Red tint in 3D applications

[alphaTECH]

I've recently scored a nice G4 Quicksilver and am doing it up as an OS 9 gaming machine. One of the biggest problems I'm facing right now is a red tint or filter applied over the top of many 3D applications.







I've updated the drivers to the January 2005 ATi release, and tried disabling Colorsync and changing colour profiles, none of which makes a difference. I've also experienced the same issue (at least with Deus Ex) on a Powerbook G4 with an Radeon Mobility 9200 and another Power Mac G4 with an ATi Rage 128 Pro. The common denominators here are ATi cards and the universal 9.2.2 image. Try as I might, I can't find reference to this issue anywhere on Google except for one thread on VOGONS which I've replied to in hopes of starting a dialog.

Anybody got any ideas on how to fix this issue?

UPDATE: I've tried a fresh install of 9.2.2 using the retail CD that came with my G4. No luck unfortunately, so the issue must be related to either the standard OS 9 environment or the ATi cards.

[alphaTECH]

I need some help from my fellow classic Mac users to diagnose this issue. I've purchased and installed a Radeon 9000 PRO and whittled down a lot of extensions, but I'm still having no luck solving this. I have a 440 MX on the way which I will try when it gets here, but in the meantime, if you'd like to help, please download Deus Ex, un-stuff it, install it (minimal is fine), start it, then run the training course. If the colours are right, you will see this:



If the colours are wrong, you will see this:



Either way, can you please report (1) if the colours are right or wrong, (2) what video card you have, and (3) what version of Mac OS you are running. This will help me greatly to find out where the problem lies.

[ssp3]

There is red-ish color tint on my PowerBook G4 17" (NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go)

I suspect this game (and others probably too) know nothing about Mac's ColorSync, display profiles and so on. Judging by the ton of .ini and other similar files it was developed on Windows and then ported to Mac. IIRC, back then correct color reproduction on Windows was problematic and everyone invented their own workarounds.

Take a look at my PB G4s display calibration curves to display more or less correctly white point and grey balance (at given lighting conditions). See how the red channel is set? Even in Apple's default profile for my PB there is less R than G or B.

What I suspect is that, when started, your games ignore the color settings for the video card and simply set all channels to the max. Hence the red tint.

What you could do for the problematic games is to use a different color settings in your external display and save it as separate preset, if there is such option.

[alphaTECH]

There is red-ish color tint on my PowerBook G4 17" (NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go)

I suspect this game (and others probably too) know nothing about Mac's ColorSync, display profiles and so on. Judging by the ton of .ini and other similar files it was developed on Windows and then ported to Mac. IIRC, back then correct color reproduction on Windows was problematic and everyone invented their own workarounds.

Take a look at my PB G4s display calibration curves to display more or less correctly white point and grey balance (at given lighting conditions). See how the red channel is set? Even in Apple's default profile for my PB there is less R than G or B.

What I suspect is that, when started, your games ignore the color settings for the video card and simply set all channels to the max. Hence the red tint.

What you could do for the problematic games is to use a different color settings in your external display and save it as separate preset, if there is such option.

Thank you for your test results! Looks like using an Nvidia card won't fix the problem then... 

I don't have a lot of colour options on my Samsung LCD; changing colour saturation values does not fix this issue and I certainly can't save it as a preset.

I am really convinced this is happening in software somewhere. I find it really hard to believe that multiple games were released with a glaring fault like this so I'm going to assume that it's not a "feature". I can't run OS 8.1 on my G4 (earliest known version of Mac OS that can run Deus Ex) which would be my next troubleshooting step. Hopefully someone with a G3 comes across this topic and has 10 minutes to spare.

[alphaTECH]

My GeForce 4 MX showed up today. Installed it, got the same result: red tint. This issue is definitely software related.

[ssp3]

A few links for you:

http://www.users.on.net/~macraider/old_trs_new_macs.html

https://sourceforge.net/projects/macglide/

[DieHard]

Make sure monitor connector going into card is not damaged (even slightly) in any way, also that the connector is fully seated and 100% flat against the card; lastly check pins in connector for a bent one as all these conditions cause color variations.

[alphaTECH]

A few links for you:

http://www.users.on.net/~macraider/old_trs_new_macs.html

https://sourceforge.net/projects/macglide/

Thanks, I'll check out MacGLide and see if rendering via that causes the same issue or not.

Make sure monitor connector going into card is not damaged (even slightly) in any way, also that the connector is fully seated and 100% flat against the card; lastly check pins in connector for a bent one as all these conditions cause color variations.

This is not an issue with output, it's happening while rendering.

[DieHard]

This is not an issue with output, it's happening while rendering.

Sorry, I should have read your posts more carefully