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Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

Am I the only one troubled by game designers' love affair with pitch
darkness?

For some time I've suspected there's a sort of runaway evolution, that
reoccurs throughout many games: designers create dark maps to create
more "mood," players turn up gamma and brightness so that they can
actually see what the Hell is going on, and the designers release yet
darker maps.

I find it a bit irritating to max out the gamma settings in my games,
and turn up the brightness on my monitor all the way, and still all I
can see of an award-winning map is a few "lamps" in the distance that
don't actually illuminate anything. Oops, fell in the
just-barely-visible lava again. Was there a bridge or something around here?

The most absurd is when I'll try out some jungle-island themed map,
screenshots illustrating clear blue skies and a bright sun -- and it's
still too dark to see anything. It looks like there's a solar eclipse
going on or something.

Is it just me? Have I owned several bum monitors in a row? Or do others
have the experience of too many maps in too many games being too damned
dark?
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

Brian G. Vaughan enlightened us with:
> Am I the only one troubled by game designers' love affair with pitch
> darkness?

Ah, I hate that stuff. I'm still in a little doubt about buying Doom
III, and the darkness plays a big role in that. I also have quite a
dislike of those dark movies.

MeltDown
--
!For all your UT99/2k3/2k4 questions visit UnrealTower's FAQ section:
! http://www.unrealtower.org/faq
!Home of the FAQs for agut and agut2003.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

"MeltDown" <meltdownUSE@YOURunrealtower.imagination.org> wrote in message
news:slrncme0o5.bpk.meltdownUSE@sybren.thirdtower.com...
> Brian G. Vaughan enlightened us with:
>> Am I the only one troubled by game designers' love affair with pitch
>> darkness?
>
> Ah, I hate that stuff. I'm still in a little doubt about buying Doom
> III, and the darkness plays a big role in that. I also have quite a
> dislike of those dark movies.
>
> MeltDown

Doom III is continually dark. VERY good game though. I agree with the OP
too. I really liked the Jungle Warfare mod because all the maps were open
and "airy".
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

MeltDown wrote:

> Ah, I hate that stuff. I'm still in a little doubt about buying Doom
> III, and the darkness plays a big role in that. I also have quite a
> dislike of those dark movies.
>
> MeltDown
You will probably not like it then - I had to wind my monitor up
full (100%brightness, 100% contrast, on top of the in-game
adjustment) just to make it playable. As a comparison, UT2K4
runs @ 40% and 50% respectively, normal windows at 20%/40%.

I'm just hoping HL2 isn't out of the same mould....

Steve.

--
Remove the DOT's to reply
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

Yes doom3 is very dark, almost pitch black in some areas. Makes for a scary
game. You don't run through it, you carefully peek around every corner and
it still manages to scare the shiite out of you. Good thing you have a
flashlight. :)


"goPostal" <none@this.time> wrote in message
news:10meats7u5jkv3a@corp.supernews.com...
>
> "MeltDown" <meltdownUSE@YOURunrealtower.imagination.org> wrote in message
> news:slrncme0o5.bpk.meltdownUSE@sybren.thirdtower.com...
>> Brian G. Vaughan enlightened us with:
>>> Am I the only one troubled by game designers' love affair with pitch
>>> darkness?
>>
>> Ah, I hate that stuff. I'm still in a little doubt about buying Doom
>> III, and the darkness plays a big role in that. I also have quite a
>> dislike of those dark movies.
>>
>> MeltDown
>
> Doom III is continually dark. VERY good game though. I agree with the OP
> too. I really liked the Jungle Warfare mod because all the maps were open
> and "airy".
>
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

"Mark" <mustango656@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:KLH9d.357386$Fg5.340469@attbi_s53...
> Yes doom3 is very dark, almost pitch black in some areas. Makes for a
> scary game. You don't run through it, you carefully peek around every
> corner and it still manages to scare the shiite out of you. Good thing you
> have a flashlight. :)
>

One of the first mods to come out was one letting you have the flashlight
and pistol at the same time. It made such good sense that I can't help but
wonder why it wasn't in the game that way. If there's a gripe to be aired
about D3 it's that you have to continually cycle from flashlight to weapon
and back waaayyyy too many times.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

"goPostal" <none@this.time> wrote in message
news:10mel0ukcsgog61@corp.supernews.com...
>
> "Mark" <mustango656@comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:KLH9d.357386$Fg5.340469@attbi_s53...
> > Yes doom3 is very dark, almost pitch black in some areas. Makes for a
> > scary game. You don't run through it, you carefully peek around every
> > corner and it still manages to scare the shiite out of you. Good thing
you
> > have a flashlight. :)
> >
>
> One of the first mods to come out was one letting you have the flashlight
> and pistol at the same time. It made such good sense that I can't help but
> wonder why it wasn't in the game that way. If there's a gripe to be aired
> about D3 it's that you have to continually cycle from flashlight to weapon
> and back waaayyyy too many times.
>
>

I can't agree with you there. Having to choose between being able to see and
being able to shoot was damn scary. And most of the time I could see OK
without the flashlight. I think the flashlight mod was a poor idea.

Getting back to the original post, I certainly agree that deathmatch maps
which are too dark are a huge pain in the ass. When I used to play Quake 2 I
had a special key press to make everything look much lighter to defend
myself against dark maps. But then I felt guilty for being able to see when
most of the other players couldn't. So I got so that when a dark map came up
I would just leave the server.

--
Cycho{HHR}
http://home.rochester.rr.com/cyhome/
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

"MeltDown" <meltdownUSE@YOURunrealtower.imagination.org> wrote in message
news:slrncme0o5.bpk.meltdownUSE@sybren.thirdtower.com...
> Brian G. Vaughan enlightened us with:
>> Am I the only one troubled by game designers' love affair with pitch
>> darkness?
>
> Ah, I hate that stuff. I'm still in a little doubt about buying Doom
> III, and the darkness plays a big role in that. I also have quite a
> dislike of those dark movies.
>
> MeltDown

I have no doubt - I'm not buying Doom III. I'm waiting for Quake IV to come
out. Brighter maps, and more of a sci-fi/military theme, instead of Doom
IIIs horror theme. Dark maps blow chunks.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

Steve enlightened us with:
> I'm just hoping HL2 isn't out of the same mould....

Download some movies from www.3dgamers.com and see it isn't ;-)

MeltDown
--
!For all your UT99/2k3/2k4 questions visit UnrealTower's FAQ section:
! http://www.unrealtower.org/faq
!Home of the FAQs for agut and agut2003.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

On Fri, 8 Oct 2004, MeltDown wrote:

>
>
> Brian G. Vaughan enlightened us with:
>> Am I the only one troubled by game designers' love affair with pitch
>> darkness?
>
> Ah, I hate that stuff. I'm still in a little doubt about buying Doom
> III, and the darkness plays a big role in that. I also have quite a
> dislike of those dark movies.
>
> MeltDown
>

Bring on the gloom and claustrophobia that Doom 3's environment
encourages. If it's done right, as it is IMO in D3, it's a valuable
ingredient to the whole recipe of intense atmospherics within a game of this
kind.

(I have heard a whisper down at the Mortuary Club, that there is a patch
available to enable the flashlight and the gun simultaneously in D3,
although this could be old news by now. I do think that spoils it though.)

Which films Meltdown ? I'm thinking Blair-Witchy types ?

If it's too dark for too long, be it in games or films, I get suspicious of
the designers/producers not having enough cash/time for decent effects.

Regards,

Pete.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

MeltDown wrote:
> Steve enlightened us with:
>
>>I'm just hoping HL2 isn't out of the same mould....
>
>
> Download some movies from www.3dgamers.com and see it isn't ;-)
>
> MeltDown

That's good news. After thinking about it, I remembered the worst
example of excessive darkness I've encountered, and it was Half-Life:
Blue Shift. In that expansion to Half-Life, you had a pathetic
flashlight that would illuminate an area the width of a quarter on my
monitor, and several of the early stages were extremely dark.

The worst was when you were in some large sewer system, with a
river-wide water flow with a current that would lead you to turbines
that would kill you. There were several different ladders to go to
different areas with different switches you had to pull in the right
sequence with the right timing, yada yada yada. The thing was, most of
this enormous area was unlit. It took me a couple of days to get through
it. I can't figure out how I found the patience.

About the same time, I remember trying out Half-Life deathmatch online,
which was incredibly awful for several reasons. One of them was that the
most popular anti-cheating mod would prohibit you from logging in to a
game if you had adjusted your gamma settings away from the minimum setting.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

Pete wrote:

> Bring on the gloom and claustrophobia that Doom 3's environment
> encourages. If it's done right, as it is IMO in D3, it's a valuable
> ingredient to the whole recipe of intense atmospherics within a game of
> this kind.

Sure, it's great, if it's done right. One of the best gaming moments I
remember was a level in the original Doom that featured flickering
lights and dark areas. I actually screamed aloud at one point when a
monster jumped me from the shadows. It was brilliant. And I liked Thief.

I'm complaining about maps that are too dark to actually play on, all
the time, for no good reason.

> If it's too dark for too long, be it in games or films, I get suspicious
> of the designers/producers not having enough cash/time for decent effects.

I've only downloaded the really highly rated maps for UT2K4 so far.
That's part of what has me scratching my head: I'll read a review
describing the intense visuals in a map, and I load it up and I can't
see much of anything aside from weapons fire.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

On Fri, 08 Oct 2004 20:26:11 GMT, "Brian G. Vaughan"
<foolishowl_hates_spam@peoplepc.com> wrote:

>Am I the only one troubled by game designers' love affair with pitch
>darkness?
>
>For some time I've suspected there's a sort of runaway evolution, that
>reoccurs throughout many games: designers create dark maps to create
>more "mood," players turn up gamma and brightness so that they can
>actually see what the Hell is going on, and the designers release yet
>darker maps.
>
>I find it a bit irritating to max out the gamma settings in my games,
>and turn up the brightness on my monitor all the way, and still all I
>can see of an award-winning map is a few "lamps" in the distance that
>don't actually illuminate anything. Oops, fell in the
>just-barely-visible lava again. Was there a bridge or something around here?
>
>The most absurd is when I'll try out some jungle-island themed map,
>screenshots illustrating clear blue skies and a bright sun -- and it's
>still too dark to see anything. It looks like there's a solar eclipse
>going on or something.
>
>Is it just me? Have I owned several bum monitors in a row? Or do others
>have the experience of too many maps in too many games being too damned
>dark?

Are you talking about UT2004? Their jungle-island theme "Island Hop"
is very bright.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

well, haven't played D3 yet but I suppose a lot of it has to do with
your vid card, monitor, and your ut04 settings. I recall a
mountain/valley map we played in ut03 that could pretty much blind you
if you didn't adjust yer settings. We'll see if I enjoy D3 - several
clan mates have.

Ha, remember that entire level of Unreal that had the lights go out,
after you had played it when it was lit? I hated that, relying on
flairs or flashlights. Awful, made me so damn paranoid!

Folk wrote:
> On Fri, 08 Oct 2004 20:26:11 GMT, "Brian G. Vaughan"
> <foolishowl_hates_spam@peoplepc.com> wrote:
>
>
>>Am I the only one troubled by game designers' love affair with pitch
>>darkness?
>>
>>For some time I've suspected there's a sort of runaway evolution, that
>>reoccurs throughout many games: designers create dark maps to create
>>more "mood," players turn up gamma and brightness so that they can
>>actually see what the Hell is going on, and the designers release yet
>>darker maps.
>>
>>I find it a bit irritating to max out the gamma settings in my games,
>>and turn up the brightness on my monitor all the way, and still all I
>>can see of an award-winning map is a few "lamps" in the distance that
>>don't actually illuminate anything. Oops, fell in the
>>just-barely-visible lava again. Was there a bridge or something around here?
>>
>>The most absurd is when I'll try out some jungle-island themed map,
>>screenshots illustrating clear blue skies and a bright sun -- and it's
>>still too dark to see anything. It looks like there's a solar eclipse
>>going on or something.
>>
>>Is it just me? Have I owned several bum monitors in a row? Or do others
>>have the experience of too many maps in too many games being too damned
>>dark?
>
>
> Are you talking about UT2004? Their jungle-island theme "Island Hop"
> is very bright.
>
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

SomeOldDude wrote:

> Yeah, man! I just started playing the Doom 3 demo. The darkness is an
> integral part of the atmosphere. Kept the hair on the back of my neck
> standing on end practically the whole damned time.

I don't object to using darkness well -- I rather like it when it's done
well. I object to making things too dark all the damned time, so that
it's difficult to actually play the game.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

SomeOldDude enlightened us with:
> Yeah, man! I just started playing the Doom 3 demo. The darkness is an
> integral part of the atmosphere. Kept the hair on the back of my neck
> standing on end practically the whole damned time.

The stupid thing is that I was waiting for the Linux version to come
out. I played the Windows vesion on a non-surround sound system, and I
was eager to play it on my own Linux box, which does have surround.
You can imagine my disappointment when I learned the game doesn't do
surround on Linux. What's up with that?

MeltDown
--
!For all your UT99/2k3/2k4 questions visit UnrealTower's FAQ section:
! http://www.unrealtower.org/faq
!Home of the FAQs for agut and agut2003.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 20:25:01 -0400, FeldrewCo30 <feldrew@yahoo.com>
wrote:


>Ha, remember that entire level of Unreal that had the lights go out,
>after you had played it when it was lit? I hated that, relying on
>flairs or flashlights. Awful, made me so damn paranoid!

Good point. That's an example of playing in *total* darkness, yet it
was so memorable that I can still feel the paranoia today and it's
been almost eight years since I've played it.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

>
> Yeah, man! I just started playing the Doom 3 demo.

your lucky. I spent all day downloading it and can't get it to load up.
Something about my vid card not supporting some opengl stuff.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 12:37:37 -0500, "Will" <wrichmond@charter.net>
wrote:

>your lucky. I spent all day downloading it and can't get it to load up.
>Something about my vid card not supporting some opengl stuff.

If you tell us what your card is, someone might be able to help.
--
Andrew, contact via interpleb.blogspot.com
Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards,
please don't top post. Trim replies to quote only relevant text.
Check groups.google.com before asking an obvious question.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

> If you tell us what your card is, someone might be able to help.
> --
> Andrew

gigabyte 9200se. I got it going though. For some reason it likes the normal
Cats rather than the softmodded ones. |I don't really know why I thought the
Softmods just added the OCing ability rather than actually changing the
drivers like the Omegas.
 
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