darkness/lightness changing on connect

[Isoroku]

after copying the new files into the EQ directory when i enter the server my game stays really dark, it used to when i connected to the server my game would brighten up to acceptable levels.

I kinda assumed it was my graphics card being funky but with this change it instantly stopped correcting itself.

any idea's?

[Ashsun]

Having this same issue after copying the new files into EQ directory.

[Haynar]

Sounds like Classic UI darkness it looks like went in.

Woot.

Get your night vision spells out.

H

[Pringles]

This will take some getting used to! BUT i remember getting totally lost back in the day, and only because of client darkness. Should be good times.

[Skew]

You can change it by going into your gfx card settings but whenever you log or zone you will need to re-apply via the Nvidia panel. The game over-rides.
It might be classic but my PC isnt 15 years old and i kinda like to see things >< Just looks like lumpy dark shapes otherwise.

[Naldiane]

Tryed with ultra vision and dident help anything it is stil realy dark

[Skew]

I realise its a 15 year old game but being able to run everything at max and actually have a gamma setting to see sharp detail was nice. Going back to crappy dark gfx might be classic but it just makes the game look awful.

[nilbog]

screenshot test

this is what I'm seeing (click to enlarge)

http://i59.tinypic.com/33lp8gg.jpg

[Skew]

Gonna head over to that zone and see for myself. Looks way brighter than my woodelf vision is allowing.

[Byrjun]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think gamma settings will show through screenshots.

[nilbog]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think gamma settings will show through screenshots.

Used snipping tool, closed client to check for differences. Same for me either way.

[Culkasi]

dark animals are pitch black - gamma at 100%

http://i59.tinypic.com/2irlmkz.jpg

[-Catherin-]

what I am seeing.

http://i.imgur.com/mw3Yzxo.jpg



Its not necessarily the game itself being darker that bothers me, but the fact that it has darkened my UI, and also darkens every other aspect of my computer OUTSIDE of the game that is the problem.

I shouldn't have to deal with a darkened gamma forced on everything else I am doing outside of this game.

[murrpau]

http://i.imgur.com/9bT9MUT.png?1
1) If you can read this, your gamma is much brighter than mine.
2) I currently have it set, in-game, at 100%
3) I see black on black on black with a bunch of the same icon
4) No, "just put on Velious UI" is not a solution. I never used that UI, even up until the 2010s.
5) I get that by the time you're 60 you should have some kind of ultravision item or top-notch light source like a paineel key. Neither of these will affect UI elements like this.
5a) I could see "Just get ultravision" as a viable option for raid-level characters, but it isn't good enough, because if new players can't even read their spellbooks, they won't get to a level which will afford them ultravision

My feedback is complete. I'm going back to testing with another EMU character select open in the background so I get the (As I remember it: CLASSIC) shift to bright-enough-to-see.

[Endonde]

http://i62.tinypic.com/1z5hug1.png

Mine is pretty much the same as Catherin, I'm currently at max Gamma.

I don't think it is too unbearable, I will say that light sources on my end seem to make almost no difference.

[paulgiamatti]

Gamma is incredibly dark for me and apparently 90% of everyone else. Nearly unplayable, would have to adjust my screen's brightness just for EQ if it's kept this way. Please change it back to the way it was before.

[myriverse]

Sounds like Classic UI darkness it looks like went in.

Woot.

Get your night vision spells out.

H
*drool**drool**drool**drool**drool**drool**drool*

Humanz!

[-Catherin-]

except the night vision spells don't fix it either, just blue tinted darkness.

[Rupertox]

Well here is my frap in Nro with the same Configuration as before

http://youtu.be/I_IXv2Egy3I


And thats how it lkooks before

http://youtu.be/TD_qGiUjwxo

[Skew]

http://http://i.imgur.com/pf6WnvH.jpg

Havent posted an image before , does that work?

-obviously not. hmm
-ok working. That s/s looks a lot brighter that it actually does in game. The issue is with gamma. dark is very dark. Its really unpleasant to look at and overall , any details in the graphics are just lost.

http://i.imgur.com/pf6WnvH.jpg

[Haynar]

Are you equipping a light source?

H

[Byrjun]

Light sources are really noticeable for me. Ultravision (Acumen) also makes a huge difference for me. Not sure why light sources / sight spells are working for some people and not others.

[Rupertox]

in my Vid i wear Crown of King Tranix, wich has Serpent Sight

[Nuggie]

those pics dont look very convincing. looks way bright on my pc

[Bellringer]

I noticed when i first started p99 (Sept2014) that the game was far too bright and I ended up having to turn my monitor brightness down to compensate. Now its super dark and turning monitor brightness up destroys my eyes. =(

[Haynar]

It is the use dynamic lighting setting is my best guess.

Check changing that in your config.

H

[Rupertox]

It start darkening when starting to load server, and darkens the whole PC (Except google chrome, i dunno why =P)

[Rupertox]

turned on Dynamic Lighting, doesnt solve it

[Skew]

Is this a gfx card issue?
My laptop is fine (no idea what it runs , some integrated pos) but my desktop runs Nvidea gtx 570 and is fubar. I cant force the nvidea card gamma changes to hold when i zone but people with AMDs can.

[Bellringer]

Dynamic Lighting was checked. Unchecked and logged out to desktop. Relogged and ensured it was checked. Logged back in and no change with darkness issue. Still extremely dark.

[Rupertox]

AMD Radeon HD 8240 here

[douglas1999]

While I know classic was known for being dark, I do recall being able to crank my gamma up to see. Tradeoff was that everything was washed out and looked milky, but you could see in the dark. With this change, cranking the gamma brings it up to a "normal" level. I realize it's trying to emulate classic but I think this "fix" is kind of crude and not really representative of how classic gamma actually behaved, at least by my memory.

[Rupertox]

While I know classic was known for being dark, I do recall being able to crank my gamma up to see. Tradeoff was that everything was washed out and looked milky, but you could see in the dark. With this change, cranking the gamma brings it up to a "normal" level. I realize it's trying to emulate classic but I think this "fix" is kind of crude and not really representative of how classic gamma actually behaved, at least by my memory.



Plus i bet it hurts more our eyes, and it was dark mostly too because Old PCs !

[Isoroku]

what I am seeing.


I shouldn't have to deal with a darkened gamma forced on everything else I am doing outside of this game.


This is kinda were im at, my VLC is changed to dark as fuck now too. everything.

what i am seeing currently ingame(note with classic UI u can see the UI, but with my non classic UI u can't see anything)

http://i.imgur.com/U5eJOAq.png

this is what my VLC looks like now, just like EQ with basically anything that is dark colored is unreconizable.

http://i.imgur.com/MQSi0NV.png

im at max gamma/brightness on my LCD, and ingame btw

[Isoroku]

just checked on another persons computer, its my computer, the SS's i posted when viewed from his computer are fine. hrm. time to find out whats wrong.

[Silent]

Game was super dark for me as well, Ultravision didn't give me that normal blue glow to see better. It acted like it made the entire place normal pre patch look. Sometimes gamma bugs out if you DC or force close EQ, and you have to open EQ to fix the gamma again and either leave it open or restart your computer. I use my video card AMD tool to force fix gamma, and I am able to crank it up so its almost back to normal pre patch but I don't think everyone can do this or knows how.

[Margalis]

So I have a different issue, namely the sky appears to be missing in some zones

http://i.imgur.com/garhh9gl.png

In game all that white is black. It's 9am in that shot. PoG is dark as hell and wasnt two days ago. WL is the same.

Also my UI is not that bright. This looks like I washed it out, but its a straight screenshot.

[Silent]

Did you try disabling or enabling sky/sky art?

[Arteker]

Sounds like Classic UI darkness it looks like went in.

Woot.

Get your night vision spells out.

H

Acumen doesnt do great thing,skin of shadow spell having same trouble , and why all my pc aswell out of eq turned dark as hell aswell

[Skew]

I have same issue Margalis is having.

[Isoroku]

damn this stinks, i fixed my issue, im not as dark anymore, the only problem i have now is that it is making my out of game stuff darker.

any way to fix this?

edit: had to update drivers.

[Margalis]

Did you try disabling or enabling sky/sky art?


Yep. And its not even all zones, just random ones.

[Erati]

also I notice my character's items which double as a 'light source' are not working as a light source at all

namely my epic which is a rather large light source ( all epics are ) is making no difference in terms of light around me when I equip it or not

[NegaStoat]

While I know classic was known for being dark, I do recall being able to crank my gamma up to see. Tradeoff was that everything was washed out and looked milky, but you could see in the dark. With this change, cranking the gamma brings it up to a "normal" level. I realize it's trying to emulate classic but I think this "fix" is kind of crude and not really representative of how classic gamma actually behaved, at least by my memory.

Exactly. I logged in today, had my entire picture darkened to a sharp degree and noticed my text and my UI was darkened as well. It was a 'WTF?' moment because I had never played EQ with that kind of picture.

Dug out my old dell Optiplex GX620 from storage (Win XP SP3), updated the driver of the GT 620 Nivida card in it to current, and plugged in an old Samtron 96B CRT monitor to get my memory going of playing games a decade ago.

Same effect. UI + Text are incredibly dim, along with the whole picture. If this was an attempt at adjusting racial vision in darkness, some more work needs to be done on it.

I'd like to politely ask that the change be reverted so I can actually see the game without jamming up the gamma to wash it out, UI and text included.

[Ravager]

Does this mean infravision and light sources are working the way they did in classic? Leveling a elf in classic, infravision was useful for seeing mobs in the dark. On P99, if I turned the gamma down, infravision was still useless.

Also, in classic I remember greater lightstones being very useful as light sources, especially for finding your corpse in the dark, which would be illuminated by it.

[NegaStoat]

to the above poster, I was using a halfling which comes stock with Infravision that had a Guise to turn into a Dark Elf on the test server, so I had Ultravision to use as well. There was only a bare minimum of a change to my screen's brightness, and the exceptionally darkened effect on both my UI and chat text remained.

Tested on both my gaming computer as well as that ancient relic that I listed above.

[paulgiamatti]

I have to flatly argue against the "it's classic" argument. It's just an impediment to gameplay in the same way that not being able to link items is. Making everything blindingly dark, no matter how close to classic it is, doesn't better any aspect of the game. Having to manually type out each and every stat of every item, or being required to look that item up on a website, doesn't better any aspect of the game.

All this will accomplish is the requirement for people to manually adjust the brightness/contrast settings of their monitor or their video cards through a driver control each and every time they load EQ, only to have to undo that adjustment when they're done playing.

Please revert. Or, if this was purely unintentional, please work towards a fix. Thank you! Pras devs.

[Juryiel]

This is definitely not what classic looked like. As others have said, it looked dark at default gamma, but i was able to crank up the gamma and be able to see perfectly, but washed-out, which I did regularly. Here gamma seems to have almost no effect. Also, in classic darkness was dark, but during the day I could see just fine without messing with gamma, which is not the case after this patch. I can't even see my UI very well with this change. Should probably return gamma functionality to normal and work on making just night be darker.

[Burt]

/signed for leaving this display crap on beta for now until the kinks are worked out.

[Lunababy]

Also having gamma issues on the velious server. No settings have been changed from my live characters.

PS - It's not character vision. Even the UI is darker.

[The_DarkSavant]

it makes my other apps dark too and my desktop. what a shitfuck this issue is.

[khanable]

Light sources are really noticeable for me. Ultravision (Acumen) also makes a huge difference for me. Not sure why light sources / sight spells are working for some people and not others.

People who are using f.lux see no changes in gamma. I had to ask around as to what all the hubbub was.

So yea, there is that.

[Kimmie]

I always wanted to strain my eyes and have more forehead/eye wrinkles for the sake of immersion.
Thanks guys :o:o

[Vyal]

All my bright text is now almost a different color so bright it hurts my eyes everything else is dark and can't see it, I remember being able to see in classic and that was cool. I think you over did it a little otherwise it's all amazing as usual.

[Isoroku]

i downloaded flux and now im good to go ! pras.

[Vyal]

i downloaded flux and now im good to go ! pras.

I won't be downloading anything, my PC already detected multiple key loggers from the files I got to play p99.. One of them has been responsible for shutting down my mouse multiple times.
One time in chardok during a pull our entire group lost the ability to use our mouse just totally disabled for everyone in the group at the same time. Even using alt tab and the mouse was still disabled we all had to restart our systems to regain control.

Just saying it seems like a setup...
Oh sorry guys we made it so dark you can't see, download this third party program to make it all better *wink*

[Skew]

What is this flux you speak of ?
And how about rolling back this gamma issue devs? Or do we need to adapt?

[-Catherin-]

What is this flux you speak of ?
And how about rolling back this gamma issue devs? Or do we need to adapt?

https://justgetflux.com/

its been around for awhile now. Just change all the settings to max light so that it does not change to weird colors as the day goes on.

basically it will then just override the game trying to force the dark gamma on you. Its not a solution, as we shouldn't have to do this at all. But it is a workaround and hopefully they remove this problem.

[NegaStoat]

Thanks for the link. Installed, did a virus scan x3 w/ different pieces of software, and then set to max light.

The game is now playable. The UI format and chat text is still darker than classic retail due to the global shift of gamma, which is bullcrap, but it's not nearly as bad as it was without Flux.

Honest, I do appreciate all of the devs hard work. I do. The vision correction for races is something I know people have wanted for a long while and I also get the fact that this is just the first stab of an attempt in getting it to work. I just feel like the above poster - it's depressing to rely on a 3rd party piece of software to make it playable at all.

[Trax]

Revert this gamma bullshit to the way it was until you fix it. I use an IPS panel and no gamma setting is fixing this. I use the classic velious UI everything is completely dark. I cannot see anything. I can only see the white text, that's about it.

[Trax]

it makes my other apps dark too and my desktop. what a shitfuck this issue is.

Exactly. I tab over and everything is completely dark. Adjusting gamma for EQ is one thing, but when you start to effect tabbing and general use of windows, it's royally fucked.

[jake505]

Can't test, everything is dark. Please fix this.

[Trax]

I found a temporary work around using the nVidia control panel. However, you have to reset the settings every time you zone. This is class A retarded.

[The_DarkSavant]

really though...if this was an attempt at vision correction for races... it just makes me shake my head. who the fuck cares about vision correction for races like that should be way way wayyyy down on the list. i thought this whole weekend was help testing for velious so we get it going... fuck this gamma shit its dumb i'm not even logging in until its over or fixed or i guess its all over for me

[Trax]

Adjusting the racial night vision is one thing, but destroying gamma for EVERYTHING is another. You've disabled the ability for most people to clearly see their user interface. A majority of your players use windowed mode, and now windows is completely dark as well. P99's client has taken full control of the gamma settings which is absurd.

Several temporary fixes have been found but it's merely a band-aid for an issue that shouldn't even exist in the first place. You want classic EQ then let people actually see what they're doing. Yes, people were "blind" in classic EQ, and made traveling at night difficult for some races but they were at least able to see their hot buttons and interface.

Either fix this problem, or remove your gamma adjustment entirely and revert it back to the way it was prior to this patch. For me, and many others this falls under the category of completely unplayable.

[nilbog]

This is what I see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DAHvVhzB7A&feature=youtu.be

[Trax]

Okay, apparently streaming doesn't capture gamma. I will take a picture with my phone with in game gamma, and using the nvidia override.

[Trax]

Regular Gamma (http://www.inglouriousbasterds.org/images/gamma1.jpg)

Using Nvidia for Gamma Fix (http://www.inglouriousbasterds.org/images/gamma2.jpg)

[khanable]

This is what I see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DAHvVhzB7A&feature=youtu.be

This is extremely close to how I play with f.lux

Honestly, f.lux isn't super bright at all - on my human bard I had to buy a froglok crown to see in dark tunnels.

I've been fully immersed in the darkness for years now, ya'll playing eq on the surface of the sun or something

when I disable f.lux (completely close it out and restart eq) it's extremely dark - I use the same UI nilbog, and mine is hardly readable since the UI becomes so dark as well as the game.

edit: also noticed no light sources seem to be working?

[nilbog]

edit: also noticed no light sources seem to be working?

This is my video for light sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwsQxAmcSM0&list=UUT5fWQ5Zt-RlEaokU6xz8XQ

At this point I'm really interested if people are seeing things differently than I am.

[Tankdan]

Video/Screenshots won't work for other people. I posted a screenshot of my nearly pitch black screen in ThurgA:

http://i.imgur.com/G8VOmnq.jpg


but then rebooted my PC, and that^ screenshot suddenly looked perfectly fine.. But when I load EQ, its back to pitch black to where I cant even see the color of my or other peoples armor in both ThurgA and Skyshrine.

[Layze]

I'm definitely seeing stuff different than you. No matter what kind of character I make and regardless of light source and vision buffs, my client still looks like Trax's. Whats weird is my UI is much darker. I notice because I picked Vert Pepto as a UI because its easy to see. Its no longer bright pepto bismol colored and instead it has a shitty brown hue now that ruins it.

[khanable]

Ah, if "use advanced lighting" is disabled in options then you won't see light sources

fixed that portion

edit: forgot I had this disabled for nro duels due to how absolutely awful it is - a bunch of people sitting around with light sources on a reflective ground makes things awful

[Callon]

The gamma changes to whacky darkness when the loading screen starts between server select and character selection screen...

If it was after character selection screen in game I would be ok with it, but it is not.

[Malevz]

Wow that's hard on the eyes. Sun is in the sky and dark elves see like humans with sunglasses on live. Neat. Fingers crossed this gets fixed.

[Malevz]

This is what I see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DAHvVhzB7A&feature=youtu.be

I will give you a bloomin onion and a double down to tell me how to see again.

[Ravager]

The thing about classic infravision was it had nothing to do with the gamma (screen brightness). With classic infravision, everything would be just as dark, but the mobs would stand out, they'd have kind of a reddish hue to them and be just a bit brighter. I'm probably not explaining that well enough, though. If infravision doesn't work like that with this patch though, the darkness is pretty pointless imo.

[Malevz]

If it was a sight thing I don't think the interface would be darker... unless...

Do my chars see the interface?? DO THEY KNOW IT"S ALL JUST A GAME??

[Trax]

Video/Screenshots won't work for other people. I posted a screenshot of my nearly pitch black screen in ThurgA:

http://i.imgur.com/G8VOmnq.jpg


but then rebooted my PC, and that^ screenshot suddenly looked perfectly fine.. But when I load EQ, its back to pitch black to where I cant even see the color of my or other peoples armor in both ThurgA and Skyshrine.

You cannot capture gamma in game via screenshot/video recording. The gamma will load differently for everyone when trying to show them a screenshot. You have to take a picture of the screen from another device. Cell phone, digital camera, etc.

[nilbog]

Guys I'm trying here. I hope this isn't just a difference is my setup versus yours.

Do my submissions seem ok? Or not?

[Skew]

nilbog it seems hard to tell looking at someone elses screenshot/video capture.
i know as a woodelf/darkelf my vision right now is not classic and just seems like a gamma problem. All detail is washed out.
i'll try to post some screenshots tomorrow, might have to load up eq live to compare.

[khanable]

let me see if I can setup a tripod and record my screen with no other light sources going on and show differences for you

all the fraps/shadowplay/screen capture stuff I tried didn't work in really showing how dark it can be

[Tankdan]

Got my cell phone out since video/ss do not pick up gamma (your video looks fine, but that is not how we see it in game), and this doesnt even do it justice because its even darker than shown.

How it should look:
http://i.imgur.com/yfJ27u7.jpg

The dark void it looks like now:
http://i.imgur.com/7lxwz6D.jpg

As you can see, I cant even see the armor color of people around me whatsoever. It is a mess. It is entirely unplayable unless I use 3rd party programs. I cant even see people without the nametag above their head.

[Gibbyfest420]

I understand gamma and making the vision spells more useful however I see no difference between races its just all terribly dark. I tried loading 2 clients it kinda helps, my nvidia control panel doesnt help, and loading WinEQ is a terrible sollution. If your gonna make light be more of a factor at least adjust so infravision and ultravision works. Please !

[Himalayan]

The darkness of the game itself is very classic. Old everquest was a dark and scary place, and p99 has always seemed way too bright. The problem I see is with the UI. I'm having the same problem as lots of folks, everything has its gamma adjusted, not just the game. I can barely see parts of my UI and it even darkens my browser on the 2nd monitor.

Messed around with WinEQ and it fixes the issue completely. Everything seems perfect using this. Looking at your YT vid nilbog everything seems perfect except for your UI as well.

[Skew]

Tankdan's s/s goes someway to showing the problem . Thats pretty much what i see. Like my gfx engine died or something.

[norova]

What you see in-game is irrelevant. Adjusting EQ gamma adjusts the entire OS' gamma and it makes the rest of my machine practically unusable. Cranked to 100% it's a bit better but still way lower than it should be. If there was a way to adjust ONLY the eqgame.exe gamma, go for it, but if it effects my entire machine, no thanks.

The common denominator for people not having problems vs. people who are having problems seems to be WinEQ2.0. I don't use it, I play in windowed mode with regular EQ client.

[murrpau]

Bear in mind that Tankdan took that picture with a device that brightened it a little, automatically. Cell phones and digital cameras do this (like point one at your window during the day then point it at the carpet and watch the rapid gamma correction)
Nilbog, we're trying too, so let me put it this way:

- Your screenshot looks fine right now.
- Because my beta client isn't running right now

- When I load up the new beta client, then tab out to look at your screenshot, your screenshot will look dark as if I'm looking through 4 pairs of stacked-up sunglass lenses at it.

[NegaStoat]

The thing about classic infravision was it had nothing to do with the gamma (screen brightness). With classic infravision, everything would be just as dark, but the mobs would stand out, they'd have kind of a reddish hue to them and be just a bit brighter. I'm probably not explaining that well enough, though. If infravision doesn't work like that with this patch though, the darkness is pretty pointless imo.

Holy crap, I'd completely forgotten about this until you mentioned it. I recall first starting with a High Elf character outside of Felwithe and being able to spot the bats easy as hell because of their reddish tint in night time hours. Likewise, I was extra pleased with my dark elf magician due to the way Ultravision would cut right through the fog of Rain so it only had a minimal obscuring effect. Made mob dodging in the Karanas so much easier.

[Skew]

WinEq had the ability to fix gamma and so override the game client i believe. Would rather not use it or f. lux though.
I play window mode. Apparently some gfx cards have options to pre-set gamma for an .exe. Will look into that angle. Its not the darkness that bothers me , its the game looking like pacman 1982 that does.

[rubinoff]

Sorry in advance for terrible pictures taken with my cell phone. I have a 95% NTSC Color Gamut professionally calibrated screen that I play on. When entering the game my gamma is darkened significantly over this calibration. The current in game 100% gamma is it still significantly lower than my default out of game setting. Meaning at 100% in game gamma I cannot match the professional calibration. It takes about 20% increase in gamma to match my out of game settings. I always played with boosted gamma in game so it takes about 30-35% to match my previous levels of gamma before the patch. I've attached some terrible pictures below to show what I see. I have no idea why they came out so terrible using my phone. The first picture is current 100% in game gamma, this picture does not even show how dark it is in game so I turned the gamma down again to 50% and took another picture. This one looks like what I am seeing while trying to play. I also took a picture at 20% boosted which matches my out of game levels for brightness. Hopefully this helps in some way. EDIT : 20-35% over 100% setting in game. I was on 67%ish in game before which was equal to the ~135% now.

[khanable]

Did lots of playing around.

I am NOT using WinEQ2.0, just using normal window mode:

At anything less than 100% gamma the game is a bit too dark (as well as the UI). The UI looks underexposed and oversaturated.

At 100% gamma it honestly looks pretty good.

On my machine at least!

[rubicaant]

This seems related, while attempting a vindi raid, with advanced lighting on, the background was extremely bright.

http://imgur.com/Hm1alUo

With lighting off, it looked normal. My assumption is that it's all the light sources extremely blown out because my gamma is at 100% just to be able to see my ui.

http://imgur.com/IIoapQl

[Malevz]

Not sure if this will help, but everything is fine on server select. When I start to load into the server the loading screens are really dark too.

[khanable]

Made a human, currently 9PM in game in nro (near efp zoneline)

at 100% gamma things look great.

Not as dark as classic (the world), but it's a good balance between darkness/non-bad UI coloring

[rubinoff]

Well here is my frap in Nro with the same Configuration as before

http://youtu.be/I_IXv2Egy3I


And thats how it lkooks before

http://youtu.be/TD_qGiUjwxo

I would also like to add these videos approximate what I see in game. Rupert is using an ATI card and I am using an Nvidia. I know everyone has said your personal settings effect what you see in SS/Videos but to me it looks like what I am seeing in game.

[Trax]

The UI looks underexposed and oversaturated.


I play windowed mode, no WinEQ. IPS Panel Monitor. 100% gamma, still garbage. Everything is completely dark unless I use Nvidia to control my gamma. Also, once I close EQ, everything stays dark. Windows gamma doesn't reset.

[khanable]

I play windowed mode, no WinEQ. IPS Panel Monitor. 100% gamma, still garbage. Everything is completely dark unless I use Nvidia to control my gamma. Also, once I close EQ, everything stays dark. Windows gamma doesn't reset.

Must be something specific going on with your system then - at 100% gamma, my windows darkness/colors don't change (if they do, it's very small amounts). <100% and I start seeing my OS become very noticeably darker..

I'm also on an IPS panel.

[rubinoff]

I play windowed mode, no WinEQ. IPS Panel Monitor. 100% gamma, still garbage. Everything is completely dark unless I use Nvidia to control my gamma. Also, once I close EQ, everything stays dark. Windows gamma doesn't reset.

For me closing the game reverts the gamma to a brighter level. The problem for me is using nvidia control panel to boost the gamma leaves the system ultra bright when the game closes. You then have to open it again to revert the settings to get everything back to normal.

[rubinoff]

I play windowed mode, no WinEQ. IPS Panel Monitor. 100% gamma, still garbage. Everything is completely dark unless I use Nvidia to control my gamma. Also, once I close EQ, everything stays dark. Windows gamma doesn't reset.

Trax using the nvidia gamma would you say the patch has approximately cut the gamma level in half for you? Thats what it looks like to me 67% gamma pre patch is now 135% post patch?

[rubinoff]

Must be something specific going on with your system then - at 100% gamma, my windows darkness/colors don't change (if they do, it's very small amounts). <100% and I start seeing my OS become very noticeably darker..

I'm also on an IPS panel.

I'm confused by what your saying, obviously dropping the gamma makes the windows darker. Leaving at 100 wont change any brightness since the gamma isnt increasing. Its also late so I might just be missing the point.

[khanable]

I'm confused by what your saying, obviously dropping the gamma makes the windows darker. Leaving at 100 wont change any brightness since the gamma isnt increasing. Its also late so I might just be missing the point.

I left out

"when I close out EQ when it's <100% gamma my OS resets to whatever it was previously"

yes, it's late, sorry lol

[Chrysus]

Sounds like Classic UI darkness it looks like went in.

Woot.

Get your night vision spells out.

H

I'm 100% for classic darkness, but this is a really crude imitation of it. IMO, leave it out until you get get it not affecting the UI, or at least non-EQ windows. It makes it doing anything else on my computer suck if p99 is running.

[Zaruk]

I'm 100% for classic darkness, but this is a really crude imitation of it. IMO, leave it out until you get get it not affecting the UI, or at least non-EQ windows. It makes it doing anything else on my computer suck if p99 is running.

I totally agree.

[Technique]

I'm 100% for classic darkness, but this is a really crude imitation of it.Yeah, this was an embarrassingly naive hack.

[sulpher01]

Infravision and ultravision do nothing.

Also yea, as others have stated.. in classic, it didnt effect the UI or other windows apps.

[Rupertox]

I would also like to add these videos approximate what I see in game. Rupert is using an ATI card and I am using an Nvidia. I know everyone has said your personal settings effect what you see in SS/Videos but to me it looks like what I am seeing in game.

Yeah, i think i will not be able to play anymore if this continue like this, hurts my eyes to Much and i still cant see anything, i just see the name of the ppl.

[Latege]

Completely unplayable with 100% gamma and Tranix Crown.

It happens as soon as you hit play from server select, even char select is super dark. Before this when I would hit play it would get brighter.

[Feanol]

First off... Thank you Haynar.

I logged into North Ro to see how this new lighting worked and I couldn't be more happy. It was like I was back on Classic. It sparked a memory of hunting Dervishes solo on my live Rogue, with rain pouring down and only the bandit's campfire to illuminate the night as nightmarish creatures roamed the dunes...

Lanterns, Torches, my character's Dance of the Fireflies spell, were all so comically useless before. I was doing some testing for brightness and confirmed the items have different levels/fields of illumination. Firefly Globe gave off a soft orange glow, whereas a Small Lantern was much brighter and had a greater field of effect. I can also confirm my Infra-vision had a noticeable effect after those first ten seconds or so it takes to kick in.

My User Interface is certainly darker, but nothing unmanageable. Maybe a few of my darker color hotkeys/text fields will need to be brightened but it's nothing like some of the screenshots I've been seeing posted here. Totally usable.

I'm not like these other savages, Haynar, I'm not so addled with ADHD that I need to keep EverQuest in a window in the corner of my screen while I watch a movie and browse Facebook while Skyping my nephew on a separate monitor.

Full screen in this new lighting is all the immersion I've ever wanted. I can't wait to see those hapless Humans and their ilk stumble around the night and bump into trees. Perhaps I'll offer them A Torch...

[Silent]

Please for the sake of all that is good, remove the gamma/darkness changes until it is fixed properly. I appreciate all the work you guys have done for the latest patch, but Ultravision/shadowsight, boosting gamma video AMD control center to maximum its a full time job especially if your a person who frequently tabs out to check internet or watch a tv show while playing. The UI is significantly darker and some things almost impossible to see. I don't understand why the UI would be darker /shrug. Personally I can cast ultravision or have a tranix crown on any char I play and I admit classic classic WAS super dark if you had no items, but there is something totally wrong atm with it.

[The_DarkSavant]

First off... Thank you Haynar.

I logged into North Ro to see how this new lighting worked and I couldn't be more happy. It was like I was back on Classic. It sparked a memory of hunting Dervishes solo on my live Rogue, with rain pouring down and only the bandit's campfire to illuminate the night as nightmarish creatures roamed the dunes...

Lanterns, Torches, my character's Dance of the Fireflies spell, were all so comically useless before. I was doing some testing for brightness and confirmed the items have different levels/fields of illumination. Firefly Globe gave off a soft orange glow, whereas a Small Lantern was much brighter and had a greater field of effect. I can also confirm my Infra-vision had a noticeable effect after those first ten seconds or so it takes to kick in.

My User Interface is certainly darker, but nothing unmanageable. Maybe a few of my darker color hotkeys/text fields will need to be brightened but it's nothing like some of the screenshots I've been seeing posted here. Totally usable.

I'm not like these other savages, Haynar, I'm not so addled with ADHD that I need to keep EverQuest in a window in the corner of my screen while I watch a movie and browse Facebook while Skyping my nephew on a separate monitor.

Full screen in this new lighting is all the immersion I've ever wanted. I can't wait to see those hapless Humans and their ilk stumble around the night and bump into trees. Perhaps I'll offer them A Torch...

you're a dumbass

-sixsix
-blue

[mindeen]

I can't see the icons for my armor anymore they are so dark, but the whites are still (1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f). Likewise the default green for the ooc chat in the default UI is 1/4 the brightness it previously was. The game is playing really in the wrong portion of the gamma curve.

Not sure how you guys are modifying the client; but if you can't access the frame buffer and modify the gamma there directly then don't do it at all please.

If you do have access to the frame buffer then see how to do it correctly here:

http://http.developer.nvidia.com/GPUGems3/gpugems3_ch24.html

[NegaStoat]

My User Interface is certainly darker, but nothing unmanageable. Maybe a few of my darker color hotkeys/text fields will need to be brightened but it's nothing like some of the screenshots I've been seeing posted here. Totally usable.

I'm not like these other savages, Haynar, I'm not so addled with ADHD that I need to keep EverQuest in a window in the corner of my screen while I watch a movie and browse Facebook while Skyping my nephew on a separate monitor.

I'm pretty sure what the pages of this thread is telling Haynar is that different systems with different cards, drivers, and operating systems are having different results with how much is changed with this patch involving the darkness and gamma.

And you have absolutely zero (0) clue if the people reporting back are using windowed mode while dealing with a crap darkened UI + chat lettering or not. I personally use full screen on two different machines, with Win 7 + GTX 750 ti sc card on one and Win XP SP3 + GT 620 on the other, and I'm getting shit on both.

Using F.lux results in getting some of my UI and lettering to look halfways normal, but it still looks like complete ass. And it's NOT classic in tint or brightness.

All of that said, if there's something unique that people are doing with their machines that lessen the effect to make it look like classic, I'm all ears to try it.

Edit - both machines and their cards were updated to the latest November 2014 drivers. It didn't help.

[Tankdan]

http://i.imgur.com/1qHqK2Y
http://i.imgur.com/GgxBVO7

These look a little brighter than in game but hopefully you can get the jist of it. You can see the UI is way too dark as well.
Screenshots dont show Gamma, because its entirely based on the gamma of the person viewing the screenshot, which makes them look perfectly fine. Have to bust out your cell phone.

[Nefarum]

Its not necessarily the game itself being darker that bothers me, but the fact that it has darkened my UI, and also darkens every other aspect of my computer OUTSIDE of the game that is the problem.

I shouldn't have to deal with a darkened gamma forced on everything else I am doing outside of this game.

I agree completely with this. It's making P99 almost unplayable for me, especially because I like to play while I do work.

This change is implemented in a really really poor way. I can barely see anything, and it hurts my eyes. This really needs to be undone. You're taking the "classic" mantra too far here.

[Latege]

Screenshots dont show Gamma, because its entirely based on the gamma of the person viewing the screenshot, which makes them look perfectly fine. Have to bust out your cell phone.

Just imagine everything in that first picture is 100% black except the geonid in the background. Cannot see floor or walls at all, or differentiate between them.

[Vyal]

The real question is why is EQ effecting all of the windows OS now. It's almost like theres a screen capture overlay running and the gamma is being controlled there.
Like how you can set the gamma in different video recording programs and it effects every program.
I dunno but im going to start going through these patches and if I find screen capture, mouse trackers and or key loggers im gonna be pretty pissed.
For you guys to come out and just say "ya this was intentional for classic immersion" seems odd because everyone knows it wasn't classic.

[getsome]

P99 .dlls affecting display changes on our PCs outside our game window is a hack. This change is not classic it is a hack. The reason it happens is because EQ is changing the gamma exponent of the display, instead of changing the gamma exponent of the Direct3D device it uses to render the game.

[khanable]

For as long as I've played EQ in a window the in game gamma setting always affected the OS? It was usually the other way around for me though, everything would brighten up when eq launched. Now at 100% I have no brightening or darkening. Ui looks properly exposed and game looks properly dark.

Have yall tried setting 100% in game, camping (not /q), restarting your machine, and then trying?

[Rupertox]

i found (a guildie told me) a solution, temporal solution... (dunno if anyone said it here already)

open the command promp Win + R

type: dccw.exe

Click "next step" 3 times

Move teh bar to adjust your gamme.


It works until you zone, when Everquest then Touches your config again, what i do is to keep that window open and touch it after each zone .


PD: I do not know why Everquest have to touch my PC Config, dont know if thats good

[Valerik]

Is there a config file that dccw.exe calls that you can set to read only after you change it?

[Rupertox]

i dunno but even with that setup somehow is hurting my eyes alot IRL

[Valerik]

There's a WINEQ 2.0 setting under Options -> EverQuest called Lock Gamma. You might try that if you're using WinEQ

[Rupertox]

not using WinEQ anyway ill wait to servers open, check how it goes the first 2 hours, then park EQ until it gets fixed, i feel that it hurting my eyes hard.

[khanable]

Here is how things are working for me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgRQi2BVIkw

On a desktop - Nvidia GTX660Ti, U2412m monitor, 100% gamma - human bard -> dark elf bard, froglok crown on/off. No external gamma fuckerwithers, just Nvidia control panel set to application controlled and flux completely closed out. EQ in a normal window (not using wineq2.0).

How many of ya'll with extreme darkness are on a laptop?

edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghyMkNLkBng v2 now with bard ultravision song

[paulgiamatti]

This is extremely close to how I play with f.lux

Honestly, f.lux isn't super bright at all - on my human bard I had to buy a froglok crown to see in dark tunnels.

I've been fully immersed in the darkness for years now, ya'll playing eq on the surface of the sun or something

when I disable f.lux (completely close it out and restart eq) it's extremely dark - I use the same UI nilbog, and mine is hardly readable since the UI becomes so dark as well as the game.

f.lux also fixes the problem for me, although it's still super annoying to have to adjust f.lux to the brightest possible setting in order to have EQ look relatively normal, since I normally use f.lux when I'm not playing EQ to dim the brightness of my monitor.

[khanable]

Talked to a few folks in game (and out)

I'm a statistician IRL and I'm going to ignore everything I know

People who think it looks decent/classic/not awful = desktop
People who think it's literally unplayable = laptop
People who don't care = zanderr = mac desktop and laptop and no shits given

Causation and stuff

[Callon]

It happens as soon as you hit play from server select, even char select is super dark. Before this when I would hit play it would get brighter.

+1 Happening when I hit play from server select. As stated previously.

Also I am playing on a Laptop.

[Malrubius]

It's not a desktop/laptop thing. It's a full screen/windowed thing. If you are full-screen, you won't notice that the rest of your system is hosed up.

I'm all for classic darkness, and giving some purpose to infravision, ultravision, and all those light-source objects. Before I ran EQ this morning, I was on the dark side.

BUT, now that I've run it *on a desktop* - my email is dark, my browser is dark, my background screen is dark. Everything is dark. This would be considered a heinous bug with any other program, and I think it's a bug here too.

[khanable]

It's not a desktop/laptop thing. It's a full screen/windowed thing. If you are full-screen, you won't notice that the rest of your system is hosed up.

I'm all for classic darkness, and giving some purpose to infravision, ultravision, and all those light-source objects. Before I ran EQ this morning, I was on the dark side.

BUT, now that I've run it *on a desktop* - my email is dark, my browser is dark, my background screen is dark. Everything is dark. This would be considered a heinous bug with any other program, and I think it's a bug here too.

Adjust to 100% gamma in game, camp out (don't q), restart computer, see if it's still terrible to your system.

After doing this I don't see much, if any, change in darkness to other OS things

[Malrubius]

Adjust to 100% gamma in game, camp out (don't q), restart computer, see if it's still terrible to your system.

After doing this I don't see much, if any, change in darkness to other OS things
Thanks, definite improvement. Running EQ still darkens everything, but not to the same extent. It's more useable now, but still an intrusive implementation, imo.

[Margalis]

Zone that had skies before patch but don't now and are permanent dark -

Plane of Growth
Wakening Lands
Cobalt Scar

Possibly missing - Plane of Mischief. Looking at Alla screenshots the sky is dark grey, but mine is the same pitch black.

All screenshot I take in these zones have the same BRIGHT white sky/tinting that my previous screenshot did. In game Black, in screens white.
Other zones are fine. I have tried every combo of sky on/off/layering I could think of.

My video card is shite. I play on an old laptop. It's an Intel HD Graphics card. Windows 7

[Man0warr]

Haynar you have outdone yourself - this is worse than the 1% spell resist patch in it's unclassic implementation. Whatever you did, it destroys the gamma on entire computers, not just EQ.

[douglas1999]

I noticed that the titanium client's built-in ultravision is still present, so I don't really see how this patch makes vision spells any more useful. I still get the titanium auto-ultravision that kicks in 30-40 seconds after logging in, which makes all the geometry of the landscape blueish. It's just like 80% darker now.

I like the intent behind this change but definitely think it needs some re-tooling before it's implemented. Please revert.

[Origin]

I don't care so much that it fucks with EQs gamma. If you want us to play blind, that's your prerogative. But the fact that my comp's gamma is fucked while playing EQ (read: can't see shit even when tabbed out, Captain) really pisses me off.

Fix it, please.

[khanable]

I don't care so much that it fucks with EQs gamma. If you want us to play blind, that's your prerogative. But the fact that my comp's gamma is fucked while playing EQ (read: can't see shit even when tabbed out, Captain) really pisses me off.

Fix it, please.

Did you do this:

Adjust to 100% gamma in game, camp out (don't q), restart computer, see if it's still terrible to your system.

After doing this I don't see much, if any, change in darkness to other OS things

[Bellringer]

Did you do this:

I did. Still dark.

[khanable]

I did. Still dark.

Well no shit :p

Was it an improvement?

What kind of system do you use? laptop, desktop?

[derpcake]

Way dark even with gamma at max.

Rest of comp fine.

[Margalis]

http://i.imgur.com/vg42Ib9l.png

Great Divide is now Fubar as well.

Funny thing here is the screenshot is dark until I upload it to imgur, at which point it became blinding.

I would really like this to turn out to be a user error at this point. :|

[Bellringer]

So here is something. I went into my desktop (windows 7) color settings (control panel -> appearance and personalization -> display -> calibrate color). After completing the prompts, I went back into game and it was 100% fixed.... until i camped. As soon as I /camped to character select, it reverted back to dark as hell. The game is doing something to your desktop gamma settings. I don't know how.

While at character select I completed the process again. While entering the game, it reset to really dark again.

While I would really not want to go through this process each time I log in, relog, etc. It is a temp fix that hopefully gives some of you guys info as so why/how EQ is doing this.

Edit:

It is almost as if the game is ignoring your system gamma and forcing its own gamma onto the user during the loading process. While that's fine, its currently a little too dark.

[khanable]

It is almost as if the game is ignoring your system gamma and forcing its own gamma onto the user during the loading process. While that's fine, its currently a little too dark.

I'm a bit confused about a lot of the comments where people are questioning why EQ suddenly controls your OS gamma settings - wasn't this always the case? I get that it was likely dependent on your system, but as long as I can remember window mode always made the rest of my desktop washed out.

Seems like they just "locked" a max gamma. Which for people who didn't have it change their OS gamma it suddenly does?

I dunno. I don't get it. All I know that we can do is report what type of system we have and describe what is going on and try our best to screenshot/record it.

[Man0warr]

The game is doing something to your desktop gamma settings. I don't know how.

Pretty sure they are forcing it on the system settings using their nifty DLL they have running to track down multiple IP address infractions, botting, hacking, etc.

Not classic, but for what it was being used for (curbing hacking) and not what it could be used for (gathering system information, keyboard logging, etc), most people weren't complaining.

I'm a bit confused about a lot of the comments where people are questioning why EQ suddenly controls your OS gamma settings - wasn't this always the case? I get that it was likely dependent on your system, but as long as I can remember window mode always made the rest of my desktop washed out.

Never happened to me using WinEQ2 and either ATI or Nvidia cards (I had both at different times) once windowed mode was made available. It's possible WinEQ2 had some sort of fix that it ran to prevent the washed out desktop.

Also, even if what you say happened did - that's the complete opposite of what's happening on P99. I could deal with my desktop being washed out, but P99 is making the desktop gamma lower which makes doing anything else on my computer a huge fucking chore. The worst part is when closing EQ it doesn't restore the gamma correctly.

[Bellringer]

Hokay.

Windows 7
AMD Radeon 6700 Series (6770 I belelive)
Processor AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 965 Processor, 3400 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
4 GB RAM

[khanable]

Pretty sure they are forcing it on the system settings using their nifty DLL they have running to track down multiple IP address infractions, botting, hacking, etc.

Not classic, but for what it was being used for (curbing hacking) and not what it could be used for (gathering system information, keyboard logging, etc), most people weren't complaining.



Never happened to me using WinEQ2 and either ATI or Nvidia cards (I had both at different times) once windowed mode was made available. It's possible WinEQ2 had some sort of fix that it ran to prevent the washed out desktop.

Also, even if what you say happened did - that's the complete opposite of what's happening on P99. I could deal with my desktop being washed out, but P99 is making the desktop gamma lower which makes doing anything else on my computer a huge fucking chore. The worst part is when closing EQ it doesn't restore the gamma correctly.

Have you done any of the suggestions in this thread? I.e., not use wineq, set to 100% and camp fully/restart, etc?

[zanderklocke]

Talked to a few folks in game (and out)

I'm a statistician IRL and I'm going to ignore everything I know

People who think it looks decent/classic/not awful = desktop
People who think it's literally unplayable = laptop
People who don't care = zanderr = mac desktop and laptop and no shits given

Causation and stuff

I liek!!!1

I run bootcamp on an iMac and play in windowed mode through WinEQ 2...you do not want to play full screen on a 27 inch monitor. I downloaded f lux per Cucumber's advice, and that seemed to make everything much better. You can just disable it when you're not playing the game if you don't like how it tints your monitor to protect your eyes.

I have not tested on my 13 inch macbook pro bootcamped.

Yeah, it looks different than before, but with f lux, it's pretty tolerable. Long-term I suppose it would be nice to have this fixed or reworked, and I can sympathize with people who don't want to put more software on their computer to make the game run better. However, for the time being, I highly suggest trying f lux.

http://clarksvillewtf.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/reading-rainbow.jpg

[ghost182]

have ultravision, light source, 100% gamma, just maxxed my screen brightness. I can see but this is not ideal.

[Thyrm]

WinEQ has an option called "lock gamma" that seems to prevent whatever this horrible dark filter is.

[Man0warr]

Have you done any of the suggestions in this thread? I.e., not use wineq, set to 100% and camp fully/restart, etc?

I don't use WinEQ2 on for P99 as the default windowed mode with Titanium client has always worked fine for me.

Also, you and other people suggesting 3rd party program like F.lux to get around the issue makes you guys sound like total hypocrites. Play without F.lux if you want the intended developer experience rabble rabble.

I don't want to have to use WinEQ2 or F.lux to get around this issue, doesn't that prove the whole change is retarded?

[paulgiamatti]

Yeah, definitely install f.lux and just crank it to the brightest setting for now if you haven't. Plus f.lux is awesome in general.

[khanable]

I don't use WinEQ2 on for P99 as the default windowed mode with Titanium client has always worked fine for me.

Also, you and other people suggesting 3rd party program like F.lux to get around the issue makes you guys sound like total hypocrites. Play without F.lux if you want the intended developer experience rabble rabble.

I don't want to have to use WinEQ2 or F.lux to get around this issue, doesn't that prove the whole change is retarded?

I fixed my own issues. I originally used F.lux to fix it and I found better ways to fix it. I never advocated using wineq2. I said not to use it.

It works out of the box for me - no flux, no gamma hacks in the nvidia control panel, just works and looks great. Read the thread.

[Nefarum]

So we can see that this gamma change affects some people a ton, some a bit, others not at all. Then there's people who have installed 3rd party programs to undo the change completely. It's not affecting everyone in the same way, and just making a portion of the players experience miserable.

This change needs to be undone.

[NegaStoat]

The best fix that worked for me and my setup (a WinXP SP 3 machine w/ Nvidia card).

Entered the game, opened up the game options panel, selected Display, moved the Gamma slider to 100. Closed the options panel, camped the character out normally to the character select screen, exited the client from there normally with a logout. Once I was back on Desktop, I restarted my computer.

On my desktop once more, I right clicked on it to bring up my quick Windows display menu and selected NVidia control panel. Under the Display portion of the control panel I clicked on 'adjust desktop color settings'. From here I moved my Gamma from the normal 100 setting to 135.

I did install the F.lux program that was linked earlier in this thread and now I start it. I've set the 'daytime' and 'at night' settings slider bubbles all the way to the right and closed the tab.

At this point I can play the game with my UI and chat letter text at the same brightness and quality I had before. When I'm done playing the game and I'm back on my desktop, I can pull up the Nvidia panel again and take my gamma back from 135 to 100 for a normal appearance.

This is a super stupid ghetto way of keeping my UI + text looking the way before this fix, but I'll cope. I've decided to just set up a dual boot Win 7 / Win XP partition on my gaming computer and have the Win XP boot be solely for EQ use, so all of the above isn't too troublesome for me.

I really hope this helps others. It would be better if the whole thing was reverted so that the global Gamma change didn't take out the UI+ chat as a blanket effect.

[drelk001]

I noticed this when I logged back in... woot woot, thank glob I play a gnome :)

[paulgiamatti]

Yeah, it's dumb, but I guess I can't harsh on the devs too much. It's a free game, they're volunteering their time, etc. and so forth.

Plus it might just be an ongoing thing that we don't have a completely full understanding of - like, maybe some other changes they implemented required them to do this, and now they have to find a way to mitigate the gamma change, which they're probably already working on. Give them time, install f.lux, figure out a workaround for now. Support devs! Pras.

[Haynar]

It was my change FYI. And it looks great on machines I used to test. Not too dark, unless you were in a dark dungeon with no light.

Testing these type of changes for the masses is difficult, except on beta. I have another attempt to fix, but it may never get tried due to the complexities of testing.

If I were able to reproduce the results other have had, then I could test if it is possible at all.

To the people screaming and complaining: It was put out to test on the beta server. Testing takes place on beta. Get used to it.

H

[Man0warr]

So since the vast majority are having issues in testing, is the change going to be reverted? Velious and Blue share patches at the moment so it's already live.

No one is against gamma changes in EverQuest (humans should be punished) - people are complaining that your implementation is causing issues OUTSIDE of EverQuest that require computer restarts to fix unless you use 3rd party programs. This doesn't seem like the type of change to push straight to Blue/Red without feedback but I guess that is more up to Rogean/Nilbog than you.

[Malrubius]

Would it be possible to just darken the game world (avoiding the UI) by using the necessary D3D9 methods?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb174434(v=vs.85).aspx

Edit, bah, nm, this affects the entire screen too. Hmm.

Edit 2 - I think the only way to affect ONLY the game world might be to run its RGB values through a simple macro that reduces them by whatever amount makes sense for the char/equip/place. Probably the lights' RGBs, but I suppose vertex RGBs would work too. /shrug

[Haynar]

It did not darken my UI though.

H

[getsome]

It did not darken my UI though.

H

Perhaps you can share your set up. a quick copy and paste from dxdiag.

[rubinoff]

I'm not sure why people don't understand that a game can request to change the system gamma. It's not a conspiracy involving the staff installing spyware in the patch. This is something that is normal, you can test it by running games in windowed mode and adjusting the graphics settings. Some games will adjust the settings (temporarily until you exit) for the whole system. The under options for your graphics card you will find something which says Choose how color is set...A - Other applications/games control color setting or B - Use(force) nvidia/ati/system etc settings.

The problem is that now you have to force the system to run gamma higher than 100% in game. When you exit the settings no loner revert to your default and have to be manually adjusted every time. It sounds like a rework is in the pipeline which is good news!

[douglas1999]

Using photoshop I altered the kunark loadscreen to match what I'm seeing since this patch went in. I tried doing this with my cellphone but the images are so crappy looking I feel it would just confuse the issue more.

First image is the un-altered Kunark loading screen. If your system gamma is currently normal, it should look normal. Second image is an extremely close approximation of what I now see as my loading screen. I'm running winXP with a Geforce 8600 GT, latest drivers.

http://i.imgur.com/VLNgTFW.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/POQf1Hr.jpg

[Rupertox]

It was my change FYI. And it looks great on machines I used to test. Not too dark, unless you were in a dark dungeon with no light.

Testing these type of changes for the masses is difficult, except on beta. I have another attempt to fix, but it may never get tried due to the complexities of testing.

If I were able to reproduce the results other have had, then I could test if it is possible at all.

To the people screaming and complaining: It was put out to test on the beta server. Testing takes place on beta. Get used to it.

H

Hi Haynar, i would want to say you that it Darkenst same way than in beta when i try to log in into blue (to Character Select screen....)

[Lunababy]

It was my change FYI. And it looks great on machines I used to test. Not too dark, unless you were in a dark dungeon with no light.

Testing these type of changes for the masses is difficult, except on beta. I have another attempt to fix, but it may never get tried due to the complexities of testing.

If I were able to reproduce the results other have had, then I could test if it is possible at all.

To the people screaming and complaining: It was put out to test on the beta server. Testing takes place on beta. Get used to it.

H

I would request this change not go live until it is perfected at a later date. Even if it's non-classic, the pre-patch gamma was great as-is.

[Grimjaw]

I shouldn't have to deal with a darkened gamma forced on everything else I am doing outside of this game.

LOL I thought I was just losing it... but did it really darken my browser

[jake505]

Understood that this change is for testing on the beta server, but will this change be rolling out to blue along with the recent Dec 1st patch notes? Haynor can you confirm?

Hope this change isn't rolled out until all the kinks are worked out because the problems seem widespread (1 in 3 messages in ooc are about how dark the game is). For me the game is close to unplayable (super dark, ui is darkened). I've used flux, maxed gamma, have ultravision and light source and it is still really dark.

[Haynar]

Cant confirm, but would expect the gamma changes to not go out as is.

H

[Grimjaw]

LOL I thought I was just losing it... but did it really darken my browser

I mite just be losing it

[Vicatin]

Cant confirm, but would expect the gamma changes to not go out as is.

H

Any chance you can expound on this a bit? Not 100% clear currently.

[Malrubius]

Any chance you can expound on this a bit? Not 100% clear currently.

Srsly? He was perfectly clear.

[Origin]

Cant confirm, but would expect the gamma changes to not go out as is.

H

Just so you know, i appreciate the effort.

[Rupertox]

gamma thing still there after v35 patch

[S0unreal]

Indeed its still there when patching V35. Ultravision also doesnt improve any clarity of the darkness aswell. It seems that even infrared doesnt give a redish hue to the enviroment. Guess we all have to get used to it

[paulgiamatti]

So basically, instead of reverting the gamma change, which you clearly could've done, you just made it so it doesn't go into effect until after display is initialized.

Sigh. This was never broken, and it doesn't need a fix. No one was complaining about gamma before this.

[Trax]

Gamma was not reverted back to it's original state, at all.

[aldred]

A quick fix would be to rename the game as EverDark...

[Asmadi]

Fixed mine by setting up a profile under the graphic cards control panel just for the EQ.exe. Not a blanket adjustment like some others mentioned and having to adjust the gamma every time you're done playing... yet again... Gotta be smarter than the video card people.

Now my loading screen is super bright! Fix it! :p

[Trax]

Game is still unplayable. It feels like I am going blind and it is straining my eyes looking at the screen.

You've over-saturated and underexposed the screen. Please revert these gamma settings to their original state. This is not only an inconvenience to your player base, but you waited 4? years to do something like this? It looks horrible, it's not classic at all. Classic didn't have ANY effect on your user-interface and overall screen. It merely effected the environment only. You've since darkened my interface to the point of eye strain, when I tab over into windows it's too dark to do anything. This is true for both my work laptop and my gaming PC.

I would say stick to your guns if this change had any sort truly game related effect, but it doesn't. You can't control the gamma on peoples machines and not expect them to be up in arms about it.

I'll avoid the migraines for now and walk away from p99 until this is fixed. If it's never reverted back to it's original state that's fine, but I am sure I'm not the only one who finds this irritating to the point of avoiding p99 all together.

[lostcucusPass]

same here , even with the new fils , i can t play anymore too ... too dark

Eq classc were not dark like this...

[Asmadi]

Here's something for you old fukers that can't see:

5731

You're welcome... now go get immersed.

[Speedi]

Same here with v35. Very dark.

[The_DarkSavant]

i think i'm done with this server. not fighting with "gamma" bs, 4 years was a good run though

[drelk001]

I think its a server thing.... using my P99 files I logged into a different server, was bright as beans.

[Maldivas1972]

Same problem, gamma is at full on my box ( 2 yr old computer) still to dark to see. I played from release of live eq and don't ever remember it like this. If you have to crank your gamma to maximum to see at all there is something terribly wrong, not classic at all.

PS the darkness was fucked with first patch post the forced Velious beta test , still fucked after 2nd patch that was supposed to fix it.

[lostcucusPass]

Here's something for you old fukers that can't see:

5731

You're welcome... now go get immersed.

who are you ?

[khanable]

Same problem, gamma is at full on my box ( 2 yr old computer) still to dark to see. I played from release of live eq and don't ever remember it like this. If you have to crank your gamma to maximum to see at all there is something terribly wrong, not classic at all.

PS the darkness was fucked with first patch post the forced Velious beta test , still fucked after 2nd patch that was supposed to fix it.

Cranking gamma was indeed classic. It was so classic that it's actually my only gripe with the gamma changes - making everything washed out and shitty at the expense of seeing was classic! :D Can't do that when max gamma is approximately where it should be for classic default darkness!

[douglas1999]

Yeah exactly, maxing my gamma now puts the game slightly darker than it was at 21% gamma prior to this change. That is just not classic.

I don't understand why this change was made when things like this usually require such a high burden of proof to be implemented. Where is the evidence that classic EQ ever looked this way?

Again I support the intent behind this change but it's doing more harm than good in it's current state. Vision spells still don't function at all like they did in classic, the game is just dark as hell now and so is anything else you're doing on your computer.

[krazyGlue]

5735


fully geared/buffed 60 shaman. this shit isnt classic u pals fucked up

[Maldivas1972]

Cranking gamma was indeed classic. It was so classic that it's actually my only gripe with the gamma changes - making everything washed out and shitty at the expense of seeing was classic! :D Can't do that when max gamma is approximately where it should be for classic default darkness!

note I said to Maximum when I played on live at release I was a grown man already working a full time job which afforded me a nice computer at the time. I never had to run gamma a maximum... this is not classic at all

[lostcucusPass]

not all got this problem, off course, no need to post screenshot :)

[douglas1999]

5735


fully geared/buffed 60 shaman. this shit isnt classic u pals fucked up

Posting screens doesn't really show the problem. I don't currently have my client running, thus my system gamma is normal, and that screenshot looks normal. Rest assured, were I to load my sham and go to seb entrance right now, it would not look like that.

VVV Ditto that screen.

[krazyGlue]

5736

fully buffed/geared 60 shaman at the crypt door. not classic.

[Maldivas1972]

I have tried setting my titanium client to full screen but that just crashes the game and fucks up install cannot get the game to laod post using the full screen option in game . I keep a back up clean install for just such bullshit . Replaced buggered copy back to titanium windowed client mode lol Dark as all hell. Pleas revert it back to the way it was... I learned this very important thing in life maybe like to pass on, if it ain't broke don't "fix" it :).

PS thx again for all of the work on getting Velious going !! looking forward to trying it out if I can see in game anytime in the future

[krazyGlue]

Heh they fix something that doesn't need to be fixed but totally ignore the shit that is game changing

[NegaStoat]

Edit - my name calling isn't helping anyone. retracted.

[zanderklocke]

Cranking Gamma to fix UI INTERFACE FEATURES + TEXT CHAT was NOT Classic! IDIOT!

Now that I've stated the obvious, this is still giving me a completely darker screen on a global scale, I already provided computer info in previous posts. The ghetto fix involving F.lux still works.

Edit - Thank you for the understanding of the situation, Haynar.
Khanable's still a moran.

Way off topic but is your avatar one of those Redwall characters or something?

[fishingme]

5735


fully geared/buffed 60 shaman. this shit isnt classic u pals fucked up

That actually looks pretty dqmn classic to me, screenshot the area around a torch please.

[fishingme]

Cranking Gamma to fix UI INTERFACE FEATURES + TEXT CHAT was NOT Classic! IDIOT!

Now that I've stated the obvious, this is still giving me a completely darker screen on a global scale, I already provided computer info in previous posts. The ghetto fix involving F.lux still works.

Edit - Thank you for the understanding of the situation, Haynar.
Khanable's still a moran.

Only way to change gamma in classic was to change it on your monitor.

[khanable]

Only way to change gamma in classic was to change it on your monitor.

Partially true;

Originally EQ had a gamma correction, which just did some 1/gamma function weird thing (I read an article on it once and didn't care to absorb it fully) that basically didn't work on anything that wasn't using glide. So people using non-3dfx cards had to use desktop gamma to change it.

I'm not convinced once the gamma slider made it in game for everyone that it wouldn't adjust the entire screens gamma. Is it even possible to only adjust gamma on a specific area of the screen?

Does the tutorial from the Kunark disc allow you to change gamma? that'll be an easy way to find out. Lots of you saying it didn't change the UI - I dunno if that's true.

[Man0warr]

Stop posting screenshots people - they look fine to anyone who doesn't currently have the game program going.

You can't capture the gamma issues in a screenshot.

[Trax]

Stop posting screenshots people - they look fine to anyone who doesn't currently have the game program going.

You can't capture the gamma issues in a screenshot.

The only way that I know of to capture the actual gamma problem in a picture is to take a picture of your monitor using a digital camera/cellphone. Even then, the phone automatically tries to adjust the darkness and appears slightly brighter than it really is.

[utenan]

I took a bunch of pictures of the gamma changes on my computer. I adjusted my camera settings as much as I could to get the pictures to look as close to reality as possible - they are a tiny bit out of focus to combat the horrible scanlines ( or whatever you wanna call them ).

Here is 100% gamma, no buffs or lightsources of any kind
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff174/michaelland5/gamma%20pictures/100_zpsd53e1958.jpg

100% gamma with Ultravision
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff174/michaelland5/gamma%20pictures/100ultra_zps806b24b7.jpg

100% gamma, Ultravision, and a torch equipped
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff174/michaelland5/gamma%20pictures/100ultralightsourcee_zpsee961bf9.jpg

50% gamma, ultravision, and 3 lightsources from other players
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff174/michaelland5/gamma%20pictures/50gammaultra2playerlightsources_zps8ef6b135.jpg

here is 100% gamma after the titanium client's night brightness has kicked in
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff174/michaelland5/gamma%20pictures/titanium_zpsce69bfde.jpg

100% gamma, titanium brightness, ultravision, several lightsources
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff174/michaelland5/gamma%20pictures/titanium100ultralightsources_zpsdef843f6.jpg

[drelk001]

I think this makes in more like classic TBH. I like it

[Haynar]

I might look at this again. But not anytime soon.

Code is reverted.

Pending update.

H

[Speedi]

Any ETA on when this update will go in H?

[utenan]

I personally don't mind, i played before at around 26% gamma so it's mot much of a change - I do like how cool the lighting effects look when it's darker, and lightsources / vision spells / races that see better at night seem like a relevant thing now ( which would be classic...right? ) it is unfortunate that it makes the UI darker and anything else your doing on your computer... at the very least I appreciate the thought and effort!

[drelk001]

well... it went away for me... makes me sad :'(

[Skew]

Tyvm H

[Trax]

I might look at this again. But not anytime soon.

Code is reverted.

Pending update.

H

Thank you Haynar.

[Trax]

Looks like you can download the new dll via the existing v35 patch link. The gamma has been reverted to its original state. Thank you Rogean, nilbog, and Haynar.

[NegaStoat]

Haynar, if you attempt this again in the future I just wanted to say I would be happy to download your patch for it and jump on the Beta server and get some meaningful results for you with both of my comps. DxDiag lists, etc, I dunno.

Maybe if you had like 40+ peeps willing to give it a go with each attempt, we might actually get there for what you're after. For all of my bitching, I honestly WOULD like to see the classic vision happen. The red tint on monsters for Infravision and Fog cutting effect on ultravision was amazing back in the day.

Edit - for zanderklocke, this is a really old avatar I made from a stoat anthromorph illustration taken from the old Yiffco website from 1996 or so. I dodged out of the furry scene when I discovered religion in the Flying Spaghetti Monster and I'm a much better person now.

[fishingme]

Haynar, if you attempt this again in the future I just wanted to say I would be happy to download your patch for it and jump on the Beta server and get some meaningful results for you with both of my comps. DxDiag lists, etc, I dunno.

Maybe if you had like 40+ peeps willing to give it a go with each attempt, we might actually get there for what you're after. For all of my bitching, I honestly WOULD like to see the classic vision happen. The red tint on monsters for Infravision and Fog cutting effect on ultravision was amazing back in the day.

Edit - for zanderklocke, this is a really old avatar I made from a stoat anthromorph illustration taken from the old Yiffco website from 1996 or so. I dodged out of the furry scene when I discovered religion in the Flying Spaghetti Monster and I'm a much better person now.

+1, I think the major problem with the gamma patch was that no one seemed willing to post pictures of their screens, nor did they seem willing to post computer info. I'd like to at least hear if the problems people were having with being unable to read chat were using a UI other than the velious one. Of the five people i chatted the gamma with in-game, we all were using velious UI

[Snagglepuss]

http://www.project1999.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1416882&postcount=7

That's how I remember human / erudite / barbarian vision.

First order of business as a human was to buy a torch, lantern, or firebeetle eye. I always had one in the bank too for CRs at night.

Are the limitations mainly from the titanium client? In my opinion, what was so great about the classic darkness was light given off by certain structures and mobs standing out in complete darkness.

[Maldivas1972]

thx alot for changing it back fellas ! I can see again!!

PS thx again for all the work on Velious ! cannot wait to play it !

[douglas1999]

http://www.project1999.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1416882&postcount=7

That's how I remember human / erudite / barbarian vision.
.

This is how human/eru/barb vision should look, you're right. Notice though that the foreground grass/earth elemental look normal, it's only the background that is very dark. With the recent patch, the foreground was also significantly darkened, as well as the daytime hours being strangely dim and oversaturated (at least on my system).

I think a major problem is the titanium client's built-in ultravision. There doesn't seem to be any way to turn it off, and it throws off the rest of the gamma mechanics when the dev's try to patch around it. Personally I'd love to see a classic-accurate gamma patch that worked for everyone, but I think the client we have to play on might make that impossible (kind of like how we can never have the old sky graphics back because the new one is hard-coded into the titanium client).