How to optimize the monitor and gamma settings in 2.5

[shagrat]

After I had still some issues with the graphics looking too bright and washed out in 2.5, I did some research on what options there are to adjust the whole Gamma value, monitor adjustment and video settings... :book:

 

Long story short: If you happen to have issues with DCS looking washed out and the cockpit like a coalpit, even with gamma set to 1.5 or less, have a look at your monitor!

 

1) Adjust brightness and contrast to 50% (most monitors come with factory defaults very bright and heavy contrast).

 

2) if the monitor supports an adjustment of the gamma value, set it to "Gaming" (my Acer has this) or the value where the scene looks darkest. Somewhat between 2.2 and 2.5

 

3) Optional - adjust the color temperature to "normal" or "warm" instead of cold (if values come as Kelvin try something like 2700k to 3500k)

 

4) reset/delete all adjustments to gamma, brightness and contrast you might have set in the display driver/Nvidia control panel etc.

 

Now go to DCS and adjust the gamma value to something around 2.0 to 2.2 whatever suits you best. Now you can lower the contrast on the monitor if necessary, I personally use gamma in DCS at 2.0 and monitors contrast at 40%...

 

From here I guess adjustments are down to individual preference and hardware, but it should give you a pretty good starting point.

 

The key was the contrast and brightness settings on the monitor(!) as I had never touched that after a first calibration after the initial setup.

 

With these adjustments it's a difference like night and day!

 

I hope this helps others to "fix" the washed out look, as it did for me. :D

[dhevans79]

I've noticed the tad in the a10c looks "strong" so I can't really read it clearly. Is this something that was resolved by your monitor tuning, or you don't fly this plane much / not your focus...

 

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

[shagrat]

I've noticed the tad in the a10c looks "strong" so I can't really read it clearly. Is this something that was resolved by your monitor tuning, or you don't fly this plane much / not your focus...

 

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

I fly the A-10C occasionally, but for starters simply adjust contrast on your Monitor and set higher Gamma in DCS to verify the effect on the Map/display. It should be easy, to reset the two values, if it does not achieve the result you seek.

[Gladman]

I bought one of these a couple years ago.

 

 

http://www.datacolor.com/photography-design/product-overview/spyder5-family/

 

 

I don't use it anymore because of the whole VR addiction thing but it worked very well for me to get triple monitors the same and really bring the color out of the monitor. Great tool.

[shagrat]

I bought one of these a couple years ago.

 

 

http://www.datacolor.com/photography-design/product-overview/spyder5-family/

 

 

I don't use it anymore because of the whole VR addiction thing but it worked very well for me to get triple monitors the same and really bring the color out of the monitor. Great tool.

Definitely, yet a bit expensive for a one time setup of a gaming PC... But if you do regular video/photograph editing, or need to adjust multiple screens in your family, this is a sound investment.

[SkateZilla]

Start Button, in Search Box type "Calibrate Display Color", Follow Instructions.

[dhevans79]

Start Button, in Search Box type "Calibrate Display Color", Follow Instructions.

Yeah, I tried that a while back with no real results. It updated the gamma slightly and shifter the colours to a slightly colder temp, but nothing major. Was probably worthwhile to do it in any case, to start from a good reference point.

 

I had the same problem with the overblown tad colours in 2.2 but spent most of my time in 1.5 so didn't really spend much time trying to correct it. As it doesn't seem to be a major issue on the forums, I'm placing a solid bet on my monitor setup so I'll have to spend some time with it and see if I get similar results as the OP.

 

Or just adjust to the new rendering and use it as an excuse to get a better monitor

 

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

[Emmy]

I've noticed the tad in the a10c looks "strong" so I can't really read it clearly. Is this something that was resolved by your monitor tuning, or you don't fly this plane much / not your focus...

 

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

 

It doesn't help the over-driven TAD Display at all...

 

(As a photographer, I hardware calibrate my monitor every week)

[shagrat]

Start Button, in Search Box type "Calibrate Display Color", Follow Instructions.

Yeaaaah, that was how I messed up the monitor Settings in the first place...

 

I highly recommend to manually adjust from the medium settings as described in the first post, or use a sophisticated calibration tool.

[shagrat]

It doesn't help the over-driven TAD Display at all...

 

(As a photographer, I hardware calibrate my monitor every week)

Then your only chance is the controls modeled in the A-10C itself. Try adjusting brightness and contrast with the switches on the MFCD, can also adjust symbology brightness... At least you can reduce the vibrance a little bit.

[pj]

My brightness and contrast were both set very high, about 80/70. Setting them both to 50 with DCS gamma at 2 definitely improved the A-10C cockpit lighting. Still tweaking, thanks for the tip!!!

[Canadus]

My brightness and contrast were both set very high, about 80/70. Setting them both to 50 with DCS gamma at 2 definitely improved the A-10C cockpit lighting. Still tweaking, thanks for the tip!!!

 

Same here; I lowered brightness and contrast to 50% and was able to raise my gamma from 1.7 to 2.0/2.1.

[Mustang]

One overlooked feature is Full and Limited RGB settings

 

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/full-rgb-v-s-limited-rgb-a-comparison-and-guide.1248012/

[dedde01]

I don't have a gaming monitor, instead I have a Samsung TV/monitor with HDMI port. The default setting for me is contrast 100% and luminosity to 50% and I am not gonna change that because it is fine like that not because of DCS, but because I checked it the with the monitor calibration tool of Windows.

In fact, I don't have problems with the other games.

The only thing I did is resetting metashaders and fxo, and it became better, but I think the map is still too bright around midday (the cockpit is almost fine, maybe a little bit brighter would be the best).

DCS gamma to 1.8

[shagrat]

I don't have a gaming monitor, instead I have a Samsung TV/monitor with HDMI port. The default setting for me is contrast 100% and luminosity to 50% and I am not gonna change that because it is fine like that not because of DCS, but because I checked it the with the monitor calibration tool of Windows.

In fact, I don't have problems with the other games.

The only thing I did is resetting metashaders and fxo, and it became better, but I think the map is still too bright around midday (the cockpit is almost fine, maybe a little bit brighter would be the best).

DCS gamma to 1.8

Well, I don't say you HAVE to adjust your contrast or anything.

 

If you find it suites your prefered visual experience, it's absolutely OK.

 

I just said if you find the cockpit too dark and the world too washed out and bright, adjusting contrast and brightness to normal values around 50% brightness and contrast on your monitor and start adjusting from there, may improve your visual experience tremendously.

 

I "calibrated" my monitor with the Windows calibration tool on first setup and that was how I managed to totally mess up my monitors contrast and brightness settings.

Simply starting over from scratch with the good old manual adjustment learned in the early 90ies and trusting my eyes got me a perfectly good result.

 

It may or may not work for you, but I suspect, asking ED to match the lighting to your TVs 100% contrast setting won't work, either.

[Emmy]

One overlooked feature is Full and Limited RGB settings

 

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/full-rgb-v-s-limited-rgb-a-comparison-and-guide.1248012/

 

Also known as "AdobeRGB" and "sRGB"

[Emmy]

I've been looking at lots of screen shots in Photoshop and the one thing I keep seeing is that the Black Level on everything seems a bit low and that's something that a Gamma Adjustment won't help.

 

At least in the stock A-10C pit, the deepest, darkest shadow areas are 0,0,0 (RBG Values) which means there is NO detail there whatsoever. Adjusting Gamma will not really move the black point and one anchored that low will cause excessive contrast. I think all the artwork would be better for everyone if the lowest luminance level anywhere in a scene were moved up a little to maybe 5,5,5 or 7,7,7. This would open up the shadow areas a little allowing for more detail and less "black holes"

 

FWIW, using a hardware calibration device (Spyder Pro), the brightness level on my Dell 27" monitor needs to be reduced from 50% at default to about 18% to meet spec... Yeah, there are a lot of screamingly bright monitors out there...

Edited February 7, 2018 by Emmy

[davidp57]

Great post, changed my (simulated pilot) life !

Thanks !

[Canadus]

The only thing I did is resetting metashaders and fxo, and it became better, but I think the map is still too bright around midday (the cockpit is almost fine, maybe a little bit brighter would be the best).

DCS gamma to 1.8

 

Have done the same thing and although it got better, 2.5 is still too bright at high noon and too dark at night, IMHO. Hopefully ED will tweak that a bit.

[D.Va]

If anyone here has an iPhone, you can adjust your monitor brightness with it, like this:

• Turn down your iPhone volume to zero.
  
• Click the volume up button four times, which puts volume at 25%.
  
• Open the control panel or whatever it's called and increase brightness to 25% so it matches the volume bar.
  
• Hold your iPhone in front of your monitor and adjust the brightness on your monitor until the brightness matches.
  
• You may be surprised at how dim this is, but this is in fact the recommended brightness for office environments all over the world (300 candela, if I remember correctly) and it greatly decreases the amount of headaches you get after prolonged use.
  
• You can also adjust colour this way, but iPhone whites are possibly slightly blue.
  
• With this brightness, I find Gamma 2.0 looks the most natural.
  

[davidp57]

Interesting tip, thank you; where did you learn about this ? I'd be happy to read more about this...

[shagrat]

Interesting tip, thank you; where did you learn about this ? I'd be happy to read more about this...

You mean D.Va with the iPhone Display or my original post?

[D.Va]

You mean D.Va with the iPhone Display or my original post?

Yes

[Steel Jaw]

Thanks for the advice on monitor settings. ..but, shocking though it may be, I fly other sims, P3D and FalconBMS, and so would have to undo all those settings when not flying dcs. .surely there are better solutions,..?

[shagrat]

Thanks for the advice on monitor settings. ..but, shocking though it may be, I fly other sims, P3D and FalconBMS, and so would have to undo all those settings when not flying dcs. .surely there are better solutions,..?

Well, if the root cause is a misconfigured monitor, actually, no.

Either you set the monitor up correctly and adjust all software to match that or you need to accept the limitations on the software's adjustment can only do so much.

 

As long as you leave the monitor as it is, your only option is what the software can tweak, so you can decrease gamma values in DCS and get a "coalpit" or fix the underlying problem with the monitor settings usually being optimized for the sales room and not the average dim evening session in a home.