the game or the desktop do this ?

when the screen is all corrupted and dark , if I then restart glidos/TR , DO NOT click the mouse to 'reset' teh ( too dark) gamma on the main title /menu page , and then simply exit TR the desktop returns to normal .

It's as if the mechanism for darkening the in-game inventory menus is being activated at inappropriate times , like when the main title/menu screen first appears and when the game starts .
Why clicking the mouse button 'turns off ' this effect I cannot say , but it is not a gradual effect . More like turning on a light switch .

....

You mentioned ? that the gamma for TR (3dfx-rush) has some kind of strange inverted gamma? or some such . since where ever PSP grabs screen shots from showed a corrct image when the out put to the monitor showed quite a different image , I wonder if some setting in the gpu of the video card is not getting reset at the appropriate times ?

hey I just took that screen shot ( the one that looks right ) and reduced the gamma on it to something like -1.5, and lo and behold it looks exactly like what is actually appearing on the desktop .

So it would appear that i have something that is setting the gamma really low and failing to clear it at the appropriate times . reember though this is only happening when I run TR at or above my desktop res .

The way gamma is implemented in OpenGLide, you will see the whole desktop darken. But staying that way is wrong. I think it may be a driver issue, although its a fair while since I used Glidos in windowed mode under Windows 98.

oops I am not using windowed mode ,

the trouble happens using fullscreen at desktop resolution or higher

just down loaded the new catalyst and dx9c no change .

seems to me that when I start UT04 and it clears teh problem that there must be some kind of call to clear teh buffers or register or whatever . basically to reset the (gamma?) output state .

If you do use windowed mode then yoy can see the gamma chages are being applied to the whole screen, not just the game window. For most people that is the only way you would tell, but for you it does sound like it isn't getting reset. Difficult problem to attack, because I haven't heard of anyone else seeing this.

Does the game work correctly for you in all other ways. Do you get all the sounds and do the movies play?

when I run a window , let's say glidos/Tr @ 800x600 with the desktop at @ 1024x768 there does not appear to be any problem . the desktop and game appear to be normal.

the over dark / no gamma controll isuue only happens when I am running TR in a "full screen" at a resolution that is equal or greater to the resolution I have the desktop set to .

The only ( as near as I can tell ) relationship between the windowed mode and the gamma 'issue' that I noticed is that screen shots taken ( by manually capturing the section of the desktop that contains the TR window ) when viewed look exactly as they appear in the game play window ...

( remember both glidos /TR and psp are running simutaneously , so that I am veiwing the screen shot in psp with glidos still active )

...but if I have the screen shot active and open in psp and exit glidos , as soon as glidos terminates the captured image in the still active psp suddenly darkens ( but not the desktop or anything else , just the captured image) . I don't understand how this is posibble unless glidos is directly accesssing or effecting how or where psp has the screen shot stored in temp memory.

that's the weird bit .

Otherwise the gamma dealio ONLY corrupts the desktop if when running in fullscreen desktop size or larger I do the mouse click/gamma correction on the main title/menu screen and then exit the program .

more....

...the sound , ambient and otherwise , always function perfectly ( sound issues and compatibility with older ( and dos ) games are why I use W98 for this stuff 😀, and the movies and everthing else work perfectly too ( at least I have no complaints)

based on the fact that running UT04 will clear the corrupted screen and return things to normal , I am betting that either W98 or specifically the ATI 9000 running under W98 needs a 'special' call to reset the intial starting state and wipe the 'slate' clean of any 'legacy' info left where-ever it gets left .

Perhaps this is some condition of the way windows98 handles DOS executions, so that some dos instruction is being fed into a place where windows does not look for it

O.k . I stand corrected there is another relationship between running a TR/glidos window on the desktop the the gamma issue, although we may be looking at two seperate things( windowed mode oddities and hi-res full screen gamma issues may not be related of course ) , but I doubt it .

When running a GLidos /Tr window the entire destop Does show the too dark gamma 'corruption' , but only in the small space of time when it is transiting between the menu screen(s) and the game play screen .

I.e. once I exit the menu screen to load a game ( or start a new one or what ever ) the entire desktop goes darko -gamma- funky for the interem , then the game play screen loads and everything has returned to normal . When I exit the game the window terminates and the desktop is not corrupted although If i have screen captures active in psp they and only they will be darkened ) .

so the windowed mode is clearing or not implimenting upon program termination some gamma altering function that it does impliment when loading the game play game screens.

Apparently when the game is exiting ( terminating the glidos /tr program ) after running in the full screen mode ( at resolution equal to or higher than the desktop native resolution ) some , most likely the same , gamma altering function is being triggered or not terminated , which leaves the desktop in a corrupted gamma state .

since teh gamma-funk is left only when glidos /TR is "hijacking" the windows settings and overridding them to enable larger than the current desktop resolution, somethign is just being forgotten when glidos hands the destop controlls back to windows .

although it's not a big deal, like I said I can work around it now that I am aware of the peculiarities , and if no one else has noticed the problem the number of people still running W98 for anything is probably exceedingly low : ) , well that or they don't notice or try to adjust the gamma ever 😀

the gamam thing has me going back over the textures to makes sure they look to everyone else they way they look to me but in the mean time a couple of screen shots , nothing special just some rough work on the atlantean statue dudes ( er, or women or aliens or what-not )

frontal action