Can someone Explain Gamma/LUT to me?

[michael_grosberg]

First let me explain how I use 3ds max - I'm usually using it to create game assets (for a proprietary game engine). I rarely render so I don't fiddle with exposure control or create lighting. all I want is to view my model in a way that's similar to, say, substance painter, with a nice HDR background and consistent colors.

Now, to my question.

By default, 3ds max has the Gamma/LUT option turned on and set to 2.2.

But, with this setting, everything is WAAAAY too bright. 

That includes the color sliders so when gamma is at 2.2 they are almost useless and you can't set any dark colors, most of the slider is light gray. 

so you can turn off gamma just for the sliders, but that means the color in the sliders doesn't look like the result in the viewport or render window.

So, I turn gamma off entirely... but now, every HDR background I try to load is too dark.

So, in general, how do people work with the gamma thing? do you all turn it off or work with those way-too-bright colors?

[CiroCardoso3v]

Gamma doesn't need to be changed. If you render and is too bright, you need to tweak the Exposure. Colour picker, is another history, but it has to do in you working in linear. Which renderer do you use? Corona implemented a colour picker that makes the conversion of colours. Even if you aren't working with Corona, you can use it.

[oliver]

Also: check your monitor's calibration before fiddling around with gamma/LUT-settings!

[michael_grosberg]

My issue is not with rendering, it is with *viewport display*. mostly with how non-texture RGB colors are displayed.

What I'm trying to get to is a situation where I can easily match colors in color slots, substance textures, and photoshop textures, easily and without all sorts of color  management so I can then bake and export to a third party engine that doesn't have any fancy color management, with consistent results. 

[CiroCardoso3v]

 If you want an "accurate" colour representation in the viewport, then use Physical Materials and OSL nodes, like the OSL Color Value.