Important small items Brightener

[Fidcal]

Some players are having difficulty seeing some critical items especially when carried at a guard's belt. Lockpicks also can be very hard to see for some players if they are lying on a table in a dark room for example.

 

A brightener file is now available for download. Go to http://www.fidcal.com/DarkModContributions and browse to textures.

 

I've taken some care not to brighten them so much they become a cheat but I think all players ought to be able to see a key on a belt at 10 paces at least. Let me know what you think. It can be tweaked but I don't want to waste too much time tweaking back and forth.

 

Anyone who does not have any trouble seeing keys and lockpicks and purses should not use this.

 

This file is NOT an official Dark Mod file.

 

 

UPDATE: Now updated to brightener2.zip to include new ambient rendering included with TDM update 1.03 December, 2010.

[Bikerdude]

sweet thanks fids, adding now.

[Tels]

Is there any reason why we would not add this to the official TDM? It sure sounds like a good improvement to me, I have a hard time spotting keys and lockpicks, too.

[Sotha]

Cool. Is there a before and after brightener screenshots? Would love to see how it brightens them...

[Springheel]

I still can't figure out why people are having trouble spotting keys.

[Fidcal]

Cool. Is there a before and after brightener screenshots? Would love to see how it brightens them...

I'll do some before and after but they will be relative. I mean you might still see/not see depending on your desktop gamma. I will try to get them the same on my desktop as to what I see in-game.

 

One test I just did I still can't hardly see the friggin' key even with it brightened flying after the AI close with noclip and notarget eventually I had a glimpse of it. It's the brass one I think. I need to check if I missed that or if it needs a bit more brightening than the others.

[Fidcal]

On my own desktop these are very close to how I see them in game. None are frob-highlighted; they are just their normal brightness.

 

Lockpicks before and after:

 

 

This one is really in a difficult place anyway. I still cannot see it well enough even with the new brightness even chasing after him.

 

 

These last two do show the increase brightness but they are still not that easy:

 

 

 

[Springheel]

Your "new" ones are the way keys already look for me.

 

What settings are you using?

[Baddcog]

screens are too dark for me to see most of them anyway.

 

But i have a hard time seeing keys on belts too.

 

I think there are several reasons.

 

1:in T2 they didn't hug the body as close, they actually floated so that helped. Most of them were also pretty bright colors.

 

2: we can attach 2 keys per AI. While attachments are cool I'd suggest authors don't over use that. When you are trying to pick a pocket, an AI comes by and you have 1-3 seconds to frob highlight grab it, you get it and you assume the AI is now empty.

 

T2 didn't have it. It is slightly confusing and if you have to check every AI on both sides for keys you waste alot of time just trying to get good views and play safe.

 

I had to have hints for NHAT and beta of another mission because of that. You are always thinking, I already got a key off him... if you don't see the other then the last place you'd look is the same guy again.

 

3: Ai with chains, priest and revenant. All those chain, darkness, different cloth/metal materials can be a pretty good camoflauge for something small and dark.

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I didn't see the lockpicks in aforementioned beta because they were up on a table and I was creepin', I never thought they were that tough to see.

[Sotha]

Your "new" ones are the way keys already look for me.

 

What settings are you using?

 

How odd!

 

I have the keys CURRENTLY like in Fidcals before screenshots. It is really difficult to see the keys.

 

Fidcals brightener certainly looks like a big improvement. The keys probably should look like that by default.

 

I personally find AI bound objects so difficult to see, that I usually blind frob everything, a habit which certainly should not be necessary!

 

EDIT: oh, and I am using default tdm settings. Only thing I've changed was the screen resolution and gamma according to the trainer.

[Fidcal]

Yes, my settings are according to the trainer gamma room to. My monitor has 3 profiles and one is always fixed for Dark Mod for constancy. My Dark Mod gamma and bright are 1:1 but that is just because I set them to 1:1 and then adjusted my graphics card and monitor to the trainer. The only thing I change is on a bright daytime I increase gamma.

[STiFU]

I've also had problems spotting keys, but eventually I bound the looking glass via inventory_use to a key, so that I instantly use the looking glass when I press respective key. This is very useful, especially for checking AI for attached stuff. But as soon as the mapper doesn't give me my looking glass, I am blind as a cat!! So good thing you tweak the textures.

[Tels]

On my own desktop these are very close to how I see them in game. None are frob-highlighted; they are just their normal brightness.

 

Wow, in the last two cases I didn't see the key, and this is exactly how I see it in game. Usually I just sneak close and blindly frob in case the AI has something on them.

[LEGION]

Thanks, Fidcal! From the screenshots you posted it looks really like an improvement. Only the lockpicks looked too bright, but I have to test it in game.

 

I too have 1:1 on my settings, but tend to have the game/screen as dark as possible, to have believable shadows, areas there one can´t be seen. I guess you, Springheel, might have a brighter setting than most other players?

 

I set the gamma according to the Training Mission while in a pitch black room at late night. So I would have it surely brighter if I would´ve set in on daytime, even in a blackened room...

Also it was not that clear for me to set the brightness to have the ground barely visible when crouched, and to have the middle text readable on that wall. Either the ground was too bright, or the capitals too blackened. And it´s hard to decide when the capitals are barely visible, actually I have to look for 2 seconds or more to detect them with my actual setting, if that helps to clear anything about this issue.

[Fidcal]

Well, if we test these over the next few days/weeks then if we think it wants brightening a little more - or perhaps just certain keys. Because they do vary in texture and different situations. Then it can be adjusted.

 

So please give feedback over the next few weeks. I am unsure myself at the moment.

[aidakeeley]

This is all good and all, but even if I did get these improvements I'm sure there's still a chance at not seeing... so I'd be just as thorough as always.

 

BTW, the blackjack, too, can easily be missed if it is on a table in one of those acquire-during-the-game scenarios which I suspect inspired the lockpick(s) improvement. A general "glint" option would be good -- a spawnarg that could be set for all these things -- even if it, the very idea of "glint", is from the ever-evil-ne'er-do-well-sucked-and-sucked-and-you-aren't-cool-if-you-think-otherwise, abominable, treacherous Thief3 (sooo NOT! Thief 3)

[Fidcal]

There's a blackjack? Yes, it is invisible in a dark area on a dark texture.

[SneaksieDave]

I want to know whose idea it is for forum attached screenshots to fade to white in between. Ugh.

 

Anyway, I believe keys mostly look like that for me already but it's hard to be sure. Nice improvement for anyone who's having problems.

[Serpentine]

I want to know whose idea it is for forum attached screenshots to fade to white in between. Ugh.

Middle mouse (wheel click) solves that, sure you have a few extra tabs but at least all the images are preloaded and no terrible javascript previews

[SneaksieDave]

Hmm. :-/ MMB does the same as LMB for me: loads in same window with the greyed out background and fade to white. FF 3.5.5.

[Fidcal]

IMPORTANT: This key brightener is for players only. It's for your own use locally. It's an option. Many players are happy how keys are currently so don't want it. So do NOT include it with your FM if you are a mapper.

 

Also as said earlier, it is not future-proof. So any future change in a Dark Mod update might affect your map. It even overrides player's local copy.

[Bikerdude]

ah, ok...

[ungoliant]

can you brighten up the purple loot bags that get hip attached too? can't tell you how many times i miss capping off loot objectives because i didn't pick someones pocket because he looked clean.

 

Then again, i also play with really dark settings so that I can barely see things in the dark (without a lantern). You mentioned turning up gamma during the day to see. I only play TDM at night to avoid that. Doesn't look nearly as good. So I tend to miss items attached to AI a looooot. I cant even tell you how awesome its going to be to not have to run up behind an AI and spam-frob him from head to foot for 3 seconds before dashing away. You'd think the AI would feel me groping all over his body

[Dunedain]

Certainly seems like an improvement, as they appeared quite difficult to see in the before pictures. In fact, the new brightness adjustment looks very much like what you see in Thief and Thief II, in terms of keys and other important items standing out a bit against dark backgrounds. I'm surprised it isn't the default setting for the mod.

[LEGION]

Haha, yeah the loot-bags could use a little, only a little birightener, too. Since they are used so sparingly in the missions so far (that I played) I completely forgot them. As example: In Sons of Baltona there were guards having loot-bags, standing right next to torches and I didn´t see the loot-bags! Even as I knew due to the mission-thread that they would have bags, I still couldn´t see them until I was right behind them. Another problem is that the loot-bags, like keys, are very hard to highlight. So it is very likely that you completely oversee loot-bags when not highlighted.