Eye Adaptation

[SuaveSteve]

Surprised this hasn't been talked about before.

Some mission authors attach a weak blue light to the player to help them see in dark and not have to make the ambient light too bright.

But, why not experiment with changing the exposure depending on the level of light on the screen? You should have difficulty in being able to see what's in a dark spot if you're in a well lit room. But in the dark, your eyes should be better at seeing what's in the dark.

We don't have to go nuts with adjusting exposure in large amounts like modern AAA games do, but it's just something to make the dark insufferable.

 

[Alberto Salvia Novella]

Yeap, the lighting should never be completely dark.

I remember playing a scenario which was impossible till you increased gamma to the maximum. That should be prevented by design.

Amnesia got it right. It lights a subtle blue light after a few moments of complete darkness.

Edited April 26, 2020 by Alberto Salvia Novella

[chakkman]

Dunno. I rather think you should adjust your screen so that you can see in dark areas. In reality, you only really get your eyes accomodated if the room or place has a continuous darkness. If there's a candle or a chimney burning, and you look remotely to those spots, your eyes will see badly again in darker areas. I don't really think it's realistic to have a artifial lighting lighting up darker places then. From a gameplay perspective, it may be better to leave things as they are. Even when it is unrealistic to be able to see in complete darkness, where A.I. won't see you. Let's just pretend that the protagonist has superior vision.  

Edited April 26, 2020 by chakkman

[peter_spy]

9 hours ago, SuaveSteve said:

Surprised this hasn't been talked about before.

It has been, on TDM Discord.

In short, it makes more sense for:

a) daylight setting environments, with much bigger difference between exterior and interior light intensity,

b) for engines with PBR materials that react correctly to all lighting conditions

TDM has neither, so the result will neither be easy to implement correctly nor worth the effort.

 

7 hours ago, Alberto Salvia Novella said:

I remember playing a scenario which was impossible till you increased gamma to the maximum. That should be prevented by design.

No it should not. Mappers and content creators have enough tools at their disposal, whether it's ambient world light, non-shadows lights, or the location system. Majority of the mappers will want to have this aspect fully controlled by them, not by an arbitrary automated system.

Edited April 26, 2020 by peter_spy

[Alberto Salvia Novella]

I still suspect it could be a good idea, and better known after tried out.

[Anderson]

8 hours ago, Alberto Salvia Novella said:

Amnesia got it right. It lights a subtle blue light after a few moments of complete darkness.

Partially yes, but for the most part the fact that Daniel has a permanent fear of darkness causes great frustration when the game is about stealth. Might as well ignore lighting anything if it comes to that.

AFAIK the Penumbra games also had a subtle light when in darkness without resorting to any sanity meter gimmicks.

The point is not to go to the point to strain people's eyes needlessly. There are good horror maps in The Dark Mod. But if it's good horror it can remain so without pitch black darkness and jump scares. After all, that's why Thief's horror stages with The Haunted Cathedral and Shalebridge Cradle are so good. Same for System Shock 2, Silent Hill 2.

[Alberto Salvia Novella]

44 minutes ago, Anderson said:

the fact that Daniel has a permanent fear of darkness causes great frustration when the game is about stealth.

Hahaha!

Guess that, even then, I never used the candle. Cause I felt more secure by not being seen myself.

So being afraid of darkness was the only way to make people like me uncomfortable while playing.

[SuaveSteve]

I feel like Thief got away with not having to worry about this cause the guards are much more blind than in TDM. So the ambient light can be much higher.

 

On 4/26/2020 at 1:04 AM, SuaveSteve said:

Surprised this hasn't been talked about before.

...but it's just something to make the dark insufferable.

 

 

Also, I meant sufferable 

 

Now that I think about it, is it possible to have the lightgem ignore certain light sources? I suppose that would require rendering two of you and would be much slower.