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Gamma in old id Tech 3 / 4 games on Win11

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First post, by UCyborg

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Just curious, anyone on newer versions of Windows 11, can they change gamma in games like DOOM 3, Quake 3 / 4, Call of Duty 1 / UO, Return to Castle Wolfenstein etc. I mean the original versions, not source ports that exist for some of these. I remember these games changing gamma in a way that persisted in case if game was abruptly closed or if you tried to switch away to another program, wasn't limited to game window.

Well it doesn't work on my Win11 23H2. Console always reports gamma as "software" regardless of r_ignorehwgamma setting and moving gamma slider doesn't actually change it. DOOM 3 specifically reports that SetGammaRamp failed, though I'm going off by EXE I self-compiled while changing some smaller things years ago related to alt-tabbing, I might have broken something along the way.

Arthur Schopenhauer wrote:

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

Reply 1 of 4, by myne

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tried the driver ctrl panel?

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Reply 2 of 4, by leileilol

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'just adjust it yourself' is missing the point here. idtech3 also sends color ramps to get overbrights to work

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Reply 3 of 4, by UCyborg

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I haven't played those older titles long enough to get familiar with all the specifics. I remember disliking that they never minimized when losing focus and using Q3E Minimizer or similar program that would do it. And using r_ignorehwgamma 1 to not end up with weird colored desktop.

Though I do adjust brightness / gamma in games that tell me how it should look right.

Old id Tech 3 way seems to work if I disable secondary monitor. At least gamma goes up-to 1.0 (another point of interest), higher values say "SetGammaRamp failed".

I guess this is solved in another way in source ports that doesn't require turning off secondary screens.

So probably not even Win11 specific. Something new I noticed about the latter, when enabling the screen, it plays animation where the whole desktop shrinks a bit and goes back.

Arthur Schopenhauer wrote:

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

Reply 4 of 4, by UCyborg

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Booted rusty 32-bit XP for comparison. With both screens enabled, gamma does change (effects both screens), even though it complains that it failed. It can also go over 1.0. No error messages with one screen enabled.

Now I wonder how it would be on Win7. And generally, where is the limitation with > 1.0 values on newer system?

Arthur Schopenhauer wrote:

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

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