Wide gamut panels and un colormanged applications (games)

AlecMoody

Does anyone know if there is a solution for the color shifts that occur with wide gamut monitors in non-colormanaged applications (specifically games)? I have a dell 3007wfpHC and I get really accurate profiles for it using my lacie blue eye pro but all that accuracy goes out the window inside applications that don't have an sRGB rendering intent (basically anything other than photoshop). In the past I have been content to make final color evaluations using screen shots brought into photoshop so I can see how things look in sRGB space, but these days nearly all quality LCDs are wide gamut (and all different gamuts at that). Its starting to seem like sRGB space is becoming a thing of the past outside of photoshop and that there is no good target for color management in games.

Is the reason why games are not color managed a performance issue? Or is it just that color management is something that few developers understand or even care about?
Does anyone have any thoughts or good knowledge on this subject?

If anyone doesn't have experience with this color shift issue check out the image I attached. Of course newish versions of firefox are the only browsers that will properly deal with the image. Its also not possible for anyone else to actually see the image as I do since half of it is dependent on my monitors color space but you can at least get an idea for the way colors can shift (the actual amount is greater since any colors outside of sRGB are going to be forced in to fit). The color shift is only becoming larger as panels are released with continuously larger color spaces.

Eric Chadwick

Too small of a difference for most game developers to worry about I think. I'm used to working at what looks good on a lazily-calibrated monitor. I've seen some developers mass-calibrate all their monitors to each other, while others use no calibration at all, and some use "lazy" calibration.

The majority of game consumers will view a game with their monitors at the default settings. And TV is a different ball of wax altogether.

thomasp

ah, the famous "no calibration" approach. what looks cool on one monitor might not be so hot on the next one. double points if that's the AD's screen and the skin tones are now officially off.
i think color management makes sense for consistency within production - final output is totally at the mercy of the consumer's gear as eric suggested.

come to think of it - the super vibrant dell 24-incher that you can find in so many studios - that's not by any chance the root of the next-gen grey-ness, is it?

AlecMoody

ah, the famous "no calibration" approach. what looks cool on one monitor might not be so hot on the next one. double points if that's the AD's screen and the skin tones are now officially off.
i think color management makes sense for consistency within production - final output is totally at the mercy of the consumer's gear as eric suggested.

My feelings exactly.
The wide gamut color shift is only getting worse with each generation of displays. Its also important to understand that even if nearly all consumers have terribly inaccurate displays it is still important to create accurate content such that the average of potential color delta still hovers around correct.

Anyway, I just find this shift really annoying for texture painting and lighting work. If anyone has a wide gamut display and wants to see the shift theirs creates easily you can just set photoshop's proof settings to monitor RGB and then toggle the colors with ctrl-y