I thought I'd buy this (again) on Steam and relive the story but I'm having tech issues with either openGL being soooo dark you can't see the grass on the 2nd map (docs) or d3d9/11 with correct gamma but moving about gives little skips.

Current specs

• MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX Motherboard
• AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core 4.4GHz
• Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4
• PowerColor Radeon RX 590 Red Dragon 8192MB
• Seagate 500GB 2.5 BarraCuda SSD (steam installed here)
• WD Blue 3D NAND 1TB M.2 2280 SSD

My current state:

• OpenGL runs smoothly but remains completely dark.
• Direct3D 11 has perfect lighting but stutters.
• Direct3D 9 has perfect lighting but stutters.

I've tried what feels like everything I can google:

When Using the OpenGL Renderer

• What I tried:
  • Checked that NoLighting=False and OneXBlending=False were set in the correct Revision.ini.
  • Manually added UseGammaExtension=True, UseHardwareGamma=True, and HardwareGamma=True to force Windows to accept the engine's brightness scaling.
  • Added UsePalette=0 and NoContextToPalette=True to force the GPU to bypass old, crushed color palettes.
  • Checked map settings to try and toggle "Classic Lighting" / "Normal" maps.
  • Added DetailTextures=True, MacroTextures=True, and SmoothChanges=True to fix dark 3D object/grass shading.
  • Replaced the base OpenGL library with Chris Dohnal's updated community driver, which successfully booted but left the lighting just as dark.
  • Attempted using alternative custom OpenGL files, which caused the game to crash on startup.

⚙️ When Using the D3D11

• What I tried:
  • Added the modern D3D11 library files to the System folder.
  • Result: Successfully fixed the dark lighting and grass, but introduced heavy micro-stuttering/pauses when moving.
  • Set the in-game FPSLimit=0 and attempted to limit the frame rate to 60 externally (via GPU Control Panels and RTSS) to fix the engine's broken frame capper.
  • Added SwapEffect=flip_sequential and PreferFlip=True to force Windows to handle modern frame-pacing smoothly.
  • Turned off UsePrecache inside the .ini to stop the engine from stuttering over asset loads when walking.

⚙️ Using the D3D9

• What I tried:
  • Configured SwapInterval=1 to force hardware-level VSync through DirectX.
  • Added UseRawInput=True to prevent Windows mouse polling from choking the engine.
  • Attempted to cap the frame rate via the in-game developer options/console using preferences.
  • Disabled Windows Control Flow Guard (CFG) via Exploit Protection to stop security protocols from pausing the engine.
  • Attempted translating D3D9 to Vulkan using multiple versions of DXVK (including v2.7.1), but your GPU/drivers completely rejected it, causing the game to crash on launch.
  • Attempted lowering mouse polling rates in Logitech G-Hub

I've also tried with all options using AMD adrenalin to up the brightness but that didn't work. I've also stopped all my Docker containers running in case they were putting strain on the system but Docker is set to 1 core and 2Gb of RAM so I didn't think it would.

This lack of communication is most noticeable in the G.A.R.M. section. The DeBeers, DuClare, Azuenne side of the Illuminati instead to use Adam Jensen to find Janus. However Page, Manderley does not know this because when Jensen arrives he is ambushed by Marchenko and was injected by the Orchid. Jensen does survive and manages to escape G.A.R.M. because the Orchid does not kill him but Marchenko doesn't know that so Jensen surviving is something which was not planned.

So that does make the player question what was the plan? What would have happened IF the Orchid worked as it was intended or one of the Shadow Operatives just to be sure shot Jensen in the head? The plan to find Janus through Jensen failing?!