How to Modify sky_pac.tga file

[scott10301]

I finally got a new LED backlit monitor, upgrading from an old NEC CRT model. (yea, I know, I'm old school!). The problem I have is that the night sky looks way too light.

I've tried 16 ways from Sunday to adjust the brightness, and contrast settings on my monitor and video card I've also tried adjusting gamma settings on my video card and in game, but I cannot solve my issue. I can get the night sky to look dark enough by dropping the gamma really low, but then the rest of the game appears too dark and it's unplayable.

I've read that you can modify the sky_pac.tga and reflex_pac.tga files and darken the proper sections. When I open these files in either Gimp or Paint Shop Pro, these sections are checkerboard. I think this means there are transparent layers, but I cannot figure out how to modify this to darken these sections up. I'm obviously not very well versed in image editing, but was hoping someone could help me understand a little better how I can darken these sections.