Hi all!
I have a problem: my picture is very dark, even though the monitor is almost set to its maximum brightness. It is visible whatever I do - for example, in the fourth GOG commercial, Trevor was virtually invisible because the whole picture was so dark. But it also makes many games very difficult to play.
I've found that I can play around with brightness and contrast settings in the Catalyst Control Center, using which I could make the display acceptable, however, the settings set there lose their effect in games (I guess they use their own brightness/contrast/gamma settings, which cannot be modified in a number of games).

So, I'd like to know if there's a way of making the display in games brighter (without getting a new monitor). Can the brightness settings set in the CCC maybe be forced to override game settings?

this is a rather silly suggestion, but did you check the connections? I once had visual aberrations (not this darkness problem, though) and it was all because the monitor cable was somewhat loose. Also did this problem just appear out of the blue?

A little more info please:
- LCD or CRT?
- Age?
- Sudden or gradual change?
- If you plug another monitor is does the problem persist?

Sounds like the back light is going to gone...

sparing that go into the "graphics card options" though your right click menu on the desktop and play with the "Gamma" setting and just raise them globally

Thanks for the replies, now I'd like to reply to them. I think you're right, this might be the problem. I have a CRT monitor, and it's an Iiyama monitor too, so maybe you're right. I hoped I don't have to buy a new monitor, but if this is the case, I think I'll have to. This is a problem that already existed, so it's not entirely new, but now it's more visible. And I checked the connections, they seem to be all right. It's a CRT monitor. It's almost 9 years old, so it's (a bit) old. I bought it with a new computer. It's partly sudden and partly gradual, as it's now more visible than earlier. I haven't tried this before, but I'll give it a try later. Isn't this the Catalyst Control Center? I can adjust the settings there, and I tried by increasing the gamma. It worked with the desktop (and with the videos), but as I try to play with games, they are dark again (maybe because the games uses own settings, and overwrites the global settings).

Okay, this sounds like your CRT is dying. If you can exchange monitors with another PC, do that, it will be all the evidence you need.

I pity you, my transition (around 2 years ago) to widescreen LCD from old CRT was painful, I hate widescreen and it was all too bright. Now I'm not in pain anymore, I have come to accept widescreen as the new king, but I still miss my good ole, squared, CRT.

I had similar issues with my old monitor, and found a free program online called "Gamma Panel" (I don't know who made it, but I think it's still floating around on a lot of freeware sites).

I found that, like you described, changing gamma/brightness/contrast values in my Display Settings or in my Video Card settings would only affect the desktop, not fullscreen games, but using that program boosted the brightness in most games as well.

My suggestions (I still use a CRT monitor from Sony after 10 years):
- In the menu of the monitor, put the Kelvin temperature to 9300K if not by default (results in an overall clarity).
- In the Catalyst Control Center, you can adjust the gamma on the desktop -OR- 3D applications (there are different options). Not sure if you mean it when you say you've tried without success.
- Freeware programs like Calibrize (http://calibrize.com/) or QuickGamma (http://www.quickgamma.de/indexen.html) let you adjust the contrast / brightness / gamma and get loaded by default each time you start Windows.

I hope that some of the options will be useful.

I am interested in knowing if any of our suggestions helped or did you have to buy a new monitor...

- The temperature is set to 9300 degrees by default, so I didn't had to change it.
- When I wrote the opening post, I tried with the desktop settings, but now I've tried with the 3D applications, too, but it also failed (at least I tried it with Heroes of Might and Magic V. Did you mean the settings in the colour menu? There's a drop-down menu, and I can choose there 3D applications).
- I've already tried QuickGamma earlier, but it without success.
I've also tried the other recommended program, Gamma Panel, but I was only able to do the same with the Catalyst Center.

Sorry for not answering earlier, but thanks for your help. I'm still trying to solve this issue, but maybe I'll really have to buy a new monitor (if I don't want to play with dark screen).

I am away from my pc, so do not I can confirm. But in my CCC (please realize that in my case is the old 7.3 ATI drivers) 3d option is at the same point where you change the values ​​of gamma - individual R / G / B values on the desktop: you can switch the drop-down list to the only other option, 3D.

EDIT: In CCC there is another level dedicated to different predefined video modes: Common / Theater / ... applying different gamma & RGB values ​​according to the chosen one. Not much difference and will not help you in games, but...

Another possibility that comes to mind is that there are programs that allow you to control the parameters of the graphics card directly (like ATITools or RivaTuner) that allow you to create gamma profiles for specific games (or general scenario case). I have not experimented much with it, but maybe some other fellow GOGer can give you more specific information.

No worries. :) But let us know how it ends the matter!

I'd like to thank everybody who replied to this thread. Not so long ago, I've tried my monitor with an another computer, and it was dark there, too (although that computer is much brighter with it's own monitor, so this is really a monitor problem).
I've got my new monitor, and tomorrow, I'll plug it in (it'll be a new, TFT monitor). I'll mark Navagon's reply as an answer, as that was the first answer with this as a possible solution (and he also wrote he also experienced a similar issue). I really didn't want to change my monitor, but it looks like this is the only solution.