Making classic, classic

[Cfullard]

Is there any way to bring back extremely dark nights for this server? Something I can do client side or something? One of the scary things for this game was the ability for people to choose a race with night vision. Having night vision actually made the game completely different and one thing I miss are DARK AS HELL NIGHTS. Any way we can get that back in? I don't care if it's actually something nobody else but me will see, I just miss it.

[skitterburst]

set gamma to 10%

[girth]

When I first started on Live, I got lost in the pitch black tunnel trying to zone from EF to Blackburrow. I had to run back to Halas and buy a torch.

I think they've discussed this issue, years back. IIRC it's not possible.

[Doil_Boil]

It was attempted.

I believe it's something they are working on.

I too, miss the experience of bumping into a griffin in EC when you're level 8 because you couldn't see it. Night truly was a factor in classic Everquest. Would be great to see it return.

[Haynar]

Close your eyes.

Not on the radar currently.

Just finished npc and pc collisions for bolts. So those should be working next patch.

H

[Ravager]

The issue is with the client. I think it could be done if P99 went with the classic client instead of Titanium. The difference is how it handles light sources and dynamic lighting as far as I can tell. The last patch they tried to do the darkness thing, but it was unsuccessful, because the Titanium client handles light sources completely different from the classic client. The classic client would have a fire beetle eye make a difference for what you could see. Also infravision had a very noticeable effect where in the Titanium client, neither does a thing.

Please Haynar, if at all possible, let's make the Big Box Trilogy Client work with P99.

[skitterburst]

The issue is with the client. I think it could be done if P99 went with the classic client instead of Titanium. The difference is how it handles light sources and dynamic lighting as far as I can tell. The last patch they tried to do the darkness thing, but it was unsuccessful, because the Titanium client handles light sources completely different from the classic client. The classic client would have a fire beetle eye make a difference for what you could see. Also infravision had a very noticeable effect where in the Titanium client, neither does a thing.

Please Haynar, if at all possible, let's make the Big Box Trilogy Client work with P99.

wouldnt this make the titanium client no longer work? i was thinking it would be cool to have a custom p99 client built with modern tech, but im not sure how feasible this is or what it might entail.

[Sadre Spinegnawer]

Given the eq version the emulator uses, I think we have to come to terms with the fact that some of Sony's nerfs were pretty much can't ever be undone. And the nerf to racial vision penalties is one of them. Because that is the issue, not the world lighting, but something that used to differ based on race or spell.

Might as well ask for endurance to matter again. The Sony nerfhammer is nuclear sometimes: they just destroy all old code.

[Mentathiel]

The last patch they tried to do the darkness thing, but it was unsuccessful.
That would be an understatement. They worked long and hard on a gamma hack which the community exploded over. Some players found that they could no longer see even with ultravision, others (like me) barely saw any difference.

When I first played, I remember my wood elf getting lost in Greater Faydark because even infravision was not quite enough to penetrate the darkness.

[Ravager]

That would be an understatement. They worked long and hard on a gamma hack which the community exploded over. Some players found that they could no longer see even with ultravision, others (like me) barely saw any difference.

When I first played, I remember my wood elf getting lost in Greater Faydark because even infravision was not quite enough to penetrate the darkness.

I remember that very well. My first char was a wood elf on live. Infravision didn't do anything for seeing the environment, but it did make the mobs stand out from the environment by making the models a little brighter and red looking. Sadly it doesn't work that way with the Titanium client.

[skipdog]

Manually turn down your system's gamma until you can barely see then!

There is also the issue of some people who 'couldn't see anything at Night on Live back in 1999' because of limitations on their monitor/card/PC while some of us were able to see without a problem on any race at any point, way back in 1999. So you have this group of people who are CONVINCED that the correct way is 'humans can't see anything at night' and there was no way anybody could change it back in 1999 and that is just not true.

[maskedmelon]

So you have this group of people who are CONVINCED that the correct way is 'humans can't see anything at night' and there was no way anybody could change it back in 1999 and that is just not true.

I am not sure I have encountered anyone who insists that there was nothing anyone could do about it. It was widely understood that one could originally adjust gamma to see better at night, however that was fixed sometime around kunark/velious and subsequently removed way later (I want to say PoP). So, no. And yes, depending on the subject timeframe.

[Man0warr]

That would be an understatement. They worked long and hard on a gamma hack which the community exploded over. Some players found that they could no longer see even with ultravision, others (like me) barely saw any difference.


The issue wasn't the darkness in game with the patch - it was that it was screwing up people's gamma on their desktop until they rebooted.

[myriverse]

The issue wasn't the darkness in game with the patch - it was that it was screwing up people's gamma on their desktop until they rebooted.
Game does that for me anyway, and has since 1999.

[Swish]

It's not classic for me til the skeleton band plays in paineel :p

[Man0warr]

Game does that for me anyway, and has since 1999.

Doesn't for me, using the native windowed mode that comes with Titanium client. The gamma hack destroyed my desktop though.

That was the issue - the fix didn't affect all computers the same. They need to find a fix that is purely in-game, then it will affect everyone the same.

[criddopher]

I run the game at 15 gamma,(21 if its bright in the room) If im running through tunnles without a beetle eye, or a GLS it is very hard to see, yet its not so low that it seems to darken out the colors of the game. Looks better all around imo

[Doil_Boil]

I really don't see it as a pure gamma issue. It really has more to do with how the client handles lighting. The fact that light sources make very little difference is the most obvious tell on that issue.

[planeofdreams]

I definitely play with my gamma way low, the colors look more appropriate that way to me.

[douglas1999]

Another thing that's always irked me about Titanium's handling of light sources is how bright light sources add up to the point that some armor's look totally washed out and white. If my shaman puts on his totemic and stands in EC tunnel for example, all the people around with epics\other bright light sources equipped make my armor either look light blue (wtf??) or straight up white. That never happened in classic, Totemic is supposed to be a pale green color that doesn't wash out to a grey\white when there is a bright light source nearby.

[kaev]

I really don't see it as a pure gamma issue. It really has more to do with how the client handles lighting. The fact that light sources make very little difference is the most obvious tell on that issue.

Hell yeah. Not only was it darker classic but light sources had a much much much larger impact both close up and at range. Hell, they added burned out lightstones to wisps because people were cherrypicking wisps with stones on them, at night even when you were too far away to actually see a wisp you could see the pool of light cast by its stone from halfway across the zone. On titanium you can't even tell if a player or mob has a lightsource unless they're practically on top of you so they light you up. If I crank the gamma down far enough that one of my human chars can't see in the dark tunnels a GLS barely makes terrain in armsreach visible, i.e. it's just barely better than the newbie candle was back in the day, where in classic live a GLS lit up everything near you clear as day.

My suspicion is that the same person/team who did the worst of the luclin graphics (erudite models, running animations, half-elf dildo helms, & etc.) were tasked with ruining the client's lighting.