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OpenArena => Technical Snafus => Topic started by: poldie on May 07, 2010, 04:48:29 PM



Title: OpenArena too dark
Post by: poldie on May 07, 2010, 04:48:29 PM
Since installing Ubuntu 10.04 (64 bit) the game is too dark.  The brightness control does nothing.  I've googled, and found people suggesting r_overbrightbits 0 which makes a small change, but it's still too dark - far darker than before.   QuakeLive works fine, as does everything non-3d, so the problem is just with OpenArena.  Can anyone recommend some more console commands I can try.  I'm not desperate to download tools, make config files to my system but I guess I could give it a go if there's no alternative.


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: HelloKitty! on May 08, 2010, 03:06:59 PM
AFAIR, there is a Mesa bug causing this.

No idea how to fix it ATM.


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: zigguruat on May 09, 2010, 12:31:12 PM
im having the same issue with it being too dark except im running win 7.


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: ... on May 09, 2010, 06:28:18 PM
im having the same issue with it being too dark except im running win 7.

I recently installed Windows 7 on a netbook (yes i know a netbook). And ran OA and noticed it was dark as well.

Changing the gamma solved that.

/r_gamma 1.3

Thats what i used (default is 1). I recommend you both try making your gamma slightly higher and see if that helps.


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: RMF on May 10, 2010, 01:36:38 AM
iirc r_gamma is the same as the brightness in the setup
The brightness control does nothing.


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: MIOW on May 10, 2010, 11:59:03 AM
You can experiment with r_mapOverBrightBits, r_overBrightBits, r_intensity and r_gamma.


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: sago007 on May 10, 2010, 12:34:22 PM
if r_ignorehwgamma is 1 then r_gamma will be ignored and the game will stay dark. Unfortunately it sounds like some drivers in Ubuntu 10.04 ignores the gamma setting provided by OA. I don't have any problems though all my problems with 9.10 disappeared with 10.04.


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: Falkland on May 11, 2010, 08:16:17 AM
I can confirm this bug too on my old laptop after upgrading form Hardy to Lucid Lynx ( ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 , opensource driver ) and not only for openarena but for every engine based on ioquake3 ( tested on ioquake3+Q3 , OA , UrT - ioquake3 rev 1783 ). The driver simply ignores the game gamma settings : increasing r_gamma doesn't have any effect.

Performances are also affected ( it seems coming back to the original Hardy performances with max 66-67 fps ) also with a kernel recompiled for improving interactivity ( LOW-Latency-Desktop-Preemption , 1000Hz , 4k stack , -march=pentium-m ).



Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: zigguruat on May 11, 2010, 02:43:38 PM
You can experiment with r_mapOverBrightBits, r_overBrightBits, r_intensity and r_gamma.

r_overbrightbits 1 (either 1 or 0) fixed it for me xD


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: poldie on May 13, 2010, 04:13:49 PM
You can experiment with r_mapOverBrightBits, r_overBrightBits, r_intensity and r_gamma.

r_overbrightbits 1 (either 1 or 0) fixed it for me xD

none of this advice seems to make any difference - in fact it's now darker.  r_gamma is yet to do anything, the brightness control still does nothing, ignorehwgamma only says anything when I set it to 1, not 0, but does nothing. I think the only thing which makes a difference is r_overbrightbits which changes the brightness a tiny bit. 


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: fromhell on May 13, 2010, 04:21:04 PM
Try disabling compositing


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: Falkland on May 13, 2010, 05:49:54 PM
Try disabling compositing

r_gamma is ignored even with compositing disabled.


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: MIOW on May 13, 2010, 05:55:41 PM
none of this advice seems to make any difference - in fact it's now darker.  r_gamma is yet to do anything, the brightness control still does nothing, ignorehwgamma only says anything when I set it to 1, not 0, but does nothing. I think the only thing which makes a difference is r_overbrightbits which changes the brightness a tiny bit.  

Sorry, I never had this problem actually :/

But be sure with those cvars you can make game look brighter, depends on what you put there. I just didn't bother to find values myself since I don't know how would it look on your or somebody else's monitor, who has this problem. btw do you know of vid_restart?

Otherwise if it really ignores all of those settings somehow, it's really incredible.


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: PopeJo on May 15, 2010, 02:55:32 AM
I have that problem with ioquake3 (and the defrag engine)
 r_gamma and r_ignorehwgamma have no effekt, only r_mapoverbrightbits works

gamma control works in openarena for me, but I got sound problems in return http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=3458.msg31754#msg31754


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: poldie on May 17, 2010, 03:38:31 PM
I have that problem with ioquake3 (and the defrag engine)
 r_gamma and r_ignorehwgamma have no effekt, only r_mapoverbrightbits works

gamma control works in openarena for me, but I got sound problems in return http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=3458.msg31754#msg31754

I don't to sound lazy or anything, but I just can't play OpenArena any more - it's too dark, and none of the suggestions have made any difference.  If I can't use the brightness slider, that's a bug somewhere, right?  I've tried this and that console command, without really knowing what I'm doing, and as far as I can see it's made no difference whatsoever. 


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: Cacatoes on May 17, 2010, 04:32:41 PM
What's your graphic card ? If it's a driver issue, you may try some other versions (a mess to do), or give a try to some other distribution as a test.


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: Falkland on May 17, 2010, 05:23:06 PM
What's your graphic card ? If it's a driver issue, you may try some other versions (a mess to do), or give a try to some other distribution as a test.

There's an experimental PPA repository for trying updated drm and xorg drivers : https://launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa , but since they are built from git snapshot they could be unstable.

I've used this archives to solve ATI performance issues after upgrading from Gutsy to Hardy , but I didn't tried 'em in Lucid yet, since I'm trying first to build a patched kernel with an updated drm ATI driver coming from mainline ( the latest kernel version was released just yesterday - 2.6.34 - ) which has introduced some improvements to radeon driver http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_34#head-401677e9a1218ca685bc95bcb1891f0c61b912f9 ( in particular this commit (http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=44ca7478d46aaad488d916f7262253e000ee60f9) )

Anyway an updated kernel version is also available in the same xorg-edgers repository.

It was also published a guide on ubuntu forums to install and/or to build a low latency kernel or a realtime kernel ( http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1470264 )

However , don't try any of this solutions if you are not experienced with mixing repos or kernel compiling or recovering procedures when something goes wrong.

EDIT : this time PPA uploaders provided ppa-purge command that automaticily reverts updated packages back to the default coming with distribution and deletes the PPA sources from /etc/apt/sources.list


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: Gig on May 18, 2010, 10:14:15 AM
Did you already try to rename your q3config.cfg file in DO NOT LINK[/b]) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/FAQ#Where_are_the_configuration_files_saved.3F]your configuration folder (http://([b), to start again with a "clean" one?


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: Falkland on May 19, 2010, 09:06:52 AM
It's not a config issue ... it's a bug of the MESA GLX driver : r_gamma is ignored in every ioquake3 based game ( Q3+ioq3 , UrT , OA , Smokin' Guns , q3min )


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: Falkland on May 25, 2010, 06:09:29 AM
The culprit for this BUG is a Xorg change introduced in the version 7.5 as reported in the libsdl buglist :

Gamma control do not work with Xorg 7.5 release (http://bugzilla.libsdl.org/show_bug.cgi?id=971)

It seems that an eventual SDL update will not solve completely the problem , breaking the gamma control for other games.

Anyway as a workaround , gamma should be changed with xgamma tool before launching the game and restored after quitting it.


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: xnonix on December 21, 2010, 06:06:39 AM
Well, if you want to set gamma in ubuntu you must do this way.

Open a terminal in ubuntu:
Code:
xgamma -gamma 1.6


This change your gamma to 1.6, this will affect OA if you open it in window mode.
Put back to 1.0 after your OA session.

Regards


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: PopeJo on February 08, 2011, 05:29:26 PM
The culprit for this BUG is a Xorg change introduced in the version 7.5 as reported in the libsdl buglist :

Gamma control do not work with Xorg 7.5 release (http://bugzilla.libsdl.org/show_bug.cgi?id=971)

It seems that an eventual SDL update will not solve completely the problem , breaking the gamma control for other games.

Anyway as a workaround , gamma should be changed with xgamma tool before launching the game and restored after quitting it.
so .. is this problem resolved in maverik?

or is there another solution besides the "xgamma-way", that I am using for the last few month?


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: WingedPanther on February 10, 2011, 06:52:05 PM
I'm on 10.10 right now.  It's not fixed :(

I've got a couple of bash scripts on my desktop to set up to handle that.  One of them also logs me on/off of Hamachi.


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: Udi on February 11, 2011, 04:22:48 AM
I'm on 10.10 right now.  It's not fixed :(

Works for me: Ubuntu 10.10, xorg: 1:7.5+6ubuntu3, nvidia-current: 260.19.06-0ubuntu1. I actually never had problem with it, neither on Debian (Etch, Lenny) nor Ubuntu (10.04, 10.10), I'm using the unified installer from the website, if that matters.


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: WingedPanther on February 12, 2011, 09:46:11 AM
Ah, I'm on intel graphics, but same version of xorg.  I'm using the OA package via synaptic: 0.8.5-4


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: TwEeK! on February 27, 2011, 04:20:21 PM
In a hurry, no time to read whole thread, but had this issue too in Linux, Shrike suggested that BEFORE I launch OA to open a terminal window and do:

xgamma -gamma 1.8

Things should get really bright. Now launch OA, and with luck, voila!

After exiting OA you can set your system gamma back to normal via:

xgamma -gamma 1.0

Works like champ for me on my Asus EeePC generation two (i.e. now ancient) netbook.

Anyone know how to overcome my 999 ping that's courtesy of my current Motel 6 WiFi sillystraw of a connection? J/K - (sort of, LOL!)

-- TwEeK!

P.S. I'm so proud of myself for a relatively short, hopefully useful post! Woohoo!!!



Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: fromhell on February 27, 2011, 07:53:33 PM
r_overbrightBits 0 should help because then it won't compensate for a brightness that can't be done

you'll lose the neat overbrighting though (which puts out more shading volume as intended), but lighting should come back into a mostly normal balance.

the overbright method by the engine is kind of outdated considering modern hardware, a more modern approach would be to ditch the color control method and go for combine effects to do the overbrighting (though, a geforce2+ is required then, and all the 1996-1999 video cards will be screwed.) The plus side? OVERBRIGHTS IN WINDOWED WITHOUT AFFECTING DESKTOP!





Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: PopeJo on February 28, 2011, 01:35:14 PM
r_overbrightBits 0 should help because then it won't compensate for a brightness that can't be done

you'll lose the neat overbrighting though (which puts out more shading volume as intended), but lighting should come back into a mostly normal balance.

the overbright method by the engine is kind of outdated considering modern hardware, a more modern approach would be to ditch the color control method and go for combine effects to do the overbrighting (though, a geforce2+ is required then, and all the 1996-1999 video cards will be screwed.) The plus side? OVERBRIGHTS IN WINDOWED WITHOUT AFFECTING DESKTOP!

that means you'll fix it in the next OA release, right?
(quakelive did. ioquake didn't)


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: Gig on February 28, 2011, 03:25:50 PM
I don't think we should make the minimal tech specs for the game higher. I suppose an option could be introducing a new cvar (or a new possible value for an existing cvar) to let people select if to use the classic or the modern method...


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: SergeantPanda on October 17, 2011, 10:54:58 AM
I found a good work around using info from this post and also from creating bash scripts. I wanted to help someone in the same situation as me.
Here is what you do:

Create a blank document-name it whatever you want
Open document and past in
Code:
xgamma -gamma 1.6
sh /home/chester/ioquake3/ioquake3
wait $!
xgamma -gamma 1.0
Change "/home/chester/ioquake3/ioquake3" to location of OpenArena
Right click file
Go to Properties
Go to tab Permissions
Click allow executing

Now you can run the bash script, it will change your gamma and when you close the game it will change it back.
This is the best fix I have come up with so far.

Hope this helps somebody!


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: christooss on November 03, 2011, 05:41:38 PM
SargentPanda It really helped me. Thanks a lot!!


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: SergeantPanda on November 05, 2011, 11:50:34 AM
SargentPanda It really helped me. Thanks a lot!!
No problem, glad it helped somebody.  ;)


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: yale on July 26, 2012, 06:37:45 AM
Hi,

i have now the same problem. I installed Ubuntu 12.04 and open arena is too dark.

I use a ATI Radeon HD5450.

The gamma ingame i have tried, but it doesn t work


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: .Luke on July 26, 2012, 03:12:39 PM
Have you tried SergeantPanda's script? It works like a charm on my laptop, and I've been running 12.04 since the second beta release.

Now you can run the bash script, it will change your gamma and when you close the game it will change it back.
This is the best fix I have come up with so far.

Hope this helps somebody!


It sure helped me! ^^ The later tiers are so dark (At least on Linux, didn't have this problem with the Windows version.) it hurts my eyes a bit. Now I can really see what I'm doing, to the point I had to tune the gamma down to 1.4. =P Oddly, it didn't work when I tried linking it directly to the binary, (I have the 8.8 binaries, libs, and game resources all in my home folder.) but when linked to the bash script provided by the Ubuntu Software Center, it started up without issue.

Is it really a Mesa or Xorg issue if just playing with the gamma fixes this in OA maps? I launch Quake III directly through OA's engine with a separate bash script, (Same as the SC launcher script, but with two variables linked to baseq3's folder instead) and I didn't have any problems with darkness in that game; I can see everything without straining my eyes in all of Q3's maps that support Death Match.


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: grey matter on August 04, 2012, 10:30:40 AM
Oddly, it didn't work when I tried linking it directly to the binary, (I have the 8.8 binaries, libs, and game resources all in my home folder.) but when linked to the bash script provided by the Ubuntu Software Center, it started up without issue.

How did you "link" to the official binary? Make sure you're executing it, not using sh to parse it as a shell script. I.e.
Code:
xgamma -gamma 1.6 && /home/grey/oa/openarena.x86_64 && xgamma -gamma 1.0
Note the missing sh.


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: KrabaT on August 14, 2012, 05:48:19 AM
i too have the same problem, for some time, only openarena with ubuntu (now i have xubuntu, but it's the same).
instead of r_gamma, use r_intensity (used to intensify the light remaining in the models and walls).

to start, you can try these my combinations (i designed and tested for some time), after write vid_restart to reboot the video of the game to get the desired effect.

Code:
seta r_overbrightbits "0"
seta r_mapoverbrightbits "2" //default value
seta r_intensity "1.3"

or else

seta r_overbrightbits "0"
seta r_mapoverbrightbits "2" //default value
seta r_intensity "1.3"
seta r_vertexlight "1"

or else

seta r_overbrightbits "0"
seta r_mapoverbrightbits "1"
seta r_intensity "1.4"
seta r_vertexlight "1"

to my past experience, in general, doesn't help the proprietary drivers of the video card because it makes the system unstable operating linux. i have ati radeon xpress 1250 1gb (integrated).

if you want, you can try a cfg base (see link below) created by me, remember that in your case (like mine and some other players) change the variable r_gamma "1.2" with r_intensity "1.3" and add only seta r_overbrightbits "0".
http://clansos.sosforum.net/t599-cfg-based#8570


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: .Luke on August 21, 2012, 06:51:07 AM
That sounds like it creates the same effect as the colors on Windows, but you found that doing so is unstable on propriety drivers? I hope open-source video drivers aren't affected too. D: I'll have to try this later and see if it works around the washed out image I'm getting on the Linux version. The gamma fix does resolve the darkness, but the colors admittedly aren't as vivid and eye-popping as they are on the Windows binary.

How did you "link" to the official binary? Make sure you're executing it, not using sh to parse it as a shell script. I.e.
Code:
xgamma -gamma 1.6 && /home/grey/oa/openarena.x86_64 && xgamma -gamma 1.0
Note the missing sh.

Oh, I was trying to create a launcher on Xubuntu, and the script wouldn't be read as executable without the #!/bin/sh.

*compares own script to quote*

Wait, you meant the sh in front of /home? So that's why it was parsing the launcher script, but not the binary! ^^' I think I'll go change that now, thanks for the syntax tip.


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: fromhell on August 21, 2012, 07:14:02 AM
r_intensity screws up some textures and effects like bulletholes and effect shells, I really don't recommend it, it's a Quake2 holdover that should be removed since it was done for a renderer that didn't do anything beyond alpha blend. (its original purpose was to gamma correct textures for hardware that lacked color control(i.e. early s3 video cards) and Quake2 had no actual color control support)


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: 7 on August 21, 2012, 10:07:56 AM
Uhh, r_intensity is vital to my setup also.

The game is too dark in linux, gamma in SDL is pretty much defunct for linux with new nvidia drivers and setting a high gamma externally with xgamma makes things very blurry (even at 1920x1080), so basically I'm stuck with a few nudges of r_intensity and a little external gamma to make the game playable. Sure it screws up some textures, but at least I can see who's shooting at me.


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: KrabaT on August 21, 2012, 10:14:58 AM
@luke: i agree with you, but the range should be controlled by the game itself and not from the operating system (this means that anyone can use your script for the gamma, everyone is free to choose whether to use it or not, thanks to the great openarena bug that carries with it and i'm sorry), quite different, for example, in quake live (i play to it, i don't know how much longer, as the main delag in that game doesn't work even if enabled by default) that not afraid to use his gamma always on the same os and the same basic game as openarena. one thing is certain, i'm not a programmer (sin), but i'm a player like many others, tired of using artifacts as r_intensity to compensate for the lack of gamma, or worse, script (which in some ways is a cumbersome task for those who want to play more than once per day).

@fromhell: r_intensity should not be removed (can be left alone because it somehow serves, as quake live still uses this variable) until it does the gamma of openarena. this is the truth!

is another matter if we talk about the issues to be resolved: how cg_forcemodel, cg_delag and cl_allowdownload should now be enabled by default, always snaps to 40 by default (without the option to change the value) on all servers, and then these variables will be necessarily removed in the configuration file of the client, because it would not make sense to change their values, and finally team_headmodel and team_model i'm noticing that always has the same problem, because i don't change the models if different from sarge (for example, i would like to use smarine also basic mode of the game), maybe i should turn off cg_forcemodel because it conflicts with the latter variable, or what?! that sucks! tell me if i'm wrong, or if i forgot a step in the development of this game. i forgot... why not force all servers administrators to use the same recent version of openarena?! mah!

sorry for the outburst, but someone had to do know to start at an easier management of the game, especially to future new players.
amicably, kraig!


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: fromhell on August 21, 2012, 11:36:34 AM
The game is too dark in linux, gamma in SDL is pretty much defunct for linux

xorg regressed it back in 2007. I proposed an alternate method (http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=4345.0) once.


how cg_forcemodel, cg_delag and cl_allowdownload should now be enabled by default


 especially to future new players.

No.


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: KrabaT on August 21, 2012, 02:22:10 PM
how cg_forcemodel, cg_delag and cl_allowdownload should now be enabled by default
especially to future new players.
No.
why not? sorry if you get bored, but i don't understand this your obstinacy, explains better instead of just "no" for an answer, thank you. always amicably.


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: Neon_Knight on August 21, 2012, 02:29:39 PM
how cg_forcemodel, cg_delag and cl_allowdownload should now be enabled by default
especially to future new players.
No.
why not? sorry if you get bored, but i don't understand this your obstinacy, explains better instead of just "no" for an answer, thank you. always amicably.
From DO NOT LINK[/b]) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/NOTTODO]NOTTODO (http://([b):

Quote
  • Adding tweaks for personal advantage, as in, no brightskins, no cg_enemymodels. Again, that's stuff for a mod, since vanilla Q3 didn't included that kind of stuff.
    • Related to the above, designing/developing OA as an elite-only game where only seasoned players can enjoy the game. Even the original Quake III Arena was enjoyable without the need of knowing advanced techniques. And, in the long run, this will practically kill OA because of the high entry barrier. If anything, we want to cater to all audiences as we can inside of the limits of the project, not just the seasoned players.
  • Set autodownload activated by default. It's a no-no for security and freedom reasons. (Such as allowing the users to decide if he/she wants to download extra stuff from OA servers)


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: KrabaT on August 21, 2012, 03:25:28 PM
thank you very much clarification, neon! ;)

  • Adding tweaks for personal advantage, as in, no brightskins, no cg_enemymodels. Again, that's stuff for a mod, since vanilla Q3 didn't included that kind of stuff.
    • Related to the above, designing/developing OA as an elite-only game where only seasoned players can enjoy the game. Even the original Quake III Arena was enjoyable without the need of knowing advanced techniques. And, in the long run, this will practically kill OA because of the high entry barrier. If anything, we want to cater to all audiences as we can inside of the limits of the project, not just the seasoned players.
as i understand it, it's a technical issue, right? if it's right, because the programmers at id have managed to make life easier (albeit slightly) to the players, but here (intended for openarena) still no?

  • Set autodownload activated by default. It's a no-no for security and freedom reasons. (Such as allowing the users to decide if he/she wants to download extra stuff from OA servers)
ok, but if a player activates at the beginning for download from the server, in most cases remains active in the client configuration, then after it makes no sense if it should remain on for not having problems kind, understand? the most common situation is that if a person doesn't download additional stuff, has trouble getting over the specified server to play because he lacks that particular file/archive/map. now that part of the speech written in wiki is old in terms of decisions, in fact, quake live is enabled by default. then everyone does what he likes, but currently this is the truth. you don't want to do a bit of competition from a game like quake live (for example) or not?! if you don't understand, i love openarena because of the gameplay (more fluid). :)


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: fromhell on August 21, 2012, 06:30:00 PM
now that part of the speech written in wiki is old in terms of decisions

No. It's not old, it's current.

in fact, quake live is enabled by default.

Since when did Quake Live support custom content?

Just because Quake Live does things differently doesn't mean we have to.


Title: Re: OpenArena too dark
Post by: KrabaT on August 22, 2012, 03:08:44 AM
Just because Quake Live does things differently doesn't mean we have to.
not necessarily, but i'll give you proof that such settings (not related to what we have said, but the choices made so far weren't wrong in fact is still improving) the mod aftershock is proving very popular, so much so that some of players (old also of q3a) of quake live have/are experiencing success with this mod that already seems to play a sextant although for now only works under openarena. ok, i close my speech because i'm getting ot. ;D