Half-Life 2 - Just Too Dark

[IanB001]

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.

 

[IanB001]

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.

 

[IanB001]

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.

 

[IanB001]

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.

 

[IanB001]

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.