I've been trying to fix the original COD game on Win10, but running into several problems.

So the most common fix for the low brightness issue is to set "IgnoreHWGamma = 1"

However, this "fix" breaks the game, and makes it so environmental objects like trees no longer react properly to the levels lighting, resulting in bright white trees instead of brown + green. This only happens when ignoring HWGamma and looks absolutely horrible.

https://imgur.com/9EJ8Mr2

Another fix is to set compatibility mode to Windows XP SP3 or something similar. This allows you to move the brightness slider. However, this only impacts how the game appears to the player. When trying to record gameplay footage, the footage still appears way too dark.


Here is the TRUE FIX to this problem:

1: you must set compatibility mode if you're playing Win10. I set it to XP SP3. If it says "Failed to Find steam" when you try and play the game, you need to add a steam.dll file from your root steam directory to the COD1 folder.

2: Don't bother at all with "IgnoreHWGamma" that won't fix this issue. The real fix is "r_overBrightBits"

go to the config file under COD/Main directory and search for Seta_overbrightbits. Change this value to 0.

3: Boot the game up, and tweak the brightness slider. Now that the compatibility settings are in place, the brightness slider will function properly. You should need to lower it to about 25% to get the correct brightness.




Following these steps will make the game appear properly with the correct brightness, no glitches or artifacts, and will allow your recording software to record properly.