Half-Life 2 - Just Too Dark

IanB001

IanB001

IanB001

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21 Dec 2004
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Location
Bristol, UK
I just bought Half-Life 2 and I am having problems playing. Despite cranking my monitors brightness and contrast up and the in game brightness it's still far too dark.

After an hours playing I got a huge headache and decided to quit. I got stuck right at the beginning in some kind of small yard, but I couldn't see where I was going cause it was too dark.

I'm wondering whether my monitor is to blame, I have an ageing Viewsonic E790 19" CRT, but the brightness is satisfactory in other games even if I do have to crank up the ingame gamma/brightness.

Any ideas?

Cheers

Ian.
 
I had the exact same problem.

Changed to a TFT and all was good....my monitor was the fault

But i had brightness issues in loads of games
 
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I used to have a Mitsubishi 93SB, which I believe is the same, or a very similar tube to your monitor, and it was very dark in games. What I did was use powerstrip to make some custom brightnesses/gamma etc levels just for games. It would look a bit pap in windows, but once in game, it would be fine.
 
If I remember correctly there is a gamma control in the video settings of Half Life 2. Change it and it should be brighter - I'm not sure which way you have to change it though.

I hope this helps a bit!
 
marc2003: OK, I'll check out my graphics card settings.

Psymonkee: Flashlight? The room I was playing in was nice and dark :(

$loth: Yep, used the ingame Gamma control. It's cranked right up to max.

TheDome: I was wondering if investing in a new fangled TFT monitor would improve things. I've been considering the NEC MultiSync® LCD20WGX2 20.1" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-009-NE). I would like the Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey (MO-009-DE) but it's a bit pricey.

DaveyD: I think there are some settings in the Nvidia drivers to create different profiles. I'll take a look.

Sticklyman: Been there, done that :(

Cheers

Ian.
 
I had the same problem - try using powerstrip.

Halflife 2 for some strange reason doesn't let you increase gamma beyond a certain level - unlike doom3 (a game many people claim is too dark) which is perfectly fine if you tweak gamma/brightness using the console.
 
IanB001 said:
Psymonkee: Flashlight? The room I was playing in was nice and dark :(
Click to expand...
in the game... there is a flashlight (torch) you can use... F on the keyboard.... i do hope that this wasn't your problem :p


edit:

aaah crap, shauny is logged in on my machine (this is nikebee)
 
HangTime; Downloaded Powerstrip. Haven't installed it yet, but will do very soon.

Nickebee; Didn't know I had a flashlight. I'll try it.

Psymonkee; I think it's pre-everything. It's not long after you exit the train at the start. Got to stack some boxes to get out of a room. This leads to a very small courtyard.

KingAdora; All I can see in this small courtyard is the sky, a small light above a door and the light coming from the otherside of the door. I can't open the door though so there must be another way out. I just can't see it cause it's too dark.

Cheers

Ian.
 
You've not got HDR on, and you're looking out the window a lot? That might adjust the exposure levels and make the room dark, though of course if you solely looked at the room and not out the window, the darkness should go away, so maybe it's not that...
 
tTz; No, the darkness doesn't go away. I've tried cranking up my graphics cards gamma/contrast/brightness and I can see now. I also got Powerstrip but just trying to figure out how it works. Can't seem to make a game profile.

mosehn; Fair comment. I heard some nightmare stories about Steam when the game was first released so I didn't get it. Plus I'm not a huge fan of FPS games, but as this is supposed to be "the best FPS since sliced bread" I thought I'd give it a try. I'm not particularly good at FPS games, but I suspect this is because I haven't invested the time in them.

My games collection consists more of strategy, RPG, action adventure, MMORPG's and oddball titles.

Auron; I'm not worried about the comment. It has been out a little while now. See my comments above :)

Cheers

Ian.
 
you say you're not so good at FPS games

you have to use keyboard and mouse by the way, anyone that tries to use a joystick or joypad is nuts, there are very few that can play competitivly using a joystick ;)
 
Righty just had a play and I think I know where your stuck. If I'm correct in thinking it should be:

stuck8ea.jpg


Sounds right from your description anyway:

The Sky - check
A small light above a door - check
Light coming from the otherside of the door - check


However I thnk I have the solution to your problems!!

Did you check what the controls were?

options5jr.jpg


Thats what mine are set to - the default controls are different. I think the use key is 'e'. That will allow you to open the door ;)
 
bledd; That's right, I'm just not very good at these games. I do use keyboard and mouse combo for World of Warcraft, so I got the basic concept. I would never dream of using a joystick/gamepad. Infact, I don't own either for my PC :)

There just appears to be a large number of controls/keys to learn in FPS games.

Psymonkee; That looks like where I am, but the screenie is a bit dark. Well, it's very dark to me anyway. I can see the light and that's about it :) Aha, I see your point. There's a use button. I'll have to check my control settings. Looks like there is quite a list of controls.

Cheers

Ian.
 
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