The Witcher 3 and Color Calibration

[JPulowski]

The Witcher 3 and Color Calibration

I have already filed a report about the issue but still wanted to open up this thread here on the official forums to raise awareness.
Currently the game ignores the .icc color profile when in exclusive fullscreen mode. Instead it overrides color/gamma primaries with a D3D11 function named SetGammaControl which is controlled by in-game Gamma slider. There are few problems with this approach:

• In-game gamma slider only allows to fine tune the luminance. It is not possible to fine tune RGB primaries.[SUP][1][/SUP]
• Some users like me use additional hardware to calibrate their monitors, calibration results are stored in a .icc/.icm profile. Also in some cases monitor settings need to be configured in line with the .icc profile. Without the icc profile, changes in monitor settings are useless. And it is not possible to apply values detected by the colorimeter with in-game gamma slider.

Here is a demonstration from Color Clutch project about how games look with improper color calibration:

Color Clutch is an application that disables SetGammaControl function, which in turn allows users to use their own desktop color profile. But unfortunately it is only limited to 32-bit applications, therefore it does not work with the Witcher 3.

Currently only way to apply color profiles to the Witcher 3 is running the game in borderless windowed or windowed mode. But this method also has some flaws:

• Limited SLI/CrossFire support: AMD's Crossfire technology does not support windowed modes.[SUP][2] [3][/SUP] There is no official statement from NVIDIA or a consensus from the community regarding SLI and its relationship with windowed/fullscreen modes. Results seem to vary, some say the performance is decreased in windowed mode and some say there is no difference. However, as a SLI user I can say that I do experience stuttering and decreased performance in windowed mode.
• Increased VRAM usage: In borderless windowed and windowed modes the game shares the video ram with other applications running in the background. Which in turn decreases performance.
• Forced VSYNC and Triple Buffering: Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 7 w/ aero users cannot disable VSYNC and triple buffering as it is now always forced through DWM (Desktop Windows Manager). For some users VSYNC decreases overall performance, also triple buffering again causes additional VRAM usage which might decrease performance.

AMD users might want to give PowerStrip a try. For NVIDIA users the only solution is using borderless windowed or windowed mode with Color Sustainer or CPKeeper.

I also saw that some users suggest using SweetFX in order to correct wrong colors. I am one of the developers on ReShade's development team and I must say that SweetFX is not a suite designed for color calibration. It is mainly designed for artistic purposes to give the games a different look or feel.

I would really appreciate it if CDPR would be able to add option to use desktop gamma to in-game video settings. If you are one of the users who are having this issue please do not forget to file a report by filling the form on the official website. Also share your experience on this thread if possible so the thread does not get lost.

Similar threads on other forums:
Witcher 3 - Another game that ignores colour management *RANT* - Forum - GOG.com
Any gamma/brightness options? :: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt General Discussions

More about the subject:
Games & Color Profiles - Guru3D.com Forums
Nvidia forever ignoring custom color profile support in full screen games? Collaboration thread. - GeForce Forums
Colour profiles in games. The new "widescreen" controversy. | WSGF

 

[Marilith01]

As a owner of a monitor (NEC PA320W) which can be color calibrated, and has a internal self calibration for users who do not need full colorimeter calibration I must thank you for this post!

 

[digitalray]

you can simply use sweetfx injector and change the value for R G and B, corresponding to dark, bright and medium saturation of each color seperately.

 

[OnkelCannabia]

you can simply use sweetfx injector and change the value for R G and B, corresponding to dark, bright and medium saturation of each color seperately.

SweetFX doesn't work for me on TW3 anymore . And no, I have the steam version and there is no d3d11.dll I could delete.

 

[asdf444]

Sweet Fx Runs perfectly in 1.05 you must use Reshade pack with sweetfx included.

Here is an example of my "close to finish" realistic preset. I will try to publish it tomorrow in nexus.


subir gif

 

[JPulowski]

you can simply use sweetfx injector and change the value for R G and B, corresponding to dark, bright and medium saturation of each color seperately.

Sweet Fx Runs perfectly in 1.05 you must use Reshade pack with sweetfx included.

Here is an example of my "close to finish" realistic preset. I will try to publish it tomorrow in nexus.


subir gif

I also saw that some users suggest using SweetFX in order to correct wrong colors. I am one of the developers on ReShade's development team and I must say that SweetFX is not a suite designed for color calibration. It is mainly designed for artistic purposes to give the games a different look or feel.

As I have explained in the main post this is not the purpose of SweetFX. Whole purpose of the color calibration is to make sure that everything looks the same in each monitor. So one's "color-corrected" SweetFX preset will look entirely different on another one's monitor. Color correction is applied on top of D3D/GL as an overlay.

We have a 3DLUT shader coming up soon, which is currently work in progress. But even then it is still impossible to apply the values detected by a colorimeter with shader implementation. And color correction is not about "I like how it looks" or "Now it looks like the Witcher 3 in E3", it is to make sure that the displayed colors are scientifically correct which is only possible with a colorimeter.

 

[Marilith01]

As I have explained in the main post this is not the purpose of SweetFX. Whole purpose of the color calibration is to make sure that everything looks the same in each monitor. So one's "color-corrected" SweetFX preset will look entirely different on another one's monitor. Color correction is applied on top of D3D/GL as an overlay.

We have a 3DLUT shader coming up soon, which is currently work in progress. But even then it is still impossible to apply the values detected by a colorimeter with shader implementation. And color correction is not about "I like how it looks" or "Now it looks like the Witcher 3 in E3", it is to make sure that the displayed colors are scientifically correct which is only possible with a colorimeter.

I want to add, that the artists at CDPR probably used color management while creating the art for the game. This is standard.
So color 'correct' means, that you see it on your monitor (even if a completely different monitor) exactly like the artist saw it on his monitor while creating it. I would prefer this. Many problems and pictures with wrong colors come from monitors, which are not color correct or hopeless 'deadjusted'.

 

[JPulowski]

Well the game has been updated to 1.07. And patch 1.08 is on the way. But unfortunately there has been no developments regarding the issue. I sent another report to Tech Support but from the looks of it there is no need to get our hopes up. Anyway, on the other hand though now it is possible to do proper color correction with ReShade and dispcalGUI. You can find more about it here and here.

 

[vennecto]

Hey guys,

We're currently investigating this issue.
However, the fix will not be implemented in 1.08.

 

[Vistula77]

I have this issue too. I have ICC profile calibrated with Spyder 4 but after I go to fullscreen mode ICC profile is reseting.

 

[Leo99999]

Hey guys,

We're currently investigating this issue.
However, the fix will not be implemented in 1.08.

I've had the exact same issue too (Display profile resets itself to have far too high gamma), and have been waiting on it to be fixed. It didn't arrive in the massive 1.1.0 patch, any indication when it might be coming?

 

[nimbulan]

I'd like to point out that the game's gamma has gotten WORSE with patches. I haven't played in a while and now booting it up with 1.10, the game is extremely washed out with default gamma and causing severe color banding no matter what I use for the gamma setting (which I need to use the very lowest setting to compensate for the extremely washed out default - I did not need to do this before.) I haven't seen a game handle gamma this poorly in years and this one did not do it several patches ago.

 

[pablaud]

Any news about this?

 

[Dubya75]

I'd like to point out that the game's gamma has gotten WORSE with patches. I haven't played in a while and now booting it up with 1.10, the game is extremely washed out with default gamma and causing severe color banding no matter what I use for the gamma setting (which I need to use the very lowest setting to compensate for the extremely washed out default - I did not need to do this before.) I haven't seen a game handle gamma this poorly in years and this one did not do it several patches ago.

I find the default colors at the default Gamma setting to be too saturated. Seems like I am getting the exact opposite of what you describe. So what gives?
I bet you, if we both were to take a screenshot of the exact same frame in the game and post them here side-by-side, they will look identical when viewed together.

Sounds to me like you have some weird monitor display settings going on.

 

[Leo99999]

CDPR, can this please get fixed? I've been running the game windowed borderless, which does fix the issue, but I get lower performance, and am experiencing a heap of random crashes as a result. I really, really hope that this gets fixed in 1.12, and that the patch is released soon.

 

[FrAnubis]

Don't wanna resurrect some necro thread, but I do hope you guys manage to find a way to fix this in 1.12... can any mod give us an answer on whether devs are still looking into this?
Thanks.

 

[JPulowski]

I could not be sure if I should resurrect the thread or not but here it goes:
Apparently this issue has been fixed in patch 1.12:

Code

• Fixes issue whereby launching The Witcher 3 on systems running the Windows OS discarded sRGB settings in users' ICC profiles.

And I can confirm it, now I can play the game in fullscreen mode without losing my monitor calibrations. Thanks CDPR!

 

[SigilFey]

Gamma settings can never be 100% calibrated, because there are too many variables between monitor color temps, black ranges, GPU overrides like vibrancy, and differences between the human eye. Furthermore, color settings that you make on the Windows Desktop will not carry over if your monitor switches to Fullscreen Mode. At that point, your Windows settings will be lost and you'll be seeing colors according to your monitor defaults.

Games themselves will also display differently on different hardware. I can't tell you how many times I've seen the color calibration setting that tells me to "lower brightness until the image on the right is barely visible"...and with brightness down to 0, both images are visible as daylight.

I recommend instead that people first use monitor color settings to change the way their actual display looks. Then, use 3rd-party calibration software to get things set to "scientifically calibrated true color". Then, just tweak things the way you actually want them using monitor controls as much as possible before using Window Desktop settings.