Fun tricks

[Induane]

Well, I don\'t know about many other people but I love the PS world, but sometimes its tough to go exploring - especially in the new death realm. Also some areas of the dr are pretty dark so here is what I did to fix that while exploring and to explore it without fear of death.

First go download crystalspace - google for the download - and get either the windows or linux version depending on what you want.

next take the deathrealm.zip file and copy it (right click - copy) this file is found in your planeshift/art/world directory.  Then browse to the folder crystalspace installed in - i.e. c:\\program files\\crystalspace-099 or whatever and drop that file there.  Then open a command prompt and cd to that directory - i.e.

cd \\
cd program files
cd crystalspace099

then type this

walktest deathrealm.zip

this will take a long time to load but its great! once it does load press 8 to remove gravity so you can fly everywhere.  Also get to too dark a spot? press the 1 key to add a light! fun stuff! If you\'re lucky and I havn\'t tested this yet, the newly cached lighting will be there if you copy that zip file back into your ps art/world directory.  That way the light you added might still be there until you update - I\'ll test that out tonight if I can get PS to load

[zanzibar]

That\'s not fun.... that\'s a spoiler.

[Induane]

spoiler? Having places that are completely pitch black is boring and I don\'t feel like adjusting my gamma or using special gamma tweaks to be able to see.

[TheMinority]

hey, here\'s a tip. if you have one of those flatscreen monitors, chances are it comes with a gamma option. fiddle with it for a while and turn it up. ohmigosh! it becomes lighter. not significantly, but lighter.

or you can download a gamma program. check download.com


that way you can fix some of those insanely dark spots without spoililng the game.

[Zan]

I\'ve never seen any completely pitch black places in PS myself ... well except for the back during the Long Dark. Right now I see very dark places but you can still see in them, least I can. It\'s just harder to do and I kinda like it that way.

Maybe if you make sure your brightness of your screen isn\'t set to a minimum ammount and check that the room you\'re in (irl that is) doesn\'t have too much light shining directly on your screen ... I\'m sure you can see then.

Unless I\'m just the odd one out here.

[zanzibar]

There used to be one spot in the old death realm which was pitch black as you were walking upwards in a spiral.  It was very small though.

When I still had my old monitor, things were pitch black most of the time.  Ojaveda was impossible to navigate except during the middle of the day PS-time.  I have a new monitor now though and I haven\'t had any problems.

[cobracon]

Originally posted by Induane
Well, I don\'t know about many other people but I love the PS world, but sometimes its tough to go exploring - especially in the new death realm. Also some areas of the dr are pretty dark so here is what I did to fix that while exploring and to explore it without fear of death.

First go download crystalspace - google for the download - and get either the windows or linux version depending on what you want.

next take the deathrealm.zip file and copy it (right click - copy) this file is found in your planeshift/art/world directory.  Then browse to the folder crystalspace installed in - i.e. c:\\program files\\crystalspace-099 or whatever and drop that file there.  Then open a command prompt and cd to that directory - i.e.

cd \\
cd program files
cd crystalspace099

then type this

walktest deathrealm.zip

this will take a long time to load but its great! once it does load press 8 to remove gravity so you can fly everywhere.  Also get to too dark a spot? press the 1 key to add a light! fun stuff! If you\'re lucky and I havn\'t tested this yet, the newly cached lighting will be there if you copy that zip file back into your ps art/world directory.  That way the light you added might still be there until you update - I\'ll test that out tonight if I can get PS to load

Can u use this same trick with all the world spots?

[Seytra]

My monitor\'s brightness is at 75% and that\'s sufficient for all parts of PS, even at night. If I crank it up to 100% PS becomes easily navigable even when I have darkness bug.

[Induane]

Perhaps its just my monitor, but when my gamma is up enough to see everythign in the DR, its too high to be used daily for just normal non PS related stuff.  I could crank it up manually every time yes, but whats the point?  My monitor is a 21inch compaq CRT - I have 4 of them.  They sit in special NASA like computer desks - two computers per desk - and the monitor sits behind a glare reducing glass screen.  PS is the only game where it is an issue at all. It also happens even in complete darkness irl, so its weird...

I don\'t see how using cs to explore it is a spoiler - personally I loved flying around the map able to explore the beauty of the new death realm without fear of death - I\'m busy with a seperate PS project and didn\'t have an hour to spend in there ingame.  I think that there is nothing wrong with being able to explore the beauty of planeshift out of game.

And yes - it works for most of the zip files in the world folder - if you use walktest without the relight option it loads mucho faster !

[Seytra]

Hmm, before, my setting was at 50%, but 75% is just fine for everyday stuff as well. 100% is too bright, though.

You can also try to fiddle with the contrast setting, which also affects effective brightness (mine is set to 100%).

I have noticed severe differences between monitors in that respect, though. Some need higher brightness than others just to look the same (because the base setting is different), not to mention the colour temperatures which can drive me nuts.

All in all, different settings of brightness and contrast yield results that look the same for normal stuff but quite different in things like PS. With my original settings (50% contrast, 50% brightness) things looked almost like they do now outside PS, but the forest at night was very dark. My screen is a CRT as well.

Edit: Also, while this can indeed be regarded as \"spoiler\", it isn\'t doing much, because the DR can be explored ingame just as well, so there\'s no real difference besides being alone.

[LigH]

@ Seytra:

If you only use your monitor for gaming, you will be happy with such an over-bright monitor.

But for me, working on graphics and video as well, such a monitor would be just a horror. I need a correctly calibrated monitor, not a \"halfway cranked up\" one.

Therefore, for a calibrated monitor, PlaneShift is way too dark (usually cased by multiplicative lighting models in OpenGL). I need to use gamma correction to be able to see anything in Death Realm or OjaRoad.

And because PlaneShift does not support gamma correction ingame (except I may find out a CrystalSpace configuration entry probably), I have to apply it externally.

[Seytra]

Originally posted by LigH
@ Seytra:

If you only use your monitor for gaming, you will be happy with such an over-bright monitor.

I don\'t use my monitor for gaming only, not even most of the time. However, I don\'t do serious graphics work either (almost all of it is text based), so that problem isn\'t there for me.

I was merely saying what works for me, and also I could hardly know that you need a screen that is calibrated in a special way, especially since I wasn\'t even adressing you at all, since you didn\'t even post here before.
Furthermore, the fact that it might not be an option for you specifically doesn\'t necessarily invalidate it for the OP or others.

[Nikodemus]

I share Ligh concern. And i hate changing brightness of my monitor to see these very dark places. If someone can see everythink in DR without bigger problems, then he/she have most likely to high gamma/brightness.

Also, changing brightness/gamma to see dark places is kind of cheating, because we use not ingame factor to make life of our char easier. But what can we do? We should have lanterns/source of light as fast as possible in order to avoid this behaviour

PS. Ligh, do you know of any test which would tell me if my monitor is calibrated as it should? As till now, I always used common sense.

[LigH]

The good old standard application is the \"Nokia Monitor Test\". Quite old now, but small and free.

Version 1 - Version 2

Or try the Monitor Calibration Wizard

(All tools for Windows. Linux has built-in bars in the KDE Desktop settings. Macintosh is an artists\' tool, anyway!)

[Seytra]

Originally posted by Nikodemus
I share Ligh concern. And i hate changing brightness of my monitor to see these very dark places.

I agree, though the setting is easier to do and undo than logging in to the forums.
However, since my setting works for all other occurances as well, I obviously just leave it there.

Originally posted by Nikodemus
If someone can see everythink in DR without bigger problems, then he/she have most likely to high gamma/brightness.

I am not sure about that. I have seen far too few complaints about the DR being too dark to assume that everyone who doesn\'t complain has a monitor set to nonstandard values. Also, the DR itself was navigable without changing my settings.

Originally posted by Nikodemus
Also, changing brightness/gamma to see dark places is kind of cheating, because we use not ingame factor to make life of our char easier.

I have been wondering about that as well. However, I\'ve come to the conclusion that this would only be true cheating if everyone, instead just a comparetively low number, of players would actually have that issue. From this I figured that the devs don\'t have that issue either, so it\'s not meant to be there. Therefore, leaving it unnavigable would be kind of anti-cheating, i.e., making things artificially harder by out of game means than they\'re supposed to be.

Originally posted by Nikodemus
But what can we do? We should have lanterns/source of light as fast as possible in order to avoid this behaviour

Absolutely, yes.

As for the monitor testing thingies: I\'ll check them out some time when I boot to windoze.
However, KDE desktop settings won\'t alter the settings of the monitor, will they? They\'ll merely create a constant adjustment, which is the exact same as changing the screens hardware settings, no? Just like the ATI configuration tool, which works on the gfx card, not the screen (how should it, anyway).

Edit: BTW, please don\'t think I\'m trying to convince you to use the method that happens to work for me. In fact, I couldn\'t care less what you do about your screen, since I don\'t have to use it. It\'s merely an option, nothing more, nothing less.