Optimal Brightness & Gamma settings?

[mips]

I've played around with the brightness and gamma settings but I'm not sure what the end result should look like. I don;t know if my settings are to dark or to light. Getting this right is important for the atmosphere of the game.

 

Any pointers?

[grayman]

Did you follow the in-game guidelines in the Training Mission?

[Talksintext]

I guess figure out what the brightness limit for guards to see you at close range is, then adjust gamma so you only see black below that. Otherwise it just feels unrealistic when you're 2ft from someone and they're looking for you and they can't find you. I think this is considerably lower than the training mission would suggest, though.

[RJFerret]

Otherwise it just feels unrealistic...

 

That would feel unrealistic to me, since our thief's eyes are dilated, and the rods in his eyes have recharged the chemical for night vision, while guards with torches/in lit areas wouldn't have night vision for fifteen minutes after leaving lit areas.

 

It might also be impractical to even see some game elements if you make it darker than the Training Mission guide, since map designers work from that.

 

Also, welcome to the game!

Edited March 2, 2014 by RJFerret

[mips]

Also, welcome to the game!

 

Thank you, I just want to get this right so I have the proper experience. I'm an ex Thief 1-3 player and I absolutely loved the games.

[mips]

Did you follow the in-game guidelines in the Training Mission?

 

In al honesty I saw that and did not pay much attention too it

 

I will look at the training mission again thanks.

[Springheel]

Use the training mission as a starting point, but adjust to taste after that. You want areas dark enough to be believable, but not so dark you can't make out what you're doing. Maps vary in their ambient brightness as well.

[Taquito]

I learned that flipping the gamma and brightness against the default setting works best for me. I darken the shadows in a way i can still define the texture behind the dark areas, but just slightly.

[Skaruts]

I don't think this is something other people can help all that much with. Different monitors have different brightness levels, and some monitors have better blacks than others (some have horrible blacks). And some monitors (like mine) have "gaming mode" and stuff like that, which alter the brightness levels completely, and if I give you a screenshot of my brightness settings, they'll be darker than what I see when in "gaming mode" (because gaming mode gives me slightly brighter darks).

 

There's also the preference factor, where some people may like the dark areas pitch black, while others (like me) may prefer them slightly visible, enough to not necessarily need the lantern (I do this because if I don't have the lantern I find it eye-straining to look at the dark areas, otherwise I'd go with near pitch black).

 

In my monitor, with "gaming mode" on, I use the default brightness of 1, and around 0.73-0.78 contrast (to compensate gaming mode), if I recall correctly. I don't know how useful that willl be to you...

 

Although, as mentioned, the training mission can help, even if it didn't help in my case for the reasons I mentioned.

Edited March 27, 2014 by Skaruts