Widescreen Gaming Forum

I think it would be safer to say that at most 10% of those with colour calibration hardware for their monitors also game on the same system.

10%? I think that's a bit too low, don't you think? I find that many photographers and webdesigners are usually gamer geeks (that also use their workmachine as playmachines)

In fact, I can only think of one WSGF member off the top of my head that I seem to remember having colour calibration hardware - X-Warrior.

I bought one just purely for gaming :P (spyder3)

Also just ONE? That's quite shocking, since I thought WSGF was made up of panel enthusiasts.

It can't be that hard to do, agreed. That being said, how many games have I played recently that are basically just brown and grey, with perhaps the odd splash of red when the blood starts flying? ;) Quite a number. :(

I've used colour calibrated hardware on one system that I remember - and that was a photo/video editing system that I didn't set up to game on (actually, it wasn't mine, I built it for a friend who wanted a photo editing setup) so I've no personal experience of gaming on a colour calibrated system. :oops:

It doesn't matter what colour the game is in exactly, its the overlaying "hue" that gives the game an overall "correct feel". Think of it as watching a movie/game through a dirty window (uncalibrated) vs a clean window (calibrated). Granted, if you look through a dirty window for years and years you will get used to it, but for someone like me who uses custom/calibrated colours, switching to a game that doesn't support it is like switching to a dirty, yellow-stained underwear after wearing clean underwear for a long time.

Perhaps my 10% figure was a bit low; I don't really hang around photography forums on the 'net - most of my photography friends are people I hang out with on an almost daily basis in real life and I guarantee you none of them are gamers. So on a photography forum it might be a bit different. :)

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Not everyone advertises everything they buy (reasonable) and while I (and many others) can easily tell the difference in colour between a 6-bit panel and an 8-bit panel, I suppose many are less fussed about 'precision' colour space. As long as there is no obvious tint to one colour or another, we're happy. ;)

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That was a bad analogy. Ew. *searches for puke smiley*

If you can, borrow a calibrator and calibrate your monitor's colours. Games and the desktop environment in general look much better. YMMV of course, but the default colorus on my monitor are very washed out, making everything look like crap. Calibrated colours are an absolute need for me. (especially in games)

I too run a color calibrator (Spyder3 elite) but on TN panels :/
But since a single 24" monitor here costs as much as 3 identical ones in the US for example i don't really have the option of anything else unless i stick to one monitor. (Hah, not gonna happen.. eyefinity changed my e-life)

Anyways, just wanted to add that theres atleast 3 ppl with calibrators on WSGF :p

Would probably be worth it for my centre monitor, but made more difficult by the use of different monitors on the sides in my Surround rig - and the fact that neither ATi nor nVidia allow separate colour calibrations for each monitor. Although that's more likely a Windows thing...

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SarX - haha, OK, now I know of three. ;)

You can't calibrate the three monitors individually and load up those individual profiles on each of the monitors? It seems quite an elementary thing for Windows (or another program like Powerstrip) to load up separate colour profiles on different monitors.

Perhaps Powerstrip can already do this?

I have a calibrator too PS!

That being said I agree with you PS, the vast majority of professions that you listed lobski are not gamers, in fact most of them likely use OSX.

I'm not sure if it's most, but there are plenty of PC gamers with hardware calibrators out there!

Is there any documentation on how one might implement this into their engine aside from the noted Windowed Fullscreen/noborder?

Is there any documentation on how one might implement this into their engine aside from the noted Windowed Fullscreen/noborder?

I am unsure of the technical aspects of this. But for some reason, many games launch in full-screen "reverts" the colours back to default ones. Probably something to do with the video drivers. Ian (the author of cclutch) can probably explain more in detail if he decides to sign up.

Powerstrip's workaround (a very good one at that) is for the program to bypass the OS/video driver and force the video hardware directly to switch colour profiles. Unfortunately, this bypass hasn't gone too well with Nvidia, and they blocked it. So it is impossible on the newer Nvidia cards. Still works fine on ATI though.

edit: Oh yeah, and a gamer doesn't always HAVE to have a hardware calibrator. He or she may load up custom colour profiles using the tool of his or her eye and tweaking. :)