Darkness and lightmaps

[Xanthan]

Just wondering what is the current status with lightmaps in certain spaces vis-a-vis the perpetual darkness problem.  Some areas e.g. DR, BD, magic shop are in perpetual darkness, even at noon.   Very low-contrast darkness which hurts my eyes and makes it difficult to play.  I vaguely recall that these areas use a different kind of lightmap than the others and perhaps need to be converted, is that right?

What is the current status on this?

[LigH]

Currently the only way supported by the CrystalSpace based PlaneShift to change the brightness of the 3D display, is the manipulation of the brightness of the "Crystal" light source. Where the Crystal doesn't shine, you won't see a change in brightness.

If PlaneShift is too dark for you in certain areas, you need to find a solution outside of the game: Gamma correction for the whole desktop display. This is specific to your combination of graphic card, operating system, and drivers.

Supporting gamma correction in PlaneShift / CrystalSpace via OpenGL functions is not trivial, because it requires operating system dependent OpenGL extensions.

[Xanthan]

It does seem to be getting darker over time in places like the magic shop area, the tunnel to the arena, DR, and the entire Bronze Doors area.  I'm just curious what makes these areas different from the rest.  Is this a general problem, or is it just me?

[Elvicat]

no it happens to me too and the gamma function in ps doesn't work on these maps... well a litle bit on the bd map but not much, they however work like a charm in hydlaa just to name 1 place.

[LigH]

As already mentioned: It is no gamma feature. It makes only the Crystal shine brighter. Where the Crystal doesn't shine, it doesn't help.

[Mordaan]

It should shine in the BD area.   

[Xanthan]

Even in the regular areas where gamma works I pretty much always need to turn up the in-game brightness by five notches or so.  In years past I assumed that either there were just a few of us with this issue, or the devs somehow had monitors that were brighter than everyone else's.  Now I've run it on several computers and O/Ss and this issue is always there.

Would there be any value in a poll to see how many people are affected by this issue?

I love PS, but I'm worried about what it does to my eyes.

[LigH]

@ Mordaan:

In the outer area, yes. But not in the cave with the fortress, there is shadow everywhere.

And furthermore there is always a rest of chance that a lightsource got a slightly different name, accidently.

[BoevenF]

I usually turn up my brightness by hitting F12 a couple of times.
I don't expect things will be better inside a giant stalactite... I propose the introduction of a glyph for enhanced vision