Need in-game better light

[Maju]

This affects specially the DR, but not only. Also in the night I can barely see anything. And my monitor is 100% bright and my graphics card is updated. The only thing that is obsolete is the OS (W98-SE) that precisely prevents me from using -fullbright command.

And, well, if I can't see where I'm walking, specially in DR, I can never get out. I have already dropped two chars because of this but, really, if I have to drop the third one, that already has some nice stuff on it, and some friends, I may reconsider playing PS.

You need to understand that while real darkness is really dark, in a game, you can't use touch to keep you from falling. I need to see something... something more than just the green letters of other players running  around the DR so easily I can't follow them.

Maybe getting the fullbright thingy in-game could help people like me. 

[Caarrie]

from what i have seen this is not mainly a problem with the game or the game engine. it is more a problem with the hardware on the pc running the game. I am suprised that a pc running win 98se can even run ps in a state that is acceptable. I would also think that any drivers you have for your graphics card must be outdated [i would think most companies would have stopped supporting it a few years ago]. Please correct me if i am wrong.

[Maju]

from what i have seen this is not mainly a problem with the game or the game engine. it is more a problem with the hardware on the pc running the game. I am suprised that a pc running win 98se can even run ps in a state that is acceptable. I would also think that any drivers you have for your graphics card must be outdated [i would think most companies would have stopped supporting it a few years ago]. Please correct me if i am wrong.

You are wrong. I have NVidia 4x and it's fully updated. I'm sticking with W98 because I just don't want to have to reorganize my PC from bottom to top with a change of OS. I can perfectly play PS (and for contrast, for instance, a semi-comecial game as Silkroad Online, before the latest buggy update) but I can't see in DR. The problem is that and only that.

The case is that the darkest areas are also the most dangerous ones and, unless taken "by the hand" almost literally, by some extremely helpful soul - I would be trapped there forever.

Anyhow, what's the purpose of it being ultra-dark, if everybody uses fullbright in the end? You should either put more lights or allow people to config brightness in-game... or stop pretending you can play with W98. 

[Caarrie]

Well not all cards have this problem i have an ATI card and have never had a problem seeing the DR so i would have to assume this is a graphics card problem. or maybe a problem with your monitor

[Hodruv]

Strange - your system is almost exactly the same as the one I was using little more than a year ago - and it ran PS without a problem.

You say that Win98 prevents you from using the -fullbright command - how exactly does it do that? If I remember correctly, I even had an additional shortcut on my desktop with just that command...

Now, this may just be a wild hunch, but have you tried relighting the maps you have problems with? Can take a long time but did the trick for me when I first started playing.

Oh, and you're wrong if you think everyone is playing the game using -fullbright. In fact, I think it would be safe to say that most of us don't, as it robs PS of quite a lot of its atmosphere - especially the DR. IMHO, -fullbright should serve only as a last resort when everything else you've tried has failed.

[Zan]

Your problem has nothing to do with windows 98, it does have to do with your hardware (either graphics card or more likely your computer monitor). It's just a compatibility issue that's been lingering for years. Since only a handful of people have that problem (probably none of the devs) and nobody really seems to know what the exact issue is it's very hard to fix.

[bilbous]

If you have an nvidia card you can likely use the nvidia settings application to increase the monitor gamma. I have mine set to 2.8 or so as my monitor is also very dark. You may be able to get to this control by right clicking on the desktop, choosing properties, and using the advanced button on the graphic adapter tab. You may also be able to get to it from the control panel. There may be a nvidia widget or you may need to go into the display properties. I am not positive the nvidia app will work with win98 but it is something to look at. It should be bundled with the drivers and so already installed.

[Induane]

The gamma hack might work but the real issue is somewhere in the graphics engine.  I have an older linux PC with an nvidia card that suffers this.  All games lighting is perfect - Sauerbraten, WoW, diablo II, PT, Cube, Wolfenstein3d, tuxracer, glest, and egoboo are all perfect.  There are parts in many of these games that are "dark" but all are just right until I get to the PS Death Realm, then I have to use nvidia-settings to throw up gamma.  Maybe the windows version supports per executable settings, but when I set the gamma high enough to see then all my other stuff is disgustingly bright.  On an odder note I have another PC with the exact same linux distro, and same video card (geforce4 - I hate them but heck they were free).  The other PC does not have this issue at all.  So it must be a problem caused by hardware combinations.  Or at least that would make sense in my case.  Its definitely not that I have out of date drivers or "bad" hardware.  Calling it a hardware problem is misleading as its more a "hardware support" option.

[DejviDejf]

It would be awesome if there was some spell to light up in dark places.

[Elvicat]

i do have some difficulty seeing in dr, got a nvidia card to but heres the thing i got a monitor thats way brighter than my older that was just going dimmer and dimmer but still its almost pure dark in dr 
though i use the nvidia control pannel + gamma hotkeys via nView and that helps alot when it's to dark, click click and its bright instead of going into the panel and dragging a bar around

[Maju]

That thingy of the gamma may work. I will have to wait till my char dies again to test it (though in nights by the roads may be also of use) but it does look like it can help. Many many thanks, bilbous. 

Still it might be nice to include some sort of in game illumination... maybe something as simple as torches?

[Karyuu]

Torches aren't that simple I'm afraid, otherwise we'd have them a long time ago. Currently there is no way to attach a light that illuminates parts of a map to a mesh that a player would be able to equip. This is on our To-Do list, but it's a complicated feature.

[Induane]

That would be a real trick in an mmorpg.  For one it would have to be a dynamic light.  Considering that, imagine now that 20 people in the DR have one.  Suddenly your PC needs to calculate for that many dynamic lights.  That would take one awesome PC.  Karyuu has it right to an extent.  Part of the problem is that they use fixed renderloops that don't have a lightier step (unless standard does - I cannot remember, but terrainfixed definitely does not).  Then consider that CS has no way of socketing a light source to a moving mesh.  You can however in renderloops with a lightier step have animated lights that move around. 

On a side note though I wonder if some modified version of the decal system could be used.  Instead of lighting an area with dynamic lights, use a huge decal that just increases brightness and gamma and contrast?  I know it currently just overlays an alpha image but I'm wondering if it can't be used for this too. 

[LigH]

We already mentioned gamma tweaking tools a few times.

Windows Users: For Nvidia, try "RivaTuner". For ATI, try "ATI Tray Tools".

At least until PlaneShift will be able to support it itself.

[Elvicat]

We already mentioned gamma tweaking tools a few times.

Windows Users: For Nvidia, try "RivaTuner". For ATI, try "ATI Tray Tools".

At least until PlaneShift will be able to support it itself.

nvidia allready have the gamma feature in the driver so it dosn't need another tool for it + you can attach hot keys to the gamma so you don't even need to go into the gamma part to edit

well that's atleast with the older controll panel, the new one... i don't really know but they are both there