Hotkey doesn't work in certain game, i.e. Metro Exodus

[TheSpider12]

I'm using the autohotkey method to be able to compare the image with fix vs no fix on the fly using shortcuts. However, I've been having some troubles with the default hotkey in the script. Pressing Win + F1 will exit out of the game and boot Edge browser. For this. I opened the script in notepad and changed the hotkeys to Win + F2 for resetting the calibration curve and Win + F3 for loading the fixed curve. Everything worked fine until Metro Exodus. The hotkeys just don't work when I'm in game. Only if I'm Alt Tab the game to go to the desktop, pressing the hotkeys to reset/load the curve, and Alt Tab back into the game then I can see the fix is applied now. What can explain this?

On a side note, Metro Exodus somehow has this purple/blue filter applied over black areas that looks pretty ugly (seems like a very weird bug/intentional choice since during the specific gas mask removal animation the black is true black). Applying a 2.2 gamma curve fix only mitigates this to an extent but blacks are crushed too much. Any other solutions to just make those purple/blue areas black without affecting the whole image?

https://imgur.com/a/mCVFSLq

Thanks.

[TessellatedGuy]

Does running the script as administrator help? If you're running it as admin already, try running it without admin rights.

As for Metro Exodus' black level issue, try adding -deependark to the game's launch arguments. It's a known issue with the game, though maybe the developers intended it that way.

[TheSpider12]

Does running the script as administrator help? If you're running it as admin already, try running it without admin rights.

As for Metro Exodus' black level issue, try adding -deependark to the game's launch arguments. It's a known issue with the game, though maybe the developers intended it that way.

Not sure if running it as admin will help since normally it works fine for other games, just not this one. And I set it up so that the script starts automatically with windows so now having to run as admin manually every time is a pain, but I'll try. Thanks.

I already used the -deependark command. That helped removing the horrid white filter, but not the blue purpleish filter (it's like ips glow almost, and on an oled it looks terrible).

[TessellatedGuy]

I just tried running the script as admin with Metro Exodus on my PC, and it didn't work unfortunately, so I tried changing the hotkey from Win+F2 to Win+2, and it seemed to work in the game even without admin rights. In your script file, just delete the "F" from #F2:: and #F3:: and it should work.

I'm guessing some games just bind keys differently and stop the F keys from being used somehow. Interestingly, this is the same behavior I get while in Windows' lock screen, where I can't apply a curve using the Win+F2 hotkey, but now with Win+2 it works.

FYI, Win + any number is a native Windows shortcut to launch apps pinned in your taskbar, so if you used that shortcut to launch apps, then Win+2 and Win+3 won't work as an app launch shortcut while the ahk script is running.

Alternatively, you can set the hotkey combo to Win+Shift+2 by changing adding "+" to the hotkey code: #+2:: and #+3::. This won't interfere with Windows' native shortcuts and still work with Metro Exodus.

[TheSpider12]

I just tried running the script as admin with Metro Exodus on my PC, and it didn't work unfortunately, so I tried changing the hotkey from Win+F2 to Win+2, and it seemed to work in the game even without admin rights. In your script file, just delete the "F" from #F2:: and #F3:: and it should work.

I'm guessing some games just bind keys differently and stop the F keys from being used somehow. Interestingly, this is the same behavior I get while in Windows' lock screen, where I can't apply a curve using the Win+F2 hotkey, but now with Win+2 it works.

FYI, Win + any number is a native Windows shortcut to launch apps pinned in your taskbar, so if you used that shortcut to launch apps, then Win+2 and Win+3 won't work as an app launch shortcut while the ahk script is running.

Alternatively, you can set the hotkey combo to Win+Shift+2 by changing adding "+" to the hotkey code: #+2:: and #+3::. This won't interfere with Windows' native shortcuts and still work with Metro Exodus.

Thanks. This works :)

Btw, I played Metro Exodus a bit more and am now pretty sure the game won't benefit from this gamma fix. In certain areas like in Volga at night, the blue purple filter is apparent, but I'm playing this bunker chapter and the blacks are appropriately deep - no filter at all. So definitely either it is intended that way (which is weird) or there are bugs occasionally. One thing certain is lifted blacks are not an issue for this game and applying this fix will heavily crush blacks instead.