AH-64D Exported Display Images Look Very Dark

[Lekaa]

Thank you for the guide @Floyd1212

Edited July 15, 2024 by Lekaa

[skypickle]

I find that simply turning up the brightness of the in game mfds via the knobs/switches achieves almost the same thing-readable exported mfds, blinding in game mfds. But I’ve seen some people’s screens where the bottom third of the screen image has been amputated. How do they do that?

[skypickle]

Also I can use display properties to boost brightness of each monitor-that allows keeping on screen mfds at less than blinding brightness.

[RafaPolit]

On 5/1/2022 at 12:54 PM, Floyd1212 said:

I spent some time working on this yesterday and got a fix I am mostly happy with.  I came here to write up a post, but found this thread, so I will post it here.

The solution I am using is to use ReShade to adjust brightness/contrast/gamma on the exported region of my displays only, without effecting the rest of the game's rendered regions.  To accomplish this, you need to use a UIMask in ReShade, which then applies the shaders to the "masked" regions only. (More on this later.)...

 

I wanted to extend my huge thanks to this post!  Really changed my experience.  It even works for night missions, I created a couple of profiles with different values for white point and gamma and I shift through them quickly depending on the scenario.  This is a game changer if you have external MFDs.  Big thanks again!

 

Rafa.

[chumpeagle]

I've been having the same problem on the Harrier and this is much better having followed the UIMask advice with Reshade. It's a shame as to get the "greenscreen" sensors looking correct I have had to adjust in a way that makes things like moving map a bit washed out, but I will take that any day.

[TAIPAN_]

On 5/2/2022 at 3:54 AM, Floyd1212 said:

I spent some time working on this yesterday and got a fix I am mostly happy with.  I came here to write up a post, but found this thread, so I will post it here.

The solution I am using is to use ReShade to adjust brightness/contrast/gamma on the exported region of my displays only, without effecting the rest of the game's rendered regions.  To accomplish this, you need to use a UIMask in ReShade, which then applies the shaders to the "masked" regions only. (More on this later.)

Follow this tutorial for how to install and setup ReShade.  (You can choose to use the shader settings he is showing or not, that's up to you.)

The next step is to create a "mask" for the regions of the screen you want to make adjustments to.  This feature is normally designed to mask elements of the user interface in a game that you don't want to change the look of, like maybe the minimap at the bottom of the screen, or the health bar, etc., but in this case we want to mask the majority of the screen from being effected, exposing only our display export regions to effect those.

Take a screenshot of your game with your display exports, and open it in your favorite image editing program. Fill in everything white, except for the display export regions, which you fill in black.  The shader effects we apply will only effect the regions of the screen that are black.  Save that black-and-white image as "UIMask.png". <-- very important

nullHere is my setup with two exported displays, and what the corresponding UIMask.png looks like:
 

Save your UIMask.png file to the location on your machine where ReShade is expecting to find it.  This is within the DCS install folder, equivalent to:

G:\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta\bin\reshade-shaders\Textures\UIMask.png

Now open the ReShade controls after launching DCS, and enable the 4 shaders highlighted in the red box, and reorder them by dragging them so they are in the order shown below.  ReShade will process the "Tonemap" and "Levels" shaders only to the areas specified by our mask.

 

You now have real-time sliders for Black Point, White Point, and Gamma that you can adjust to tweak your external displays to suit your needs (red arrows).

It needs to be said, however, that this is not a complete solution for night missions.  You will still have a problem with the displays in the cockpit getting super washed out before you have anything usable on your export displays.  It does help a little, but you will still be blinded by the in-cockpit displays.  ED, please fix this!  In the meantime, this may help...

 

 

Thanks - this solved my issue with the dark Winwing MFD screens!

I had to make two different presets, one for "green" MFDs and one for black & white like the A10C. The B&W type MFDs need alot less changed.

[Eisprinzessin]

Am 1.5.2022 um 19:54 schrieb Floyd1212:

 

Take a screenshot of your game with your display exports

 

Thanks for the Tutorial. But how do i make such a screenshot with the MFD in the same screen?

Edited April 27, 2023 by Eisprinzessin

[Floyd1212]

The PrtScrn button works for me.  I guess this is the default key for taking screenshots in DCS? 

It will put them in your [user]\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\ScreenShots folder

[Eisprinzessin]

Okay, i try. I thought thats a normal Screenshot from the gaming monitor without mfd...

[Shaftoe62]

If found that the aircraft- and pilot/cpg exported MFD's are very dark like you said. But the generic left and right MFD's are as you would expect. So I only use these.

[TAIPAN_]

On 4/28/2023 at 2:14 AM, Eisprinzessin said:

Thanks for the Tutorial. But how do i make such a screenshot with the MFD in the same screen?

 

Screenshots already include your exported MFDs, in fact you can't take a screenshot without them unless you crop them off.

[Eisprinzessin]

Yes, tried and saw ist. Job is done, MFDs look amazing now. Thanks to all.

[AstroEma]

Sorry to revive this old thread but wondering how do I create this for different aircrafts? Do I have to put in and out of the folder different UI Masks every time I change the plane, since it needs to be called UIMask.png ?

[Floyd1212]

I’m afraid I don’t have an answer for you on that. I only fly the Apache, so have never run across the problem.

You might have to ask around in the ReShade forums or subreddit. 

[TAIPAN_]

On 6/23/2023 at 11:58 AM, AstroEma said:

Sorry to revive this old thread but wondering how do I create this for different aircrafts? Do I have to put in and out of the folder different UI Masks every time I change the plane, since it needs to be called UIMask.png ?

For me it works for all planes, since all the UIMask is doing is delineating where your main monitor ends and your MFDs start.

Assuming that you never change the resolution when switching planes.

[AstroEma]

Thanks! It should be all good! I tried it out and works so well! 

[RickJamesBish]

This worked great. I used it only for making my WinWing MFD display brighter, no other effects. I notice a slight jitter and even some minor shadow flickering that I do not get when running without it. Any ideas on what I might check? RTX 4090 / i7-13700k / 64GB / all drivers are M.2.  

[Aronis]

Man< I wish I read this before buy the displays LOL.  Not being able to see the Target Pod image on the mini display is very dissappointing.

 

Mike

[Devrim]

Is this bug still there?

 

[jonsky7]

31 minutes ago, Devrim said:

Is this bug still there?

 

I'm sure it been there since like DCS 2.0 when they updated the graphics engine or something.

[Hammer1-1]

its still bugged. this whole reshade thing hasnt worked for me,s o Ive to wait for a fix myself.

Edited March 22, 2024 by Hammer1-1

[BaD CrC]

This issue indeed has been here since the release of Black Shark 1 in 2009 as far as I remember But at that time, very few people were exporting displays so I guess it wasn't really high on ED's list. Now multi screens and exports are becoming a bit more frequent with off the shelves solutions available like Winwing MFDs, I would love to see ED take this into account without letting us doing some crazy level wizardry DIY. It is specially problematic with the TADS or the SHKVAL (don't know for fixed wings but I guess that's the same). AH-64 exported TADS is almost unusable in IR mode no matter the brightness and contrast. Moving map is dark but still alright to use. Problem at night is when you are cranking up like crazy brightness for your exported displays, your in game cockpit's MFDs are burning your retinas. 

[jenx]

Thanks for this one. I can now use the external display and see the TADS image in detail

[Wostg]

Quick sense check please - I feel like this is doing better for itself without the shader now?

[Hammer1-1]

On 3/27/2024 at 3:28 PM, BaD CrC said:

This issue indeed has been here since the release of Black Shark 1 in 2009 as far as I remember But at that time, very few people were exporting displays so I guess it wasn't really high on ED's list. Now multi screens and exports are becoming a bit more frequent with off the shelves solutions available like Winwing MFDs, I would love to see ED take this into account without letting us doing some crazy level wizardry DIY. It is specially problematic with the TADS or the SHKVAL (don't know for fixed wings but I guess that's the same). AH-64 exported TADS is almost unusable in IR mode no matter the brightness and contrast. Moving map is dark but still alright to use. Problem at night is when you are cranking up like crazy brightness for your exported displays, your in game cockpit's MFDs are burning your retinas. 

I dont know about you, but my TADS export looks good. Granted the resolution of the monitor isnt greater than 600x800, but the actual monitors in these aircraft dont have to be high definition LCD. Unless someone knows better, Im fairly certain there isnt an aircraft out there that has resolution beyond 1080p. And to be fair, 1080p was high tech resolution back when the majority of these aircraft came online and NASA wasnt even using that to watch recorded shuttle launches. Some people really dont appreciate just how cheap the US govt can be.

Edited October 10, 2024 by Hammer1-1