Sooo dark!!

[BlueMedley]

I'm tired of having to randomly click my way through 90% of these dungeons, please tell me theres torches somewhere in this game...

[Dikiyoba]

Sorry, there isn't (at least not to my understanding). You'll have to mess with your monitor's brightness to make the screen lighter.

 

Dikiyoba.

[&]

EDIT: Oh sorry, Avernum 4. I do apoligise.

[BlueMedley]

Quote:

Originally written by Pokemon:
Your best bet would be to buy some. If memory serves, there is a town which sells them.
You could always use the character editor to get some, unless you consider it cheating of course!

Huh? Theres no char. editor though... And diki said there were no torches

[&]

Yes, as said, I apoligise. I was scrolling through the forums quite fastly and just happened to click on your post as the latest post in the Avernum 4.

I was looking to fast and mistook your question for a genral Avernum game. Sorry.

[BlueMedley]

Oh nvm don't worry, i just wanted to be sure i got it straight.

[BlueMedley]

my monitors brightness is up all the way and i still cant see a single thing in almost any dungeon, am i the only one iwth this problem?

[diablo_tk]

are yoou sure its on?

 

---

try putting the contrast right up as well.

[BlueMedley]

Everything is maxep upwards, but i cant see anything in the game! This has literally made me unable to play it.

[kenny2011]

I think that is very odd, I can see everyhting in dungeons fine, and I have a crappy computer. try changing the resolution on your comp to 16 to 32, or vice versa, and switch the auto switch in the game options to something else, like never change.

[Sullust]

How old is your monitor?

[Ephesos]

Sometimes the colors are just strange... but usually the automap is your friend.

 

I'm beginning to think that some levels were just supposed to stay dark to the point of confusion. Perhaps it was meant to be atmosphere, but I don't think it worked.

[Dikiyoba]

Well, there were always a few places here and there in A2, BoA, and (I'm assuming) A1 and A3 where it was completely dark.

 

Dikiyoba.

[Alorael at Large]

There are no places that are dark to the point where you can't see your surroundings. There are no areas so dark that you shouldn't be able to tell where the walls and floors are. If you can't see things, you have a problem.

 

I don't know the usual Windows ways of making things start working again, but check all your display settings and make sure they're reasonable.

 

—Alorael, who would suggest emailing Jeff if you can't get pretty pictures to work. It's in his interests to make the game playable for you.

[Lilith]

Mind uploading a screenshot somewhere and giving us a link so that we can see if your game is unusually dark on our computers too or just on yours?

 

(By the way, if you haven't yet registered the game and have followed the road south of Formello, then you're not supposed to be able to see anything. )

[VCH]

As I've said before the lack of lighting devices was sometimes annoying. Though I didn't find the caves unbearably dark. But couldn't I just use one of the many lanterns laying around.

[Ephesos]

Quote:

Originally written by VCH:
As I've said before the lack of lighting devices was sometimes annoying. Though I didn't find the caves unbearably dark. But couldn't I just use one of the many lanterns laying around.

Yeah, that was incredibly annoying. I mean, every lantern in the game was completely inert. That's just taunting us...

[Derakon]

Quick question to the original poster - are you using a Macintosh or a Windows machine? Because if you're using the latter, then you're lending credence to a concern I had earlier. Windows machines tend to have a much darker "gamma" setting (basically the reference point for "white"; high gamma settings make for darker screens). On the Mac, the "second layer" caves are dark but still mostly navigable and comprehensible; I fear that a Windows user would be completely sunk, however.

 

Of course, I assume that Jeff did more than just a little testing of the Windows version before releasing it. Then again, it's entirely possible that he, a native Mac user, tweaked his Windows machines to match the Mac's in brightness and thus did not notice this problem.

[Randomizer]

I guess Jeff didn't do much to address the black backround in some lower levels. It's hard to see things because there is much contrast. There are two bodies in the Haunted Mine that I missed on the Mac version, and a few others elsewhre so it pays to move the cursor around and see what lights up.

[ef]

It's not completely dark, just too dark to see properly. I can see bones, because they are light yellowish, but everything that is not brightly coloured is difficult to distinguish, sometimes impossible. Everyone in his right mind would light a lantern in such a place or cast a light spell, if that were still possible.

[Frobozz]

Quote:

Originally written by Derakon:
Quick question to the original poster - are you using a Macintosh or a Windows machine? Because if you're using the latter, then you're lending credence to a concern I had earlier. Windows machines tend to have a much darker "gamma" setting (basically the reference point for "white"; high gamma settings make for darker screens). On the Mac, the "second layer" caves are dark but still mostly navigable and comprehensible; I fear that a Windows user would be completely sunk, however.

Just change the gamma setting. The location depends entirely on your graphics driver though. Under my nVidia panel it is located in "Color Correction".

Another possible culprit could be your monitor. As monitors age they tend to get darker - especially if constantly left on.

[Derakon]

Quote:

Originally written by Frobozz:
Another possible culprit could be your monitor. As monitors age they tend to get darker - especially if constantly left on.[/QB]

This shouldn't happen unless the monitor is being overdriven. To make a clumsy analogy, if you try to make a 60-watt lightbulb output the light that a 100-watt bulb would normally, then that 60-watt bulb is going to give out faster. Well-made monitors will last for decades.

[Swimmin' Salmon]

Quote:

Originally written by Frobozz:
The location depends entirely on your graphics driver though. Under my nVidia panel it is located in "Color Correction".

And why should the average gamer know this, or feel obligated to change this setting? If the amount of light in a dungeon can get changed, it would be simpler for the designer to make the change once, affecting everyone.

Quote:

Another possible culprit could be your monitor. As monitors age they tend to get darker - especially if constantly left on.

Huh, my 2 week old flat panel seems to have the same problem with darkness. I really do think that Jeff may have released this one a little too early. Between overuse of the CPU and darkness rendering certain areas unplayable, I'm gonna have to shelf the idea of registering until something a little more stable comes along.

[BlueMedley]

I do use a windows and I have my brightness and contrast maxed, i have no idea how to change gamma though. Its good to know I'm not the only one with this issue though I've just conceded to avoid any lower dungeons...

[ef]

You wanted an example, Thuryl. Here's one that demonstrates the problem pretty well. This is not a particularly dark section of a dungeon, you can see a lot of details, even tiny ones, at least as long as their colour contrasts strongly with the colour of the floor: all the little stones are easy to make out.

 

But tell me, how many rats are there? No, it's not two, it's three. A lever would be practically invisible. Colours that are close to each other are hard to distinguish. If the dungeon were a bit darker, you'd not see any rat at all.

 

I'm using a brandnew flat screen and still try to get used to its brightness, so my problem is probably less pronounced than that of many others.

 

 

edit: the eye feels fooled or tricked out. Because you can see so many tiny details in the distance, you just don't expect to not be aware of large objects right in front of you.

[VCH]

I believe we have a case for the invention of light in A5. Perhaps The king could, like, issue an edict or something.

 

BTW 1900 posts fo sho.

[Ephesos]

Perhaps the Tower Colony should get to work on reactivating all of the dead lanterns scattered throughout the caves... and maybe reinstitute the use of candles and torches.

[VCH]

Lol. For sure. Forget the magic anvil spell. X should get to work on functional lanterns. Perhaps the Vahnatai are responsible. A last ditch effort by Rentar's supporters to give everyone really sore eyes.

[Lilith]

Quote:

Originally written by ef:
You wanted an example, Thuryl. Here's one that demonstrates the problem pretty well. This is not a particularly dark section of a dungeon, you can see a lot of details, even tiny ones, at least as long as their colour contrasts strongly with the colour of the floor: all the little stones are easy to make out.

But tell me, how many rats are there? No, it's not two, it's three. A lever would be practically invisible. Colours that are close to each other are hard to distinguish. If the dungeon were a bit darker, you'd not see any rat at all.

That's actually not so much worse than some of the dungeons in the Mac version. I remember that it wasn't uncommon to have to squint in order to see dark-coloured monsters in dark areas. So I don't think the problem is primarily from the Mac-Windows conversion (which Jeff knows quite well to adjust for, since back when BoE was supported he used to convert graphics between Mac and Windows and adjust the colours so they'd blend in correctly with the other version's graphics) -- some areas were just plain too dark to begin with.

[VCH]

Hopefully the problem will be fixed in future games.

[Derakon]

In the meantime, try holding down the Tab key to get some limited highlighting.

[Randomizer]

The screen shot looks about as bad as what I get on my Mac iBook with the screen at medium range. Fight mode or tab will at least identify monster locations.

 

From the late Douglas Adams' Restaurant at the End of the Universe

 

"It's the wild color scheme that freaks me," said Zaphod whose love affair with this ship had lasted almost three minutes into the flight. "Every time you try to operate one of these weird black controls that are labeled in black on black background, a little black light lights up to let you know you've done it."

 

As quoted from the essay on ergonomics, "Beware of the Leopard," in The Anthology at the End of the Universe.