dtgreene brought it up in another thread, so i figured it would be worth discussing.

Anyone have any idea what's with the gamma setting suggestions on games? We all know we sure as hell ain't making the cactuar on the left impossible to see. What's the story, here?

Its to do with darkness levels and "true black" - so that instead of dark areas in games being brightly lit (such as shadows), theyre genuinely dark.
it makes up for the fact monitors (and tvs) still produce an amount of backlight even when showing black.

Yeah, but when you set the settings to what they request, even "well lit" areas tend to be pretty hard to see in. Like, "oh no, it's 10AM, i need to get out my torch to see."

I used to go and reduce the gamme until whatever symbol was barely visible and then adjust to make it slightly brighter until the colours pleased me and at that point I usually ended at the starting point.
Nowadays I just ignore it.

I for one am glad when it's included. Games are usually way too dark, so I always up it.

That more likely down to your monitor / system settings.

Most people have them way off for a variety of reasons.

In the other topic, I mentioned that games should not make things hard to see. Everything should either be easy to see or impossible to see.

In particular, don't implement dark areas by making it hard to see unless a light source is active. Instead, make it so that the player can't see at all (past a certain distance, if you want that effect) unless there's a light source is active.

I do find myself changing the gamma ratio quite often, most of the time its set pretty oke though. also in a couple of strategy games i managed to simulate higher SSAO + extreme shadows settings with darkening the environment on high shadow settings and no SSAO. It was about 20 fps difference all together and ... well i hoped it was a nice guide in pc graphics possibilities for the newer players, either to the game or to the pc

Ignore the "recommended" settings and just go with what looks best on your monitor. TV's & monitors differ so much from the technology used (TN vs IPS vs AMVA) to backlights (CCFL vs LED) to varying backlight bleed / IPS glow / "black crush", etc, to the age of the screen to your own ambient light level (playing during the day vs late at night) that there really is no single "recommended" setting for everyone (and never has been).

I also like when it's included but for exactly the other reason. For example, I haven't seen a proper night in a game in forever and rarely see actually dark areas at all, moreso in newer games.

Last time I remember was when I modded Fallout New Vegas to have actually dark nights.

That being said, I usually follow the instructions when the games have a gamma calibration. I'd rather have the game darker than brighter anyway so I make the leftmost symbol not visible.

It would depend on your preference and prioritization most likely.
Me, I value gameplay over immersion and/or realism.
I like to see what I'm actually doing while playing.

Same here.

Darkness *can* be used as a gameplay mechanic, but it should be complete darkness, rather than just making things hard to see.

See, i noticed, though, that games that don't ask you to set it don't end up dark like that, though. But, well, isn't that the whole point of that request, to offset those settings? I don't mind darkness simulation, but instead prefer it. The problem is, when you can't see even when you have a torch. Usually shadows and lighting are more expensive than texture filtering. What's your theory behind this? Right, but i thought that was the point of the test: to normalize for all that by giving you something to compare to.

I usually don't have this problem, though it always seems like games tend to simulate 1 particular phase of the moon.

Yes, but what do you call that area between the two?

Yep. Adjust to what they ask for, then one or two ticks brighter. Designers push too much darkness for a fun experience most of the time.

I think part of it is they always expect people to be playing in a totally dark room and straining their eyes. I tend to play always in a fully lit room. Same thing with movies (though not as strong) -- sadly with them it's harder to adjust and I'm forced to turn down the lights and increase eyestrain to be able to catch the detail.

The weird thing is that I do play in a dark room (well, I have one little lamp behind the screen, directed away from me).
I also used a CRT monitor until recently, and notice that it is a bit better in that regard..Not surprising, since CRT do actual black /darkness black.