The nitrogen-vacancy center (NV center) in diamond at magnetic fields corresponding to the ground-state level anticrossing (GSLAC) region gives rise to rich photoluminescence (PL) signals due to the vanishing energy gap between the electron spin states, which enables for a broad variety of environmental couplings to have an effect on the NV center's luminescence. Previous works have addressed several aspects of the GSLAC photoluminescence, however, a comprehensive analysis of the GSLAC signature of NV ensembles in different spin environments at various external fields is missing. Here we employ a combination of experiments and recently developed numerical methods to investigate in detail the effects of transverse electric and magnetic fields, strain, P1 centers, NV centers, and the 13C nuclear spins on the GSLAC photoluminescence. Our comprehensive analysis provides a solid ground for advancing various microwave-free applications at the GSLAC, including but not limited to magnetometry, spectroscopy, dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) detection. We demonstrate that not only the most abundant 14NV center but the 15NV can also be utilized in such applications.