topic Gamma Issue in 3ds Max Forum

Gamma Issue

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 00:57:17 GMT

So, I created a scene that consists of a grid made out of a plane, which has a glow effect applied to it. In order for the glow to look decent, I go into the gamma/LUT settings and set the gamma to 1.0. No problems, right?

Well, not exactly. When viewing the newly rendered image in 3ds Max, it looks fine (as shown in the screenshot below). When I save the image as a JPG and set the "Override" field to 1.0, it still looks fine. When I save the image as a PNG, however, it appears that the gamma is too high (despite still having the "Override" field set to 1.0).

Does anyone know how to fix this? It seems to be a reoccurring issue, which is quite bothersome. Any help would be appreciated!

Screenshot:

JPG:

PNG (Actually a cropped screenshot of it, since the gamma, for some odd reason, seems to fix itself before uploading.):

Re: Gamma Issue

divfxwshp — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 16:11:06 GMT

Hi magicraftcat

Adjusting the gamma is probably not the right way to achieve the desired glow effect. Enabling gamma lets you see your rendered images in linear space. Generally the value of 2.2 should be left alone as it works with most display devices. Once you render your image you could save it as you see it in the render frame with the automatic(recommended) setting on or by overriding the gamma.

If you need to set your gamma to 1.0 you should probably leave it off altogether, unless you're using a really exotic display device. The practice that works for me is to save as 32-bit OpenEXR or tiff files and adjust my gamma/exposure in photoshop where you could resave your image with the appropriate color profile.

I hope this helps.

Re: Gamma Issue

divfxwshp — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 18:19:00 GMT

One thing I forgot to mention, you could alternatively apply an exposure control(depending on your renderer) which can be found under Environment and Effects an adjust you exposure/gamma there.