I'v discovered a way to get HDR like effects in LFS without actualy having HDR, it should also work on most other games.
Please note though, that this will also be effected by your monitor color and brightness/contrast settings so account for those if you don't get the wanted effect.

[attach]27459[/attach]

though these settings seem extreem, they are fine for my setup.
MAKE SURE YOU HAVE IT SET TO FULL SCREEN 3D!! NOT DESKTOP

You should be able to get the same effect with an Nvidia card with the similar settings it has.

I coulden't get a screen shot since the effect didn't show in the screens.
The color correction only effects 3D as the settings state, so unfortunately you won't be able to show off. Setting the desktop sliders to this level is not recommended as it will kill your eyes and other people STILL will not see the effect.

Note: This works without putting any more strain on your hardware and looks amazing on my screen.
Basicaly it's fake HDR.

EDIT: one thing I overlooked. make sure you have all channels selected, if you mess with just one the colors look bad.

I suppose this only works with ATI Cards then.

Nope, if Nvidia cards have the same sliders for full screen 3d mode. It should work.

HRD what effects? I suppose it stands for hard drawn rendering or some other nonsense, but those settings only make the colors weird. Or were you after some glow?

I don't know what your monitor is set to, but on mine it looks like HDR.
try changing the setting (on the card) a bit, it shouldent look greyed out or over colored. but you do get the bloom like effect on some surfaces. and darks should look darker, thats mostly the point to HDR, its a wider range of light.

In the menu however, it WILL look ugly as SH**

HDR= high-dynamic range lighting... wikipedia

I know what HDR is, I use HDR for photos sometimes (just for kicks)

Try it before you shoot it down.

Damn I wish screenshots worked.

Going by the robot it looks like it is over bright, which to me is what HDR seems to do.

linky

The cool part is, you can control this effect. You can go crazy and have it eye burning bright (like in the comic, or CS:S which I dislike)
Or you can go with a more toned down setup, I use an older CRT monitor, so to get the effect to a good level, I need somewhat extreem setting.

Edit: I faked HDR for a screen shot and thats where it came from, I figured "Hell, if I can do this with a photo, why not a game"

It seems to work for me, not sure about other people. Just try different levels of each slider.
The Gama is something I left alone, it seems to grey it out to much.

That's not HDR. It's closer to Bloom (the thing that makes things glow) and bloom sucks.

Sorry, but making the picture look shitty and bloomed all over the place is neither the point of nor the same as HDR rendering. It might be the result of HDR misuse or misinterpretation, but please don't believe that tuning the colour curves has any positive effect on the image at all. It might look "similar" on the first glance, but it's just crap.

PS: For real pictures: HDRI

The whole point of HDR is to show an image with a wider range

"In computer graphics and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) is a set of techniques that allow a far greater dynamic range of exposures (i.e. a large difference between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to the deepest shadows." - Wikipedia

I think that actualy best discribes what I'm seeing on my screen now when I play LFS. The darks are darker and the lights are lighter, and everything in between is more vibrant and seems to have more depth
It realy does seem more realistic, and I'v seen many bad uses for HDR (CS:S for one).
My point is, if you don't need special hardware for HDR imaging (which you don't, other than the camera as far as I know) then you shouldent need it for gameing.

is it not just the same as increasing contrast and saturation?
The lfs textures have a slightly toned-down hue to make them look a little more weathered and realistic, turning up the volume, treble and bass on the colour just negates all the hard work done getting the graphics to look 'right'. Oh well, i guess its all down to personal preferences.

You wont be gettting much DX9 junkyness with that gfx card

I have a ATI Radeon Xpress200 Series card how would i get into the panel to change stuff?


Edit: nevermind i got it!

The only thing related to HDR that my card supports is bloom (ugly as hell)

This is the closest I can get in photoshop to what it looks like in-game, still not the same depth you get in-game.


[attach]27467[/attach]

honestly, I'm not joking, it looks almost real in-game.
Remember, I said LIKE HDR.

Quote from geeman1 :

That's not HDR. It's closer to Bloom (the thing that makes things glow) and bloom sucks.

Quote from deggis :

I also said bloom sucks. This doesn't have bloom because thats a shader.

Quote from DragonCommando :

I also said bloom sucks. This doesn't have bloom because thats a shader.

You can't close your eyes from the truth blooming in front of you:

HDR effects and tear gas shaders suck ass on a Biblical scale.

Quote from spankmeyer :

HDR effects and tear gas shaders suck ass on a Biblical scale.

I think you can achieve very realistic images with HDR, but most games do it wrong and throw in bucket loads of bloom to further screw things up.

Quote from spankmeyer :

You can't close your eyes from the truth blooming in front of you:

HDR effects and tear gas shaders suck ass on a Biblical scale.

agreed

Bloom isn't even an HDRI effect, it's an HDRR effect.
What's happening with these settings is I'm doing my best to simulate HDRI on every frame of a render. It seems to work, but only if you actualy see it in real time.

Edit: you should see it in HL1, theres no glowing on anything, just a lot of depth.

Well for me it just looks as if I've added too much contrast...

LFS textures are well balanced and subtle than most which I find more realistic, simply increasing the contrast like that makes it look a mess IMO.

Also note that screenshot you posted is more subtle than the result I get and looks a lot worse than normal IMO.

I stated that my settings are alot more extreem than they have to be, I use an old CRT. you should try slightly lower settings(or more) to get a better effect.

And I'm glad you tried it, some people woulden't even touch it and then posted negative comments.

Quote from scoobyrbac :

I have a ATI Radeon Xpress200 Series card how would i get into the panel to change stuff?


Edit: nevermind i got it!

Just wanted to tell you, you don't have a graphics card. You have an onboard ATI graphics chip sharing system memory. I have the same ATI Xpress200 chip. For onboard, it isn't all half bad. It runs LFS even with some AA/AS turned on at still a playable 40 FPS.

Don't expect to have all the bells and whistles that folks with a separate dedicated graphics card has.

I remember playing Brothers in Arms, and it had some kind of a bloom effect. I felt like going to the eye doctor for some prescription glasses.