Build version: v1.1.6.7
Severity: Medium
Annoyance factor: High
DXDiag file:
I don’t remember exactly where I started having these display problems, but it’s been a while. I have 2 monitors, and DW is only on one of them (don’t know if it’s possible to use both screens with DW2, didn’t even try). The 2 monitors have a slightly different resolution: 1900x1080 for one, 1900x1200 for the other. I’ve attached a dxdiag file for other infos about my setup.
The first problem is that, like it seems to also be the case for others, if I use DirectX 11 and High Dynamic Range, I get a very dark screen. To the point of being unusable / unplayable. I’d like to include a screenshot of that, but I can’t. Because whether I take a screenshot with the Windows utility, or the Nvidia one, the screenshot looks normal (ie: normal luminosity, not at all dark as it is in-game).
In fact, and that might be obvious to programmers (or not; it certainly wasn’t to me), when I press alt-tab to invoke the Windows function to switch to another app / window, the game screen (still visible) instantly gets back to a normal luminosity (ie: nor dark anymore). But if I go back to the game, it gets dark again.
So, no screenshots of the darkness, nor any photos of the screen (can’t take a picture that reflects how the screen is: the photos are much brighter than the screen actually is).
To get around that darkness problem, I switched to Vulkan DXVK v2.10 with Standard Range rendering, and adjusted the settings in “Color Format” to get an acceptable display while in DW2. Which means losing the smooth gradients, which is a bit annoying in 2023. But I could live with it if it’s really not fixable.
But there are two problems with that “solution”.
The first one is that with that setup, as soon as I go into “Settings”, the screen luminosity get screwed up big time (everything becomes too bright; see screenshot below). Requiring quitting the game and relaunching it to get back to a normal luminosity. Every time I go into Settings! So if I want to change a key binding, or what is shown / not shown on the galaxy map, I have to save the game, quit, and relaunch. Every time! Super annoying!
Also tried the v1.10.3 of the Vulkan rendering mode, with the same results.
The other problem is less critical than the first one. And since, at this point, it’s necessary to restart the game to apply the changes made, it might not be possible to do anything about that second problem. But hoping that it is, or might be in the future, here it is: it’s very hard to adjust the luminosity with the “Color Format” settings when there is no reliable visual feedback of what the result will be. It’s a trial and error process: you try some settings and relaunch the game. If not right, try other adjustments, and relaunch.
Rinse and repeat.
It would be a much more efficient process if an immediate reliable visual feedback was given to the player of what the result will be. But as I wrote earlier, maybe it’s not doable, and I could live with that too.
But the luminosity getting screwed up every time I go into settings is really annoying.
Now, here are the screenshots:
How the screen looks with Vulkan DCVK v2.10 / Standard Range rendering and color format adjustments:
- Vulkan 2 Std rend. adjusted.png (1.29 MiB) Viewed 688 times
Now, here’s what happens as soon as I then go into “Settings”:
- Going into settigns.png (466.33 KiB) Viewed 688 times
From there, the luminosity is screwed up until I relaunch the game. Even if I click on Cancel to return to it:
- Out of settings after cancel.png (1.22 MiB) Viewed 688 times
