Virtual screen is too dark.

[Lone Wolfe (Hoover1979)]

I set the brightness to 100% but the screen is much much darker than my desktop. Adjusting gamma and brightness in the Nvidia Control Panel only affects the physical desktop with no change to the virtual desktop.

[ggodin]

There is no brightness slider with the app on Steam, what VR headset are you using?

[Lone Wolfe (Hoover1979)]

I am using an original HTC Vive and have the screen brightness slider set as 100%. The virtual desktop is considerably darker then the physical desktop.

[ggodin]

That’s probably a GPU driver issue, share a screenshot of that brightness slider you are talking about and the GPU + driver version you are using

[ggodin]

If you are on Windows 11 24H2, there is an issue if you have 10 bpc selected in the Nvidia or AMD settings. Switch to 8 bpc

[Lone Wolfe (Hoover1979)]

I am using a Gigabyte Eagle RTX 3070 and the latest Nvidia display drivers (576.40). I have the screen brightness in VD set to 100%. The virtual desptop is really dark. when I crank the gamma in the Nvidia Control Panel, the physical desktop gets really bright but there is NO change on the virtual desktop, it is still too dark. This happens with both 8 bit color and 10 bit color. I currently use VD for my arcade games on MAME as the ingame gamma ramp works, but adjusting desktop gamma makes no change to the virtual desktop.

Here is my DXDiag information:
https://pastebin.com/KKsYptnF

[ggodin]

Try setting display to 8bpc in Nvidia control panel then restart your computer. If the issue is still present then I would try re-installing your Nvidia drivers with DDU

[Lone Wolfe (Hoover1979)]

I removed the latest drivers with DDU, then I rolled back to 576.02 and the virtual desktop is no longer too dark. Thanks for your assistance.

[Lone Wolfe (Hoover1979)]

The darkness has returned on the older display drivers. Does anyone else have this issue?

EDIT: The VD is too dark on ALL display drivers now. Can you look into this in regards to an update?

EDIT 2: I discovered the issue. Disabling G-Sync solved the darkness issue. Can you update Virtual Desktop to add G-Sync compatibility?

[ggodin]

I capture the screen with Microsoft APIs, I don’t have any control over what G-Sync does. Nvidia will have to fix this in their driver. Currently on 3000 and 4000 series we recommend drivers 566.36

[Lone Wolfe (Hoover1979)]

The VD is back to being too dark. Even with G-Sync disabled and even on the drivers you recommended. While I can still use this program for my arcade games (the gamma on MAME works on the VD), every other app is too dark. Changing the brightness/gamma in the Nvidia Control Panel only works on my physical screen, and not the VD.

[ggodin]

Guessing you are on Windows 11 24H2, correct? Did you double-check that in your nvidia control panel, you have the monitor set to 8 bpc and not 10 bpc?

[Lone Wolfe (Hoover1979)]

The screen was set to 8 bit colour. Funnily, I changed it to 10 bit colour and so far I have the correct brightness again, but I don't know how long it will last before going dark again.

EDIT:
It seems the solution for me is to switch to 10 bit colour. However my monitor only has DP 1.2 so I have to limit my refresh rate to 120Hz to use 10 bit colour.

[ggodin]

That’s odd, but glad you found a solution. Microsoft broke something in 24H2, that’s the source of the issue. Problem is, the workarounds are not consistent.