r_ignorehwgamma

r_ignorehwgamma 0 or 1 should do it

best thing about it is how much enemy models pop out and makes cg_lightningstyle 5 darken / almost transparent.

anyone understand what's going on here? is it a bug?

Yeah, I figured r_ignorehwgamma 0 do it, but the problem is, that the HUD loses too much contrast and the health bubbles also loses sharpness; they blend into the environment greatly. : /

put powerups in 2d and make them big..should be fine then

Nope, it's the same. I tried it before. The visibility of ammo boxes and power ups are better with 3D, the health bubbles are roughly the same.

having exactly the same problem since I moved from xp to windows 7; more specifically, whenever I use the gamma script I have in the cfg (uploaded here on esr) I get that "SetDeviceGammaRamp failed" error as well, which needs a "vid_restart" to show the aforementioned washed-out effect you mention.

Changing gamma without having to restart was so handy, but it seems it doesn't work on w7.

I have no clue how to fix it without using postprocess, and I'll happily monitor this thread in case a gentle soul decides to post a fix.
GL

This works well for me on w7: http://pastebin.com/wpdmnsRs

wow, haven't tried it yet but thanks a lot nevertheless

You get me wrong; it's not a problem for me. If I want to get rid of it, I just change r_ignorehwgamma to 1. I also use Win7 (Ultimate SP1 x86).

Meanwhile, I found solution; since it's too dark with fullbright, I use simple vertex with r_mapOverBrightBits 9.

maybe try r_overbrightbits 0