[Feature Request] Different gamma/brightness for UI/readables/maps

[nbohr1more]

Sounds good to me!

I guess if this gets implemented, we have a fix for:

https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=1744

[Obsttorte]

2 hours ago, Daft Mugi said:

I tried this by making newspaper_bridgeport01.dds, newspaper_bridgeport02.dds, and newspaper_bridgeport03.dds darker, and it worked well. The result was better than I originally thought it would be, so thank you for suggesting this.

On the long run it is probable easier to darken the guis instead of altering the image files (and it is easier to revert if necessary).

I'm curious how your try on an automatization works out. Thumbs are pressed.

[Daft Mugi]

So... I discovered another complication. Some readables have their own "filter" that darkens the screen.

I've attached a readable from Volta 2 to show the "filter" (I don't know what to call it) of the readable. When the readable overlay is shown, the game world is slightly darkened. In this case, any reduction in brightness or gamma -- for example, the brightness_ui and gamma_ui cvars -- makes it look too dark. The screenshots both have identical gamma and brightness values.

guis/readables/scrolls/scroll_hand_ellianerelle_smaller.gui

Edited October 27, 2022 by Daft Mugi

[Obsttorte]

57 minutes ago, Daft Mugi said:

I've attached a readable from Volta 2 to show the "filter" (I don't know what to call it) of the readable.

It's the correct term. I don't think it is an issue, though. You usually don't move while reading and the text is readable. But maybe it appears differently in game.

[Daft Mugi]

That readable's background is quite dark. I wonder if that filter is also applied to the readable overlay.

So, the problem is that if brightness_ui and gamma_ui are applied to that readable, then it can become too dark.

[duzenko]

I think it's a totally reasonable request however personally I'd work around it differently.

It depends greatly on your monitor and room brightness however I'd just set gamma to 1.0 and adjust monitor brightness to room brightness.

In the end you'll end up with adequate GUI backgrounds. If you think the world is too dark now, use the ambient min brightness cvar.

In the ideal world we would not have this problem if we had been conscious about little details like this in the past. I believe this is best fixed in standard .gui/texture assets rather that applying all sorts of hacks on top of it. 

When you think about, a separate .gui brightness setting makes sense, if applied universally to all guis.

[Wallace]

I mentioned this in the improvements thread -

https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/11058-things-that-could-be-improved/page/95/#comment-473534

Bright readables in a game that is 99% darkness literally burns my eyes.

 

Edited November 5, 2022 by Wallace

[Daft Mugi]

I ended up abandoning my code.

My code changed the brightness/gamma when a readable was on screen.
This didn't quite give me the results I was looking for, because the brightness/gamma of each readable can vary a lot.
The main goal was to reduce the brightness of bright readables to reduce blinding light.
However, the main negative outcome was that dark readables would become too dark.

Instead, I used a graphics editor to edit the DDS files of the following textures, lowering their brightness.
(Note: There may be other bright readable backgrounds that I haven't found in the core assets yet.)
(Note: Some missions, such as Iris, have their own copy of readable backgrounds, so those missions require overriding the assets in their respective FM folders.)

dds
└── guis
    └── assets
        └── readables
            ├── books
            │   ├── book_leftpage_01.dds
            │   ├── book_leftpage_curled_01.dds
            │   ├── book_rightpage_01.dds
            │   └── book_rightpage_curled_01.dds
            └── sheets
                ├── newspaper_bridgeport01.dds
                ├── newspaper_bridgeport02.dds
                └── newspaper_bridgeport03.dds

 

[datiswous]

On 1/11/2023 at 2:59 AM, Daft Mugi said:

However, the main negative outcome was that dark readables would become too dark.

I wonder if there could be made a check on background color of gui file and then apply a darkening filter on top of the gui based on that information. I get that there are more colors in a background file, but maybe check for the lightest as a base.

I think it should at least be possible to make a list of applied semi-transparent darkening gui overlays and then apply them via a script via if statements (if this readable gui -> load this gui overlay, etc.).

On 1/11/2023 at 2:59 AM, Daft Mugi said:

My code changed the brightness/gamma when a readable was on screen.

Can you still share the code?

Edited January 13, 2023 by datiswous

[Daft Mugi]

On 1/13/2023 at 8:27 AM, datiswous said:

Can you still share the code?

I guess I can do that.

Note: This code is not complete.
I'm not sure if this patch will apply correctly these days, since it's based on an old revision.
There are my debug print statements in this work-in-progress patch that should be removed if it was complete.
There's a cvar used for tracking whether or not the main menu is open. I didn't like this and wanted to find an alternative.
There's this block of code used to identify readables, etc. I wanted to find a more explicit way of identification.

guiFileStr.find("invgrid") != std::string::npos ||
  guiFileStr.find("objectives") != std::string::npos ||
  guiFileStr.find("map") != std::string::npos ||
  guiFileStr.find("readable") != std::string::npos;

Again, I got better luck just editing the image files themselves.
But maybe there's something good in the patch that can be salvaged for later.
Attaching here for you @datiswous and others who are curious.

wip-ui-brightness.diff

Edited January 30, 2023 by Daft Mugi