Splash Screen Graphic On Startup is Darker Than Original

Question

I am replacing the splash screen graphic on startup, so that it seamlessly transitions into my loading UI canvas. I am showing the same image on the splash screen (see attached, retrieved from [this site](https://pixnio.com/flora-plants/crops/agriculture-sky-landscape-nature-field-straw-daylight-cloud-countryside)) Unfortunately, the image is darker on the splash screen than it is in the UI. The steps to reproduce are as follows:

1. Find any image and set it as the splash screen for the game (through sys_splashscreen)
1. Place this same image on a UI canvas
1. Load up the UI on startup
1. Notice the difference
I have attached a screen shot of how it appears on startup, a screen shot of how it appears in the UI, and the original graphic (original is wider).

Is there a workaround for this? Does anyone know the effects that are being applied here so that I can reverse them?

REMOVEDUPLOAD

Accepted Answer

Hi @REDACTEDUSER

That looks like the difference between sRGB and linear textures. It would imply that the shader is not converting to sRGB because it is assuming that the texture is already sRGB. But it looks like the texture is linear. This can happen since the Asset Processor will convert textures to linear color space unless told not to by the .exportsettings file with the same name.

Which file is it that you are replacing?

Answer

Hello @REDACTEDUSER

I tried this, and it didn't work. I can see that the export settings for the image have changed, but it is still showing up brighter in the UI. I have tried this using both my example image and startscreen.tif.

Are UI images *not* supposed to have a pure white (255,255,255) color?

Answer

@REDACTEDUSER

Thanks for the suggestion.
For any future viewers: I **increased the gamma to 2.2** on the image (using GIMP, this made the image brighter). According to an article I found [here](http://www.kinematicsoup.com/news/2016/6/15/gamma-and-linear-space-what-they-are-how-they-differ), this appears to be a default across displays. **If that doesn't work for you, perhaps 0.45 will.**

Answer

Hi @REDACTEDUSER

Try copying the exportsettings file that is associated with the original. I.e. copy startscreen.tif.exportsettings and put it in the same folder as your new splashscreen and rename it to be the same name as the texture file.

I think that may fix the issue you are seeing.

Rob

Answer

Hello @REDACTEDUSER

I am replacing the default splash screen graphic located at dev/Engine/EngineAssets/Textures/startscreen.tif (not sure if replacing is the right word here; I am changing the path in the .cfg file to point to the file above).

I currently don't an .exportsettings file associated with this image (or any image for that matter).

Answer

Hi @REDACTEDUSER

If it is the color space (which it does look like) then white is 255 and black is zero in both color spaces (sRGB and linear). But values in between appear differently due to the gamma curve that sRGB applies.

The splash screen does not get rendered by the in game UI system and appears to be assuming that the texture is in a different color space. You could try saving a copy of the image in a different color space and use that for the splash screen version.

Splash Screen Graphic On Startup is Darker Than Original

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