Darkening Screen upon launching NMS

[Katzchen]

Hi guys, my screen starts to get really dark when I launch NMS, it used to be fine, it seems to have maybe been something with this update, I'm not sure. A computer restart will fix it, but if I launch the game, it will darken the screen again. (Dark screen persists after closing game down.)

I tried looking it up, there was like one fix about turning 'game mode' off in your Windows Settings, but that did not do anything.

Any help would be appreciated!

[Tallguyalec]

Just adding to the pile that this is still happening to me as well. It's bizarre, and yes it seems to affect the entire desktop until the game is closed. I also thought maxing the gamma to 100 instead of 50 might fix but it definitely doesn't. HDR sounds like the culprit. Not an HDR system, never used HDR and yes setting it to borderless and restarting seemed to fix it.

Though I am skeptical that borderless is running as well as fullscreen used to, would have to do more testing.

[Pandabearkitty]

Originally posted by Purpo:

I dont know how to make this not happen at all, but for me opening display settings (the one on windows not in game) fixes it until i close and reopen the game again.

I did this last night instead of restarting my computer and it worked. I came here to post about it, but should have known I wasn't the first to discover it!

[Toe Blake]

Same issue here... nothing I have tried has worked. Game is dim and colours muddy, and all since the last update. Please fix!

[Devias]

Running into the same thing. Deleting the TKGAMESETTINGS file to reset all my graphics settings fixes it, and makes the game brighter when I run it (the same brightness I've seen since 2016), but puts the game by default into Windowed mode.

As soon as I change it to Full Screen mode, brightness is reduced by probably 50% and contrast is reduced by 50% as well. Basically makes the game into a very muted greyish type of game. None of the other graphics settings matter, as I said when I delete that config file and reset the whole game graphics to default, in Options when I simply change to Full Screen creates the problem.

No idea how to fix this other than not playing in Full Screen mode. None of my other games do this.

[Jaggid Edje]

@Devias, in full screen mode there is an additional setting in the game that doesn't appear when not in full screen, for adjusting brightness. Scroll down after changing to full screen, and adjust the "Gamma" percentage.

I had the opposite issue after the Fractal update, and that is that the game became too bright and washed out.

Even the gamma setting wasn't enough to fix the washed out issue for me. I just used the Nvidia Filters option that you can bring up to add filters and added a brightness/contrast filter there which I could tweak to get exactly what I wanted the game for appearance.

[Devias]

Odd, should the game be at 100% gamma?

When you delete that file, it defaults back to 50% Gamma. Increasing it to 100% while in Full Screen mode is.. okay but still looks too dim.

[Jaggid Edje]

If you have an Nvidia card and have GeForce Experience installed, press Alt-F3 while in game and add the Brightness/Contrast filter, then tweak the various sliders to suit your tastes. It's a much better suite of available adjustments than what the game itself offers.

That's what fixed it for me. GeForce Experience remembers what you set it to for any given game, so you only have to do it the one time and it will apply every time you play the game.

[Devias]

I do not have nor want GeForce Experience installed. I haven't played NMS since before the previous update (the freighter one) but was trying to start a new game with Fractal and just can't get the brightness right.

Short of not playing for the past.. 5 months? I've been playing since 2016 and this is the first time I've run into this. Really frustrating because I was looking forward but no matter what I try, the game looks like it's at 50% contrast.

I've got a 3070ti and a HDR monitor, but it doesn't matter if I turn Windows 10 HDR on or off, it's the same low contrast either way. Aggravating!

I do appreciate your help. Just not sure what else I can try to "liven" the graphics and colors of this game up.

[Hazen]

Guys it's already been explained many times. Run the game in Borderless Fullscreen until Exclusive Fullscreen is patched. It's not rocket science lol. The fix is literally pinned as an answer to this thread.

[Devias]

Is there any indication this is an actual acknowledged bug by HG? Fractal has been out for a couple weeks now, you'd think if this was a bug you'd see it posted everywhere on their forums, immediately, but it's not posted anywhere except for here.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by Hazen:

Guys it's already been explained many times. Run the game in Borderless Fullscreen until Exclusive Fullscreen is patched. It's not rocket science lol. The fix is literally pinned as an answer to this thread.

Except that fix doesn't work for me. It's a little better in borderless windowed, but still too bright and washed out.

[Katzchen]

I'm not quite sure if this is a bug known by HG, but considering it happened after this update, I'd have to assume it's a bug. The game without the fix is extremely dark and it's hard to see, after it's been fixed I can play it fine with it's normal brightness just like the updates before. I have not put in a bug report yet, but feel free to do so. I know I saw something in the patch notes that they messed with something about either HDR, brightness, graphics, lighting, or something so I think this was an unintended outcome.

[Asschen-Sukar]

Originally posted by aemelt:

I thought I was going crazy. Glad to know I'm not alone

This lol

Originally posted by Sniper Charlie:

I checked the default brightness, and its at 50%. I changed it to 75% and it looks pretty good for now. I am in a space station by the way, so those are sort of dark. I too thought it was my graphics driver or setting, even checked my monitor settings. I just changed the brightness in game. HDR is off since I dont have a monitor that supports it, and I am on full screen. Hope this helps in any way.

I assume you mean brightness setting in TKGRAPHICSSETTINGS (open with Notepad) in Steam\steamapps\common\No Man's Sky\Binaries\SETTINGS?
Changing display to borderless did help, but it did not change this brightness setting, so we can't really call it a fix, just like ramping up the brightness of my display is not a fix.

[Just in case]

Originally posted by Asschen-Sukar:

[...]
Changing display to borderless did help, but it did not change this brightness setting, so we can't really call it a fix, just like ramping up the brightness of my display is not a fix.

You have to setup the brightness by yourself after switching in the options to borderless. NMS will not do that.

But you are right - not realy a fix, but a sort of ....

[lukaself]

Oh thanks guys, I was fiddling with the fullscreen setting during a stream and it dimmed the brightness while my viewers insisted it didn't change anything for them. Really thought I was either having a hardware failure or finally losing it. Don't know which one would have been worse frankly.

Probably something to do with a HDR bug which would explain why it doesn't appear in screenshots and video captures. Did someone already report that to HG? Do they usually monitor these forums?