OS X: No sRGB?

The colors in the game on OSX (I am on 10.8.5 on a 2012 rMBP) are extremely dull and dark compared to the game's beautifully lit appearance on Windows.

I believe this can be accounted for if the framebuffer has not had the proper sRGB gamma correction set. For example I pretty much can't even see any detail on the dark side of a moon planet. That cannot be right.

See this topic on SO: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10347995/srgb-textures-is-this-correct/10348719#10348719

As long as I know gamma correction disabled for hardware where it's not worked correctly.

Can you please upload few game logs from this directory?
~/Library/Application Support/Uber Entertainment/Planetary Annihilation/log/
In log you should see something like that:

Code:

[21:39:22.310] INFO OpenGL Vendor: X.Org
[21:39:22.310] INFO OpenGL Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD CAYMAN
[21:39:22.310] INFO OpenGL Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.1.0-devel (git-2dc35a6 saucy-oibaf-ppa+curaga)
[21:39:22.310] INFO OpenGL Shader Language Version: 1.30
[21:39:22.310] INFO Gamma correct pipeline enabled.
[21:39:22.310] INFO Ranged mapping enabled.
[21:39:22.311] INFO Advanced instancing enabled.
[21:39:22.311] INFO Advanced shader models disabled.
[21:39:22.311] INFO Buffer textures enabled.

PS: I also guess it's will be better if you post few screenshots so other Mac users might say if gamma correction working for them or not.

SXX you are tirelessly working to support this game. I hope you get paid for your contributions somehow.

Anyway, I like to help because I love the game and the vision of planetary scale RTS, so I'm happy to help if I can. It is also because Uber has built an actually impressive game engine here and are pushing the envelope on the RTS genre and they deserve recognition for it.

Here's my log, I was running with the Nvidia GPU switching disabled (with gfxCardStatus), the log starts off like this (don't mind the line numbers along the left):

Code:

  1 [12:06:32.939] INFO Log file /Users/me/Library/Application Support/Uber Entertainment/Planetary Annihilation/log/PA-12-06-32.939.txt opened
  2 [12:06:32.939] INFO delete /Users/me/Library/Application Support/Uber Entertainment/Planetary Annihilation/log/PA-00-21-26.186.txt
  3 [12:06:32.940] INFO Looks like this isn't the Steam distribution
  4 [12:06:32.940] INFO Client loaded 0 mods
  5 [12:06:32.974] INFO HAL initializing...
  6 [12:06:32.974] INFO OpenGL Vendor: Intel Inc.
  7 [12:06:32.974] INFO OpenGL Renderer: Intel HD Graphics 4000 OpenGL Engine
  8 [12:06:32.974] INFO OpenGL Version: 2.1 INTEL-8.16.74
  9 [12:06:32.974] INFO OpenGL Shader Language Version: 1.20
10 [12:06:32.974] INFO Gamma correct pipeline not currently supported on this platform.
11 [12:06:32.974] INFO Ranged mapping disabled.
12 [12:06:32.974] INFO Advanced instancing disabled.
13 [12:06:32.974] INFO Advanced shader models disabled.
14 [12:06:32.974] INFO Buffer textures disabled.
15 [12:06:32.978] INFO Loading effects from file /shaders/post.json
16 [12:06:33.013] INFO Loading effects from file /shaders/content.json
17 [12:06:33.028] ERROR Error compiling shader shadowmap_batch_adv.vs:

This is followed by about 600 lines of shader dumps, shaders that I guess the intel drivers couldn't handle.

I'll report back if running with the GT 650M yields better results, I wager it will function great.

On the GT 650M the gamma correct pipeline does work.

Code:

  1 [16:13:01.979] INFO Log file /Users/lust/Library/Application Support/Uber Entertainment/Planetary Annihilation/log/PA-16-13-01.979.txt opened
  2 [16:13:01.979] INFO delete /Users/lust/Library/Application Support/Uber Entertainment/Planetary Annihilation/log/PA-12-06-32.939.txt
  3 [16:13:01.980] INFO Looks like this isn't the Steam distribution
  4 [16:13:01.980] INFO Client loaded 0 mods
  5 [16:13:02.072] INFO HAL initializing...
  6 [16:13:02.072] INFO OpenGL Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
  7 [16:13:02.072] INFO OpenGL Renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M OpenGL Engine
  8 [16:13:02.072] INFO OpenGL Version: 2.1 NVIDIA-8.16.74 310.40.00.10f02
  9 [16:13:02.072] INFO OpenGL Shader Language Version: 1.20
10 [16:13:02.072] INFO Gamma correct pipeline enabled.
11 [16:13:02.072] INFO Ranged mapping disabled.
12 [16:13:02.072] INFO Advanced instancing disabled.
13 [16:13:02.072] INFO Advanced shader models disabled.
14 [16:13:02.072] INFO Buffer textures disabled.
15 [16:13:02.078] INFO Loading effects from file /shaders/post.json
16 [16:13:02.119] INFO Loading effects from file /shaders/content.json
17 [16:13:02.135] ERROR Error compiling shader shadowmap_batch_adv.vs:

You know what. I am remembering now! During my OpenGL work on my game engine two years back, I did notice a similar problem with Intel drivers (on windows, though) being particularly **** about handling sRGB framebuffers. What a shame this is still not addressed. The workaround being of course to compute a gamma (pow on your output color with a gamma) for a slight hit on fragment performance.

See: http://www.pa-db.com/unit/orbital_laser

But at this rate they'll have to name half the roster after him.

Are you sure? I guess it's something Uber might want to check.
How do you think that can be related to usage of lower core profile on Mac?

On Windows it's still disabled as well, but guess it's not mean that such feature still broken on 100% Intel hardware. I have no idea how exactly Uber determine is feature can be enabled or have to be disabled, so I guess it's possible this detection isn't flexible enough. E.g they might disable some features on all related hardware/drivers to avoid game breaking bugs on some graphics cards.

Actually it's will be interesting what @varrak can say about that.

Would need @varrak to comment to give the exacts, but for anyone running Intel Integrated, it's going to look a little strange. And it is due to lack of sRGB support. But he would need to provide more details.

Well, that I explains why I never noticed the muddiness in game videos. I spend most of my time in strategic because I can't actually see very much otherwise (and because it's a good match for the scale of the game)

Would a color profile help? The one for my external display helps a little, but none of the built-in ones are really satisfactory.